Structural Constraints and Institutional Support in Agricultural Production Systems: Evidence from Farmers in Northern Mexico

Rivera-Hernández O.A.; García-Montiel E.; Chico-León H.G.; López-Serrano P.M.; Ramírez-Aldaba H.; García-González C.G.; Vázquez-Quintero G. · Agriculture (Switzerland) (2026) · DOI: 10.3390/agriculture16080904

Resumen

This study examines how structural constraints and institutional support are associated with the configuration of agricultural production systems in Durango, Mexico. Using survey data from 362 farmers, multidimensional indices capturing productive restrictions, export barriers, technification gaps, and support needs were constructed using binary indicators and normalized to a 0–1 scale, with internal consistency assessed through the Kuder–Richardson coefficient. To analyze structural dynamics, Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and fractional logit models were used to estimate determinants of structural pressure, while a logistic regression model was applied to examine differences in structural positioning across production regimes identified through cluster analysis. The results show that larger productive scale is associated with higher exposure to regulatory and commercialization pressures, indicating that farm expansion tends to coincide with increased structural complexity rather than automatic improvements in structural conditions. More importantly, institutional linkage remains positively and statistically significant in the logistic model (OR = 9.085; p = 0.015), even after controlling for technification, structural constraints, export barriers, labor intensity, and farming experience. These findings indicate that institutional connectivity is positively associated with differentiated structural configurations among production units and are consistent with the interpretation that institutional support is associated with variation in structural conditions in semi-arid agricultural systems, beyond the effects of technological endowment or scale alone.