Editing Economy of Mexico (section)

=== Agriculture ===
{{Further|Agriculture in Mexico}}
Agriculture as a percentage of total GDP has been steadily declining and now resembles that of [[developed nation]]s in that it plays a smaller role in the economy. In 2006, agriculture accounted for 3.9% of GDP,<ref name="CIA"/> down from 7% in 1990,<ref name="INEGI banco">{{cite web|url=http://dgcnesyp.inegi.gob.mx/bdiesi/bdie.html|title=Banco de Información Económica|author=Instituto Nacional de Geografía, Estadística e Informática|access-date=February 16, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070218131349/http://dgcnesyp.inegi.gob.mx/bdiesi/bdie.html|archive-date=February 18, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> and 25% in 1970.<ref name="Hufbauer Agriculture">{{Citation |last1=Hufbauer |first1=G.C. |last2=Schott |first2=J.J . |contribution=Chapter 5, Agriculture |contribution-url=http://www.iie.com/publications/chapters_preview/332/05iie3349.pdf |title=NAFTA Revisited: Achievements and Challenges |location=Washington, DC |publisher=Institute for International Economics |date=October 2005 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/naftarevisitedac00hufb/page/283 283–363] |isbn=0-88132-334-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/naftarevisitedac00hufb/page/283 }}</ref> Given the historic structure of ''ejidos'', it employs a considerably high percentage of the workforce: 18% in 2003,<ref name="CIA"/> mostly of which grows basic crops for subsistence, compared to 2–5% in developed nations in which production is highly mechanized.

==== History ====
[[File:Puebla farmers.jpg|thumb|right|Farmers in [[Puebla]]]]
{| style="width: 22em; font-size: 85%; text-align: left;" class="wikitable floatright"
|+Food and agriculture
|-
! style="background:#e9e9e9;" | '''Product'''
! style="background:#e9e9e9;" | '''Quantity ([[Metric ton|Tm]])'''
! style="background:#e9e9e9;" | World Rank<sup>1</sup>
|- style="background:#f0f0f0;"
||Avocados
|  style="text-align:right;"| 1,040,390
|  style="text-align:right;"| 1
|-
|Onions and chayote
|align=right|1,130,660
|align=right|1
|- style="background:#f0f0f0;"
||Limes and lemons
|  style="text-align:right;"|1,824,890
|  style="text-align:right;"|1
|-
|Sunflower seed
|align=right|212,765
|align=right|1
|- style="background:#f0f0f0;"
|| Dry fruits
|  style="text-align:right;"| 95,150
|  style="text-align:right;"| 2
|-
| Papaya
| align=right|955,694
| align=right|2
|- style="background:#f0f0f0;"
|| Chillies and peppers
|  style="text-align:right;"| 1,853,610
|  style="text-align:right;"|2
|-
|  Whole beans
| align=right| 93 000
|  align=right|3
|- style="background:#f0f0f0;"
|| Oranges
|  style="text-align:right;"|3,969,810
|  style="text-align:right;"|3
|-
| Anise, badian, fennel
| align=right|32 500
| align=right|3
|- style="background:#f0f0f0;"
|| Chicken meat
|  style="text-align:right;"|2,245,000
|  style="text-align:right;"|3
|-
| Asparagus
| align=right|67,247
| align=right|4
|- style="background:#f0f0f0;"
|| Mangoes
|  style="text-align:right;"|1.503.010
|  style="text-align:right;"|4
|-
| Corn
| align=right|20,000,000
| align=right|4
|-
| colspan="3"  style="background:#e9e9e9; text-align:center;"|<small><sup>1</sup>Source:FAO<ref name="FAO"/></small>
|}

