Abstract

IBARRA, David  and  ACOSTA, Alicia. The Farm Labourer's Dilemma. Inv. Econ [online]. 2003, vol.62, n.245, pp.151-220. ISSN 0185-1667.

This paper presents a partial diagnosis of the situation of the Mexican agriculture. The problems do not arise only out of positive and negative effects generated by the North American Free Trade Agreement but are also due to the absence of suitable domestic policies, which have left the small producers and subsistence peasants defenseless.

Many of the transitional problems to the open markets reform as a means to modernization and growth of a heterogeneous agricultural sector, were not anticipated. Essentially, the prior protectionist institutions were abolished, before creating on time others to substitute them. Besides, governmental efforts for the promotion and modernization of agricultural policies were abandoned.

The disengagement of the State from agriculture has shown the naked impact of a transition that was initiated without the necessary preparation to make it economically and politically acceptable.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )