The production of staple grains, essential for human and animal nutrition and the occupation of most peasants and farmers, was the net loser of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA, 1994).
The agreement opened the Mexican market to imports from the US and Canada, leaving Mexico no chance of competition, while changing agricultural policies and destroying the institutions and public services that supported agriculture.
Food self-sufficiency as an objective was transformed into food security, which consists of having the resources to buy food in the global village, regardless of whether the country produces it.
Because of the agreement, the agricultural trade balance was in deficit for almost 20 years, during which time imports of staple grains occupied center stage, until, starting in 2015, exports of avocado, vegetables and blackberries achieved a surplus.
Competition with imports destroyed the national production of staple grains. In Campeche and Morelos, rice production decreased drastically and mills only bought imported grain to polish it. Soybeans almost disappeared and the recovery of their production from 2007 onwards moved to the Yucatan peninsula, with transgenic seeds, razing the jungle. Wheat, despite its high productivity, was subject to low prices and marketing difficulties. Beans greatly increased dependency levels, further impoverishing the producing regions. For corn, imports grew exponentially as it was also destined for animal factories as an effect of the treaty, while in different regions farmers stopped producing it and rented their land for export crops.
The debacle of basic grains did not succeed in extinguishing these crops due to the resistance and organization of the peasants and farmers who fought to obtain support to remain in the activity. Although many of their organizations succumbed to the economic crisis, they promoted policies that returned a minimum certainty and profitability to their crops. They innovated production and marketing systems, learned about the movement of international markets, sought to strengthen and integrate their organizations, forge alliances with organizations from other countries, have voices in Congress, and wrest from the State the subsidies essential to continue being agricultural producers. That is why the current government’s proposals were very well received: strengthening of peasant agriculture, food self-sufficiency, guaranteed prices… But these proposals were met with a reduction in the budget for the countryside, with the demonization of commercial farmers and peasant and producer organizations, with the elimination of the remaining financing, insurance and marketing instruments, with greater openness to imports, with arrest warrants for peasant leaders who protest to sell their crops at a profitable price.
The results in the production of staple grains – rice, beans, corn, sorghum, soybeans and wheat – together show a reduction in production volume of 10 percent, from 36.4 million tons to 32.7 million tons between 2018 and 2023.
Rice production volume fell by 11 percent in this period and reached 252 thousand tons, while imports were 219.3 million tons. Wheat was the only grain that increased its production, reaching 3.5 million tons in 2023, although it remained below the 3.9 million tons of 2016 and far from the growing import volume of 6.2 million tons.
Beans had a sharp drop in production of 40 percent between 2018 and 2023 and only reached 724 thousand tons.
Corn production fell 14 percent, and registered only 23.3 million tons in 2023, five million tons less than the record of 2016. However, producers faced enormous difficulties in marketing their crops. Imports were 19.7 million tons, a record figure, which could be surpassed in 2024 and came mostly from the US, but also from Brazil and South Africa, which do not have trade agreements and to which no tariffs were charged in order to reduce the price of national crops. Corn production only covered 54.2 percent of national consumption and the remaining 45.8 percent was covered by imports.
The government sought to contain inflation at the expense of peasants and farmers, against food self-sufficiency, against the profitability of national production and favored the transnationals that control the markets.
Original article by Ana de Ita, La Jornada, September 2nd, 2024.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.
Photo by Schools for Chiapas.