ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF THE INVESTMENT IN GENETIC BREEDING OF COMMON BEANS IN NORTH CENTRAL MEXICO

摘要

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is grown in 1.27 million hectares under rainfed conditions (June-October) in Mexico, where 0.69 million MT, on average, are produced a year mainly of pinto, black, and flor de mayo seeded cultivars (SAGARPA, 2010).In the Mexican market, near to 0.4 million MT of pinto beans are annually demanded and due to yield variations caused by semi-arid climate, in many years there is a deficit in the domestic supply (Sanchez et al, 2001). Due to their market demand and favorable morpho-agronomic traits (such as higher yield, slow seed-coat darkening, and drought tolerance), the area planted to pinto cultivars has been increasing in the states of Chihuahua, Durango and Zacatecas, located in north central Mexico. As a resultof the investment in agricultural research made by the Mexican govermnent through the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agricolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP), specifically in genetic improvement of common beans, several bred cultivars has beenreleased. Given the importance of agricultural research for economic development and of doing a proper use of scarce public resources, the objective was to make an economic evaluation of the investment in genetic improvement of common beans to produce, the pinto bred cultivars Pinto Villa, Pinto Mestizo, Pinto Bayacora, and Pinto Saltillo, released during 1990-2001, for the climatic conditions of north central Mexico.