Socio-agronomic and energy typification of maize-farmers in the Frailesca region of Chiapas, Mexico

The identification and characterization of farmers types in the maize agroecosystem is an essential element for the development of effective and sustainable socio-productive strategies. In four municipalities of the Frailesca region in Chiapas, Mexico; maize farmers were typified and their agroecosystem was characterized regarding the criteria: socioeconomic, productive and energy efficiency. Besides, farmers relation to conventional, agro-ecological and mixed production strategies was determined. It was an exploratory socio-agronomic and descriptive research focused on a system approach and energy flows. The sample used was 300 farmers. For data management, descriptive statistics and exploratory multivariate analysis of principal components and clusters were used to construct the typologies. Five types of farmers-groups were identified based on six components that explained 83 % of the total variance. Among these components, the following stood out: "Yield and Efficiency", "Maize profile" (refers to the type of maize and its importance within the system) and "Energy Consumption". The typified groups of farmers were labeled as: "Small farmers", "Major farmers", "Mixed livestockmaize farmers", "Subsistence farmers" and "Maize-stubble producers". All groups are characterized by having small maize areas, but they are considered to have an acceptable energy efficiency, greater than 10 MJ and yields between 2.8 and 4.0 t.ha(-1) , higher than the average for the state of Chiapas. All groups were efficient in the use of energy, as result of the high productive and economic capacity of the agroecosystem. The maize yield is between 2.8 and 4.0 t.ha(-1) and the energy efficiency is higher than 10 MJ. Conventional agriculture management predominates in the region in 86 % of the studied systems.