COMPETITIVIDAD DE LA HIGUERILLA (Ricinus communis) PARA BIOCOMBUSTIBLE EN RELACIÓN A LOS CULTIVOS ACTUALES EN EL EDO. DE OAXACA, MÉXICO

Before the current problem of global warming by high emissions of CO to the atmosphere, as 2 well as the scarcity and cost of fossil energy such as oil, coal and gas, has become important search and use of alternate sources of fuel. The main plant species that can provide biofuels are cane sugar, sorghum, corn, among others for ethanol; soybean, sunflower and groundnut, among others for biodiesel; However the use of food grains has caused higher prices of food, so it is required to seek alternative species to produce biofuels that do not compete with the staple crops. One of the promising species by its high genetic diversity and production capacity of oil of excellent quality as an input for biodiesel is Higuerilla Ricinus communis. Mexico, agroecological characteristics has good potential to cultivate this species in an area of almost four million hectares. The State of Oaxaca has an area of great potential for the cultivation of 183,000 hectares, where there are already other crops. The objective of this work was to determine the competitiveness of Higuerilla purposes of biofuel in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca region, compared with crops which are currently carried out. In 2009, through interviews with producers in the District of Zaachila, they collected and quantified the technologies of the producers and conducted a comparative financial analysis through the Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM). The indicators were generated per hectare of total income, total cost, net profit, added value and relation of private cost (RPC). The results indicated the Higuerilla under a system of intercropping with maize, was moderately competitive and profitable with a 0.68 RPC but was overtaken by the bean from temporary with a RPC of 0.4 and maize in irrigation with a RPC of 0.5. This was due to low performance in average stood at 850 kilograms per hectare and the low selling price of five pesos per kilogram. The competitiveness of the higuerilla at producer level showed a trend to insensitivity to changes in the current price of sale in the local market and retrieved current performance, for it can be concluded that in the current conditions of production, the Higuerilla is moderately competitive and profitable. To improve competitiveness, there are two tracks that can be complementary, one of them refers to the momentum of improvements in technology to the production system to significantly increase the productivity and the second relates to the establishment of a sales price of the raw material than the one presented in the local market.