Costos de producción y rentabilidad del cultivo de la papa en el municipio de Zacapoaxtla, Puebla

The present investigation was carried out in the year of 2017, with the objective of determining the costs of production of the potato crop in the municipality of Zacapoaxtla, Puebla. Within the economic occupations of the Sierra Norte de Puebla there are few productive activities of economic importance. The commercial crops that have traditionally been planted are coffee and potatoes. In the case of potatoes, it is a crop with greater added value; however, it is highly dependent on agrochemicals and other inputs, which local producers cannot afford at times, so the agroclimatic advantages of the area have been exploited by business producers. The cost structure of the producers was determined by algebraic expressions based on economic theory. According to the results, the difference in production costs and yields obtained between small producers and large producers causes the former to be displaced by the latter. For large producers, the activity is profitable because what they are competitive in the market, but the small producers the activity leaves them little margin of profit so they have been abandoning potato production.