Corn is, without a doubt, an emblematic grain for Mexico and an inseparable part of our identity since pre-Columbian times. Our cultural wealth is closely linked to the genetic diversity of our corn, as is the case in Oaxaca with more than 500 municipalities and the greatest variability of native or Creole corn in the country. We are a race of corn.
As the illustrious teacher Efraín Hernández Xolocotzi, a prominent Mexican botanist who is very knowledgeable about this diversity, said: “The worldview of the people is closely linked to their agriculture. If you want to know it, visit the local market, where what they grow and consume is sold and prepared.”
Growing corn in Mexico stopped being profitable a long time ago, the majority of our farmers continue to do it for two primary reasons; It is the basis of their eating habits and is also the crop that requires the least investment.. In Jalisco, it is estimated that the investment to grow corn per hectare fluctuated between 47 thousand pesos in seasonal farming and up to 52 thousand in more technical systems without including the land rent for the latter. Mexico, in 2024, had an apparent consumption of 49.3 million tons of corn, of which it only produces an average of 27 million tons annually. This means that approximately 22 million tons are imported per year and in 2025 there could be more, since national production will be lower.
Although the federal government has a constitutional obligation – according to section XX of article 27 of the constitution – to provide the means so that agricultural producers can develop their important economic activity, through subsidy programs, these have been reduced to the point of almost disappearing. There are two main reasons for this to happen. The first, and perhaps the one with the greatest impact, is ideological: The supports were withdrawn from the majority of farmers and replaced by direct supports, mainly to corn producers in the Mexican southeast, ceasing to invest in productive infrastructure, becoming more of a palliative for these producers than a solution for national productivity. The second reason is economic for Mexico as a whole. It is cheaper to import corn than to buy it in Mexico, This year the international price was quoted according to the Chicago Stock Exchange, which governs grain prices, at just over 160 dollars, or just over three thousand pesos per ton of corn. The farmers ask for 7,200 so as not to lose what they invested and to recover some profit.
However, guaranteed prices are no longer a useful public policy instrument to boost the economy of agricultural producers. It is necessary to recover a better designed subsidy program and perhaps rescue approaches such as “Contract Farming” that have proven effective in ensuring prices and coverage. The secretary of the federal SADER Julio Berdegué has proposed as one of the answers to the problem the creation of a Mexican Market Management System, and other measures that seek to regulate the marketing of corn by establishing reference prices and rules to make the marketing chain transparent, perhaps inspired by the United States Farm Service Agency. We will see once the operating rules are published that it is so similar to it, especially in results.
About the author
Salvador Mena Munguía is a specialist in Agricultural Genetics, research professor at the University of Guadalajara and member of the National System of Researchers.
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Chronicles of the Anthropocene is a space for reflection on the human era and its consequences produced by the Museum of Environmental Sciences of the University of Guadalajara that includes a column and a podcast available on all digital platforms.