Location of the community

The locality of Jahuara II or Villa Adolfo López Mateos is found 54 km north of the city of Los Mochis in the northern region of the state of Sinaloa, México. To the north, it neighbors with agricultural lands from the ejido of Los Suárez; to the east, with lands from the ejido Metate; to the west, with agricultural lands of the ejido Jahuara; and to the south, with the Jahuara Collector Drain. The town has a political category of sindicatura and because of its population size is the fourth locality in importance of the municipality of El Fuerte. Its geographic coordinates are 26° 13” 37’ N and 108° 57” 19’ W and is found at an altitude of 30 m. According to ^{INEGI (2010)}, Jahuara II has a total population of 5025 inhabitants, of which 2532 are men and 2493 women. The male population of three years or more who speaks indigenous language is 286, and the feminine 261; there are a total of 1190 people who form households and where the head of the household speaks an indigenous language. The locality has a plot distribution of 1680 hectares and a total of 208 ejidatarios.

Field work

The research is of a mixed type and included documental review, as well as field methods to document environmental, sociocultural, technical, economic and productive aspects of the Mayo and Mestizo agriculture of the locality. As first phase, a bibliographic collection was carried out which refers to the Mayo ethnic group and the agriculture practiced in the valley of El Fuerte, in the north of Sinaloa (^{INEGI, 2010}). In a second phase carried out in the months of October to December 2013, participant observation was performed in community assemblies and key informants were interviewed whose testimonies served as support for the field research. In a third moment, the method of surveys was applied with farmers, both Mayo and Mestizo ejidatarios in the community. The design of simple random sampling of qualitative type was used, with an accuracy of 10 % and level of trust of 90 %; for this purpose, the ejido commissioner provided the registry of farmers with a universe of 278 ejidatarios, from which a sample of 53 ejidatarios was obtained (32 Mayos and 21 Mestizos), between 49 and 80 years old of masculine and feminine gender. With the information obtained from the surveys, a database was generated that was analyzed with the statistical software IBM SPSS^® Statistics 19. The data of environmental variables, such as temperature and precipitation, were obtained from the climate station in Los Mochis, provided by the National Water Commission. Economically, in order to calculate the costs of maize production the indicators proposed by the agricultural technical program were used (^{BASETEC, 1999}). The other complementary variables were of aspects related to agricultural, sociocultural and technological aspects.

Environmental aspects

The agroecological conditions of the locality of Jahuara II determine the production in the farmers’ plots, situation that in general is common in agriculture. In the perception of the Mayos, the soils of the locality present “regular” conditions for maize production; for the Mestizo ejidatarios, the soils are affected due to unpredictable factors caused by the climate. Both groups surveyed considered that the agricultural soils are not limiting due to their natural conditions. In general in the agricultural valleys where Mayos and Mestizos inhabit, fertile soils are reported for sowing crops which are apt for good production, such as those of vertisol, regosol and phaeozem origin (^{INEGI, 2009}).

In relation to the climate in northern Sinaloa, there are two important elements that influence maize production: precipitation and temperature. In the first case, and according to local climate data, the dates for the rain season begin in the month of July and continue during August until October when it rains around 120 millimeters. This brings with it the supply of dams, such as the Miguel Hidalgo dam and the Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez dam, from which water stored is distributed to the Fuerte River, its branches and irrigation channels. In the second case, the temperatures during the months cited become extreme with maximums that exceed 40 °C, while in January and February the lowest are present (<10 °C) (Figure 1). The presence of climate disasters in the region are worrying for the Mayo and Mestizo ejidatarios; according to their perception, drought affects their crops in 53.2 to 57.1 %; the low temperatures, in 40.6 to 42.9 %; and the effect of the combination of rains and wind in a lower proportion (3.1 %). In both groups the assessment of lack of rains or presence of drought influences the lack of reload of dams and dikes, and are defining climate conditions in the irrigation district of Valle del Carrizo. When the sowing date is delayed, the ejidatarios take steps such as eliminating one irrigation event on the crop although it affects the growth and development of the plant. Instead, the low temperatures cause frosts and damage on maize that are foreseeable; when they are severe it is impossible to recover the state of the plant, particularly when the frosts take place before or during the stage of the ears of corn. The low temperatures in Valle del Carrizo in the last five years have caused losses in agriculture; particularly, in 2013 temperature drops took place that caused frosts and considerable damages to crops like maize, beans and vegetables¹.

