Economic indicators in the cultivation of passion fruit ( passilora edulis ) in the central region of Rondônia – Western Amazon

Brazil is the world's largest producer of passion fruit, with an average annual production of 700,000 tons. Although the production of the fruit is concentrated in the northeast region of the country, the states of the Amazon region have a significant production, especially in Amazonas, Pará and Rondônia. Even though there are several studies on passion fruit, there are still few works that address the economic aspects of the activity. Thus, the present study aimed to measure and analyze the main economic indicators of passion fruit cultivation in the Central Region of Rondônia, Western Amazon/Brazil. To reach the objectives, this descriptive and exploratory research, used the bibliographical research and the field study, promoting the collection of data through interviews applied to passion fruit producers established in three municipalities contained in the Western Amazon / Brazil - specifically in the central region of the state of Rondônia, and the information collected was treated qualitatively and quantitatively. Thus, it was especially found that the average monthly Return on Investment (ROI) of the activity was 3.98%, the average profitability was 10.86%, while the average profit was BRL 8,853.28 (US$ 2,425.56) per hectare grown from the fruit. Furthermore, through Pearson's correlation analysis, it was found that most economic indicators were highly dependent on the “production” variables.


Introduction
The increase in productivity in agriculture after the Second World War is mainly due to the expansion of the application of scientific and technological techniques in the field, in addition to the interaction of agriculture with other economic segments, thus emerging the concept of agribusiness. (Davis & Goldberg, 1957;Batalha, 2007;Karnopp & Oliveira, 2012;Mendonça, 2015;Souza, 2020). This process has raised food productivity indices in several regions of the world, including Brazil (Silva, 1993;Alimandro & Pinazza, 1999;Lourenço & Lima, 2009;Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation [EMBRAPA], 2018;Souza, 2020).
In the context of agribusiness developed in Brazil, fruit farming has a prominent place in terms of diversity and representativeness in production, accounting for ¼ (a quarter) of national agricultural production.
Regarding passion fruit, Brazil is the world's largest producer of the fruit, annually producing 700,000 tons of the fruit on approximately 50,000 planted hectares (Furlaneto, Esperancini, Martins, & Vidal, 2010;Avelino & Rodrigues, 2016;IBGE, 2019;Souza, 2020), according to data from the last decades. Even though passion fruit production in Brazil is concentrated especially in the northeast region, in the Amazon region there is a significant cultivation, especially in the states of Amazonas, Pará and Rondônia (IBGE, 2019), in which the production of the fruit contributes to the internal supply of the entire state, in addition to providing most of the supply in the capitals of the surrounding provinces Souza, 2020).
As for economic and social issues, passion fruit cultivation also stands out. The culture encourages family farming and job creation, given its greater need to use labor compared to other agricultural activities (Nogueira, Mello, Rolim, & Sannazzaro, 2004;Araújo, Araújo, & Correia, 2004;Hafle, Ramos, Neto, & Mendonça, 2010;Moreira, Teixeira, & Sousa, 2012;Lima, 2012). In addition, it is estimated that the commercial cultivation of the fruit also contributes environmentally in the Amazon region in relation to the containment of deforestation. This is because the activity does not need large spaces of land, unlike extensive livestock, since most passion fruit plantations occur in areas smaller than 5 hectares (Nogueira et al., 2004;Pimentel et al., 2009;Furlaneto, 2012;Souza, 2020).
The survey of the activity, in the last researches, is perceived on the researches, especially the works with the economy and productivity of the fruit. Some works were defined by: Araújo Neto (2004), who carried out an economic analysis of passion fruit in Minas Gerais from several densifications; Arêdes, Pereira, Maciel, & Rufino (2008) who studied the economically viable considering the benefits of irrigation; and Furlaneto (2012) who experienced an economic and energetic analysis of the passion fruit production system in the interior of the state of São Paulo. In addition to these, the works developed by Araújo et al. However, even though several works have already been carried out on passion fruit, there are still very few works carried out in the Amazon region, most of which are carried out in the northeast and southeast

