Typology of sheep farmers benefited by the Program for the Improvement of indigenous Production and Productivity

Abstract

Objective: To identify the typology and describe the sheep farmers benefited by the Programa para el Mejoramiento de la Producción y Productividad Indígena (PROIN: Program for the Improvement of Indigenous Production and Productivity) of the Instituto Nacional de Pueblos Indígenas (INPI: National Institute for Indigenous Peoples), in Campeche. Design/Methodology/Approach: One-hundred ninety-nine sheep farmers registered as beneficiaries in the Program were interviewed. They belonged to 27 sheep farms (SF), located in seven municipalities. A questionnaire including socioeconomic and technical questions and 15 quantitative and qualitative variables was conducted. Variables were correlated and a principal components analysis was carried out to define types of farms. The variables that explained the highest variability in the data set were number of sheep, number of sheep sold per year, annual income from sheep sales, productive purpose of the sheep farming, and feeding system. These variables were then used to perform a cluster analysis in order to identify and cluster the sheep farms. Results: Three groups of farmers were identified: Conventional (C, 74%) with 70 sheep and annual sales for $10,109.00; Transitional (T, 15%) with 169 sheep and annual sales for $36,680.00; and those in business (B, 11%) with 142 sheep and annual sales for $48,443.00. All the producers (100%) carry out extensive grazing. The breeds used by C and T are Pelibuey × Black Belly (78%), while B uses Pelibuey × Kathadin (21.7%). Study Limitations/Implications: Implemented support strategies must differentiate according to the type of farm. Findings/Conclusions: Three types of sheep farmers were identified: Conventional, Transitional, and Enterprise. Farmer types were differentiated by the number of sheep, sales, income, sheep production system, and feeding system they use.