Does Small-Scale Livestock Production Use a High Technological Level to Survive? Evidence from Dairy Production in Northeast-ern Michoacán, Mexico

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Small-scale dairy production is a activity in rural areas, as it generates daily income and contributes to food security. In Mexico, from the 1980s, economic policies were promoted that led to the modernisation and concentration of milk production, which caused many small-scale production units to disappear and reduce their contribution to the national supply. Some researchers report that the production units that survived were those that specialised and incorporated a high level of technology. The objective of this work was to identify the technological level and socioeconomic conditions of dairy production units in the northeastern region of Michoacán, Mexico, in order to know the strategies that have allowed them to survive. Through statistical analysis, four groups of farms with different levels of technology were identified. The clusters that predominate in this region use a low level of technology and have low productivity, finding their strengths in the diversification of activities they carry out and the use of family labour. Public policies should be directed, for each cluster, in a differentiated manner, prioritising the strengthening of the aspects that have kept them going in the present, rather than the incorporation of a high technological level in their production units. ABSTRACT: The objective of this study was to identify the technological level used by dairy farmers in the northeastern region of Michoacán, Mexico, through a characterisation of small-scale dairy production units, as well as to learn about the socioeconomic conditions that have enabled them to survive in the current context. A semi-structured interview was applied to 114 production units, chosen by stratified random sampling. The interview included technological, production and socioeconomic aspects. Twenty-eight variables were initially explored and 12 were used for multivariate analysis, which included Principal Component Analysis, Hierarchical Cluster Analysis and K-means Cluster. The characterisation carried out showed that the production units that predominate in northeastern Michoacán have survived with a low technological level, having as strengths the diversification of their activities and the use of family labour. On the contrary, production units with a high technological level and high productivity are few and less diversified. This shows the need to generate differentiated public policies for each cluster, aimed at strengthening the aspects that have allowed them to survive and guaranteeing a market for their production, before promoting the use of technologies.