Economic indicators in the cultivation of passion fruit (passilora edulis) in the central region of Rondônia -Western Amazon
International Journal for Innovation Education and Research Vol. 10 No. 11 (2022), pg. 42 regions of Brazil. Among the few works carried out in the Amazonian context, the studies by Ferreira and Araújo Neto (2007), Falesi, Tavares and Pena (2013), Lemos, Maia, Modro and Fogaça (2012), Sá, Neto, Negreiros, Nascimento and Nogueira (2015). In this way, given the scarcity of studies on passion fruit in the region, the relevance of stimulating research on passion fruit in the Amazon is highlighted.
In addition, Moreira et al. (2012) also commented that there are still insufficient works on passion fruit that approach the characterization of costs and profitability of cultivation, being neglected the administrative approach of the activity. In this way, the economic studies that contributed to the management of passion fruit cultivation are salutary, helping in the functions of planning, control and consequently in the decision-making by the producer, even more in the rural environment with all its specificities that go beyond the conventional criteria of production (Hansen & Mowen, 2003;Callado & Callado, 2003;Oliveira & Perez Jr., 2007;Leone, 2009;Martini & Braun, 2013;Martins, 2018;Crepaldi, 2018;Bassotto et al., 2019;Souza, 2020).
Thus, based on the adaptation of the academic thesis developed by Souza (2020), the present study has as its central objective to measure and analyze the main economic indicators of passion fruit cultivation in the Central Region of Rondônia, Western Amazon / Brazil. In order to reach the objectives of this work, it was mainly necessary to know the profile of the producers in the region, the production system commonly adopted, the expenses and the return of the activity.
In this way, it is expected that the present study will be relevant to the academy, as it contributes to economic studies on the fruit; and which is especially relevant from an economic and social perspective for rural producers in the Amazon region, as it makes it possible to better understand important management information about passion fruit cultivation.

Methodological Procedures
In this section, the methodological procedures that were used in this research to reach the proposed objectives will be discussed. As stated by Chizzotti (2005) the research should employ appropriate methods according to the degree of complexity provided by the questions established in the investigation. With this, he endeavored to establish the methods most consistent with the proposed problem, aiming to maximize the reality of the results. In this way, the definitions and applications adopted, the method and type of research, unit of analysis and research subjects, collection and treatment of data will be presented in the sequence.

Settings and Applications
Although the present research requires significant technical and formal levels, as well as any other work of the same nature, we tried to use definitions balanced between constitutive and operational definitions.
Thus, it is pertinent to clarify the main termologies used in this work, in order to contribute to its better understanding: a) Producers: farmers, businessmen or the like who explore the passion fruit culture economically or for subsistence; b) Production cycle: in the passion fruit crop, the production cycle is characterized, in addition to planting, between the flowering period that precedes the beginning of fruit production until the period of

Economic indicators in the cultivation of passion fruit (passilora edulis) in the central region of Rondônia -Western Amazon
International Journal for Innovation Education and Research Vol. 10 No. 11 (2022), pg. 43 production reduction, ending the cycle with the pruning (thinning) of the vines and the end fruit harvest, a process similar to that reported by Araújo Neto (2004). In the region, it is common for approximately 5 (five) production cycles to occur during the life of a crop, and this lasts on average between 24 (twenty-four) to 36 (thirty-six) months after planting (Resende, 2017) 1 . At times, the term ccrop was also used to replace cproductive cycle ; c) Cycle production expense: it is the result of the sum of all fixed costs (depreciation of equipment, depreciation of biological assets, soil analysis, etc.), variable costs (labor, fertilizers, pesticides, etc.) and expenses (packaging, freight, etc.) until the end of production at the end of the production cycle/crop. It is noteworthy that the costs were calculated in accordance with the concepts of biological asset and agricultural product through the historical cost method, in line with accounting standards. Thus, initially all the expenses perceived in the crop were accumulated until the first flowering, characterizing the implantation costs (formation of the biological asset). The implementation costs were depreciated on a straight-line basis according to the perspective of the number of crops expected by the producer throughout the life of the plant.
In addition to the proportional implantation costs, the actual costs perceived after the first flowering were accumulated, thus characterizing the production cost of the cycle/harvest (specific to the crop under analysis).
Thus, the amount of the cost of implementation plus the costs of production formed the total expenses (cost of the agricultural product) of the crop in the harvest; d) Net income from the activity: refers to the difference between the total sales of the activity minus the total cost of production; e) Economic analysis of the activity: to verify the economic analysis of the activity, the following economic indicators were used:

