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National Profile |
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NATIONAL PROFILE OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF MEXICO
Table 7.7 Area Coverage of Ejidos and Communities in Mexico
| |
Ejidos y
comunidades
agrarias
|
SUPERFICIE
|
NUMERO DE EJIDATARIOS
O COMUNEROS
|
| |
NO PARCELADA
|
|
Total
(HA)
|
De uso
colectivo
(HA)
|
De uso
común
(HA)
|
TOTAL
|
CON PARCELA
INDIVIDUAL
|
|
Cve.
Edo.
|
|
Total
(HA)
|
PARCELADA
(HA)
|
|
ESTADO
|
| |
NACIONAL |
29.983
|
103.290.099,151
|
27.797.604,719
|
75.492.494,432
|
8.787.436,301
|
66.705.058.131
|
3.523.636
|
3.040.495
|
| |
| 04 |
Campeche |
137
|
1.665.385,980
|
163.070,000
|
1.502.315,980
|
0,000
|
1.502.315,980
|
14.651
|
13.510
|
| 07 |
Chiapas |
1.129
|
2.509.335,000
|
1.261.692,880
|
1.247.642,120
|
14.345,000
|
1.233.297,120
|
147.753
|
141.571
|
| 08 |
Chihuahua |
141
|
2.042.245,680
|
134.777,500
|
1.907.468,180
|
752.522,000
|
1.154.946,180
|
23.828
|
19.702
|
| 10 |
Durango |
20
|
834.937,000
|
1.563,000
|
833.374,000
|
350.364,000
|
483.010,000
|
21.467
|
913
|
| 12 |
Guerrero |
305
|
1.170.038,920
|
408.377,280
|
761.661,640
|
10,000
|
761,651,640
|
70.604
|
60.887
|
| 13 |
Hidalgo |
529
|
345.690,740
|
194.591,405
|
151.099,335
|
21.533,750
|
129.565,585
|
67.639
|
63.181
|
| 14 |
Jalisco |
8
|
406.538,700
|
236.470,500
|
170.068,200
|
0,000
|
170.068,200
|
2.594
|
2.547
|
| 15 |
México |
221
|
175.654,280
|
119.252,750
|
56.401,530
|
467,000
|
55.934,530
|
57.564
|
50.579
|
| 16 |
Michoacán |
107
|
421.902,690
|
180.283,480
|
241.619,210
|
1.765,400
|
239.853,810
|
32.267
|
22.272
|
| 17 |
Morelos |
36
|
79.502,660
|
28.446,420
|
51.056,240
|
0,000
|
51.056,240
|
9.539
|
9.024
|
| 18 |
Nayarit |
32
|
669.869,120
|
5.504,000
|
664.365,120
|
96.815,633
|
567.549,487
|
4.660
|
907
|
| 20 |
Oaxaca |
1.060
|
5.956.419,330
|
1.982.008,300
|
3.974.411,030
|
96.886,411
|
3.877.524,619
|
297.311
|
262.225
|
| 21 |
Puebla |
211
|
327.079,050
|
158.114,500
|
168.964,550
|
570,400
|
168.394,150
|
39.920
|
36.741
|
| 22 |
Querétaro |
30
|
48.920,800
|
17.604,500
|
31.316,000
|
0,000
|
31.316,300
|
4.396
|
4.258
|
| 23 |
Quintana R. |
167
|
1.592.668,790
|
240.246,000
|
1.352.422,790
|
254.748,500
|
1.097.674,290
|
16.731
|
11.777
|
| 24 |
S. L. Potosí |
350
|
267.327,630
|
183.771,720
|
83.555,910
|
6.762,500
|
76.793,410
|
40.216
|
39.167
|
| 26 |
Sonora |
135
|
370.363,660
|
94.738,760
|
275.624,900
|
126.811,400
|
148.813,500
|
18.535
|
8.097
|
| 27 |
Tabasco |
60
|
58.213,500
|
37.858,000
|
20.355,500
|
11.289,000
|
9.066,500
|
3.693
|
3.237
|
| 30 |
Veracruz |
956
|
809.647,910
|
724.137,760
|
85.510,150
|
13.254,057
|
72.256,093
|
89.798
|
87.649
|
| 31 |
Yucatán |
664
|
2.152.984,870
|
565.072,540
|
1.587.912,330
|
17.313,800
|
1.570.598,530
|
109.100
|
69.052
|
Production
23. The communal and ejido lands of the indigenous peoples
are the basis of a production system geared towards self-subsistence in
contrast to the system and lands under intensive use of a capitalist type
of production. Productive activities are concentrated in the primary sector
and destined to supply the food needs of the households, although there
is, even at the level of the household economy, a series of products destined
for the market. In the first instance the milpa constitutes the
central axis of the household’s production strategies. It is in the milpa
that the maize, beans, squash, and edible and medicinal plants are grown.
