Eficiencia de pequenas empresas de agricultura protegida en la adopcion de innovaciones en Mexico.
| Autor | Vargas-Canales, Juan Manuel |
| Cargo | Research article - Ensayo |
Efficiency of small enterprises of protected agriculture in the adoption of innovations in Mexico
Eficiencia de pequenas empresas agricolas protegidas na adocao de inovacoes no Mexico
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Introduction
The rapid increase in population and food demand exerts pressure on the environment and on production systems. Such a situation increases competition for land, water, energy and its overexploitation, thus affecting the ability of agricultural systems to produce sufficient food. For this, there is an urgency to reduce this negative impact on agriculture and agro-food systems on the environment (Godfray et al., 2010). In this sense, the only form to achieve this is by innovating efficient and sustainable food production systems using technologies in the appropriate manner and with sufficient political will (Godfray et al., 2010).
One of the technologies that is viable for improving the efficiency in food production is protected agriculture. This can be defined as a production system that helps to reduce uncertainty in the management of environmental conditions and minimize other threats (pests and diseases) in obtaining adequate crop development. By this means, it is possible to increase productivity in terms of quantity, quality, and commercial values (Bastida, 2008; Castaneda-Miranda, Ventura-Ramos, Peniche-Vera, & Herrera-Ruiz, 2007; Moreno, Aguilar, & Luevano, 2011), and even increase yields up to 200% depending on the crop (Servicio de Informacion Agroalimentaria y Pesquera--SIAP, 2013). Furthermore, this allows the efficient use of resources such as water, fertilizers and agrochemicals (Garcia, Van der Valk, & Elings, 2011). Therefore, it is believed that the current goal of achieving and maintaining a sustainable agriculture implies a deep knowledge of these production systems (Vargas-Canales, Castillo-Gonzalez, Pineda-Pineda, Ramirez-Arias, & Avitia-Garcia, 2014).
This type of production system has positioned itself to be a sustainable technology with a high capacity for intensive food production. Moreover, this is not only occurring in Mexico, but also on a global level, considering that this phenomenon will be consolidated in the agricultural sector in the coming years. In Mexico, protected agriculture has expanded rapidly over the past two decades and is one of the systems that is most promoted in government programs, being considered as a substantial part of a viable strategy for boosting growth and productivity in the agricultural sector.
Although its insertion in the rural sector has little over forty years, its implementation has increased dynamically in the last few years, which has resulted in a noticeable change in the national rural landscape. Moreover, in 1980 the production area intended for this type of technology was only 300 hectares; while in 2010 the Secretaria de Agricultura, Ganaderia, Desarrollo Rural, Pesca y Alimentacion (SAGARPA, 2012) in Mexico reported up to 11,760 hectares, and by 2013 there were more than 19,985 production units registered for these protected agricultural systems (SIAP, 2013). However, there was no precise information on national production under these systems (Garcia et al., 2011). Likewise, little information has been documented on the processes in which they transfer or implement innovate technology, and the use of management, administration or commercial strategies. This situation worsens for the States of Puebla, Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, and Oaxaca (Mexico) where production is oriented to local markets. This prevents the development of strategies to help reduce the negative impacts that affect the industry, such as technology gaps and training that arise among producers by eliminating certain imbalances faced by the value network in which they are inserted.
Despite this great dynamism, it is important to mention that the construction and management of these systems do have some disadvantages, among which are: a high cost of infrastructure, highly specialized products and services that depends extremely on the fresh market because of the number of perishable products (Pacheco & Bastida, 2011).
This suggests that there is a need to promote an agricultural extension program based on the dialogue between actors that articulates the network of institutions with the purpose of interacting, modifying and disseminating new technologies; that is, it is necessary to improve the functioning of the regional innovation system (Cooke, Uranga, & Etxebarria, 1997) or as Hekkert, Suurs, Negro, Kuhlmann and Smits (2007) mentioned, as innovation systems are dynamic (in constant reconfiguration), if necessary, it would have to generate a new adaption plan for the current conditions presented by this activity.
