See also: Land reform in Mexico

Fields in Cazones de Herrera, Veracruz

Agriculture in Mexico has been an important sector of the country’s economy historically and
politically even though it now accounts for a very small percentage of Mexico’s GDP. Mexico is one
of the cradles of agriculture with the Mesoamericans developing domesticated plants such as maize,
beans, tomatoes, squash, cotton, vanilla, avocados, cacao, various kinds of spices, and
more. Domestic turkeys and Muscovy ducks were the only domesticated fowl in the pre-Hispanic
period and small dogs were raised for food. There were no large domesticated animals.
During the early colonial period, the Spanish introduced more plants and the concept of animal
husbandry, principally cattle, horses, donkeys, mules, goats and sheep, and barn yard animals such
as chickens and pigs.[citation needed] Farming from the colonial period until the Mexican Revolution was
focused on large private properties. After the Revolution these were broken up and the land
redistributed. Since the latter 20th century NAFTA and economic policies have again favored large
scale commercial agricultural holdings.
Mexico’s main crops include grains such as corn and wheat, tropical fruits and various vegetables.
Agricultural exports are important, especially coffee, tropical fruits and winter fruits and vegetables.
Sixty percent of Mexico’s agricultural exports go to the United States.

History of agriculture in Mexico[edit]

See also: History of Mexico, Economic history of Mexico, and Land reform in Mexico

Mesoamerican period[edit]
Further information: Agriculture in Mesoamerica
Aztec maize agriculture as depicted in the Florentine Codex

The territory of Mexico roughly corresponds with that of Mesoamerica, which was one of the cradles
of plant domestication.[1][2] Archeological research in the Gulf coast of Tabasco shows the earliest
evidence of corn cultivation in Mexico. The first fields were along the Grijalva River delta with
fossilized pollen evidence showing forest clearing around 5100 BCE. The domestication of corn is
followed by that of sunflower seeds and cotton.[2]
Agriculture was the basis of the major Mesoamerican civilizations such as
the Olmecs, Mayas and Aztecs, with the principal crops being corn, beans, squash, chili peppers
and tomatoes.[1] The tradition of planting corn, beans and squash together allows the beans to
replace the nitrogen that corn depletes from the soil. [3] The three crops together are sometimes
referred to as the Three Sisters.
Soil erosion from corn production has been a problem since the Mesoamerican period. This and
other kinds of environmental degradation have been cited as the cause of the collapse of
the Teotihuacan civilization. To create new areas for cultivation, Mesoamericans harvested rainfall,
developed lakeshore irrigation systems and created new fields in the form of terraces and
"chinampas" artificial floating islands in shallow waters.[3]

Colonial period[edit]
Although silver mining brought many Spaniards to Mexico and silver was the largest single export
from New Spain, agriculture was extremely important. There were far more people working in
agriculture, not only producing subsistence crops for individual households and small-scale
producers for local markets, but also commercial agriculture on large estates (haciendas) to supply
Spanish cities. In the early conquest period, Spaniards relied on crops produced by indigenous in
central Mexico and rendered as tribute, mainly maize, following existing arrangements. Some
Spaniards were awarded grants by the crown of indigenous tribute and labor in the conquest-era
institution of encomienda, which was phased out replaced by indigenous labor allocations by the
crown (repartimiento), finally wage labor or other non-coerced labor arrangements.
Indian Collecting Cochineal from a nopal cactus with a Deer Tail by José Antonio de Alzate y Ramírez (1777)

In central Mexico, the rise of the Spanish population in and the drop in indigenous population in the
sixteenth century saw Spaniards acquiring land, creating haciendas and smaller farms
called ranchos. Much productive land was held by indigenous villages, with the protection of the
crown, but long-term trend over the colonial era and the nineteenth century was the transfer of those
lands into non-indigenous hands. Haciendas have been well studied in Mexico, starting
with François Chevalier's highly influential work,[4] followed by assessments of whether his
generalizations held for regions of Mexico.[5]'[6] Studies found that haciendas were, in fact, not
inefficiently organized and badly managed, nor did the concentration in land ownership result in
waste and misallocation of resources. Hacienda owners (hacendados) sought to maximize income
and minimize production costs, economically rational behavior. In economic terms, benefited in ways
that small holders and indigenous communities could not, since they had economies of scale,
access to outside credit, information about new technologies and distant markets, a level of
protection from predatory officials, and greater security of tenure." [7] Although haciendas had
advantages of scale in producing crops such as wheat and in ranching of cattle and sheep smaller
producers of fruits, fresh vegetables, and small animals (pigs, chickens and their eggs) supplied
local markets.[8] In Mexico City, chinampa agriculture was highly productive and labor intensive,
supplying the capital, with land continuing to be held by indigenous farmers into the twentieth
century.[9]

Chinampas and canals, 1912.

