Ecuador’s credit unions or COACs play a key role inside the local economy, and the pandemic period has shown the weakness of the entities. Understanding the efficiency of the country’s largest COACs and the different factors related to it can provide important information for policymakers and the sector in general. Therefore, our main goal was the evaluation of technical efficiency and the factors that influenced it during the years from 2009 to 2020 which included the pandemic period. For this, the DEA model was applied with production and intermediation focus, and this was applied to 19 COACs from the first segment of the sector. Findings reveal that the level of technical efficiency was larger in the pre-pandemic than the pandemic period. Efficient credit unions were characterized by higher profitability, low levels of liquidity and portfolio coverage, and a high rate of financial intermediation, among others, through the pre-pandemic period; however, debt restructuring was one the most important characteristics of nonefficient Credit Unions. The most important contribution of this study is the possible projection of different decisions that will allow the COACs to improve their role in the system given all the difficulties that the pandemic is causing around the world.

The fluid velocity inside the tank of agricultural sprayers is an indicator of the quality of the mixture. This study aims to formulate the best generalized linear mixed model to infer the fluid velocity inside a tank under specific operational parameters of the agitation system, such as liquid level, circuit pressures, and number of active nozzles. A complex model was developed that included operational parameters as fixed effects (FE) and the section of the tank as the random effect. The goodness of fit of the model was evaluated by considering the lowest values of Akaike’s information criteria and Bayesian information criterion, and by estimating the residual variance. The gamma distribution and log-link function enhanced the goodness of fit of the best model. The Toeplitz structure was chosen as the structure of the covariance matrix. SPSS and SAS software were used to compute the model. The analysis showed that the greatest influence on the fluid velocity was exerted by the liquid level in the tank, followed by the circuit pressure and, finally, the number of active nozzles. The development presented here could serve as a guide for formulating models to evaluate the efficiency of the agitation system of agricultural sprayers.

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The main point in the present article was the comparison of the Technical Efficiency (TE) in four years for milk production in Ecuador by the period 2018 – 2021, before and after the pandemic, and the determination of the factors related to the TE for the last year. The information from the official public database in the country were analyzed by the nonparametric technique called DEA including a bootstrap simulation. Once different variables were selected including aspects as livestock and labor, the TE with Variable Returns to Scale (VRS) with “output” orientation was calculated by each year and province. Among the provinces, statistically significant differences were found (P<0.1) for the TE means, and most of the efficient units were found throughout the Andean zone, in each year. Between the most important findings, it was important that the TE average after the beginning of the pandemic was statistically lower than the last 3 consecutive years under study (P<0.1) with 3% approximately of decrease, and the main factors related to this were multiple including labor characteristics, the field composition, and the supplies access during the pandemic. Finally, some implications for public policy were found around the gender in agriculture activities, the social security, and the difficulties in supplies access.

<p><strong>Background.</strong> The use of organic fertilization on grasslands is an option on the biological, economic and environmental sense.<strong> Objective</strong>. In order to evaluate the poultry manure applied as a fertilizer in Kikuyo pastures (<em>Pennisetum clandestinum</em>, Ex Chiov) with grazing cows.<strong> Methodology. </strong>An experiment was carried out on a 21.6 ha farm in Ecuador, at 2° 13' and 78° 24' South and West, 2651 masl, rainfall of 1103 mm / year). Four fertilization levels corresponding to 0, 50, 100, 150 kg / ha / year, respectively, and load of 1.22 AU / ha were used. Irrigation was applied in the dry season. 21-25 Holstein cows with 526 kg of LW were used. Lactation was of 272 days. The time of occupation of a day and time of rest of 21-28 days. The concentrate offered was 0.4 kg / cow. The persistence of the pastures (%) and their yield per rotation in t ms / ha were determined. Heights and density and samples for dry matter, crude protein and crude fiber (%) were estimated. Milk/cow production data were recorded. ANOVA was used. Costs of the kg of milk produced were determined. <strong>Results</strong>. The significant differences (p &lt;0.05) were in F150, where the pasture increased up to 83% and the milk produced surpassed (p &lt;0.05) the other treatments. <strong>Implications</strong>. The treatment with the best response for grass and milk production was considered a positive reference to be recommended for producers in the zone. C<strong>onclusions</strong>. The contribution of 150 kg of manure + 50 kg / N2 / ha as urea, influenced in a higher nutrient intake, increased pasture persistence, yield and nutritional quality, with direct effects on the dairy response and reduced costs / kg of milk.</p>