Introduction
1.1.- Analysis and current Problems of the Mexican Countryside
In little more than five decades the situation in the Mexican countryside has involved from bad to worse. It is not by chance that in rural areas, the abandonment of the countryside and the peasant for plowing their lands has increased, changing them to be workers in other countries (migration). And likewise crime has increased, the self-defense groups and armed movements., In an intrinsic search for well-being for their communities and in this way try to return what little has been left.
It is for this reason that we will occupy ourselves in this analysis with different perspectives, taking points of view from the peasant, merchant, politicians and society in general.
II.- Background
2.1.- History
When Porfirio Díaz took power, the countryside (and the city) was a complete disorder: little production and internal struggles that created an environment of mistrust and insecurity. Very few dared to invest because they ran the risk of being materially looted by the governments in turn by means of the "forced loans" or assaulted and assassinated by bandits who felt very nationalistic hating the rich and foreigners.
Porfirio Díaz imposes a policy of freedom in economics and dictatorship in politics. He indicated to people who wanted to prosper that he had the freedom to produce and trade, there was no other way. Those who wanted to prosper by making a political or union “grid”, aspiring to governorships or the presidency itself, were treated badly, truly badly. But people learned. Hundreds or perhaps thousands took advantage of the Law of Limits and went back to virgin lands to enclose what they intended to work. The government set out to protect its territorial extensions through Land Titles. They also had a long term to pay for their land. Thus thousands of haciendas were born throughout the Mexican territory. The incentive was not only for nationals,also for immigrants who saw Mexico as a hope to prosper. Chinese, Germans, Japanese, created large plantations of coffee, sugar cane, corn, etc. Trade was free.
Producers could sell in the national territory or export to other nations without encountering obstacles from the government, there were practically no tariffs or taxes. In addition, Porfirio Díaz's monetary policy was sound, since the production of banknotes was anchored to the production of gold and silver. Therefore, inflation was practically nil. The result of Díaz's economic policy was reflected in growth and prosperity never before achieved. (www.monografias.com)
All this dynamic was slowed down by the arrival of the Mexican Revolution. Marxist ideas penetrated into Mexican territory and almost everything that had been built in 30 years of Porfirian capitalism was destroyed. Ranches and haciendas are over. The government destroyed the right of private property as indicated by Marxist philosophy. The lands passed into the hands of the State creating the great state monopoly of lands. The ejido was created as the perfect control mechanism for the field. Water, subsoil, minerals, coasts, forests, rivers, dams, roads, etc., all remained in the hands of the State. In other words, Mexico practically joined the socialist orbit. We were not as radical as the Soviets, but we did not lack.Perhaps the point of maximum socialization occurred with the Lázaro Cárdenas government with the creation of the state monopoly on oil and the state monopoly on education. But it was not the only one. Adolfo López Mateos created the state monopoly on electricity and finally José López Portillo tried to create the state bank monopoly, although the only thing he managed to do was to disappear the Mexican bank.
This whole socializing movement was not marching along happy paths. The common citizen, even without having the management of economic theories, did not look favorably on everything being managed by the state bureaucracy. There were entrepreneurs who created their associations to defend themselves against the State. Some managed to bring in prestigious international economists who came to Mexico to make their diagnosis and point out the dangers of creating a communist order. Such is the case of the great economist Ludwig von Mises, from the Austrian School of Economics, who in 1943 came to Mexico to study the Mexican economy. He gave a series of lectures at universities and in the government. His ideas were so shocking, full of such solid logic, that the statesmen who listened to him, including Manuel Ávila Camacho himself,They soon set out to implement some of their recommendations. Only in this way is it possible to explain why Mexico had 30 years of sustained growth. Unfortunately, no one was careful to cultivate his ideas in the new generations and when Luis Echeverría arrives, he takes up the road to socialism.