In a second place are the cash crops, including: coffee, vanilla, pepper,
sugar cane, honey, rice, fruits, cotton, ajonjoli, etc. These products
complement the household income and permit the purchase of needed agricultural
inputs and other market items not produced by the household.
24. Information shows that 89 percent of the indigenous agrarian centers
are dedicated to agriculture; 8 percent for livestock; 1 percent for timber,
and 2 percent to various other activities tied to the primary sector. Agriculture
is in a weakened situation at this time due to the fact that 93.8 percent
of the ejidos and agrarian communities are rainfed lands and lack
any type of irrigation.
25. It is undeniable that the combination of demographic growth leading
to more intensive use of lands; increasingly smaller and uneconomical plots
for household production; and unsustainable extraction of resources has
led to instances of severe if not irreversible land degradation. All these
factors have had and continue to have an adverse impact on the micro-regional
production systems.
26. Regardless of the type of crops, in general the technology used
is simple and its knowledge acquired by the entire community. There is
a prevalence of a diversified household production system that constitutes
a coping strategy to minimize risks and ensure household survival. These
strategies include, in some instances, the combination of agricultural
work in combination with fisheries or artisan production. Wage labor, wherever
possible is also a coping mechanism as is employment in the large agro-business
fields either in the country or in the United States.
27. The division of labor within the family is characterized by the
collaboration of all its members in different activities.
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| Women |
Preparation of food
Care of children
Care of home garden and livestock
Artisan work: weaving textiles, clothes making, pottery, etc. |
| Men |
Heavy agricultural work,
hunting, collection of various items
house building
public cargos
care of old people |
| Children |
Assistance to parents in agricultural and home
activities |
| Older generation |
Assistance to married children in all activities:
support role, extra laborer role
Transfer of experience, knowledge, oral tradition, customs |
Collective Work
28. Forms of collective work within the indigenous communities are qualitatively
different from those found in a capitalist economy. This type of work acts
as a catalytic factor for the enhancement of the production process organized
on the basis of reciprocity between families of the community and community
members.
29. In the first instance, collective work is done for the cleaning
of agricultural plots, house building, and special household emergencies.
The nature of this reciprocity is that once a service has been received
there is an obligation incurred to reciprocate the favor when there is
a call for it. This is a form of social credit insurance, which filled
the gap created by the lack of formal credit institutions. The second type
of collective work is that which is solidarity-shared with the rest of
the community and dedicated to community works such as school or church
building, road building, clinics, potable water, street paving, parks and
playgrounds, etc.
This type of work goes by the various terms of tequio, faena, fajina,
etc. and it is the equivalent to a local community or municipal taxation
system to pay for the public social services in urban centers. Each community
sanctions the non-compliance with this type of work in different ways.
Marketing
30. The exchange of the production of the indigenous communities is a combination
of the pre-colonial market structures and the Spanish market customs.
There are various types of weekly markets with correspondingly different
characteristics.
Typology of Weekly Markets
Regional markets exist where there is a strong interdependence of urban
rural networks, and are concomitantly established in the main urban centers
or regional capitals of each indigenous region.