Figure 1 Distribution of precipitation and average temperatures during the 2013-2014 annual cycles, climatological station in Los Mochis, Sinaloa. 

The impact of both climate variables in regional agriculture is increasingly higher. Recent information points out that the generalized trend in northwestern México is of an increase in temperature and a decrease in the amount of annual rainfall (^{Romero-Higareda et al., 2014}). In turn, ^{Flores et al. (2006)} performed the analysis of climatological data of the area and maintain that in recent decades there have been several droughts in northern Sinaloa, causing a decrease of the volumes stored in the dams of the Fuerte-Mayo system and, as consequence, of the surface cultivated in the irrigation districts. This situation affects equally both the farmers of the region and the agricultural and livestock activities, which is why drought can be a detonator to unchain socioenvironmental problems.

In face of a potentially difficult situation, studies performed by INIFAP in the north of the country have identified maize breeds adapted to deficient conditions of moisture, managing to locate a group that includes the Chapalote, Dulcillo del Noroeste, Tuxpeño Norteño, Cónico Norteño, Tablilla del Ocho and Gordo breeds, which could be useful in maize improvement programs for adapting to stress from drought (^{Ruiz et al., 2013}). In their turn, ^{Ojeda-Bustamante et al. (2011)} recommend facing climate change through adaptation actions in the region, such as the use of hybrids or breeds of longer cycle than the current ones with resistance to thermic stress, and compacting the sowing period toward the colder months.

Sociocultural aspects

The locality of Jahuara II is one of the most important syndicates that are part of the seven Indigenous Ceremonial Centers in the municipality of El Fuerte. The inner organization is administratively composed of a municipal administrator, vigilance committee, people responsible for water, Mayo indigenous cobanaro, and development committee. The ejidatarios make decisions together through dialogue; they experience justice between groups, respecting their own decisions or by consensus. According to the farmers surveyed, of a total of 53 ejidatarios, 13 are women (69 % Mayos and 31 % Mestizos) and 40 are men (55 % Mayos, 42.5 % Mestizos and 2.5 % Rarámuris). The male Mayo ejidatarios are the ones that predominate in the community, followed by the Mestizos. The Mayos conserve their identity, their mother tongue, and express part of their culture in agricultural activities around maize cultivation. The average age of ejidatarios of both groups is between 69.7 and 70.5 years, indicating that they are senior citizens with a life period in the community of 41 years in average. Although in their population growth, it is a relatively new community, in Jahuara II there are inhabitants that come from different municipalities in Sinaloa and other states of the Mexican Republic. However, some Mayos owe their history to the displacement of peoples to valleys due to natural phenomena such as river swells or because dams were built in their rancherías, as was the case of the L. Donaldo Colosio dam, locally known as the Huites dam, in Choix, Sinaloa (^{López et al., 1996}).

In matters of housing, the ejidatarios’ houses are built with bricks and concrete, have less than three rooms and consider that those they reside in are adequate places for family development. They have a tendency to have between two and three children, whose number of members allows having fewer expenses within the family nucleus. The main economic activity that Mayo ejidatarios develop in the community is agriculture (84 %) and the Mestizos 66 %. Both groups practice maize agriculture and grow other crops, such as wheat, sorghum, vegetables, tomato and green tomato. No evidences were found that the ejidatarios practice the ancestral milpa system or cultivation of polycrops; rather, the monoculture of maize prevails, which suggests that there is a simplification of crops directed at the market. A second activity is livestock production although in a minimal proportion. Following the fishing activity, the Mayos and Mestizos are transported to Carrizo and dozens of kilometers to zones of water bodies in Sonora; however, economically it is not profitable; commerce activities are complementary jobs for the inhabitants. According to what has been exposed before, there is agreement between the primary economic activities of inhabitants in Jahuara II and what is reported by ^{López-Torres and Vargas-Hernández (2005)}.

On the other hand, there is a close relationship between farmers in Jahuara and the land they farm; the Mayos have ownership of their plots, while the Mestizo ejidatarios are owners in 71.4 % of the cases; the other modalities of land ownership are barren lands and rented lands. The phenomenon of renting in northern Sinaloa is mentioned by ^{Cortés-Gregorio et al. (2013)}; however, it has been scarcely studied within the context of loss of identity and territory of the Mayos.

