TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER NETWORKS ON PAPAYA PRODUCTION WITH TRANSITIONAL GROWERS

Social networks analysis applied to rural innovation processes becomes a very useful technology transfer tool, since it helps to understand the complexity of social relationships among people and/or institutions in their environment, and it also defines those innovation networks given in specific working groups or regions. This study was conducted from April to May 2011 to determine those networks and key players present in the group of growers associated as “Productora y Comercializadora de Papaya de Cotaxtla S.P.R. de R.L.â€, that influence the technology transfer process in Cotaxtla, Veracruz, Mexico. Data were analyzed using UCINET 6 software. Three centrality measures were obtained: range, degree of mediation and closeness. Of 32 network players, 27 actively diffuse innovations according to their interests; alliances must be established with them to transfer technology. Four growers stand out as central actors, which along with the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales Agricolas y Pecuarias, the Colegio de Postgraduados and the growers’ organization itself, could be the most appropriate actors to establish a technology transfer program to accelerate the diffusion and adoption of innovations. Wholesalers, middlemen and credit institutions do not participate in this process, but having capital they could be incorporated in the innovation diffusion process.