Small-scale aquaculture farmers face challenges related to low productivity, scarce economic resources, geographic isolation, limited bargaining power and little access to conventional marketing channels. These difficulties imply challenges for the commercialization of tilapia (CT) and access to inputs and equipment (I&E), necessary for their production process.
The objective of this paper is to show how the CT network and access to I & E of small-scale rural tilapia farmers (SSRTF) in Guerrero (Gro.) and Oaxaca (Oax), Mexico, is formed. The different TC modalities and the main localities of the network that participate in it are identified. Thirty-nine producers were interviewed, of which 30 are in Oaxaca and nine in Guerrero. The network was constructed taking as a reference the localities where these small-scale fish farmers carry out their activities: a total of to 83 localities in the states of Guerrero and Oaxaca as well as in neighboring states to which the network extends. For the network analysis, the degree, betweenness, and articulation points were used as central elements to situate the most important localities in the network.
The degree represents the number of exchanges made by the SSRTF in a locality, whether with consumers, intermediaries or suppliers. In the case of betweenness, it reveals a locality that functions as a link with one or more other localities that participate in the network, for the purchase and sale of tilapia and inputs and equipment, as well as the exchange of information with intermediaries or suppliers. Finally, the points of articulation represent the core localities that allow the network to be formed.
The results indicate that the TC operates with short market circuits and intermediaries and in some cases has a national market scope. In the supply of I&E network there is a broad presence of companies such as veterinaries, specialized distributors or intermediaries at the local and national levels. The network analysis made it possible to distinguish the main localities of the network (Table 1), which are all points of articulation; they are localities of relevance both for the social actors located in them and for the number of connections generated with social actors in other localities.