“Intolerable reality: 6 million in extreme poverty in the countryside”

Alma E. Muñoz and Rolando Medrano

La Jornada Newspaper
Wednesday, January 8, 2025, p. 7

Is a horrible wound and an intolerable reality have 6 million people in extreme poverty in the Mexican countryside, in addition to the fact that there are pending issues – agricultural day laborers, informality in export crops, such as avocado, and drought, among others – on which the transformation processes continue, but from there to say that There is a field in crisis, collapsed, I do not share itsays Julio Berdegué, head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Sader).

With agricultural laborers we have a very serious problemhighlights. They are so invisible that we don’t even have exact data on how many there are.. We have estimated that there are more or less 2.3 million, of which 400 thousand are women, she points out in an interview with The Day and advances that they are already working on a strategy to recognize their rights.

He also talks about the importance of crop inspectors to combat labor informality and gives an example of what happens with avocado growers.

I have met with them to tell them: you cannot have such a prosperous industry and have more than 100 thousand workers. that no one assumes they have hired, in reference to the cutters.

Because those on the packaging, which They have a contract, with IMSS, with everything, because they do not want Chapter 9 of the treaty (T-MEC) to fall on them.they say The cutters are not mine, who knows who they belong to?.

And the same thing happens with the owners of the orchard, “mostly small and medium producers, who claim: they are not my employees, here comes a company – they are not even formal, probably some are –, (to whom I say) I need seven cutters and “They come and cut me.”

But “there we are making a joint strategy with the Secretary (of Labor) Marath Bolaños, with the director of Social Security, Zoé Robledo, and us. In addition, Alicia Bárcena (Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources) is going to join because we have a deforestation problem.

–Of what magnitude?

–In Michoacán, the rate is very low; We have strong deforestation problems in Jalisco and in other states where the avocado arrived later. And if we manage to make it an activity without informal work and without deforestation, it will be more prosperous.

I have already met with the avocado producers of Michoacán and they feel the pressure. In a first conversation I felt that they were open, they know that they have problems, that if they do not solve them, then there is a bomb there, with a clock, ticking, ticking, that could explode at any time.

The idea, he indicates, It is to sit down with this chain, with everyone, and tell them it’s over, we want avocado, yes, but without deforestation and without informality.

agriculture It adapts when there are regulations. We want it to happen, but in compliance with the law, environmental laws and social laws. That is possible, President Claudia Sheinbaum does not lose sight of those two lines.

Support programs

Regarding the specials that this newspaper has made about the countryside, the owner of Sader states that the programs in support of small and medium producers were very important for the 18 percent reduction of extreme poverty in the first four years of the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

And along those lines, he points out that for 2025 the budget for Production for Well-being, Fertilizers for Well-being, Guarantee Prices, Good Fishing and Sowing Life is 86,800 million pesos.

So, when they tell me that there is an abandoned field, I say wait, go and ask those farmers, who are 2 million 750 thousand beneficiaries who are receiving this money.

From his offices at Sader, Berdegué emphasizes that Mexico occupies between seventh and tenth place as a world food producer.

In recent years, white corn production increased 461 percent; yellow corn, 761 percent; chicken, 107, as well as an increase in the production of milk, eggs, pork and red meat.

Small producers –3.15 million in 2022, according to the latest agricultural census– they produce two-thirds of the white corn in this country; the big ones, 15 percentand the rest, the medium ones.

Likewise, it highlights that in the export industry, small producers plant between 25 and 30 percent of berries66 percent strawberry and barley, 99 percent coffee, 91 percent agave, tequila and mezcal, 87 percent avocado and 71 percent sugar cane.

To all this, he adds that in recent years the per capita consumption of animal protein increased 11 percent, because The minimum wage improved and 10 million people escaped povertyso they can consume more of it.

Severe drought

The head of Sader does not ignore the effects of the severe drought that has hit the north of the country in the last five years.

And he recognizes that wheat production is at historic lows. “You cannot plant because there is no water in the El Mayo and El Yaqui dams… In the short term, what can we do? Very little,” he admits, although on instructions from President Claudia Sheinbuam, a support program is being created for these producers.

The situation in his native Sinaloa is also very complicated, he says, due to the low levels of the dams. Sinaloa can normally produce 5 to 6 million tons of white corn in a year, and we produced half.

But it stands out that seven of the 13 irrigation districts that the federal president incorporated into the irrigation technology plan – as part of the national water plan – have the purpose of supporting agriculture, in addition to releasing water for human consumption in the cities.

Of those, two are in Los Mochis and Culiacán, where We are introducing technical irrigation for thousands of hectares; It will take us two or three years, yes, but that could radically change the situation in terms of guaranteeing a fundamental supply floor for our white, non-genetic corn.which will not be planted in Mexico, he specifies.

Berdegué also points out that bean production fell 18 percent and rice production fell 29 percent, which is why it is a priority for the President to recover self-sufficiency.

Unfavorable working conditions

–Another big issue is the situation of agricultural laborers, who are subject to very unfavorable working conditions – he is told.

–The President instructed us to think about some comprehensive strategy, which we are calling For the constitutional rights of day laborersbecause it is not about creating a program with xo billion pesos, because we would fall short, given the gaps, which are very serious, in housing, education, health, respect for labor laws.

It is about can access their rights, that we recognize them and prioritize them.

Part of what we have to do, he adds, is to start counting and censusing thembut also that they have a preferential right, so that they have identification, because many do not have documentation.

Regarding transgenic corn, given the adverse ruling of the T-MEC, the official recalls that in a joint statement of the Secretary (of Economy, Marcelo) Ebrard and myself, because we are working very together, we say that we do not agree with the conclusions.

But he confirms: Transgenic corn will not be planted in this country and that is the central objective of the constitutional reform (which will be presented).

For us, finish, Corn is much more than a product and that is why we are going to defend it.