Research Method and Type
The present research used the statistical method to quantitatively describe the reality of the studied unit, as well as establish certain correlations, probabilities and conclusions from the statistical calculations. For Gil (2010), the statistical method has relative precision and is therefore accepted by most researchers.
As for the type of research, relative to the objectives, this thesis is an exploratory and descriptive research. Initially the study had an exploratory research using qualitative analysis. In the subsequent step, a descriptive research was carried out, taking advantage of information obtained from the previous exploratory research, in the search for the establishment of characteristics, variables, relationships and relevant facts perceived in the context of passion fruit cultivation in the central region of the state of Rondônia -Western Amazon / Brazil -that could contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the work. In this way, as perceived, it is highlighted that the research used, in terms of its approach, both qualitative and quantitative analysis. In the opportunity of carrying out the exploratory research, qualitative analysis was used, while in the later phase, the use of qualitative and quantitative analysis in descriptive research was prioritized.
As for the procedures, the research was characterized as bibliographic research and field research using a survey. The bibliographic research, carried out from the analysis of already published works, was necessary to understand the researched subjects. Field research was used in the investigation phase with rural producers, including research in the survey modality and with the use at times -during visits to producers, as suggested by Yin (2010) -of the technique of non-participant observation. for a better understanding of the passion fruit production system in the region.

Unit of Analysis and Research Subjects
In this research, the unit of analysis was the costs, expenses and income involved in the cultivation of passion fruit in the central region of the state of Rondônia -Western Amazon/Brazil. Thus, all elements that may influence the economic return of the activity were considered, and analyzes of the revenues and expenses involved were carried out.
As for the chosen region, it is noteworthy that the research was developed with producers established in the central region of Rondônia -Western Amazon -specifically in the municipalities of Castanheiras Subsequently, as for the research subjects, these were the passion fruit producers from the central region of the State of Rondônia -Western Amazon / Brazil -from a non-probabilistic sample, who started the passion fruit planting from the second half of 2017 until January 2018. To identify the producers, after identifying the first producer, the snowball method was used, or "snowball" to reach the other producers. In this way, it was the producers themselves, at the end of each visit, that indicated new producers who had the desired characteristics in the investigation. This occurred until the saturation point started, that is, producers began to indicate producers that had already been researched previously. With this, the number of 37 (thirty-

Economic indicators in the cultivation of passion fruit (passilora edulis) in the central region of Rondônia -Western Amazon
International Journal for Innovation Education and Research Vol. 10 No. 11 (2022), pg. 45 seven) producers was obtained in the three municipalities.