According to local testimonies, the ejido founders were the Mayos, while the Mestizos “took over” plots, purchasing sowing lands through time. Most of the Mayos obtained their agricultural lands or plots from allocation (87.5 %) and, in lower proportion, the Mestizos also (76.2 %); the rest of the ejidatarios through land invasion. To attain the right to their plots, all of the ejidatarios from both groups have deeds that bring them legal certainty. A low percentage of lands from both groups were barren from lack of irrigation to perform their agricultural activities. Regarding the importance of agriculture for ejidatarios, the Mayos assume they have more experience than the Mestizos, because they are founders of the ejido and their identity is more connected to the nature of agriculture, such as land, rain, and crop sowing (maize 84.4 % and in lower proportion, sorghum 9.4 % and soy 6.3 %). The Mestizos, on their part, have appropriated plots when buying sowing lands, with a vision of crops like maize, sorghum and soy that is more commercial. Concerning the surface, according to the type of agriculture, that with irrigation has 2.12 hectares in average for the Mayos and 2.38 hectares for Mestizos. In the case of rainfed lands, for the Mayos there was an average of 0.18 hectares and Mestizo ejidatarios 0.23 hectares, which means a decrease in farming lands.

Technological aspects

Technical assistance is available from the moment that the ejidatario purchases inputs like seeds. However, the majority in the two groups have not received technological recommendations through any means, no information or training courses have reached them about seed selection, use of machinery, or how to face disasters from frosts and droughts; they describe that they have also not been trained in the management of pests or diseases. Therefore, problems of seed emergence, presence of local weeds such as “wild sunflower”, “wormwood” and “Johnson grass”, which are abundant during the months of February and April, are solved by the farmers themselves. Both groups only visit the technician when the diseases are unknown; for the Mayos the farmer has more knowledge of the cultivation process, while the Mestizo ejidatarios include agricultural technicians and argue that both have enough knowledge of maize agriculture. Research Institutions such as INIFAP offer technical guides, but not the services of extension work that come with the consulting; this task and the supply of inputs fall on the local agribusinesses and private services.

A graphic form of expressing the accumulation of local knowledge in time and distribution of social work in the field is through a calendar of agricultural activities where the management of crops by inhabitants is described, according to the prevalent environmental conditions. From an ethnoecological approach and in studies carried out with indigenous peoples there has been evidence of the transcendence of the distribution of activities, inputs used and ways of work used around agriculture (^{Lara et al., 2002}; ²⁰¹²). The Jahuara II agricultural calendar is not the exception; both groups of farmers perform activities such a preparing the land, including picking, dragging, levelling, marking for sowing, bordering-channeling, establishing berms-channels, scarification, and channel cleaning; and pest control through applying chemicals. For the harvest, maize threshing is done which is accompanied by grain transport with destination to commercialization.

Seed used and yield per surface

Maize agriculture in the Valle del Carrizo is significant. In Jahuara II, in 2013, the Mayos sowed 12.5 % of Creole maize, 71.9 % of improved seed and of both seeds; in the remaining 15.6 % the Mestizos said they sowed 100 % of improved maize. ^{Lazos (2008)} mentions that in the valleys and flatlands of Sinaloa, farmers since 1990 depend on the purchase of seeds from transnational companies, while in the sierras the producers continue using a mixture of hybrid and local traditional maize breeds. In this sense, Lazos explains that at the state level 93 % of the surface sown with maize uses improved seed, while 7 % sows populations of Creole maize or creolized hybrid varieties. This situation is proportionally similar to the local scale at Jahuara.

