Evaluación de la productividad y los ingresos económicos de los productores de leche del recinto La Reforma, parroquia El Esfuerzo, provincia de Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas.

Abstract

The objective was to evaluate the productivity and economic income of milk producers in La Reforma site, El Esfuerzo parish, province of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, due to the low economic income of this community. Using information obtained from 196 producers through the application of a survey, a diagnosis was made of their current productive and economic situation, where it was determined that the main productive activity is cattle raising (100 %), with a monthly income of between USD 501 to 1000 (41.33 %), with an investment of less than USD 100 in inputs (92.35 %) and USD 100 for fertilization of their pastures (83.67 %), and they also spend less than USD 50 on deworming and vitamins (91.33 %). It was determined that 56.63% of them are small producers, and the rest are medium producers. The most predominant grass in the area was Brachiaria and Miel (38.27%), which are sown between May and August (69.39%), with a production cost of less than US$100 per hectare (83.20%). The most common breed of cattle on the farm was Criollo and crossbred (37.24 %), with an average cow/day production of 6 to 10 liters (90.82 %), which is marketed to the cheese industry (91.84 %), at a reference price of 0.40 cents per liter (68.88 %). The cost of production per dairy season was USD 11,118.59 for small producers and USD 11,334.13 for medium producers. The profitability for small producers was 63.43% and 42.15% for medium milk producers, this difference is due to the low stocking rate. Therefore, it can be verified that in this livestock zone there is a need to implement a technical standard to improve the productive index and promote the development and economic sustainability of small and medium producers of raw milk.