TIPOLOGÍA DE PRODUCTORES Y DIFERENCIACIÓN DE LOS AGROECOSISTEMAS CON PAPAYA (Carica papaya L.) EN OAXACA, MÉXICO

Abstract

<p><strong>Background:</strong> The Costa region is the main papaya (<em>Carica papaya</em> L.) producing area in the state of Oaxaca. However, there are no studies that document the potentialities, limitations, and development of the productive and commercial process of this crop with a comprehensive approach. <strong>Objective:</strong> To characterize papaya producers and their agroecosystems in the Costa region of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico; and determine a representative typology, based on their socioeconomic, productive, technological and commercial characteristics, using multivariate analysis techniques. <strong>Methodology:</strong> A questionnaire was applied through a probabilistic sampling to 89 papaya producers from seven municipalities in the Costa region of the state of Oaxaca, which included quantitative and qualitative variables, classified into indicators: i) social: ii) physical, iii) productive, iv) economic, v) management, vi) commercialization, vii) technological. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, review and selection of variables, factor analysis by the principal components method, identification of clusters, comparison and differentiation of defined groups, and discriminant analysis. <strong>Results:</strong> Through factorial analysis, two factors were selected that explained 72.89% of the original variability. The first factor was related to the variables economic income from the sale of papaya, profitability factor and papaya yield; while the second factor was explained by the experience of the producer. The cluster analysis allowed to identify three types of papaya producers (conventional, intermediate, and businesses), which represented 62%, 28% and 10% of the total sample. The variables with the greatest discriminating power between groups were economic income from the sale of papaya, papaya yield, and the profitability factor. <strong>Implications:</strong> The defined typology suggests the need to improve the design of public policies and promptly reorient them based on the heterogeneity among papaya producers in the study region. <strong>Conclusions: </strong>The papaya producers in the study sample are relatively young, have an intermediate level of schooling and seniority in the activity; those that make up Group 3 (businesses) stand out for having higher crop yields and better marketing channels. Papaya agroecosystems differ mainly by cultivated area, production yield, economic income and production costs.<strong></strong></p>