Introduction

Coffee (Coffea arabica L.) production in México is an activity of environmental importance, since it is a crop whose impacts on the agroecosystem are not as severe as those of other production systems (^{Pérez, 2009}). Currently, 40 % of the production is carried out in areas with high and medium forests, 23 % in pine-oak forests, 21 % in low deciduous forests, and 15 % in mountainous mesophyll forests (^{AMECAFÉ, 2012}); however, these areas have experimented, due to the coffee crisis, reduced attention to the cultivation tasks and even a change in land use, altering with this the CO₂ cycle, and the water cycle. There is an increase in contaminants, soil degradation and a reduction in biodiversity (^{Foley et al., 2005}). Thus, soil use presents a dilemma and a challenge leading to develop schemes for sustainable management. One of the practices that have been reduced are those of soil management and conservation, understanding it as the set of plot tasks that lead to preventing, reducing or remediating its degradation. In 2012, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (^FAO) and the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (^WOCAT) defined soil conservation as the set of activities at the local level that maintain or increase the productive capacity of land in areas affected by (or prone to) degradation. Such conservation includes works for prevention or reduction of erosion, salinity control, drainage conservation, and maintenance or improvement of fertility.

In the Xico and Teocelo zone, coffee has great economic, cultural and environmental importance (^{Nava-Tablada, 2012}). The cultivation areas in this region extended very quickly during the beginning of the 1940s (^{Hoffmann, 1986}; ^{Biarnes and Duchenne, 1987}), invading natural spaces of the mountainous mesophyll forest characteristic of the region, so that the shade coffee agroecosystem predominates today. In the year 2006, a territorial polygon of 500 ha in the Xico and Teocelo zone, which includes the Cascadas de Texolo and lands surrounding them, was recognized as a Ramsar Site (^{Secretaría de la Convención Ramsar, 2007}). Currently in this Site (Figure 1), there is no official resource management plan. Some owners do not know that their lands are inside a Natural Protected Area, and in the residential zone, livestock and tourist activities, mainly, are invading the polygon (^{Rojo, 2011}). In this regard, ^{Flores began in 2011} some works aimed at applying strategies to increase awareness in residents and beneficial owners, to face the problems mentioned, without achieving encouraging results, because these strategies ended up being a diagnosis of the problematic where only the participation of tourist and residents who do not necessarily own properties in the site was involved.

Figure 1 Geographical location of the Ramsar Site, "Cascadas de Texolo and surroundings". 

Regarding coffee production in the Site, it has experienced various transformations throughout the years, going from chemical production to production that could be considered "organic" (although lacking certification), since because of the impact of the coffee production crisis, practices such as fertilization, chemical control of pests and diseases, have decreased considerably, something that is favorable to conserve the Site, but which has also caused for the producer to choose to sell his plot and for the Site to experience a change in land use, with those who continue to produce coffee being affected by the low productivity and quality of the product (^{Noriega Altamirano et al., 2014}). In addition to this, the inadequate use of the soil resource and the lack of attention for its conservation and maintenance have caused its physical, chemical and biological degradation, provoking primarily erosion and loss of fertility (^{Rojo, 2011}; ^{Hernández, 2014}). This is why this research study had the general objective of understanding the history of coffee producers in the Cascadas de Texolo Ramsar Site and their attitude towards the adoption of soil management and conservation practices. Attitude is understood as the position adopted by a person when faced with a situation of varied nature, which makes him/her react to it by generating an attraction, repulsion or indifference, and which translates into the later acceptance of rejection of it (^{Altamirano et al., 2004}). This type of studies about attitude reached relevance after ^{Likert's studies (1932)}; however, in the agricultural and environmental area, studies that allow understanding the attitude of the farmer in face of specific situations are scarce. For this study, the hypothesis we suggested is that the soil conservation and management practices that prevail today were the product of previous trainings that still have influence and which have been decreasing considerably, despite there being a positive attitude among the coffee producers towards management and conservation of the soil resource.

