The marketing-mix for the adoption of innovations in small farmers of maize in Mexico

The capacities and productivity stagnation in the rural sector has been attributed to lo w adoption of innovations due to the lo w educational level of farmers and their little disposition to change and to take risks. From a marketing point of view, the farmer is the target market for technical assistance processes, whose needs and interests must be satised. This research analyses the congruence between the technical assistance supply and its correspondence with the demand of its target market, guiding to the identification of opportunity areas that contribute to the competitiveness of farmers and to the permanence and continuity of public extension programmes. The sample studied was generated by a non-probabilistic convenience sampling. 10,078 farmers were selected, whose sown surface was equal or less than 2.5 ha. Ther farmer was characterized by analyzing its innovation dynamics and, this was homologated with the variables of product, price, promotion, and place. The correspondence of what the target market needs with the practices that are offer ed was identied. The identified opportunity area consists of increasing the innovations with short-term results, thus favoring the willingness of the farmer to adopt the innovations promoted by technical assistance programmes.