Main Article Content

V. Morales-Ramos

Keywords

Array

Abstract

In México, around three million people depend directly or indirectly on coffee (Coffea arabica L.); however, in the last three years their level of profitability has been affected in more than 80 % due to coffee blight (Hemileia vastatrix Berkeley& Broome); seeking alternatives for small landowners, egg production was evaluated as an option for productive diversification in coffee plantations. The initial population was five roosters and 44 hens, hybrids of Rhode Island-Araucana breeds, four weeks old. A henhouse with deep bed made of coffee straw was used, for 12-hour overnight. The rest of the time, they overgrazed in a coffee plantation of 1352 m2, sown at a density of 5000 plants ha-1 of the Oro Azteca cultivar. Egg-laying was evaluated during a year, finding a benefit/cost relation of 1.35 with average production of 174 eggs per week, which indicates financial profitability, in addition to benefits such as weed and insect control in the coffee plantation, and a direct contribution to the coffee plantation of 430 kg of hen droppings, equivalent to 55 % of the nutrients extracted from one ton of cherry coffee.

Abstract | PDF 12 (Spanish) Downloads

References

Most read articles by the same author(s)