R. Soriano, J.D. Leaver, G. Woodgate and H. Losada

In: UA Magazine 7 - Economic Aspects of Urban Agriculture

A study was carried out in order to assess the economic performance of the periurban agroecosystem known as "chinampa". Chinampa is small piece of land of irregular form, of pre-Hispanic origin, where inhabitants from the valley of Mexico still produced a diversity of plants for the city. These were built in a lacustrine setting by reclaiming land bordering a lake and building the plots and a network of channels. Results showed a different use of inputs in the four chinampa plots studied and different economic performances, although all were positive. Farmers with lower use of external inputs (seeds and fertilisers) were less productive in terms of yields but obtained better returns per each dollar invested. This shows the importance of the use of local resources and its positive impact on the economies of small-scale farmers in a periurban setting.