However, little projection and identification of this dynamic for development by all the actors currently involved in this activity has led to 39% inactive or abandoned greenhouses, while 19% shows a low level of productivity (Aguilar Gallegos, Munoz Rodriguez, Santoyo Cortes, & Aguilar Avila, 2013a). This implies a considerable loss of public funds invested, because most of the greenhouses that have been constructed in the country have been subsidized with public funds provided by the federal and state government.
Given the problems described, it is necessary to explain the factors that influence significantly adoption, adaptation, and the efficient use of protected agriculture. In this sense, the aim of this paper was to identify factors that influence efficiency in the adoption of innovation related to the income of small enterprises engaged in protected agriculture in the state of Hidalgo (Mexico), in order to promote new management strategies. In this paper, the efficiency in the use and adoption of innovations is understood as the ability to obtain higher yields and income from the process of incorporating innovations while minimizing the inherent risk.
This paper is structured in the following sections: section 2 presents a conceptual framework related to the analysis of technological change and innovation in the agricultural sector, and the factors that they influence; section 3 explains the methodology used; section 4 is based on the results obtained during this study; section 5 is a discussion on the main findings, and section 6 has the main conclusions obtained from this study.
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Conceptual framework
Since the beginning of the 21st century, innovation and technological changes were consolidated as the main instrument in order to boost productivity growth, international competitiveness and improve living standards (Wynarczyk, Piperopoulos, & McAdam, 2013). However, most of these analyses were focused on investigating high-tech businesses. There were little to none that focused on smaller and medium-size rural enterprises, and almost nonexistent, those engaged in protected agriculture. Based on the above mentioned, there were some tactics on how to approach the analysis of innovation and technological change in agriculture and the factors that influence them.
2.1. Technological changes and innovation in the agricultural sector
Studies on agricultural innovation are focused on the analysis of generating new or improved technologies and practices (Klerkx, Aarts, & Leeuwis, 2010). Similarly, there are other authors who carried out an analysis on the adoption and adaptation of new or improved technologies and practices (Hermans, Stuiver, Beers, & Kok, 2013). In this sense, technological changes and innovation can be defined as the incorporation of old techniques into new production systems where there is a mixture of both technologies, including technological implements such as tractors, blowers, sprayers, etc. They also include new or different techniques (such as fertilization, pollination, pruning, etc.) and different areas related to production (Caceres, Silvetti, Soto, & Rebolledo, 1997; Custer, 1995; Dorfman, 1993); additionally including forms of organization in either production or marketing, and even the regulations that govern agrifood systems (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development--OECD, 2005; Thomas, 2010).
Usually, the analysis of adoption of technology is approached from the perspective of a technology push, and for this reason it is studied in terms of elapsed time adopters (e.g. early adopters and laggards) (Rogers, 2003). This takes an approach that looks at diffusion of technology thoroughly, i.e., assumes that innovation and technology is always the correct form of accomplishment (Gilles, Thomas, Valdivia, & Yucra, 2013). However, this approach loses sight that the availability of resources and the environment, e.g., inherent conditions in any process of technological change, creates different production systems, and the adoption of new technologies is conditioned by negotiation between different actors, the environment in which the proposal will be inserted and the type of innovation proposed until adaptation is achieved.
In some cases it occurs that the producers can adapt to certain technology or practices and then decide to stop their use, then in the near future take them up again because their version or perception has been enlightened under other circumstances (Kiptot, Hebinck, Franzel, & Richards, 2007), which depends mainly on the behavior of the markets in which they operate.
From another point of view, technology that is generally generated out of research is considered as a finished innovation product that can be used immediately. However, this can only be put into action when it is adopted by producers and integrated (in total or modified form) into their production system. In addition, there must be some assurance that its use will provide them value (Leeuwis & Van den Ban, 2004). Thus, the process of adoption is not presented purely but requires interpretation (Latour, 2007), i.e., that technological innovation may still require further adaptation adjustments to be able to meet the terms needed within the...
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