The Spanish introduced a number of new crops such as wheat, barley, sugar, fruits (such as pear,
apple, fig, apricot, and bananas) and vegetables, but their main contributions were domesticated
animals, unknown in Mesoamerica. The Spanish brought cattle, horses, goats, and sheep as part of
what is now called the Columbian Exchange.[10] These animals often caused damage to indigenous
crops in central Mexico, but outside the zone of intense indigenous settlement and cultivation, cattle
and sheep were grazed on land not previously devoted to agriculture. Sheep grazed on previously
cultivated land had disastrous environmental consequences, documented in a classic of Mexican
environmental history.[11] Many breeds of the animals the Spaniards imported are still raised today
called "criollos."[3][12]
With the discovery and exploitation of large-scale silver deposits in Zacatecas and Guanajuato,
cultivated areas outside of traditional agriculture expanded, particularly in the Bajío, which became
the bread basket of Mexico producing the imported grain, wheat. Unlike central Mexico, which had a
long indigenous tradition of sedentary agriculture, much of the Bajío was a marshy wetland not
continuously occupied or cultivated. For the Spaniards, the Bajío was a disappointment, since there
were no deposits of precious metals and no indigenous populations with existing hierarchies, but the
region did show promise for initially the grazing of cattle and later agriculture. With population growth
in silver mining cities in the eighteenth century, agriculture expanded and cattle grazing was
displaced to more marginal lands and declined in importance. Agriculture in the region was
productive, but was not technologically innovative. The bottom lands were rich in nutrients Spaniards
had no sense that access to productive land was restricted, which might have sparked innovation in
cultivation. However, the shaping of the regions hydrology with dams and canals in the eighteenth
century made possible wheat cultivation on a large scale. Spaniards developed irrigated agriculture,
with the construction of canals and dams, marshy land was drained and redirected. [13]
A number of native plant and animal species from Mexico proved to have commercial value in
Europe, leading to their mass cultivation and export including cochineal and indigo (for
dyes), cacao, vanilla, henequen (for rope), cotton, and tobacco. A high quality, fast red dye from
small cochineal insects that were cultivated and collected from the nopal cactuses on which they
thrived was an extremely important export to Europe, the second most valuable after silver.
Cochineal production was labor intense and largely remained in indigenous hands. Mesoamerican
staple foods, especially maize, continued to be important. [3][12] In the eighteenth century, when the
Spanish crown was seeking new sources of income, it created a monopoly on tobacco production
and processing, restricting cultivation to areas around Orizaba. [14]
Recent assessments of the Roman Catholic Church's role in the Mexican economy have examined
the hypothesis that the church was a major drag on the Mexican economy. The church was the
recipient of the tithe, a tax on agricultural production, but with indigenous communities exempt from
the tithe and considerable number of haciendas owned by the church itself, it has been argued that
more land remained in indigenous and church hands than otherwise would be expected. Since the
church functioned as the main source of credit to elites, its lending to them at below market rates
cost the church revenue and increased the wealth of those acquiring the credit. The church owned
considerable land in its own right. An advantage of church-owned haciendas over privately held
ones was that unlike individual hacendados, whose deaths triggered a division of property among
the heirs, the church as a corporation continued to consolidate its wealth over time. [15]

19th century[edit]

Hacienda de San Antonio Coapa and a train, by José María Velasco (1840—1912).