Miguel de la Madrid had the merit of giving a 180 degree turn to the boat. Markets, capitalism, private property, and people's initiative had to be trusted again. Carlos Salinas de Gortari manages to give the economy a strong boost in this regard: It privatizes more than a thousand bureaucratic state companies, frees the economy from hundreds of useless regulations, signs the Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Canada. The reaction of the left does not let wait and the Zapatista Movement in Chiapas, the EPR, in Guerrero, the PRD and hundreds of parties, groups, organizations of communist teachers (CNTE) appear in order to return to the old communist system.
In summary, the history of Mexico, in the countryside and the city, is debated between two great forces, each one supported by its own philosophy: the one that wants to make Mexico a socialist country and the one that wants to make a market economy.
2.2.- Laws
Relevant laws.
Art. 4th. Of the Agrarian Law.
The Federal Executive will promote the Integral and equitable development of the Rural sector, by promoting productive activities and social actions to increase the well-being of the population and their participation in national life.
Producer Organizations may prepare proposals for development and promotion policies in the field, which will be agreed with the Federal executive for their Application.
Constitutional Art. 27, (extract).
Within the same nucleus of population, no ejidatario may be the holder of more land than the equivalent of 5% of the total ejido land.
In any case, the ownership of land in favor of a single ejidatario must be adjusted within the limits indicated in section XV.
Fraction XV: In the United Mexican States, Large estates are Prohibited.
2.3.- Definitions
- CONEVAL: National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy PRONASE: National Seed Producer SEDATU: Secretary of Territorial and Urban Agrarian Development CORETT: Regulatory Commission for Land Tenure RAN: National Agrarian Registry.
III.- Development of the topic
3.1.- The field
In little more than five decades, the situation in the Mexican countryside has been affected from bad to worse. It is no coincidence that, in rural areas, the abandonment of the countryside has grown, the little and unmotivated interest in cultivating and planting the land. the history of our predecessors little remains and apparently has been forgotten since that time when the people rose with General Emiliano Zapata who held "The land belongs to who works"
But all this goes beyond a sentence, since at present many governments have spent alluding to the phrase of the general, but they are forgetting the essence, remaining only reflected in papers and simple and plain speeches.
Leaving in oblivion that the countryside and the peasant need infrastructure mechanisms and efficient, effective and honest policies that encourage the financing and productivity of the countryside.
In 1950, the share of primary GDP in national GDP was 16.1% and in 2012 3.4%.
The primary sector of our country, since the mid-80s and 90s, has faced an economy of openness to international competition, GATT, FTA, etc., and at the same time has presented a process of disincorporation - CONASUPO, INMECAFE, FERTIMEX, PRONASE, BANRURAL, PROCAMPO, CONAFRUT, CREDIT TO THE WORD, etc. - that they have forced them to face competition in an adverse environment, under the challenge of increasing their competitiveness.
In the Mexican countryside, there is a highly competitive commercial segment, and in contrast, the vast majority of rural economic units are subsistence or self-consumption: of 5.3 million rural economic units, 3.9 million - 72.6% - belong to this category and only 448 thousand (8.4%) carry out vigorous business activity, and 18 thousand –0.3% - belong to the dynamic business sector.
In Mexico, more than 60% of the surface is arid or semi-arid. 74% of the agricultural surface is cultivated in storm and only 26% of the cultivated surface has irrigation.
Only 1.5% of the total financing of the economy is channeled to the rural sector and only 6% of the agricultural production units have access to institutional credit. (quadratin agency)
It is not surprising, then, that even though in 2012, 6.7 million people were engaged in primary activities, of the 53.3 million Mexicans in poverty (45.5% of the country's total population), 61% of the rural population suffers from it.
Such a bleak picture was presented a couple of weeks ago in the Chamber of Deputies without the speaker having echoed the rest of the Politicians, shortly changing to other points on the minutes and agenda since they argued to get involved with irrelevant issues in the moment… When will the peasant problem be relevant…?