Data Collection and Processing
Data collection started in January 2018 from a semi-structured interview, with subsequent monitoring of the plantations fortnightly until the end of the first harvest. Thus, the analyzed period comprised the months from January 2018 to December 2018, with the first producers with the first harvest closed in May 2018 and the last ones in December 2018.
After capturing the data, they were treated for consecutive analysis and thus strive to achieve the objectives proposed by the work. From this, data processing was carried out using mathematical and statistical calculations, especially regarding the establishment of frequencies, dispersion measures and correlation analysis. To perform the mathematical and statistical calculations, the software Statistical Package for Social Regarding the application of correlation, as usually used in social sciences, it is emphasized that Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to analyze the relationship between the variables studied. To analyze the correction, which can vary between -1 and 1, the classification performed by Cohen (1988) was adopted, which considers the correlation (or scores) between 0.10 and 0.29 to be small; means between 0.30 and 0.49; and large between 0.50 and 1 (also called strong dependence by some statisticians). For confidence analysis, the significance with p value was applied to the levels of 0.05 (significant level at 5%) and 0.01 (significant level at 1%) (Figueiredo Filho & Silva Júnior, 2009).
Therefore, for correlation analysis, the dependent economic variables considered were ROI, Payback, Profitability, Net Result with labor and Result per hectare. The association variables were unrestrictedly considered, especially those raised through the profile (ownership and producer) and the characteristics of production and commercialization of the fruit.

Results and Discussions
The data obtained in the research, as well as their respective exposition and discussion will be presented in this chapter. Thus, the behavior of the economic result of the passion fruit cultivation in the central region of Rondônia will be presented, analyzed and discussed, especially regarding the indicators of Profitability, Return on Investment (ROI) and Payback, according to methodological indication. However, before the economic approach of the research, the main productive characteristics of passion fruit in the central region of Rondônia -Western Amazon are presented.

Main Characteristics in Passion Fruit Cultivation in the central region of Rondônia -Western Amazon
For a better understanding of the productive reality of passion fruit in the Western Amazon, specifically in the central region of Rondônia, a survey of information that is considered relevant to the research was carried out. Thus, table 1 presents a summary of the main findings related to the productive characteristics of the fruit in the region.  In addition to leading to greater knowledge about the productive reality of passion fruit in the central region of Rondônia -Western Amazon -the data contained in table 1 will be essential for making inferences from the analysis of correlations with economic data of the activity, as presented at the end of the next section.

Economic Indicators of Activity
Before presenting the economic indicators themselves, it is necessary to present the investments made in the culture, even because the investments are necessary data to calculate the ROI of the activity and consequently the Payback. In this way, the investments made in the region for the cultivation of passion fruit are presented in table 2. .21, respectively) reflect the characteristics of production adopted by each producer, mainly related to the facilities adopted (such as wood of better or worse quality, wood removed from the property or purchased), in the inputs used (quantity, quality and brand) and services used.
In any case, it is believed that the average values per planted foot/hectare found in this research can be used by producers in the region as parameters for estimating investments for the implementation of future crops.
As for the economic indicators themselves, the rate of Return on Investment (ROI), Payback,

Economic indicators in the cultivation of passion fruit (passilora edulis) in the central region of Rondônia -Western Amazon
Profitability and Net Result, are presented in table 3, below.  (2019) Thus, it is perceived that the ROI within the confidence interval was from 24.07% to 52.53% during the total production cycle, with an amplitude of 198.50%. To standardize the data, the ROI was also converted into months, since the production cycles are different among the studied producers. Thus, the average monthly ROI found in the region, as shown in table 3, was 3.98%, within a confidence interval of 2.57% and 5.39%.

Table 3 -Economic indicators of passion fruit cultivation in the central region of Rondônia
Thus, for every BRL 1.00 invested in the crop, there was an average monthly return of BRL 0.0398, or it can be said that there was a monthly return of 3.98% on the investment made to set up the crop by the producers in the central region of Rondônia.
In a study carried out by Ferreira and Araújo Neto (2007) The Payback in the studied area, arising from the ROI, was negative by 3.14 months, forced by the 8 producers (equivalent to 1/5 of the total) that showed losses in the activity. However, if the average monthly ROI % were considered, the Payback would be 25 months and 4 days (100%/3.98%). As for profitability, the average percentage of gain in relation to revenues was 10.86%, that is, for every BRL 1.00 of passion fruit sales, BRL 0.1086 was converted into profits.
Regarding the net result of the activity, it was noted that the producer in the central region of Rondônia  (2007)  Finally, in table 3, the net income is also presented, excluding expenses related to labor, which in most of the properties surveyed belong to the family itself, an application similar to that adopted by Moreira et al. (2012) and Sá et al. (2015), called by these authors as Family Income (RF) 8 . Thus, it is noted that if labor is not considered, the average net result increases by 58.39% (BRL 5,123.99 against BRL 3,235.13), precisely due to the significant expenditure on labor in the activity. Moreira et al. (2012) in the Federal District found an average annual family income of BRL 21,388.34, while Sá et al. (2015) in the state of Acre found an average annual family income of R BRL 29,907.54 per hectare.