Land tenure and agricultural production continued along the patterns of the colonial era even after
the Mexican War of Independence (1810-21). Much of the fighting had taken place in the Bajío,
Mexico's bread basket, and the silver mines were damaged as well, so there were factors that led to
stagnation in agriculture there. Political turmoil in the post-independence era was an obstacle to
economic growth, but agriculture itself did not put a drag on it. [16] One economic historian considers
Mexico's "pre-capitalist agricultural organisation" one of Mexico's several obstacles to industrial
development. Low rates of economic growth generally were also due to the lack of a national market
and high transportation costs. Most Mexicans were subsistence farmers using rain as the main
source of water for their crops.[17] In the post-independence era, much agricultural land was in the
hands of corporate owners, that is the Roman Catholic Church and indigenous communities, and
those lands could not be alienated under colonial law and its continuation in the early republic (1822-
1855). They could not be rented or used as collateral for potentially more profitable enterprises.
Mexican liberals targeted corporate ownership of land during the Liberal Reform era, and the landed
wealth of the church was expropriated, but much land was still held by indigenous communities.
Political turmoil continued until the last quarter of the nineteenth century with the coup by liberal
army general Porfirio Díaz. Once he had consolidated power, large haciendas were encouraged to
develop commercial farming for export, made possible by the building of railroads to take products to
market at low freight rates. Railroads were built using foreign capital and by extending land
concessions to the entrepreneurs. Much indigenous land was usurped and land prices where railway
lines were built soared. Displaced agricultural workers found temporary employment building railway
lines. Indigenous village lands that had largely escaped the Liberal Reform were now expropriated at
rapid rates. Large haciendas became profitable again, reversing a trend toward gradual
disintegration into smaller units. Expropriated church lands remained in the hands of large-scale
producers. Landless indigenous villagers became rural or urban wage laborers. [18]
When wheat production in the U.S. and Canada expanded in the nineteenth century and
mechanized reapers developed, the binding of cut wheat for later threshing opened a market for the
commercial development of the henequen industry in Yucatán. Henequen production on a large
scale had never been commercially viable before, but the production of henequen for cordage
rapidly became a major export product to the U.S. and Canada. [19] Cotton production was the fastest
growing agricultural sector, with textile factories being established in the states of Puebla and
Mexico. Factories produced both cotton yarn and finished textiles. With the development of a
network of railway lines, commercial agriculture became more generally possible. [20] Tobacco was an
important crop, no longer protected as a colonial monopoly of the crown, and cigarette factories
using machine-rolled cigarettes produced 5 million kilos in 1898. [21]

20th century - Land reform and Green Revolution[edit]

Agave plants and a ruined hacienda house in Jalisco

The result was the Mexican Revolution from 1910 to 1920. The result afterwards was the breakup of
most large private landholdings to be redistributed, especially under a system of common tenancy
regulated by the government called ejidos. The lands could be worked individually or collectively by
members of the ejido but the land could not be leased or sold. The process of dividing lands and
developing ejido organizations continued into the 1930s under President Lázaro Cárdenas.[1][22] By
the end of the 1930s, haciendas almost entirely disappeared from central and southern Mexico with
numerous small holdings of ten to twenty acres as well as ejidos becoming dominant. [23] Land reform
in Mexico was an achievement of the Mexican Revolution, with the distribution of land to peasants
concentrated in Mexico's center and south. The breakup of the haciendas solved a political problem
in Mexico, since it was one of the demands of the peasants who fought and was enshrined.
By the 1930s and 40s, agricultural production was dropping and the government sought technical
solutions. Soils in central Mexico were considered exhausted by use and inadequate so that the
government promoted agricultural development outside the traditional areas of cultivation,
particularly in northern Mexico.[24] In the 1940s during the presidency of Manuel Avila Camacho, the
Mexican government partnered with the U.S. government, and the Rockefeller Foundation to launch
the so-called Green Revolution (1950–70).[25] Research facilities developed new strains of wheat,
maize, beans, and other crops, to engineer a variety of desirable traits, such as disease resistance,
high protein content. Sorghum, a new crop was introduced to Mexico during the era of the Green
Revolution, which was used for animal fodder. Mexico expanded cattle production in this era, fed on
sorghum.[26] Seeds and inputs of fertilizer and pesticides for irrigated agriculture were suited to
Mexico's northwest, but required more capital than small-scale cultivators could afford. Mexico's
agricultural output between 1950 and 1970 was "truly spectacular," but it was not long lasting,
subsequently called "the birth place and burial ground of the Green Revolution" [27] Synthetic
pesticides were applied to fields to control both insect infestations attacking plants, but also
controlled insects that were disease vectors for humans. Synthetic fertilizers required adequate
water so that its nitrogen would not be toxic to crops. The application of both pesticides and
fertilizers were applied regularly. Pemex, Mexican national oil company, and Fertimex, the national
company for the production of pesticides, particularly DDT, were integral in promoting large-scale,
agribusiness dependent on these synthetic inputs. In order to be competitive, Green Revolution
crops had to be cultivated and harvested by machinery, which meant that it was economically viable
only with large-scale farms.[28]

Sorghum field in Guanajuato. Sorghum is mainly used for cattle feed in Mexico.