3.2.- Most Important Federal Support and Programs
Some of the most important support and programs, or at least that is how they were made to appear to the peasants and ejidatarios, are and were the extinct PRONASE and Procampo, in which they are briefly detailed.
PRONASE. National seed producer.
The Agriculture Commission of the Chamber of Deputies decided to freeze the liquidation opinion of the National Seed Production Company (Pronase), with which it is safe for the fifth time in 44 years of existence. This was at the end of the six-year term of former President Fox; however, sales, donations and delivery of plants, warehouses, production fields and seed banks will have to be subject to a "reversal" process, since they were carried out illegally, said Ángel Álvarez Rodríguez, the then legal adviser. of the national union of workers of that parastatal entity.
The union called the legislators' determination positive, but asked them to fully investigate the sale of 75 percent of Pronase's high-record properties and seed lots.
In this context, while the deputies reported on the halt to the process of disappearance of the parastatal entity, its board of directors sold the operation unit of Chalco, state of Mexico.
Faced with such "irregularity", the secretary of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food, could be subject to impeachment, and he could be required that the resources captured by the sale of plants, warehouses and production centers of the parastatal invest in it again.
But without waiting any longer this dream of continuing to produce good quality seeds to continue supplying the Mexican countryside with a better distribution policy came to an end., At the end of the Foxista administration, who by then in this para state was already showing signs of termination having ended its true function of mutual aid to the peasantry on the grounds of not having been efficient by the predecessors and the current one, this comes to an end.
I reiterate that seed production is a matter of national interest, especially in the face of the global dispute over the control of plant genetic resources.
3.3.- Risks
It is noted that there is a high risk that traditional seeds will be lost if the State does not safeguard them; for example, in the United States 90 percent disappeared and in Mexico 30 percent. In addition, 75 percent of imports in this field are wheat, sorghum, soy, corn and cotton. (saludempresarial.com)
National seed production covers 75 percent of national demand, but that percentage may go down, since from 2000, when the policy to disappear Pronase was accentuated, the seed coverage for beans, corn, rice, sorghum and other grains dropped to almost 40 percent, even for the rice of origin, the seed was lost, achieving a yield of 6.3 tons per hectare.
In the early 1990s, Pronase's coverage of rice seed production was 90 percent; bean, 21; wheat and corn, 79; Now the latter seed is imported from the United States at high prices.
It is evident that the 1,500 private companies that the owner of Sagarpa assures can replace the parastatal have not achieved the coverage of Pronase, and several are not interested in seeds such as beans and rice.
"Apparently, the federal government's strategy is to end the national seedbeds and leave the market to the transnationals; confuses the public interest with the social; It does not analyze that in the 13 years that Pronase ceased its activity, grain imports increased in exponential numbers, which is equivalent to thousands of dollars », and pesos in losses for national producers (peasants and ejidatarios).
The National Union of Autonomous Regional Peasant Organizations considered the determination of the legislators correct; however, she claimed that they had first signed an opinion in producers in favor of the liquidation of the parastatal without taking into account the opinion of the. (Fernando)
"A reorientation is necessary in the production of seeds, in the new type of institution that agriculture requires, but that did not justify the dismantling or disappearance of a vital institution for food production, let alone support for transnational monopolies, whose only interest, for the moment, is the production of transgenic seeds. "
He demanded that legislators not only "listen" to the peasants, but that their proposals be incorporated into the decisions of Congress.
«Among the peasants there is concern and anger because they are ignored; their rights are undermined and their interests are not reflected in legislative decisions. "
Policies must be sensitive to social interests, not only to those of their political groups and banks.
The National Peasant Confederation, also spoke in favor of the renewal of Pronase, but without acting similarly to the case of Banrural and the creation of the Rural Finance. "Agriculture does not support more failures, what is required is to involve peasant organizations in the functions of companies that are vital for agricultural production." And Be watched by Institutions and people outside the Federal Government.
