Caracterización de las unidades productoras de papa (Solanum tuberosum L.) en la provincia de Jauja, Junín, Perú

Abstract

The importance of potato farming in Peru is unquestionable. However, there is a lack of studies that endeavor to understand of the production systems of this crop due to the high social, cultural, economic, and environmental diversity that characterizes each producing region. Under this, the objective of this work was to characterize the potato producing units (UPP) in the districts of Acolla and San Lorenzo, belonging to the province of Jauja, Junín, Peru. The number of producers sampled for this study was 97 (Acolla) and 93 (San Lorenzo), to whom structured surveys were applied, considering the social, economic, and environmental factors. Initially, the descriptive statistical analysis of the data was done to eliminate variables having low discriminatory capacity; then, the selected variables were analyzed by multivariate methods (main components, factorial analysis, and cluster analysis) for the typification of the farms. According to the obtained results, three different management forms were identified. The new variables or synthetic variables were constituted by the “social capital resource” with explanatory power of 9.0% on the total variance (1 variable of 8% of 16 UPP), the “financial capital resource” with 8.3% (2 variables of 48% of 92 UPP) and the “natural capital resource” with 7.2%, (1 variable of 26% of 49 UPP). According to the synthetic variables, the “financial capital resource” was the majority of small and medium producers, who transform the potato to provide added value and also store food store food to ensure a supply, characterizing themselves as farmers who have a vast rural-Andean experience.