The ejido system remained intact until the 1990s. However, during World War II, industry became
the more important sector of the economy. Mexico’s rural population began to fall in the mid century,
from 49.3% in 1960 to 25.4% in 2000. Federal policies outside ejidos still favored large agricultural
producers over rural peasant production, including the offering of credit and protectionist policies.
[1]
 One of these was the construction of major irrigation systems, especially in the north. The first
major irrigation project was the Laguna Project near Torreón, followed by the Las Delicias Project
near Chihuahua, both with the aim of producing cotton along with wheat. [23] These projects increased
the amount of land available for agriculture from 3.7 million acres in 1950 to 8.64 million acres in
1965.[29] In addition, the Mexican government encouraged only crops such as corn and beans,
restricting imports of these two staples until 1990.[29]
By the 1970s, agricultural production was unable to keep up with population growth leading to
imports of basic staples.[1] The Mexican government initiated programs in the 1970s and 80s to
encourage family planning and the utilization of birth control, in order to reduce surging population
growth.[30][31] The peasant population had increased 59% in the period 1940–1960, with the number of
work days in the fields going from 190 days in 1950 to 100 days in 1960. [32] Overpopulation was a
factor in internal migration as well as migration for work to the U.S.
The rise of neoliberalism and the negotiation of NAFTA in the early 1990s pushed agriculture
towards even more commercialized enterprises. The Mexican constitution was modified in 1992 to
allow for leasing and selling of ejido land if the majority of members voted in favor. The goal of this
was to allow ejidos to combine to form larger and more efficient farms, with money invested from
private sources, but has resulted in most ejido land becoming privately held. [29]
These changes have had uneven effects on Mexican agriculture. [1] Until the late 1990s, Mexico was
a net exporter of agricultural products, but today it is a net importer, mostly from the United States.
[29]
 With the need to compete with imported grains and less direct support from the government, the
agricultural sector entered a crisis. Mexican agricultural income has polarized with large commercial
farms dominating the sector and at the other end small subsistence farming which still is the main
source of income for many, especially in the south of the country. The former are able to take
advantage of reduced trade barriers and exports, especially to the United States have increased. [1]
[23]
 Former subsidies provided by the government was replaced by a program called Procampo,
which gave direct cash payments to farmers growing corn, beans, wheat and other grains, allowing
farmers to decide what to plant. [22][29]
Despite greater output, agriculture continues to decrease in percentage of Mexico’s GDP since
1990.[29] The proportion of GDP of agriculture, forestry and fishing fell from eight percent of the
nation’s GDP in 1990 5.4% of Mexico’s GDP in 2006, with a growth rate of only 1.6% during that
time, far behind other sectors of the economy.[1][33] In 2010, the structure of the GDP and labor force
showed agriculture, forestry, and fishing combined was valued at 3.8% of total value, employing
5,903,300 or 12.5% of the labor force.[34]

Modern agriculture in Mexico[edit]

Agricultural trade[edit]