PROCAMPO
The Direct Field Support Program (PROCAMPO) was implemented in late 1993 and emerged as a mechanism for transferring resources to compensate national producers for the subsidies received by their foreign competitors, replacing the grain guarantee price scheme. and oilseeds.
PROCAMPO grants support per hectare or fraction thereof to the eligible surface, registered in the PROCAMPO Directory, and which is planted with any legal crop or that is under an ecological project authorized by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT).
The support is delivered to producers who prove to be owners or possessors in good faith or in derived possession (in lease, usufruct, sharecropping) of properties with eligible areas in operation registered in PROCAMPO. (presidencia.gob-pronace.mx/que-es-pronace)
Now with the renewed structure proposed by the federal government, who proposes this support in kind… the support mechanisms are still unclear and that these really reach their final destination, the peasant; in fact at the time of making this query on the website of the presidency of the republic is outdated on July 25, 2013… now the question that we ask ourselves this resources how long will it take to arrive if this were so…?
3.4.- Transgenic products
GMO foods are those that were produced from a genetically engineered organism. In other words, it is that food obtained from an organism to which genes from another have been incorporated to produce the desired characteristics. Currently they have a greater presence of food from transgenic plants such as corn or soy.
Genetic engineering or recombinant DNA technology is the science that manipulates DNA sequences (which normally encode genes) directly, making it possible to extract a given biological taxon and include it in another, as well as to modify or eliminate these genes. In this it differs from classical improvement, which is the science that introduces DNA fragments (containing genes as in the previous case) indirectly, by means of directed crosses. The first strategy, of genetic engineering, is circumscribed in the discipline called plant biotechnology. It should be noted that the insertion of groups of genes and other processes can be carried out using plant biotechnology techniques that are not considered genetic engineering, such as protoplast fusion.
The improvement of the species that will be used as food has been a common motif in the history of Humanity. Between 12,000 and 4,000 a. of C. an improvement was already made by artificial selection of plants. After the discovery of sexual reproduction in plants, the first intergeneric crossing (that is, between species of different genera) was made in 1876.
In 1909 the first protoplast fusion was made, and in 1927 mutants of higher productivity were obtained by means of X-ray irradiation of seeds. In 1983 the first transgenic plant was produced.
At this time, biotechnologists manage to isolate a gene and introduce it into a genome of the bacterium Escherichia coli (E.Coli). Three years later, in 1986, Monsanto, a multinational company dedicated to biotechnology, created the first genetically modified plant.
It was a tobacco plant to which a resistance gene for the antibiotic Kanamycin was added to its genome. Finally, in 1994 the marketing of the first genetically modified food, the Flavr Savr tomatoes, created by Calgene, a biotechnology company, was approved.
To these, an antisense gene was introduced with respect to the normal polygalacturonase gene, an enzyme that induces the ripening of the tomato, so that it could last longer when ripe and would have greater resistance. But a few years later, in 1996, this product had to be withdrawn from the market for fresh products as it presented unforeseen consequences such as soft skin, a strange taste and changes in its composition. Still, these tomatoes are used for the production of processed tomatoes.
In 2007, GM crops spread over 114.3 million hectares in 23 countries, of which 12 are developing countries. In 2006 in the United States, 89% of soybean (or soybean) plantations) were of transgenic varieties, as well as 83% of cotton and 61% of corn.
Transgenic plum
Traits introduced by genetic engineering into species intended for the production of edible foods seek increased productivity (for example, through improved resistance to pests) as well as the introduction of new quality traits. Due to the greater development of genetic manipulation in plant species, all transgenic foods correspond to plant derivatives. For example, a frequently used character is resistance to herbicides, since in this way it is possible to use them affecting only the flora outside the crop. It should be noted that the use of modified varieties resistant to herbicides has decreased contamination due to these products in aquifers and soil,although it is true that the use of these harmful herbicides would not be required due to their high glyphosate (GLY) and glyphosate ammonium (GLU) content if these varieties were not planted, designed exclusively to resist said compounds.
