Human resources in the technological innovation of farming systems for sheep production in the west of Mexico

Technology in farming systems has been considered an element for agricultural development, needed to increase the competitiveness. Nevertheless, it’s study has ignored the human resources role in technological innovation. The study’s goal was to determine the human resources’ influence in technological innovation in sheep production systems in the towns of Epitacio Huerta and Contepec, Michoacan, Mexico. The information was gathered from 47 production units and the data was analyzed by frequency analysis and Rho correlation from Spearman. The considered variables were related with education, experience, work, need and training. The results indicate low innovation levels, associated to poor human resources, which is strongly conditions and limited to education, the producer’s experience and their need for new knowledge. This implies that the dynamic of technological innovation in these systems, is slow; that most of the knowledge and techniques are obtained from experience of other producers, which doesn’t guarantee the power to make quick and substantial changes in productive systems.