Cucumber field next to mountain in Tlayacapan, Morelos

Commercial agricultural products mostly come from three areas of the country, the tropics of the Gulf
of Mexico and Chiapas Highlands, the irrigated lands of the north and northwest and the Bajío region
in central Mexico.[23] At the beginning of the 21st century Mexico’s main agricultural products include
beef, fruits, vegetables, corn, milk, poultry, pork and eggs, which make up about 80% of agricultural
production.[1]
The most profitable tropical crops are coffee and sugarcane. Coffee is exported but sugarcane is
mostly for domestic consumption. Other important tropical crops are fruits such as bananas,
pineapples and mangos as well as cacao and rice. Vanilla is still also grown, which is native to
Mexico. Cotton is an important crop in the export agricultural areas of the Soconusco in Chiapas and
in the north of Mexico.[23]
As of the early 21st century, the rural workforce is still significant but it is shrinking. [33] Traditional
farming methods with small plots worked by families and small communities still dominate in many
regions especially those with large indigenous populations such as the Southern Plateau. In these
areas the main crops are corn, beans and squash as in the Mesoamerican period. Many peasants
still survive on subsistence agriculture earning cash by selling excess crops in local markets,
especially in central and southern Mexico.[23]
Export of agricultural products to the United States is particularly important, especially since the
implementation of NAFTA. While only about twelve percent of U.S. agricultural exports go to Mexico,
about sixty percent of Mexico agricultural exports go to the United States. [22] Mexico’s growing
population has made the country a net importer of grains. [33] Under NAFTA, the US has an advantage
in the production of corn but Mexico has the advantage in the production of vegetables, fruits and
beverages. The two fastest growing exports to the US are winter fruits and vegetables as well as
fruit juices and fresh flowers. Two important products for export to the United States
are avocados and tomatoes. The US prohibited import of Mexican avocados for over eighty years for
hygienic reasons. In 1997, began to allow import of avocados from Michoacán. Most of the imported
tomatoes eaten in the United States now come from Mexico. [22]
Significant Mexican agribusiness enterprises include Grupo Maseca, headquartered in Monterrey. It
has modernized corn flour production in Mexico and is the largest corn flour producer in the United
States. Pulsar International in Monterrery has a number of high-tec agribusiness concerns including
Savia, which has operations in 123 countries. A number of U.S. agribusiness enterprises have
significant investments in Mexico, including Campbell Soup, General Mills, Ralston
Purina and Pilgrim’s Pride. The last is the second largest poultry producer in Mexico. [22]

Geography and land tenure[edit]

Mexico has a territory of 198 million hectares of which fifteen percent is dedicated to agricultural
crops and fifty eight percent which is used for livestock production. Much of the country is too arid
and/or too mountainous for crops or grazing. Forests cover 67 million hectares or thirty four percent
of the country.[33] The terrain of Mexico consists of two large plateaus (Northern and Southern),
the Sierra Madre Oriental and Sierra Madre Occidental mountain chains and narrow coastal plains.
These make for a wide variety of ecosystems, most of them dry due to the fact that most moisture
comes from the Gulf of Mexico with the north–south mountain chains blocking much of this flow,
especially in the north where it is almost entirely arid or semi arid. The wettest areas of the country
are those along the Gulf of Mexico coast.[1]
The climate and topography limits agricultural production to 20.6 million hectares or 10.5% of the
nation’s territory. Twenty five percent of this land must be irrigated. About half of the territory or 98
million hectares is used for grazing including natural grassland, various scrublands, tropical forests
and conifer-oak forests. About 75% of grazing land is in northern Mexico. [1]
Sixty five percent of soils in Mexico are shallow and with low yield for crops. There are eleven main
soil types in Mexico, mostly determined by climate patterns. These are the Northwest, the Gulf of
California, the Central Pacific, the North, the Centre, the Northeast, the Gulf of Mexico, the Balsas-
Oaxaca Valley, the South Pacific, the Southeast and the Yucatán. Those with high potential cover
about twenty six percent of the country and are already heavily exploited. The greatest variety of
soils is in the Centre and the Gulf of Mexico, areas with the highest population densities. [1] It is
estimated that no more than one-fifth of the territory can be made to be arable. [33]
About one fifth of Mexico’s fields are irrigated, which is crucial for commercial production in arid
north and northwest Mexico with cotton as the most important irrigated crop. [23] Underground aquifers
have been under depletion at rates higher than one meter per year in most regions, with the raising
of alfalfa one reason.[1]
Ownership of agricultural land in Mexico is either private or in some form of collective tenure, most
often in an ejido arrangement. Ejidos were created in the first half of the 20th century to give
Mexican peasants rights over redistributed lands, but this did not include leasing or selling. In 1992,
the Mexican constitution was amended to modify this arrangement. However, most commonly held
lands such as ejidos are characterized by small plots worked by families which are not efficient nor
qualify for financial products such as loans. [1]

Crops[edit]

Avocados from Mexico are a crop in huge demand in the U.S., with Mexican drug cartels extorting producers