Insect pests are one of the most devastating elements in agriculture. For this reason, the introduction of genes that cause the development of resistance to one or more orders of insects has been a common element in many of the patented varieties. The advantages of this method mean less use of insecticides in the fields planted with these varieties, which results in less impact on the ecosystem that houses the crop and for the health of the workers who handle the plant protection products.
The first animal GMOs are recently being developed. The first to be approved for human consumption in the United States was an AquaBounty salmon (2010), which was able to grow in half the time and during the winter thanks to the growth hormone gene from another species of salmon and the gene "Antifreeze" of another species of fish.
On the other hand, the practice of genetically modifying species for human use, accompanies humanity from its origins (see domestication), so that sectors in favor of biotechnology use scientific studies to support their positions, and accuse the anti-transgenic sectors to hide or ignore facts in front of the public.
For their part, the scientists highlight that the health hazard has been studied in detail in each and every one of these types of products that to date have obtained marketing authorization and that are undoubtedly those that have undergone a greater number of controls.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO for its acronym in English) for its part indicates with respect to GMOs whose purpose is food.
To date, countries where transgenic crops have been introduced into the fields have not observed notable damage to health or the environment. In addition, farmers use fewer pesticides or less toxic pesticides, thereby reducing contamination of water supplies and damaging workers' health, also allowing beneficial insects to return to the fields. Some of the concerns related to gene flow and pest resistance have been addressed thanks to new genetic engineering techniques.
3.5.-The Peasants
Erroneous and failed policies of the successive governments, in effect, have prostrated the peasants in a situation of extreme poverty. And the country in food dependency. "… a model of production and consumption, the results of which, undeniably, have concentrated the wealth that work produces and leaves brutal balances of inequity and exclusion."
And this model is “an inherent fruit of the free market and capital flow system without any regulation, rating institutions, whom certainly no one qualifies, confusing nations with companies, granting certificates of viability or failure to sovereign people. (uribe ruiz, 2006)
“A stark statistic of the inequality that this concentrating model reflects is, without a doubt, that the richest 1% control 46% of the world's wealth, and that 85 men control as much wealth as 50% of the world population; 3,700 thousand human beings. ”
The worst part is that “since the Wall Street crash in 2008, the financial elite doubled while more than a billion people live on less than a dollar a day and more than 3 billion, subsist on less than 2.5 dollars a day. day."
Is there a possibility of reversing this model? To return food sovereignty to the country? To reinstate rural men and women in better living standards and no longer of mere subsistence? (Federal, 1990)
As long as the peasants are the main actors in government programs such as the current one that the Administration of President Peña Nieto has launched, this will be nothing more than another panorama of good intentions written, signed and pronounced in one more of the six-year discourses.
"The reform for the countryside to which the President of the Republic summons us, let's not kid ourselves, it must have as main actors the peasants and producers who, like no one else, know the reality and the way to change it for the better. (history of the Mexican agrarian question)
And let's not fool ourselves: the Reform for the Sustainable Development of the Mexican countryside must also pass, by articulating the economic model, with the social policies of the State and absolute respect for nature. This is: facing the world of today, reform involves thinking globally and acting locally. To put it in Christian terms: it involves nationalizing globalization. ” (Chavez padron)
It can? Hopefully yes, don't you think?
Otherwise, this situation, along with unstoppable violence in rural areas, also brings us closer to social outbreak.
The food situation in the world has radically changed and, in view of this, we must adjust our institutions and public policies. Gone are the days of cheap food. Today, thanks to the significant growth in the demand for food due to the improvement in the standard of living in countries such as India and China, the increase in the price of oil and with it the cost of transportation, fertilizers and other inputs, and the diversion of important Grain production volumes for the production of fuels such as ethanol, is that the price of food has risen significantly in the last 5 years. According to the FAO Food Price Index, these have increased 130% in the last 10 years and the trend is upward.