With regards to the color of maize, the Mestizo ejidatarios prefer white, which they sowed in 95.2 %, compared to the Mayos, who did it in 90.6 %; the rest corresponds to yellow maize. The Mayos also like white maize because it is a grain resistant to pests and diseases, and has good productivity per hectare; in their turn, the Mestizos also choose this color because it is of low cost and productive, which confirms the sociocultural acceptance of this grain by both groups of farmers, who get the seed from companies in the region or visit traders to purchase it. Although the common names of the Creole maize breeds used in Jahuara were not specified, ^{Espinosa de la Mora (2005)} mentions that in northern Sinaloa the maize breeds that are traditionally used in the Choix communities, municipality neighboring El Fuerte, are “coriquero”, “chapalote” and “chori”. From the view of the market model these Creole maize breeds do not fulfill the demands of productivity and food elaboration at a large scale. However, if this local germplasm is considered as biocultural patrimony (^{Boege, 2008}), there is genetic correspondence of native maize breeds and by common name with the tropical breeds identified and distributed in regions of Sinaloa, Sonora and Chihuahua, such as: Bofo, Blandito from Sonora, Dulcillo from the northwest, Harinoso del ocho, Onaveño, Tabloncillo and Perla (^{González et al., 2013}).

The grain yield per surface is the agricultural production variable of greatest interest. According to their perception, during 2013 the Mayo ejidatarios obtained an average of 5258 kg/ha under irrigation conditions, amount higher than the Mestizos, who obtained a mean of 4380 kg/ha. Regarding rainfed cultivation, the Mayo ejidatarios obtained a mean of 328 kg/ha of maize, higher than the Mestizos who obtained in average 181 kg/ha. However, both groups perceive them as low grain yields per surface, although comparatively the Mayo ejidatarios obtained a better production from the harvest. In order to increase the maize yields, the agricultural research institutions continue looking for native materials that have potentially good yields. In a study of agronomic characterization of maize breeds from the northeast there is one kind of genetic material that stands out destined to the white grain market for “pozole” and which was better than the rest of the Ancho breed and to the breeds Elotes Occidentales, Elotero de Sinaloa and Bofo, also used for “pozole” and “elote” (^{Martín et al., 2008}).

Maize cultivation management by Mayos and Mestizos reveals that there is traditional knowledge that has been incorporating and adapting modern technological elements, such as improved seed, according to the local criteria themselves, or based on the needs for adaptation to traditional ecological knowledge of their agricultural systems, such as the Guarijíos from Sonora (^{Colin et al., 2015}) or other groups like the Nahuas and peasants from México (^{Lara et al., 2005}).

Financial aspects

Of the Mayo ejidatarios, 72 % request money in loans to carry out sowing or other agricultural activities, because what was obtained with the prior harvest is not sufficient to save for the next sowing. The same problematic situation in lower proportion (57 %) is present among Mestizo ejidatarios. In both cases, according to their assessment they need sufficient capital to cover the expenses for maize cultivation. The average costs considered for sowing and production of one hectare of maize under irrigation cover diverse technological aspects such as tasks, inputs, technical assistance, among others. In total sum, during the 2013 cycle the Mayo ejidatarios invested $13 459 (MX pesos) from grain sowing to maize commercialization; instead, the Mestizos needed $14 017 (MX pesos); averaging the values, there is an investment cost per hectare of $12 838.58 (M.N.) or USD $987.58 for the two groups (Table 1).

When performing the cost-benefit analysis of a hectare of maize, a value lower than one was estimated. For each peso invested, a benefit of 0.33 pesos was obtained (Table 2). The production costs are of economic interest for both groups of ejidatarios from Jahuara II, where the seed for sowing, fertilizers and irrigation are the inputs that demand highest investment. This situation agrees with what was mentioned by ^{Chauvet and Lazos (2014)}, who, according to the productive Fall-Winter cycle and cultivation management performed, detected that in general the farmers from Sinaloa didn’t have problems with pests or weeds. The main inputs that demand attention are seeds and fertilizers, which mean up to 70 % of the investment expenditure, in addition to the consumption of high amounts of water.

Perception of the agricultural problematic and scenarios

In productive terms the farmers consider that the maize production hectares both under irrigation and rainfed are not sufficient to support the family. Since the 1990s, in their opinion, there hasn’t been a good harvest and the lands need preparation, fertilizers, nutrients and adequate irrigation to attain good grain production. The expenses used in the tasks are high and the official organizations do not worry much about the problems that farmers face.

The Mayo and Mestizo ejidatarios agree that maize production is destined for sale and thus become capitalized to pay pending bills; grain commercialization is done by companies close to the community, stores in Valle del Carrizo and local traders. The ejidatarios sometimes use money lent for the cultivation. For this purpose, they resort to friends and family members, and as a last option they request credit from the bank; this institution provides opportunities to obtain credit, but the interest rate is very high.