Wine grapes maturing in Valle de Guadalupe, Baja California

The growing of crops is the most important aspect of Mexico’s agriculture, accounting for fifty
percent of agricultural output. [29] Main crops include corn, sugarcane, sorghum, wheat, tomatoes,
bananas, chili peppers, oranges, lemons, limes, mangos, other tropical fruits, beans, barley,
avocados, blue agave and coffee.[33] The most important crops for national consumption are wheat,
beans, corn and sorghum. The most important export crops are sugar, coffee, fruits and vegetables,
most of which are exported to the United States.[29] The most important animal feed crop is alfalfa
followed by sorghum and corn.[1]
Corn is still the most important crop in Mexico, grown on almost sixty percent of its cropland and
contributing to just over nine percent of human calorie intake and fourteen percent of protein intake.
[3]
 Central Mexico grows about sixty percent of the country’s corn, almost exclusively in the rainy
season from June to October. While self-sufficient in the production for human consumption, half of
Mexico’s grain imports are for feed corn for animals.[3]
Many of these crops are important regionally. Wheat is the most important crop in the northwest,
now the center of Mexico’s grain production. Other important crops in the northwest are winter
vegetables such as tomatoes and lettuce as well as oilseeds. The traditional area for grain
production in Mexico was the Bajío region. The region still produces wheat, corn, vegetables,
peanuts, strawberries and beans, mostly on small holdings. [23] Wine grapes are grown in areas such
as Baja California, Coahuila and Querétaro. Mexico produces two crops not generally produced
elsewhere, henequen used to produce a strong fiber and maguey, both in the agave family. Maguey
is used for the making of pulque as well as mezcal. Tequila is a type of mezcal made from the blue
agave in a designated zone mostly in Jalisco.[3][23]
The production of some important export crops, such as avocados from the state of Michoacan,
have been the target of drug cartels that extort producers. [35]

Livestock[edit]

Cattle in General Terán, Nuevo León.

Livestock accounts for thirty percent of Mexico’s agricultural output, producing milk, poultry, eggs
and beef. Mexico is not self-sufficient in the production of meat and fish, importing its remaining
needs mainly from the United States.[29] The north of Mexico has been the most important overall
ranching area since the Mexican War of Independence. Large haciendas often exceeding 385
square miles in size were created in the 1800s and many large holdings survived the reforms
associated with the Mexican Revolution. In the north open-range methods are giving way to
rotational grazing systems, with some natural pastures enhanced by means of irrigation, top-seeding
and fertilization.[23]
The ruminant section has traditionally been dominated by cattle, which provide 95% of the value of
ruminant products. Thirty percent are raised in the north, 26% raised in central Mexico and 44%
raised in the south. European breeds for meat such as Hereford, Angus and Charolais are dominant
in the north, a local breed called criollo (descendants of those brought over by the Spanish) in
central Mexico and Zebu breeds dominant in the south. Dairy cattle are varieties of Holstein and
criollos, 42% raised in the north, 48% in central Mexico and 10% in the south. Since the 1990s, the
raising of cattle, especially for dairy, has grown, mostly in the center and north of Mexico, displacing
other kinds of agricultural production. [1]
Lamb and mother in Zacatlán, Puebla.

After cows are goats, with 20% raised in the north, 58% in Central Mexico and 22% in the south.
Most of these goats are criollos, descendants of those the Spanish brought with Nubian, Alpino
and Saanen breeds being introduced. Seventy five percent of dairy goats are raised
in Coahuila, Durango and Guanajuato. About two thirds of meat production is on eight states in
various parts of Mexico. Following goats are sheep with 16% raised in the north, 60% in central
Mexico and 24% in the south. Criollo and Rambouillet are dominant in the north,
with Suffolk and Hampshire dominating since their introduction in the 1970s in central Mexico. In
southern Mexico breeds for tropical areas such as Pelibuey, Black-belly and Katahdin increasingly
dominate.[1]
As natural pasture is not enough to support modern commercial livestock production, animal feed is
produced as a crop or as a measure to enhance natural pastures. The former has increased since
the 1990s and latter has increased more recently with government encouragement, especially in
central and northern Mexico. In many areas, land used for the production of animal fodder, such as
sorghum, is replacing that used for the growing of corn for human consumption. [1]