Micro-regional markets in the more peripheral main rector centers
Municipal markets
Community markets. 31. Each one of these market types has its own characteristics
and scale of integration to the national level economy. Regional markets,
for instance, are generally located in enclosed buildings that, together
with the sellers, market authorities, and buyers all constitute the market.
At the level of municipal markets, all the personnel belongs to the communities
and the basic activity is the exchange of merchandise for money and, in
some instances, barter. The specialization in different types of products
depends to a large extent on the nature of the soils if the communities.
All of them, nevertheless, produce maize, which is not normally a part
of the exchange economy, but other articles of pre-colonial manufacture
are exchanged, for instance:
Table 7.8 Precolonial Intra-community Market Exchange Products
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Fruits
|
Horticultural
|
Flowers
|
Artisanal
|
Cocoa
Mamey
Guanabana
Papaya
Tepejilote
Tejocote
Zapotes |
Potato
Yuca
Chayote
Yams
Squash
Jicama
Chaya |
Gladiolas
Gardenias
Christmas flower
Jacaranda
Camellia
Zempoaxuchitl
Squash flowers |
Textiles (cotton)
Textiles (straw)
Leatherworks (sandals)
Basketry
Pottery
Stone works
|
32. All these products are part of the indigenous economic system.
They are found in local weekly markets and marketed in small quantities,
only enough to secure enough to secure other needed items for subsistence
and consumption items not produced at home.
33. This regional system of markets forms an exchange network for agricultural,
livestock, hunting and collection, fisheries, and artisans such as pottery
makers (see map for example of the distribution of artisan communities),
basket-makers, carpenters, textile weavers, and stone cutters and artisans.
They also include the artists in plastic and silver work. They all come
together weekly or during the ceremonial feast days to exchange their products
which assures the sustainability of each family, community, municipality
and region. This system constitutes an established institution of the indigenous
economy that can operate through barter or money exchanges and which permits
the permanent and sustainable development of productive forms, distribution,
consumption, at all levels of households and of the community.
34. The surplus produced in the community or ejidos pass
through the municipal markets and from there to the regional and national
markets. Many artisan products are marketed in the tourist market, and
some communities live primarily through the marketing of these products.
The agricultural and livestock surpluses, as well as the cash crops destined
for national or international markets, such as coffee, cocoa, vanilla,
barbasco, and forest products and timber, are the cash income generators.
These products guarantee the incomes required for the modernization of
the household economy, and ensure the satisfaction of their needs for products
which they do not manufacture such as soap, fuels, tools, electricity,
etc. Each day this economic inter-dependency of the indigenous communities
with the state and national economy becomes greater. There are, however,
communities which continue to maintain a closed economy based on subsistence
such as the Tarahumara, Huichol, Tepehua and others.
35. The inclusion of the systems often considered "informal" but that
in fact constitute an intrinsic part of the formal economy must be considered
in all the diagnostics and economic studies of the states with a high proportion
of indigenous populations. The indigenous economy, with its system of regional
markets and specialized distribution systems are a part of the overall
economic picture. To exclude these elements from an economic analysis constitutes
a distortion of reality and gives rise to conclusions that classify these
regions as ones of extreme poverty which in reality is not entirely true.
36. It is clear that while the indigenous economies operate at a micro-economic
level, and notably characterized by subsistence, there are others that
are oriented towards the regional, national, and international markets.
Such is the case; for example, of the Maya in Yucatan that constitutes
the backbone of the henequen production.
37. Each one of these forms of economic and social organization is subject
to its own ecological and environmental conditions, as much as the cultural
constructs which give rise to the particular dynamics of each indigenous
group. Modernity, in its various manifestations, permeates the life of
the communities and introduces new elements that modify these groups’ inherited
cultural and social tradition, making for new forms adapted to changing
conditions, characteristics and identity.
Map 4. Distribution of Traditional Ceramic Styles in Indigenous
Areas
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38. Poverty in many of the indigenous communities is perpetuated
by the presence and network of intermediaries, whose control over the commercial
and exchange networks ensures their appropriation of the value of production,
while the producers continue to obtain minimum gains and profits from their
products. There is a lack of indigenous organization to control of the
economic networks, as well as a lack of financing and road infrastructure,
which are all factors contributing to making the indigenous peoples highly
dependent on the intermediaries with the only option of selling either
directly out of their own plots or placing their products in the closest
regional market whenever possible.