According to the same body, by 2030 world food production should increase by more than 40% and 70% by 2050, in order to meet the demand of the population.
Another factor that affects food supply and prices is climate change to which Mexico is highly vulnerable and which will mean that we decrease our food production.
Finally, we highlight that most of the poverty in Mexico is concentrated in the countryside and that the poorest groups dedicate most of their income to food consumption. According to Coneval, 33.6% of the rural population suffers from food poverty.
3.6.- Graphs and statistics
Some Graphics with clear and tacit examples of the Current Problems of the Mexican Countryside and the Food Problem in which it is derived.
Current problems of the Mexican countryside and the Food problem
Gross Domestic Product first quarter 2010 - fourth quarter 2013 percentage change with respect to the same quarter of the previous year (Food Products).
Coneval Fountain.
Current problems of the Mexican countryside and the Food problem
Current problems of the Mexican countryside and the Food problem
IV.- Conclusions
4.1.- Conclusion prospects
Therefore, we conclude that it is necessary to significantly increase the production of quality food in our country and thus achieve food security, that we can no longer rely on the possibility of importing cheap food and that therefore we have to be much less dependent on the Exterior.
Investment and infrastructure in technology to streamline work in the field, with new mechanisms for sustainable, deep, efficient, effective, honest and equitable policies.
We can verify the little Interest of the governments in Agrarian matter as such is the case of the name change of the Secretary of Agrarian Reform for that of SEDATU (Secretary of Territorial and Urban Development). On January 2, 2013 in the Official Gazette of the Federation, her name change and the mechanisms to be developed for this matter were unnoticed.
For this, some of the following actions are proposed:
- Institutional reengineering. (Government). Different Policies and according to the present time. Efficient Internal Economy. New State Self-Help Mechanisms. More rational and efficient use of water. Stimulate a new Development Bank. Consolidate productive units. Stimulate other productive activities in the sector. Promote the research and development of new technologies. Sustainable, efficient, effective and honest public policies. Make the code of Federal Procedures in Agrarian Matter, since the Civil Civil procedure code is used supplementally., Circulars of the Superior Agrarian court, Organic Law of the Agrarian Courts.(chavez padron) Apply the Oral Trials in the Agrarian Courts To listen to the Peasant lively and if he does not speak Spanish and only speaks his Dialect, a duly certified interpreter will be accepted. "Registration of the Lands of Mexico" to verify if the peasants they are the true owners of those Lands. Full Autonomy of Agrarian Institutions. (SEDATU, CORETT, RAN, ETC.) The current secretary of the SEDATU is Lic. Jorge Carlos Ramírez Marín of extraction (PRI) For which it is proposed that they be Partisan and at the election of the Senate with a Profile according to Agrarian Matter.) The current secretary of the SEDATU is Lic. Jorge Carlos Ramírez Marín of extraction (PRI) For which it is proposed that they be Partisan and at the election of the Senate with a Profile in Accord with Agrarian Matter.) The current secretary of the SEDATU is Lic. Jorge Carlos Ramírez Marín of extraction (PRI) For which it is proposed that they be Partisan and at the election of the Senate with a Profile in Accord with Agrarian Matter.
V.- References
- . Quadratin Agency Published on February 10, 2014-03-14http: //www.saludempresarial.com August to November 2008El Campo at the National Crossroads. Fernando Rello. (SEP) Edited.Guías Guías (Procuraduría Agraria 1990). Edited by the Federal Government. History of the Mexican Agrarian Question Volume 1,2 and 3. Twenty-first Century Editors The Agricultural Crisis in the Agrarian Reform of Mexico. Jesús Uribe Ruiz. XXI Century Editors First Edition 2006. Agrarian Law in Mexico. Martha Chávez Padrón. Porrua Publishing House.
