Socio-economic characteristics of small compost producers in Cantón of Puyo, Ecuador

Abstract

The socio-economic characterization of the production of organic fertilizers is considered as a diagnostic tool to establish possible corrective measures that lead to the improvement of a productive activity. The socio-economic attributes of the producers of organic fertilizers of the Producers Association in the Puyo axis in the Province of Pastaza (Ecuador) were evaluated. For this purpose, a survey was applied in 12 greenhouses belonging to the Association, in which five people were randomly selected for each greenhouse, totalizing 60 partners surveyed in order to detect possible weaknesses and/or strengths present in the production process. The structured questions were referred to social (sex, age composi-tion, culture, predominant language and number of family members) or economic (time dedicated to the compost production, origin of the used supplies, number of sacks produced, sale frequency, equitability in the distribution of resources among the partners, place of commercialization, part of the production destined to self-consumption and part of the profit destined to the satisfaction of basic needs, income for sales concept) parameters. According to the results, the majority of the workers are of advanced age, who dedícate from 25 to 50% of the working day to this activity. On the other hand, there was a clear dependence on productive activity for external inputs, making it a dependent activity, which compromises its sustainability and profitability. Considering these findings, it is suggested to conduct a profitability study in order to establish critical points that can be improved in conjunction with the advice of technical specialists in the área.

Keywords

• organic fertilizer
• production
• diagnostic
• productive process
• social
• rural economy
• pastaza
• ecuador.