Materials and Methods

Results and Discussion

Profile of the producer

The mean age of the producer surveyed was 61.3 years (s=13.9), with average schooling of 7.9 years (s = 6.4) (Table 2). Of the coffee producers who responded the survey, 75 % are males and 25_% females. It is observed that 60 % of the coffee producers surveyed own a production surface smaller than 5.0 ha. The highest schooling corresponds to producers with a larger area of land.

Technical, productive and historical aspects about soil conservation

The producers sow in their farms a diversity of coffee cultivars. There are 20 % with only one cultivar, 20 % with two, 40 % with three, and the rest with more than three. Of coffee producers, 62.51% have more than 30 years of experience in coffee production. Regarding this, ^{Salas (2002)} points out that experience is something key for the adoption and implementation of innovations, and ^{Pérez et al. (1997)} state that when the farmer has more experience in performing his tasks, he is more prone to adopting the technologies. The years that a farmer has been performing his daily tasks allow him to manage skillfully and with dexterity most of the conditions of the environment surrounding him, and to make decisions with first-hand knowledge. Only 22.5 % of the producers surveyed fertilize the soil; of these, the general mean annual dose of fertilization applied is 54-85-08 kg ha^-1 (N, P and K). Of the producers who apply fertilizers, 80 % use inorganic sources, urea-based (46-0-0), diammonium phosphate (1846-0), and mixtures such as 20-10-10. Regarding the history of soil conservation, 80 % carried out soil conservation practices consecutively. Currently only 45 % perform this type of practices. This reduction obeys to the null impulse of management programs at the plot level, the coffee crisis that decreased the income available to destine to this type of practices. In addition, the lack of understanding of traditional conservation actions by the new generations who are entering the coffee productive system is also added (^{Cotler et al., 2007}).

Of the 45 % of people interviewed who perform practices in favor of the soil, some were listed (Table 3) and confirmed through visits to the farm: dead barriers, live barriers, applying dead leaves, terraces, level curves and catchment pots. There are other practices which, from the perception of the producer, are considered soil conservation, such as: clearing with machete, removing rocks, zero application of agrichemicals, planting tree species. It was observed that there are still concrete works that were constructed during the 1970s.

Likewise, it was noticed that the producers with a surface larger than 10 ha are the ones that currently perform more soil conservation practices (85.7 %), while among producers with smaller surfaces, it is 41.6 %. In addition, the producers considered as large-scale are those who with less age and more schooling, who present greater knowledge about the benefits that taking care of the soil resource as an important element of the agroecosystem entails. With regard to age, ^{Betancourt-Yánez and Pulido (2006)} mention that a population with a high percentage of young farmers presents broad potential to improve the local productive system because lower resistance to changes in production is generally observed. This condition could influence positively the adoption of technology and environmental teaching. ^{Salas (2002)} adds that attitudes are learned through observation and imitation of older people.

Attitudinal aspect

When addressing the attitudinal aspect, the first response present was: I'm willing to conserve the environment and its resources in benefit of the Ramsar Site, where my coffee plantation is located. In this regard, an arithmetic mean was seen in the population of a slightly positive attitude (3.3) on the Likert scale; it was observed that when performing the analysis per strata (Figure 2), the producers of stratum three (large-scale in coffee producing surface) were the ones who presented the best attitude (3.9), followed by the medium-scale (3.7) and finally by the small-scale (2.9). This can be related to the fact that producers from strata two and three present a higher degree of schooling.

Figure 2 Average attitude in each stratum, regarding conservation of the coffee production agroecosystem in the Ramsar Site. 

The eight reagents for the purpose of analysis are presented in Table 4. They are all addressed in the form of a positive affirmation and are listed next:

According to the data presented, it can be observed that there was a diversity of attitudes regarding the reagents presented, obtaining the three highest percentages of total agreement with statements B, E and F; that is, about the positions that agricultural practices which produce erosion of the soils must be avoided (45.0 %), and with a highly positive attitude in each one of the strata studied, 40.0 % about being willing to carry out soil conservation works or practices in the plot, with a highly positive attitude for each stratum; and finally, 50.0 % about performing soil conservation works or practices as long as they are trained, recording a highly positive attitude for each stratum. The intention and acceptance of all coffee producers towards soil conservation is evident. In this regard, the ^{FAO (1990)} indicates that the farmers' desire to participate is constituted into an essential element of success in any soil conservation program, and which, regardless of how correct the plan is, cannot be applied with a good result without their support and participation. ^{Garry et al. (2007)} point out that in any program the most important thing is the interest of farmers in any conservation task.

