Farmers’ perceptions and acceptance of crossbred guinea pigs in Mantaro Valley, Peru

Tropical Animal Health and Production (2023) 55:75 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-023-03465-y REGULAR ARTICLES Farmers’ perceptions and acceptance of crossbred guinea pigs in Mantaro Valley, Peru J. I. Cedano‑Castro1,2 · R. Jiménez3 · A. Huamán3 · G. Gutiérrez Reynoso1 · M. Wurzinger1,4 Received: 22 August 2022 / Accepted: 17 January 2023 © The Author(s) 2023 Abstract This study aimed at assessing farmers’ perceptions and acceptance of the proposed breeding strategy of Instituto Veterinario de Investigaciones Tropicales y de Altura (IVITA), located in the Central Andes of Peru. A total of 34 farmers, who had received guinea pigs from IVITA, were interviewed. The questionnaire was performed in Spanish language and covered topics about the guinea pig production, feeding, mating system, training, the main products, perception and acceptance of crossbred lines (“cuy RG”), and the farmers’ comment about the terminal crossbred animal (“cuy G”). The preferred feeding strategy was a combination of forage and supplement. All farmers implemented a controlled mating system. Most farmers had received training on feeding, reproduction, management, equipment, and facilities. The main product is animals for slaughter. The 82.40% of farmers reported that they do not purchase guinea pigs from IVITA anymore, because they are highly susceptibility to lymphadenitis, which is a highly contagious disease and causes swollen lymph nodes and affects the meat quality. Most of the respondents classified the “cuy RG” and “cuy G” as suitable for meat production and were satisfied with the performance of the animals. Therefore, 58.80% of respondents already recommended “cuy RG” to other farmers. However, 17.70% of the respondents would not recommend these animals because they are susceptible to disease, especially lymphadenitis. Therefore, IVITA should engage in more structured dialogue with farmers and regularly include their opinion in future improvement of its breeding strategies. This could help to reach higher acceptance rates by farmers. Keywords Breeding strategy · Innovation · Technology transfer Introduction In Peru, guinea pigs were traditionally raised for home consumption and therefore contributed to rural households’ food security in the Andean region (Chauca 1997). However, in the last decades, guinea pig production turned from a subsistence activity into a profitable business in the highlands and the coastal region of Peru (Chauca 2013; Avilés et al. 2014). The last official data on guinea pig production dates * M. Wurzinger 1 Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Lima, Peru 2 Universidad Privada Antenor Orrego, Trujillo, Peru 3 Instituto Veterinario de Investigaciones Tropicales Y de Altura, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, El Mantaro, Peru 4 University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria back to 2017. This year, a total number of 827,234 farmers produced 21,103 tons of meat (INEI 2017). Different authors (Chauca 1997; Lammers et al. 2009; Avilés et al. 2014) describe three production systems for guinea pigs. The first one is called “family system” (around 20 guinea pigs), which is typically found in the highlands, and its purpose is producing meat for home consumption. Farmers use local genotypes of guinea pigs, which are kept inside the kitchen near the stove or fire and fed with organic waste and forage. “Family commercial” (about 100 to 500 guinea pigs) and “commercial systems” (more than 500 guinea pigs) are developed close to urban areas in the highlands but also in the coastal regions. Both systems are characterized by keeping highly specialized purebred or crossbred guinea pigs for meat production. Animals are kept in stables, where they are provided with forage and concentrate. The production is for the local market and export, mainly to the USA. Over the last decades, the National Institute for Agricultural Innovation-INIA (Instituto Nacional de Innovación 13 Vol.:(0123456789) 75 Page 2 of 10 Agraria) has developed different improved genetic lines and breeds such as “Peru,” “Andina,” “Inti,” and “Kuri” to support farmers in the improvement of their production (INIA 2004; 2005; 2021). In 2007, the Veterinary Institute for Tropical and High Altitude Research – IVITA (Instituto Veterinario de Investigaciones Tropicales y de Altura) also started by designing a four-line crossbreeding scheme to provide farmers with improved animals (Fig. 1). Two paternal lines, namely, P1, selected for growth rate, and P2, for low feed conversion rate, and two maternal, lines, namely, M1, selected for growth rate of litter, and M2, for high prolificacy (litter size at birth), were developed (Jiménez and Huamán 2010). IVITA’s breeding program is organized in such a way that F1 crossbred male and female animals (“cuy RG”) are bred at the station. In the next step, farmers purchase both male and female F1 and crossbreed these to get the final marketable product “cuy G.” Besides providing the animals, IVITA offers training to guinea pig farmers about feeding, management, sanitation, and reproduction using attendancebased courses and farm visits and distributing a technical manual (Jiménez and Huamán 2010). With this strategy of a “technology package,” IVITA wants to offer farmers a comprehensive, ready-to-use product. Through better genetics, feeding, and husbandry measures, productivity should be improved, and income increased. In the literature, however, various factors are mentioned that make technology adoption by farmers difficult or even impossible. Technology uptake is a complex nonlinear process that is influenced by multiple factors. These include knowledge, perception, and farmer’s attitude towards a given technology (Meijer et al. 2015). Farmer’s attitudes Fig. 1  IVITA guinea pigs crossbreeding scheme (adapted from Jiménez and Huamán 2010) 13 Tropical Animal Health and Production (2023) 55:75 are shaped by many factors such as personal characteristics (gender, age, marital status, etc.), socioeconomic characteristics (access to credit, land size, income, assets, education, etc.), personality characteristics (e.g., self-confidence), and familiarity with a technology. The agro-ecological environment, societal, cultural, and political conditions also play a role in the decision-making process. Furthermore, the proposed technology’s characteristics (user-friendliness), benefits, and costs for the farmers’ household economy have to be considered (Meijer et al. 2015; Escobal 2017; Lambrecht et al. 2014). Furthermore, farmers’ active participation, perceptions, and needs have been discussed as critical elements for breeding programs’ success (Wurzinger et al. 2011; Wurzinger and Gutierrez 2017, Haile et al. 2018).Therefore, this study aimed at assessing farmers’ perception and acceptance of the proposed breeding strategy of IVITA. The study focused on two systems, namely, the family commercial and commercial system. Materials and me (...truncated)