Donald K. Freebairn, “The Dichotomy of Prosperity and Poverty in Mexican Agriculture,” Land Economics 45, no. 1 (Feb. 1969), 31-42.
Notes
- 31-2 – “It was at this same convention [Aguascalientes] that the Zapata forces presented an early and well articulated statement of the agrarian problem. Slowly the incorporation of ‘land and liberty’ into the constitutionalists’ program gave them the popular support necessary to pacify the countryside and ultimately write and put into effect the Constitution of 1917, with its article incorporating agrarian and labor reforms into the national constitutional structure.”
- 32 – “Yet even today, after half of the nation’s crop lands have been re-distributed to former landless peasants, with something more than two million direct beneficiaries of land grants, it is estimated that 60 per cent of the population is not participating in the national market; that they are submerged or marginal members of the national society.”
- “Although not exclusively so, this part of the national population is largely in the rural areas where today some seven and a half million (more than half of the total labor force) are employed on the nation’s three million farm holdings, almost half of which are ejidal units.”
- 33-4 – “It is interesting to note that over the last 36 years about 40 per cent of the increased crop production has been a direct consequence of increased acreage harvested, with the associated increases in manpower, simple tools, and other traditional agricultural inputs. Physical yields were also on the increase; about doubling over the same time period, and also accounting for about 40 per cent of the increased crop production. Shifts in cropping patterns, from low to higher value crops, have accounted for much of the rest of the increase.”
- 35 – “After fifty years of agricultural reform, the extreme concentration of commercial production by a small fraction of all farmers is a significant structural element of the Mexican agricultural economy.”
- “If the 231,000 largest ejidal holdings are included, then roughly 300,000 holdings, or less than 15 per cent of the total, provide three-quarters of agricultural sales. The remaining 85 per cent of producers are a very marginal item in the national agricultural economy.”
- 36 – “The emphasis here is that the limited participation of so large a part of the population is an important factor; as important as, or perhaps more important, in overall public agricultural policy, than the provision of foods and fibers for urban centers.”
- 37 – “In a like manner, agricultural research activities ahve concentrated on a limited number of crops and most particularly for production on irrigated acreages. Little work has been done for crop production under natural rainfall conditions, except for a few regions recognized as offering immediate potential. Recognizing that almost no formal effective extension service exists, the experiment stations have been used for direct demonstrations to leading farmers of the consequences of the application of scientific techniques. On annual and semi-annual field days, several thousand farmers attend talks and demonstrations at each of the five regional research centers. This direct contact with even ten or more thousand farmers is a significant contribution of these centers but it hardly means an effective technical assistance program for the more than two million peasant farmers.”
- “The provision of production inputs particularly fertilizers, follows the same pattern. Fertilizer application has been principally on cotton, wheat and sugarcane, the crops grown on commercial farms in association with industrial plants. Usage has been concentrated in the irrigation districts. Except for a few isolated experiments, fertilizer response experiments have been carried out only for irrigated farming, Needless to say, considering the man-land ratios, mechanized farming systems are restricted to large farm holdings, recognizing that in a limited number of irrigation districts they are also being used on ejidal holdings.”
- “Public investments largely in irrigation, agricultural credit, technical developments and their implementation, and the provision of production inputs, have been singularly concentrated in the hands of a limited number of farmers and into a fairly restricted geographic area. Limited resources have been concentrated. In a very real sense, public policy has been to create a new and commercial agriculture almost from virgin regions; attempts to modernize and reform established and traditional agriculture have been almost non-existent. The results of this concentration, of this newly formulated modern and scientifically-based agriculture, has been the provision of expanding supplies of food and fiber both for domestic and export needs. But it has also been the development of an agriculture which concentrates the benefits of public investment and modernization among a limited number of farmers.”
- 39 – “It is in the area of technical development that the most substantial opportunities exist for public programs leading to both adequate supplies of food and fibers and a wider participation in modern production processes by small farmers. Rather than emphasizing research on only the problems of technifying irrigation agriculture, the powerful research experience with plant genetics, plant pathology, entomology, soil fertility and other related disciplines should be brought to bear on a much wider group of ecological zones and differing problems.”
- 40 – “In point of fact, the corn production system which is described above is an extremely complicated way of producing corn. Although land preparation may be about the same as under traditional systems, the modern inputs include selected seeds, insecticides to control both soil-borne and other insects, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers. Not only are these all new materials to the small corn farmer, but timing of operations and exacting formulations of chemical materials for applications are an integral part of the system. To enjoy even moderate success, technical assistance will have to be made available to participating farmers, perhaps on a weekly basis.”
