Abstract
In order to define chain strategies for a backyard agricultural production system, this study identified agricultural products produced by high development priority communities with indigenous presence located in the Chontla and Tempoal municipalities in Veracruz, Mexico. The production system was integrated into a generic model decomposing the supply chain into hierarchical components. Data were collected through a face-to-face semistructured questionnaire based on statistical sampling of rural households, backyard producers, intermediaries, retailers, and wholesalers, as well as municipal authorities. The research was carried out from January 2017 to June 2018 and a computational program was designed to analyze the data. As a result, products were identified and their production destinations were quantified. Moreover, it revealed a backyard agricultural supply chain of five echelons with opportunities for improvement in areas such as unstructured agricultural processes and practices, inappropriate product storage and handling, and the lack of production records, and up to three intermediaries that sequentially drove up product cost in regional consumption centers. In this study, 20.9% of total production was destined for sale, 34.8% for self-consumption, and 44.2% was noncommercialized. Nopal, creole pumpkin, coriander, plum, passion fruit, and jobo were products with greater economic value for noncommercialized production. An improvement strategy would be to build inclusive agro-food chains through consolidated centers of backyard agricultural products.
Highlights
Backyard agriculture is an arrangement among nuclear family members that combines natural resources with economic, social, environmental, and cultural functions for food production [1]
This paper focuses on backyard agricultural production of the Chontla and Tempoal municipalities in Veracruz, Mexico, which have high development priority communities with indigenous presence [18]
This study proposes establishing inclusive agro-food chains to strengthen the local economies of high development priority communities with indigenous presence
Summary
Backyard agriculture is an arrangement among nuclear family members that combines natural resources with economic, social, environmental, and cultural functions for food production [1]. In this respect, technical-economic interests do not guide backyard agricultural practice. It is instead a social practice that links housing and agricultural production with a peasant and indigenous identity [2]. Backyard production plays a fundamental role in the livelihoods of rural communities [3,4]. There are between 5.3 million and 5.4 million rural economic units, with 50.6% corresponding to the stratum of families with primary sale products less than 55,200 Mexican pesos (2721 USD) per year. Income is complemented with nonagricultural activities on a smaller scale and with salaried labor services [5]
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