Post-NAFTA Changes in Peasant Land Use—The Case of the Pátzcuaro Lake Watershed Region in the Central-West México (original) (raw)

Selling maize in Mexico: the persistence of peasant farming in an era of global markets

The last decade of the twentieth century was heralded as the 'end of agrarian reform' in Mexico and the initiation of a new era of market-led agricultural policy and practice. The impact of neoliberalism and the North American Free Trade Agreement on smallholder maize production has been widely conceived as negative, associated with ecological degradation, rural emigration and cultural erosion. Yet, some twenty years later, all evidence suggests that smallholder maize production is continuing in Mexico, albeit in evolving structures and forms. This article uses a farm-level survey implemented in three Mexican states to assess the current condition of maize farming in Mexico. The authors revisit past categorizations of Mexican farmers and apply similar approaches to explore what maize-producing households are doing with their maize, and what current patterns of production imply for future Mexican maize policy. They find evidence of greater persistence and adaptability in Mexican maize farming than is often presented. On the basis of their analysis, they advocate for a reconsideration of the underlying assumptions of public policy, highlighting the heterogeneity of the maize landscape and the unrealized and generally unrecognized potential this heterogeneity represents. proved the manuscript. We greatly appreciate the support of our collaborators, Maria Guadalupe Quijada, Jose Luis Armenta and Julia Bausch in the data collection process. Development and Change 45(1): 133-155.

Agricultural Land Use Change after NAFTA in Central West Mexico

Land, 2017

It has been suggested that agricultural land use change and modernization in agricultural production techniques are related to the loss of crop diversity. Two processes contribute to this loss; first is the replacement of landraces by modern varieties, and second is the abandonment of traditional crops in favor of cash crops. We studied the expression of these processes in a region that is both an agro-biodiversity and cultural center and one of the most significant fruit exporters of Mexico. We analyzed agricultural change based on the transformation of cropping areas and the primary crops' locations in Michoacán state. We examined the crop-harvested area statistics from 1950 to 2015, and identified 23 crops as the most important in terms of harvested area and monetary value. After NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), harvested area for nine crops changed significantly: seven crops increased, and two decreased. Positive trends were observed for commercial fruits oriented to export markets, and negative trends were observed for traditional crops. These crops, such as beans and maize, are important for food security. Additionally, we analyzed how these land-use and agricultural changes overlap in zones of maize planted-area change. Using a maize-race collection database, we identified three native maize races that could be at risk due to the abandonment of maize in favor of commercial crops.

Access to land-based resources under the influence of land reform:a case study from an agrarian community in Mexico

2011

This study provides important empirical and analytical insights that represent a step forward towards a deeper and better understanding of the effects of land reform and land policies on the distribution of access to land-based resources. It explores the extent to which the process of land reform during the early 1990s, and the subsequent implementation of complementary land policies and programmes brought deep modifications to the way in which agrarian communities obtain benefits from resources. The empirical evidence on which this research is based consists of both qualitative and quantitative data elicited by a combination of research methods applied to a case study design. The case study chosen is San Francisco Oxtotilpan, an agrarian community in Mexico‟s central highlands that is home to the smallest indigenous group in the region: the Matlatzinca. The theoretical and analytical framework designed takes into account the main scholarship on access to natural resources. This ext...

DEAGRARIANIZATION AND DIVERSIFICATION OF SOCIO-LABOUR AND ECONOMIC STRATEGIES IN THE MEXICAN COUNTRYSIDE

International Journal of Latin American Studies, 2013

In recent decades, the Latin America’s rural economy and society has been transformed as a result of its dependence on capitalist relationships and the integration of agriculture and food production to world markets, to forms of modernization favoring agro-industrial groups, capitalistic farm businessmen and a few peasant family units. Most peasants and rural workers are now employed in temporary, precarious and flexible contractual conditions. This article examines changes in the institutions regulating socio-economic life and their effect on the rural lifestyle in the Nativitas municipality, Tlaxcala, Mexico. By observing communities under study, the authors propose that rural changes have not turned these regions into totally urban settings. Rurality, as it has been known traditionally, have been altered since it is the current trend that family members work in varied sectors and milieus, whereupon it is necessary to ask what remains of that rurality and how it is defined in this context.

Policy Reforms and Mexican Agriculture: Views from the Yaqui Valley

2001

The overall effects of policy reforms enacted during the 1990s in Mexico on financial and economic profitability of Yaqui Valley agriculture are assessed in this study, which describes the reforms, examines how exogenous shocks affected the reform process, and documents how rural people and institutions adjusted to the changed circumstances. Virtually all of the reforms affected Yaqui Valley farmers because of the commercial character of their agriculture (relatively large, irrigated wheat farms), their close proximity to the US, and the new "openness" of Mexico's economy. By almost any standard, the reforms were both wide-ranging and successful, at least as measured in efficiency terms, yet the Yaqui Valley's rural communities face significant challenges at the start of the 21st century. The ejido communities have lost cohesiveness, and even larger-scale farmers in the private sector face serious income problems. More generally, farmers have yet to find profitable...

The Interaction of Economic Reforms, Socio‐economic Structure and Agriculture in Mexico

Growth and Change, 2000

National policydecisions in developing countries contribute to the increasing integration of agriculture into national and world economies. The spatial consequences of national policies, however, vary across regions and agricultural systems. Employing and adapting a methodology first proposed by King (1970), this study explores the relationship between national policy, agriculture, and population characteristics at the regional level in Mexico during the presidency of Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988–94). Statistical analyses corroborate the hypothesis that the impact of policy reforms on the agricultural sector in Mexico is mediated by the characteristics of the population. Results suggest that government credit for agriculture and federal funding of rural development during the Salinas de Gortari administration were mediated by factors associatedwith the level of urbanization. The provision of commercial credit at the regional level, however, does not appear to depend on population...

Agricultural livelihood transition in the southern Yucatán region: diverging paths and their accompanying land changes

Regional Environmental Change, 2010

Land change science has demonstrated that rural livelihoods around the world both drive and reflect changing environmental regimes and political economic/structural transformations. This article explores the relationship between increasingly globalized rural livelihoods and in-place land change, assessing results from social surveys of smallholding households in the southern Yucatán region. We examine evidence for a transition in agricultural livelihood strategies as smallholders adjust to changing political economic and institutional conditions, and link these transitioning strategies to land use changes. Based on household surveys in 1997 and 2003, we comparatively assess both changes in the selection of livelihood strategies and in the land use and cover impacts of those strategies. Our results indicate that although impacts of given strategies have changed little over this period, there are increasing proportions of households pursuing two divergent adjustment paths—one of agricultural withdrawal and one of agricultural intensification and commercialization. We investigate what sociodemographic characteristics differentiate the groups of households following distinct livelihood strategies. Our findings point to the possibility of simultaneous and contradictory land change outcomes as smallholders adjust in different ways to their intensified incorporation into global economies.