Angelica Enciso L.
Newspaper La Jornada
Monday, May 9, 2022, p. 4
In favor of food self-sufficiency in basic grains, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Sader) allocates subsidies to small farmers, but national production is stagnant, while record imports are broken and there are at least 400,000 medium-sized growers, from more than 20 hectares and that generate 46 percent of the value of agricultural production, who since 2019 have lost subsidies for marketing, access to credit, promotion programs and support for the mechanization of the field, warn researchers and farmers.
The country’s production covers the national demand for white corn for human consumption, but it depends on foreign purchases to supply the livestock sector, and last year imports of yellow corn, beans, soybeans, wheat, milk and derivatives rose 56.5 percent. percent compared to 2020, indicates the Agricultural Markets Consulting Group.
Analysts indicate that 70 percent of corn producers are small, but of the 27 million tons that are obtained on average per year, they contribute 30 percent and allocate a part of their harvest for self-consumption.
There are two programs dedicated to achieving food self-sufficiency: Guarantee prices, with a budget of 11 thousand 373 million pesos. Operated by Mexican Food Security (Segalmex), between September 2020 and June 2021 it purchased corn from only 51,000 small farmers and gave incentives to 23,265 medium-sized producers.
The other is the Production for Welfare program, with an authorized expenditure of 14 billion pesos to boost the country’s 5 million production units. It delivers 2,000 pesos per hectare per year to 1.7 million basic grain producers who own up to 5 hectares of rainfed land. The harvesters of medium scale
, who cultivate from 5 to 20 hectares, receive less: 1,200 pesos per hectare, and the limit is 24,000 pesos per year. Together, they are 93 percent of the units and generate 54 percent of the harvest, indicates Sader.
Better effects
The aforementioned support plans are the continuation of Procampo and ProAgro and include small farmers who benefited from schemes that were eliminated, such as those for coffee and sugar cane, and 400,000 farmers who work units of more than 20 hectares were left out. , who previously had cash subsidies and are the most productive, says Ana de Ita, director of the Center for Studies for Change in the Mexican Countryside, in an interview.
He adds that the objective of food self-sufficiency is opposed to the fact that only small farmers are supported – whose harvest, for the most part, is for family consumption. The medium ones, which are fundamental, since they are the ones that supply the urban population, they are not so rich that they do not require the subsidy
. Production has not decreased, but it has not increased either. It was expected that the self-sufficiency policy would not pull, that it would not have good results and, given the international environment, it is time to review it
point.
All producers contribute to ensuring the supply of basic goods, but there should be a focus on reviving programs that incentivize the harvest of primary commodities. The world is teaching that we should not be food dependent
says Luis Fernando Haro, director of the National Agricultural Council.
Antonio Turrent, a researcher at the National Institute of Forestry, Agricultural and Livestock Research, refers in an interview that, in the case of corn, yields in the north of the country will not be able to rise any more, the alternative is to expand the irrigated crop area in the southeast. Since 30 years ago, I have proposed that, by opening agricultural lands to irrigation, and on surfaces of between 1 and 2 million hectares, yields of 15 tons per hectare can be obtained in the autumn-winter cycle
he assures.
Another option is that the Northern corn producers sow yellow cereal, which serves as food for the livestock sector, and the rest of the country, white corn with the quality of native grains and make improvements. In this way, the issue of high imports of fodder grain would be resolved.
proposes.