Economic indicators in the cultivation of passion fruit (passilora edulis) in the central region of Rondônia -Western Amazon
In this way, given the economic results found for the production of passion fruit in the central region of Rondônia, it is also pertinent to compare the result obtained for the fruit in relation to other agricultural activities developed in the region. With this, it was noticed that the return on investments of passion fruit are more attractive than those obtained: in dairy cattle in the municipality of Cacoal, state of Rondônia, there was an average ROI of 1.21% per month and payback of 83 months, as determined by Loose et al. (2016); in the production of free-range chickens in São Felipe do Oeste, state of Rondônia, according to a study by Loose, Silva, Junnior, Sandri, & Souza (2017) who presented an ROI of 1% per month and a payback of 100 months; and in sweet potato cultivation in the municipality of Castanheiras, state of Rondônia, which presented an ROI of 4.72% in the semester and payback of 21 semesters, according to research carried out by Souza, Rodriguês, Loose, Piacentini & Piacentini (2019). However, passion fruit cultivation was less attractive than clonal coffee cultivation, which according to Deina, Loose, Correia, Souza, & Sandri (2017) was 17.91% per month, with a payback of 6 months, in Rolim de Moura, state of Rondônia.
Thus, in addition to the passion fruit being more economically viable than the production of free-range chickens and milk production (although it is less attractive than coffee), another important factor observed is the average Payback calculated in the central region of Rondônia for the fruit cultivation, which was 25 months  (2012)) and final 01/2018 (beginning of the calculation in the studied region). 8 The difference between the calculation performed in this research and those performed by Moreira et al. (2012) and Sá et al. (2015) is that they also excluded the opportunity cost in addition to spending on family labor.

Economic indicators in the cultivation of passion fruit (passilora edulis) in the central region of Rondônia -Western Amazon
International Journal for Innovation Education and Research Vol. 10 No. 11 (2022), pg. 50 and 4 days. This period is close to the total lifetime of the passion fruit plant in the region (Resende, 2017) 9 .
Another important point found in the research was the family income, that is, the net result added to the expenditure on labor. When this concept is applied, it is noted that only two properties presented negative RF in the activity, while when the net result was calculated (without excluding labor expenses) eight properties presented a negative result. Thus, as already mentioned, the finding shows, due to the great demand of passion fruit for labor, that the fruit presents itself as a good alternative for the occupation of farmers and for generating income for rural families, having an expressive economic value. and social. Furthermore, as observed in the research, many farmers do not easily admit the need to consider labor as a production cost when calculating the result, as indicated in the economic and accounting models. In this way, it is essential that producers know the result of the activity determined according to the literature and according to the parameters that they believe are relevant for decision making.
Furthermore, due to evident variations identified in some economic indicators, it is worth mentioning the statements by Araújo Neto (2004)   As for profitability, it showed a strong correlation only in relation to the "average total cost ($/kg)", with a correlation of -0.994, and a mean correlation for the association variables "yield (ton/ha)" (correlation of 0.468) and cproduction in tons (correlation of 0.468). However, for all variables with medium degrees and high correlation, a significance level of 0.01 was found.
The RF had a strong correlation with the "number of planted trees", "occupied area, in hectares", "investments", "production in tons" and "yield (ton/ha)", with respective correlations of 0.64, 0.614, 0.525, 0.981 and 0.708 -all with significance at the 0.01 level. For the dependent variable RF, a medium correlation was also found in relation to ccity (correlation of 0.472), cmade soil analysis (0.357) and caverage total cost ($/kg) (correlation of -0.406).
Finally, there was a strong correlation between the variable cRL per ha with the variables cproduction in tons (correlation of 0.872), cyield (ton/ha) (correlation of 0.886) and caverage total cost ($/kg) (correlation of -0.519); and average correlation with the variables "municipality", "number of planted trees", "occupied area, in hectares", "made soil analysis" and "has technical assistance", with correlations of 0.429, 0.358, 0.331, 0336 and 0.481, respectively.
In general, it appears that the variables that impose the greatest correlation to the economic variables calculated are cproduction in tons , cyield (ton/ha) and caverage total cost ($/kg) , including many of them with correlations close to 1 and/or -1 (perfect dependence). It is believed that the three association variables found were not highlighted by chance. When you have a good production in tons, you tend to have a good yield. Consequently, as discussed by Bruni and Famá (2008), the more ýou produce, optimizing fixed installations, the lower the total unit costs tend to be and, therefore, the better the economic results (cost,