After the [[Mexican Revolution]], Mexico began an [[Agrarian land reform in Mexico|agrarian reform]], based on the [[Mexican Constitution#Article 27|27th article of the Mexican Constitution]] than included transfer of land and/or free land distribution to [[peasant]]s and small farmers under the concept of the ''[[ejido]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-ejido.html |title=Ejido |access-date=May 29, 2007 |language=es |archive-date=May 27, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080527165416/http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-ejido.html |url-status=live }}</ref> This program was further extended during President [[Lázaro Cárdenas|Cárdenas]]' administration during the 1930s<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sra.gob.mx/web2007/informacion_general/historia/revolucion_07transformaciones.asp |title=Las Transformaciones del Cardenismo |author=Secretaría de Reforma Agraria |access-date=May 29, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070513180234/http://www.sra.gob.mx/web2007/informacion_general/historia/revolucion_07transformaciones.asp |archive-date=May 13, 2007 |language=es |url-status=dead  }}</ref> and continued into the 1960s at varying rates.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sra.gob.mx/web2007/informacion_general/historia/revolucion_11demandas.asp |title=Nuevas Demandas Campesinas |author=Secretaría de Reforma Agraria |access-date=May 29, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070513180233/http://www.sra.gob.mx/web2007/informacion_general/historia/revolucion_11demandas.asp |archive-date=May 13, 2007 }}</ref> The cooperative agrarian reform, which guaranteed small farmers a means of subsistence livelihood, also caused land fragmentation and lack of capital investment, since commonly held land could not be used as collateral. To raise rural productivity and living standards, this constitutional article was amended in 1992 to allow for the transfer of property rights of communal lands to farmers cultivating it.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sra.gob.mx/web2007/informacion_general/historia/transformacion_01transformacion.asp |title=Trasformación Institucional |author=Secretaría de Reforma Agraria |access-date=May 29, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070513150517/http://www.sra.gob.mx/web2007/informacion_general/historia/transformacion_01transformacion.asp |archive-date=May 13, 2007 |language=es |url-status=dead  }}</ref> With the ability to rent or sell it, a way was open for the creation of larger farms and the advantages of economies of scale. Large mechanized farms are now operating in some northwestern states (mainly in [[Sinaloa]]). However, privatization of ''ejidos'' continues to be very slow in the central and southern states where the great majority of peasants produce only for subsistence.{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}}

Until the 1980s, the government encouraged the production of basic crops (mainly [[maize|corn]] and [[beans]]) by maintaining support prices and controlling imports through the [[Compañía Nacional de Subsistencias Populares|National Company for Popular Subsistence]] (CONASUPO). With trade liberalization, however, CONASUPO was gradually dismantled, and two new mechanisms were implemented: Alianza and Procampo. Alianza provides income payments and incentives for mechanization and advanced irrigation systems. Procampo is an income transfer subsidy to farmers. This support program offers 3.5&nbsp;million farmers who produce basic commodities (mostly corn), representing 64% of all farmers, with a fixed income transfer payment per unit of cropland area. This subsidy increased substantially during President Fox's administration, mainly to white corn producers, to reduce imports from the United States. This program has been successful, and in 2004, roughly only 15% of corn imports were white corn –the one used for human consumption and the type that is mostly grown in Mexico– as opposed to 85% of yellow and crashed corn –the one used for feeding livestock, and which is barely produced in Mexico.<ref name="USDA">
{{cite web  | last1 = Zanhiser  | first1 = S  | last2 = Coyle  | first2 = W.  | title = U.S.-Mexico Corn Trade During the NAFTA Era: New Twists to an Old Story  | year = 2004  | url = http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/FDS/may04/fds04D01/  | format = PDF  | access-date = September 28, 2006  | url-status = dead  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060924194442/http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/FDS/may04/fds04D01/  | archive-date = September 24, 2006 | df = mdy-all  }}</ref>

