Abstract
The objectives of this chapter are threefold: (1) to evaluate the effect of reforms and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in agricultural production and food security on the rural economy and the livelihoods of the population of Mexico with special attention to maize (the major staple food of Mexico), (2) to reflect on the future of food security and the livelihoods of Mexicans, and (3) to draw lessons from the Mexican experience for other ‘emerging economies’. Section 6.2 of the chapter presents a summary of the main market-oriented reforms applied to agriculture, pointing out their expected effects. Section 6.3 presents the tendencies of agricultural trade and production, with special attention to Mexico’s basic crops (major grains and oilseeds). In Sect. 6.4, the author studies the structure of crop production and its changes, assessing the role of agriculture by farm size in food security and the livelihoods of the Mexican population. Section 6.5 proposes hypotheses that explain why, contrary to expectations, the production of grains—non-competitive crops under NAFTA—has not collapsed. Finally, based on the author’s research, the conclusion presents policy options for the Mexican State while drawing lessons that the Mexican experience can provide to other emerging economies on food security and livelihoods.
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- 1.
Due to data restrictions, the livestock sector is not treated systematically in the chapter; it is considered in Yunez-Naude (2010).
- 2.
For example, in 1990, Mexico was the sixth largest importer of US agricultural products, while in 2008 Mexico reached the second place, just behind Canada. A detailed presentation of the effects of NAFTA in the agriculture of Mexico is in Yunez-Naude (2011).
- 3.
Income inequality prevails and remains high in Mexico: the Gini coefficient was 0.53 in 1992 and 0.51 in 2005; see the website of the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Policy (CONEVAL, Spanish acronym). The results of our research on changes in poverty and inequality from 1990 to 2005 are consistent with the above (see Yunez et al. 2010).
- 4.
Based on own estimations using data on GDP from the same source as Table 6.3, and data on employment from FAO’s website and from the Statistical Annex of the President of Mexico’s 2011 Address to the Congress.
- 5.
The AGC for 2007 does not cover all major crops, such as rice, soy beans and other oilseeds.
- 6.
The exception is yields in maize as in 2007 they were much higher in the bigger farms. However, from 1991 to 2007 yields have grown sharply in all farm sizes.
- 7.
Coffee is another major cash crop of small and medium-sized farmers. Coffee has been excluded here because data provided by the AGC are insufficient to study its evolution during the period under consideration.
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Acknowledgement
I wish to acknowledge the valuable comments of Dr. Pooja Sharma and Dr. Amit Shovon Ray to the early versions of the chapter and the financial support of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, the Flora and William Hewlett Foundation and Mexico’s National Council of Science and Technology.
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Yunez-Naude, A. (2015). Agriculture, Food Security and Livelihoods of the Mexican Population Under Market-Oriented Reforms. In: Shome, P., Sharma, P. (eds) Emerging Economies. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2101-2_6
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