Economic indicators in the cultivation of passion fruit (passilora edulis) in the central region of Rondônia -Western Amazon
volume and profit ratio).
Even if to a lesser degree, the association variables chas performed soil analysis and chas technical assistance also deserve to be highlighted, which had an average correlation with the RL per ha 10 . Therefore, the result of the correlation analysis highlights the importance of technical assistance to increase fruit productivity and consequently better economic results in the activity.
The correlations found regarding investments per foot and per ha are also worthy of emphasis. It is noted that the reduction of investments tends to increase the ROI of the activity 11 . It is inferred that this occurs mainly in situations in which the producer has less investment in the plant's installations as a result of having his own wood on the property, unlike other producers who have to acquire the wood, for example.
On the other hand, it is noteworthy that no correlations (or small correlations) of the economic results were perceived when compared with other association variables, such as ctime in which passion fruit has been planted, in years (producer's experience), cplanting time , cproduction cycle, in months , clevel of knowledge of the producer and cdensity (m²/foot) .
With this, in general, it is noted that the production of the fruit is demonstrated as an interesting productive alternative for rural production in the region, mainly for small producers due to the occupation of family labor and for presenting itself as profitable in the vast majority of the properties surveyed.
However, through the results found, there is a need to monitor the production costs of the crop in the region. Although the exception is the properties that had losses in the activity, there is still the possibility of perceiving a negative result, being elementary the economic monitoring of the culture to avoid surprises.

Conclusion
The present study sought to measure and analyze the main economic indicators of passion fruit cultivation in the Central Region of Rondônia, Western Amazon/Brazil, according to the methodological design previously established for the research.
In this way, it was possible to verify that the average investments in the region for the development of the activity are in the amount of BRL 9,111.42 (US$ 2,496.28) related to the average general investments in production in the studied area, and for each passion fruit plant planted are invested on average of BRL 34.72 (US$ 9.51), or for each hectare of passion fruit planted there is an average investment of BRL 30,828.52 (US$ 8,446.17). Regarding the monthly ROI, it was observed that for every BRL 1.00 invested in farming in the region, there was an average monthly return of BRL 0.0398, that is, a monthly ROI of 3.98%. On the other hand, profitability reached an average of 10.86%, that is, for every BRL 1.00 of passion fruit sales, BRL 0.1086 was converted into profits, while the average profit was BRL 8,853.28 (USD 2,425.56) per cultivated hectare of the fruit.
In the origin of the statistical analysis of the results, it was noticed that the economic variable cmonthly 10 Especially in terms of ROI and Payback, in addition to the variables associated with chas done soil analysis and chas technical assistance , those also depend on the values of the investments. 11 ROI is obtained precisely between the ratio of the result to the investments (ROI = Net Result/Investments). Thus, when there were equal results, the smaller the investment, the greater the ROI.