The production of the grains that are most consumed in Mexico has fallen in recent years, forcing Mexico to increase its imports.
So far this Administration, the harvests of corn, sorghum and wheat have decreased, while in the case of beans and polished rice they have gone up, at the same time that purchases abroad have increased due to the Increased demand.
Data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Sader) indicate that the production of yellow corn fell 16.5 percent between 2019 and 2021, going from 3.3 to 2.8 million tons. This reduction is greater than that registered in the previous three years, when the drop was just over 10 percent.
This led to imports of this grain increasing from 15.5 to 15.8 million tons in the first half of the current Government.
White corn production also fell 4.4 percent between 2019 and 2021, durum wheat more than 24 percent and sorghum 3.5 percent.
The National Development Plan 2019-2024 established that Mexico would achieve food self-sufficiency in corn and beans in 2021.
Juan Carlos Anaya, director of the Agricultural Markets Consulting Group (GCMA), said that although Mexico is self-sufficient in sectors such as fruit and vegetables, the Achilles heel of this Administration is grains and oilseeds, where the self-sufficiency index fell from 80 percent when the Free Trade Agreement was signed to 52 percent today, which means that imports increased from 20 to 48 percent.
“That has made Mexico the second largest importer of corn, after China. For the United States we are its largest customer, also its main buyer of wheat; in rice we produce 20 percent and import 80 percent. In beans we are almost self-sufficient,” he said.
Anaya affirmed that the public policies of the current Administration have not helped to increase grain production, because they focus on actions such as the delivery of fertilizers and direct support and not on the development of public goods, financing and modernization.
“Fertilizers are an element that helps, but that does not make you more productive, there has to be a technological package with a good seed, with good fertilization, with insecticides, with soil leveling so that the producers increase (their productivity). “, held.
However, the promotion of ancestral farming techniques and direct marketing from the producer to the buyer are practices that should be resumed in Mexican agriculture, which would help lower food prices in a stage in which they have increased in price. explained a specialist from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
In addition, he pointed out that in this way, the costs of food supplies can be “lowered.”
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