Caracterización de la sustentabilidad, eficiencia energética y rentabilidad económica de los sistemas de producción hortícola de la parroquia San Joaquín-Azuay- Ecuador

Abstract

The parish of "San Joaquin", supplies vegetables to area of Cuenca thanks to its highly diversified vegetable farms. The characterization of these requires transforming complex features of these farms requires transforming complex features of the agroecosystem into more straightforward and objective indexes that allow the detection of trends and deficiencies of the farm. The goal of this research was to diagnose, calculate and characterize the sustainability, energy efficiency (EE) and economic profitability of the vegetable farms in San Joaquín. Soil sustainability and vegetable crops had deficiencies mainly related to the lack of soil cover (80.7% of the farms) farms) and low biodiversity sourronding the farms (84.1% of the farms). Most vegetable farms had an EE that doubled and surpassed the reference value of EE (1.0) and only 10.5% of farms had EE less than 1. The crops exhibited the highest yearly EE were garlic (4.63) and carrot (3.54). In most cases (30 farms), the agricultural average income reached up to $ 7.83 / m2. The 47.37% did not exceed the Satisfaction Index of the Basic Family Basket ($ 675.93) although 52.63% exceeded this index and recording increases up to 5 times this value The results obtained in this research are expected to serve as a basis for future horticultural research in the parish of San Joaquín, to improve its agronomic, energy and economic management.