ESTABLECIMIENTO DE LA LÍNEA BASE PARA LA EVALUACIÓN DEL IMPACTO TÉCNICO Y SOCIOECONÓMICO DE LA CAMPAÑA CONTRA PLAGAS REGLAMENTADAS DEL CULTIVO DEL ALGODONERO (Gossypium hirsutum L) EN EL ESTADO DE COAHUILA, MÉXICO

Mexico was a major producer and exporter of cotton worldwide. However, the problems of decreasing international prices and the increase in the incidence of pests caused a decline in profitability and a decrease in area and production. In 2002 Mexico joined the Binational Program of Cooperation between the United States of America and Mexico for the control and eradication of regulated cotton pests. As a result of this Program, the eradication of pinkwort and weevil in the state of Chihuahua was achieved by 2010. In Coahuila, there is a significant delay in the control and eradication of these pests, since until 2014, with the intervention of federal and state authorities, the Campaign against Regulated Plagues of Cotton was started with the implementation of the Binational Program. The objective of this work was to establish a baseline that serves as reference for later evaluations of the impact of the afore mentioned program in the state of Coahuila. To obtain baseline information, the methodology used by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) was followed up by the application of questionnaires designed by FAO and complemented by the State Consulting Agencies (ECE) and The State Technical Evaluation Committees (CTEC). These questionnaires were applied in 2015 to a sample of 64 producers who were beneficiaries of the Agro-Food Safety and Health Program, within the Health Component of the Campaign against regulated cotton pests. In the socioeconomic aspect, the results indicate that the producers have an average age of 60 years, 30% have complete primary education, 14% have a Bachelor's degree; 100% have as main activity agriculture and 97.2% of land tenure is ejidal. The ginners play a very important role as credit scatters and in the negotiations for the commercialization of the fiber. The technical results allowed to estimate the coverage of the phytosanitary services received by the producers, consisting of: treatments, epidemiological surveillance, collection of traps and field diagnoses; so were the advances in physical goals in actions such as review of traps, cultural control and desvare and fallow. It is worth mentioning that in 2015, cotton weevil infestation caused losses of up to 40% of yield in some farms, while the population density of pink worm decreased substantially, so that the free zone status of this pest can be reached in little time.