Characterization and typification of farmers belonging the Paillaco Farm Management Center

Abstract

In Latín America, the different social and economic conditions modifies the features of the farmers and therefore, they do not showed an unique or static profile; mainly they showed a range of changing features. Nevertheless among these features some of them allowed to identify as a social sector: the family work on the farm, the ownership of the working capital, the search of reproduction, and the relationship that keeps with the markets.
However, there are specific elements that differentiate the farmer, for this reason it is considered important to know these elements in order to define strategies of action.The objective of the present study was the characterization and identification of tipology of farmers that belongs to the "Centro de Gestión Empresarial Paillaco" (CEGE), with the purpose of that information can be used for the generation of differential actions of work. The methodology applied in the present study was descriptive, and the research method was the social survey. The unit of study was composed by 6 "Centros de Acopio Lechero", which are part of the CEGE Paillaco, the surveyed population was 60 farmers, distributed in three Communes of the Tenth Region of Chile. The survey collected information related to technological and productive features of dairy production, also some social information was collected. The analysis of the information collected was divided in two stages: for the characterization descriptive statistics were used: means and deviations of the means. For the identification of the tipology, a Factorial Analysis of Multiple Correspondences, was used. The description of the farmers of the "Centro de Gestión Empresarial Paillaco", confirmed the heterogeneity of technological, productive and social features that coexist among the farmers of the "CEGE" Paillaco. The Factorial Analysis of Multiple Correspondences, allowed to distinguish 3 types of farmers, clearly differentiated by the composition of their variables.