==== Crops ====
In spite of corn being a staple in the Mexican diet, Mexico's comparative advantage in agriculture is not in [[Maize|corn]], but in [[horticulture]], tropical fruits, and vegetables. Negotiators of NAFTA expected that through liberalization and mechanization of agriculture, two-thirds of Mexican corn producers would naturally shift from corn production to horticultural and other labor-intensive crops such as fruits, nuts, vegetables, coffee, and [[sugar cane]].<ref name="nadal">{{Cite book  | last1 = Nadal| first1 =A. | contribution = Zea Mays: Effects of Trade Liberalization of Mexico's Corn Sector|editor-last=Deere | editor-first=C.L. | title = Greening the Americas | publisher=MIT Press, Cambridge, MA | isbn=0-262-54138-6| year = 2002  }}</ref> While horticultural trade has drastically increased due to NAFTA, it has not absorbed displaced workers from corn production (estimated at 600,000).<ref name="USDA"/> Corn production has remained stable (at 20 million [[metric ton]]s), arguably as a result of income support to farmers or a reluctance to abandon a millenarian tradition in Mexico: not only have peasants grown corn for millennia; corn originated in Mexico. Mexico is the seventh largest corn producer in the world.<ref name="FAO">{{cite web |url=http://faostat3.fao.org/browse/Q/QC/S |access-date=September 1, 2015 |title=Faostat |archive-date=September 4, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904001846/http://faostat3.fao.org/browse/Q/QC/S |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===== Potatoes =====
The area dedicated to potatoes has changed little since 1980 and average yields have almost tripled since 1961. Production reached a record 1.7&nbsp;million tonnes in 2003. Per capita consumption of potato in Mexico stands at 17&nbsp;kg a year, very low compared to its maize intake of 400&nbsp;kg.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.potato2008.org/en/world/latinamerica.html |title=Potato world: Latin America – International Year of the Potato 2008 |publisher=Potato2008.org |access-date=April 16, 2011 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120911235146/http://www.potato2008.org/en/world/latinamerica.html |archive-date=September 11, 2012 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> On average, potato farms in Mexico are larger than those devoted to more basic food crops. Potato production in Mexico is mostly for commercial purposes; the production for household consumption is very small.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.isaaa.org/Resources/Publications/briefs/07/default.html |title=ISAAA Website |publisher=Isaaa.org |access-date=April 16, 2011 |archive-date=April 12, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110412123237/http://www.isaaa.org/resources/publications/briefs/07/default.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===== Avocado =====
[[File:Criollo_avocados_de_Oaxaca.png|thumb|right|200px|Mexico is the world's leading producer of [[avocados]] as of 2020, supplying nearly 30% of the global harvest in that year.]]
Mexico is the world's largest [[avocado]] growing country, producing several times more than the second largest producer. In 2013, the total area dedicated to avocado production was {{convert|188,723|ha|acre|abbr=off}}, and the harvest was 2.03 million tonnes in 2017. The state that produces the most is Michoacán, which produces nearly 75% of all Mexican avocados.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Shortell |first1=David |title=As cartels take a stake in 'green gold,' US and Mexico rethink how avocados reach American kitchens |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/13/americas/avocado-cartel-us-mexico-intl-latam/ |website=CNN |access-date=August 13, 2024 |language=en |quote=Nearly three-quarters of Mexican avocados come from Michoacán,|date=July 13, 2024}}</ref>

===== Sugar cane =====
Approximately 160,000 medium-sized farmers grow sugar cane in 15 Mexican states; currently there are 54 [[sugar mill]]s around the country that produced 4.96&nbsp;million tons of sugar in the 2010 crop, compared to 5.8&nbsp;million tons in 2001.<ref>Sugar HJournal, December 2009</ref> Mexico's sugar industry is characterized by high production costs and lack of investment. Mexico produces more sugar than it consumes.<ref>{{cite web |last=Rosenberg |first=Mica |url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20071211-1327-mexico-sugar-.html |title=Mexican sugar industry anxious ahead NAFTA opening |publisher=SignOnSanDiego.com |date=December 11, 2009 |access-date=April 16, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090221003659/http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20071211-1327-mexico-sugar-.html |archive-date=February 21, 2009  }}</ref> Sugar cane is grown on 700,000 farms in Mexico with a yield of 72 metric tons per farm.<ref>Sugar Journal May 2009</ref>