Viabilidad comercial de cuatro variedades de lechuga cultivadas de forma orgánica, en la provincia de El Oro

Abstract

Lettuces are horticultural crops that greatly cover international and national markets, thanks to their nutraceutical properties such as the contribution of iron, vitamins, calcium, phosphorus, among others, which provide benefits to human health. Lettuce belongs to the family of leafy vegetables and is consumed by the vast majority of people in the world; eating habits have led the population to generate a greater consumption of lettuce, which is why in several countries around the world its demand increases on a larger scale. There are several varieties of lettuce, the main varieties consumed by Ecuadorians are Elisa, Mimosa, Vera or Crespa and Carmín; In the present work, the Vera or Crespa variety was studied, this type of lettuce is a very versatile plant, which has a high resistance to early flowering, in addition to being a crop that can be produced in the open field and hydroponically, it tends to be preferred by producers. Within the production chain, several systems are usually implemented for the production of lettuce, the most used is the open field and conventional, however, this system causes damage to the environment, especially because it leads to soil erosion; The alternative that certain lettuce growers have preferred is the hydroponic system, since this system is profitable and has a lower production cost. The hydroponic system provides a high quality product since it does not contain pesticides or contaminants that could cause future health problems for humans. In Ecuador, the Sierra region is the one that obtains a higher percentage of lettuce production in the entire country, being the curly variety the one that is mostly produced, this is due to the fact that its edaphoclimatic characteristics make its production more profitable. production in both the Sierra region and the Coast region. Due to the fact that the demand for this type of lettuce is high and its production in the province is scarce, various investigations and profitability studies have chosen to make a general analysis of the productive chain of said vegetable; for which the present work is based on the elaboration of a commercial viability analysis of the Crespa lettuce variety cultivated by means of a hydroponic system for its commercialization in three cantons of the province of El Oro which are Guabo, Machala and Pasaje. The present work was carried out in the following way: an NFT hydroponic system was built, where the crespa seed variety was cultivated, then to obtain a previous market survey, a study was made of it, for which it was taken a sample of 29 people corresponding to the three study cantons, additionally, a profitability analysis was carried out through a cash flow obtaining a positive NPV, an IRR and a positive B/C whose period was generated twice a year for two years, ending with the statistical process of the data obtained for the analysis of the results obtained.The production and commercialization of lettuce is profitable both in the short and long term, for which it is considered pertinent to carry out various types of studies related to the subject in order to collaborate with the local economy of the province.