The economic aspect is the main problem that affects Jahuara II. The lack of backing for the countryside pushes ejidatarios to rent plots, sell lands, and even pursue lawsuits over rights of this type of cases which are still being solved in courts. The ejidatarios have also been harmed by agricultural policies that the State has implemented, such as the Constitutional Article 27 reform which had the tendency to privatize ejido lands. The joint problem of rent and sale of plots has increased recently from two causes: lack of options to make land produce and of participation in official programs of agricultural and livestock character, although there is support from federal subsidies; without a doubt, the problem continues to be the commercialization of the grain and the high cost of production of agricultural activities. The local situation is difficult and the unemployment, the rent and sale of plots, the same as migration, are phenomena that have increased in the last 10 years; this scenario was also detected by ^{López-Torres and Vargas-Hernández (2005)}.

The small-scale Mayo and Mestizo farmers practice agriculture of the commercial type increasingly less, since it is more difficult for them to get credits for agricultural tools, seeds, water payments, or else face prolonged droughts or agricultural soil problems. Facing this panorama, renting is the solution that many ejidatarios opt for and at the same time allows them to conserve the land: their patrimonial base. However, there are many Mayos that are forced to sell their lands due to some illness or from the need to acquire various goods, which drives many indigenous people, left with no more patrimony, to sell their workforce by hiring out as agricultural day laborers. The situation of permanent poverty that the Mayos endure makes them target of new hoarders, thus promoting emerging land-ownership of large estate, the greatest threat that, paradoxically, the agrarian reform wanted to eradicate (^{Moctezuma and López, 2007}).

The globalization process has generated vertiginous changes of the social, economic and technological type in recent decades, and has had an effect on the way of life of the Mayos, but has benefitted primarily the large farmers of Mestizo origin, who have economic, technological resources, and means of production, such as lands, irrigation water, machinery and agrichemical inputs that have positioned modern agriculture in the valleys of Sinaloa on the first levels in crops such as maize, vegetables and fruit trees. This model of agricultural modernization of high inputs and for commercial purposes specialized in maize and vegetables in the agricultural valleys of Sinaloa (^{Espinosa de la Mora, 2005}; ^{Carrillo, 2013}; ^{Chauvet and Lazos, 2014}) contrasts from origin with the traditional model of agricultural management and family exploitation of natural resources of the Mayo, Guarijíos and other peoples based on peasant economy that practice it at a disadvantage in valleys and hills in the northwest of the country (^{Moctezuma and Aguilar, 2013}; ^{Colin et al., 2015}). The erosion of knowledge associated to traditional agriculture invariably leads to the loss of diversity of Creole maize breeds from the region, which is biocultural patrimony of the Mayos and Mestizos.

On the other hand, the problems related to territory and the loss of knowledge about natural resources by the new generations of Mayo youth who are no longer devoted to these activities, as it happens in regions in the south of México (^{Aguilar, Illsley and Marielle, 2003}), fosters for this vital productive force to seek diverse employment options or to migrate to urban areas and remain in the family units of the localities, primarily older people. Not least important in the region is the complex problematic derived from the social phenomenon of drug trafficking (^{Astorga, 2012}), which has socioeconomic consequences that have an effect on different productive sectors, as well as on the Mayo and Mestizo communities.

With the territory and natural resources being the basis of sustenance of the Mayos, the problematic of recent decades has revolved around their gradual transformation or change in land use of the territory from the promotion of agribusiness and the consequent devastation of the forest, situation that weakened the exploitation and traditional knowledge of agriculture and natural resources. Traditional agriculture that dominated up until the 1960s went to another highly technified type, characteristic of the central valleys and medium productive zones, known as the “green revolution” (^{Hewit de Alcántara, 1978}). This scenario reconfigured the countryside of northern Sinaloa and converted it with the impulse of agribusinesses, especially with crops like sugar cane (practically extinct now) and vegetables, in an economic development pole of sustained importance. Currently, with no other option, the Mayo communities share in disadvantage part of the territory from their ancestors, transformed into the best areas of agricultural potential, but in the hands of Mestizo populations and other migrant groups which settled into the region some decades ago.