The three highest percentages of total disagreement happened with reagents C, D and G; that is, 20 % is in total disagreement about the talks on soil and water conservation being of great interest; however, at the time of performing the analysis per strata, it is observed that those who have this indifferent attitude, in their majority, are small-scale producers (3.0), while the medium- and large-scale producers present a highly positive attitude (4.1) and (4.4), respectively. Another 15.0 % also manifested total disagreement about being willing to perform soil analysis in the plot leading to its conservation, and various positions per strata were found: indifferent (2.4) for small-scale producers, slightly positive (3.4) for medium-scale, and highly positive (3.9) for large-scale. Finally, 10.0 % also manifested being in total disagreement about the fact of being willing to conserve soil even when they have to spend money, and precisely in this position it was where the lowest attitudes were found in the three strata: 3.0, 2.4 and 4.0 for small-, medium- and large-scale producers, respectively. In this regard, ^{Herrera (2004)} mentions that the individual by nature thinks of seeking environmental benefit; however, at the moment of investing some type of resource to provide the conditions that foster this benefit, their intentions are stopped, although in most of the cases the causes are not derived from the lack of financial resources, but rather from the lack of strategic vision. Figure 3 illustrates this.

Figure 3 Comparison of willingness regarding conditioning of the resource. 

It is important to mention that producers from the stratum 3, "large-scale in coffee producing surface", recorded highly positive attitudes in all the reagents, with regard to the process of soil conservation, although this entails investing economic resources. This could be because, according to ^{Romero et al. (2005)}, when performing a study at the Conchos River Basin, concluded that producers with surfaces larger than 10.0 ha present a more positive attitude towards adopting a new irrigation system. This is because those producers have a more entrepreneurial vision and their income capacity is greater, so there is higher economic capacity to adopt new technology. However, from the parameter of schooling measured in this study, it is also observed that large-scale producers present higher schooling than the rest of the strata.

Another important piece of data to be highlighted, and of great use, is statement H, where small-scale and medium-scale producers showed indifference (3.0) with regard to being willing to undertake work in benefit of conservation of the Ramsar Site. In this regard, it was found that the coffee producers in communities of the Teocelo municipality present a highly positive attitude (4.1) versus an indifferent attitude (2.3) from those in Xico. This could be because in Teocelo, the municipal authorities of recent years have been busy divulging among residents the importance of conserving the Ramsar Site. This agrees with what was exposed by ^{Brejda et al. (2000)} and ^{Cotler et al. (2007)}, who indicate that soil conservation must be an issue of public interest driven by government leaders at the regional level, and for this to have an effect, the main actors involved must be the residents.

Conclusions

This is a pioneering study that evaluates, in one of the most important Ramsar Sites in México, the attitude of coffee producers regarding soil management and conservation. A tendency towards reduction of the practices and works for soil conservation was found in the time since 1989. This is due to the disappearance of the influence by INMECAFÉ, regarding the technical recommendation and economic support for the implementation of works and practices for soil management and conservation. However, with the coffee crisis, the need to reduce inputs and increase practices at the plot level has arisen, achieving, occasionally and forcibly, environmental benefits for the coffee production agroecosystem.

Coffee producers showed a slightly positive attitude (3.3) towards conserving the environment and its resources in benefit of the Ramsar Site.

The attitude regarding the management and conservation of the soil resource through implementation of works and practices was highly positive for the whole population; however, when expressing the determinant of whether they would be willing to conserve the soil even if it implies financial disbursement, the positive attitude increasingly decreased and showed a direct relation to the number of hectares that each producer owns, since producers with a greater surface cultivated had a higher positive attitude towards affirmation.