Determination of rice seed costs in La Mojana subregion in Colombia

The seed is the basic input to produce any agricultural production system, on which the yields and economic benefits derived by the farmer from the crop depend and on which the subsistence of his family nucleus depends. Producing seed has not been a common practice and therefore there is little information about the costs of seed production, for this reason this work aimed to calculate the production costs of regional rice seed by small farmers. The geographical framework was the Mojana region located in the Caribbean of Colombia in the municipalities of Ahi, Majagual, San Jacinto del Cauca and Ayapel. The data was collected through workshops with producers in the four locations using the consensus method to arrive at the formulation of cost patterns, emphasizing that the purpose of production is that of regional rice seed. Calculations of unit cost of production, return indicators such as the profitability of rice seed production, the gross margin and the cost-benefit analysis were made. With average yields of 2085 k ha-1 with a benefit/cost ratio of 2.1, a unit cost of 1379 and a sale price of $2,900. It is concluded that the production of rice for seed generates greater economic benefits than that of rice for human consumption.