Productive and technological characteristics of goat farmers in Comondú, Baja California Sur

Resumen

To identify productive characteristics through the technological indicators adopted by goats farmers at the
Comondú municipality, state of Baja California Sur, Mexico. A survey consisting of semi-structured questions
was designed to obtain multi-criteria information on the variables of technological, economic, social, and
multilevel indicators. The production units (PUs) were classified by the cluster analysis of means statistical
method in the SAS software, allowing to identify four groups of producers of 10.33, 69, 10.33, and 10.33 % of
them. The social indicator demonstrated differences between UPs regard their education level, non-inclusion
of women in the activity, total annual income, and whether or not they are members of an association. The
technological indicator revealed differences in their distance from the UPs to the community, road conditions,
area of the UP, available area for planting, water sources, herd size, availability to facilities, machinery, and
equipment. The economic indicator showed differences between UPs in their agricultural complementary
activities, economic dependence, milk production, cheese production, animal wastes, goat production, and
their respective sales values. The conclusion is that this information is useful for particularly attending to the
needs and will allow defining the precise kind of intervention in the management practices or the required
management.