Financial Sources
39. There have been a series of changes in agricultural policies since
1989 according to information gathered by CEPAL (Economic Commission for
Latin America). These included the elimination of guaranteed prices for
the twelve basic products, with the exception of maize and beans; the elimination
of CONASUPO (National Company of Subsistence Products), and other state
enterprises that formerly regulated and commercialized agricultural products
such as the Mexican Institute for Coffee Production (INMECAFE), and the
Mexican Tobacco (TABAMEX). At the same time there was a re-structuring
of rural credit, which eliminated subsidies for credit and agricultural
supplies and a privatization and elimination of public entities dedicated
to agriculture.
40. The Rural Credit Bank was also reformed at this time. It led to
a concentration of credit to the most secure, low-risk, and profitable
products. This caused an increase in the rate of defaulted loans and eliminated
some segments in the market from receiving credit since they were outside
of the new financing parameters. It also changed the institutional mechanisms
for crop insurance and limited insurance coverage.
41. The sources of financing for rural producers that had always been
limited, both by the private banks and by government institutions, were
further constrained by these reforms and led to a diminution of the volume
of production in the indigenous communities. Many of them abandoned some
of the cash crops because of the lack of credit and institutional support
that they formerly gave the producers (as for example INMECAFE, CONASUPO,
FERTIMEX, or PROFORTARA).
42. A recent study of the evolution of the ejidos shows a significant
decline in the number of producers applying modern technologies. In 1990
fertilizer use among the ejidatarios was 61 percent but had declined
to 52 percent by 1994. In the same period, the use of improved seed varieties
declined 24 percent and use of insecticides declined by 15 percent. The
decline in agricultural extension and other technical services was even
more notable. While in 1990 a total of 60 percent of the ejidatarios
had access to such services, only 8 percent still had access to them four
years later (Alain De Janvry, 1990-94).
43. Most negatively affected were the indigenous ejidatarios
that had formerly enjoyed some support from government institutions, although
with regional variations, for instance in the region of the Huasteca, Oaxaca
and Guerrero where indigenous people had some support. These producers
have seen their incomes decrease drastically since they do not fit the
requirements for formal loans and credit and continue to cultivate products
that were formerly subsidized (grains and oils). The result is an increased
dependency of the indigenous producers on the lenders and intermediaries
that charge an average of between 10 and 25 percent a month on loans which
they obtain through formal credit mechanisms at one tenth the amount of
interest they charge to the indigenous producers (refer to the Profile
and Diagnostics of the Huasteca, Oaxaca, Yucatan, and Chiapas).
44. The most important compensatory mechanisms after this policy change
have been PROCAMPO, that substituted the subsidies with direct payment
to the producers calculated on the area under basic grain production. In
order to gradually ease CONASUPO’s demise, the Agricultural Secretariat
(SARH) founded in 1991 another institution: the ASERCA charged with support
and services for agricultural marketing but without direct intervention
in the buying and selling of products as CONASUPO had previously done.
Today, PROCAMPO makes small loans ranging from 500 to 2,000 pesos and works
directly with communities. However, because it does not take into account
specific levels of differentiation among producers and their endogenous
organizational forms their work with the communities has led to an institutional
disarray of the regional organizations because there is no further need
of them.
45. Other institutions working directly with producers, and which have
various credit modalities, include FONAES/SEDESOL, Fondos Regionales/INI
(see the Diagnostic studies for the Huasteca and Oaxaca).
46. Experience has shown that in the indigenous regions a modest but
continuous level of credit availability and financing can result in sustainable
and self-financing development processes because the majority of the indigenous
municipalities already have the resources, knowledge, and will to continue
their own development. The problem lies in the limitation of most programs
to a six-year period tied to political administration and characteristically
lack continuity. This has a negative impact on the efforts of the producers
to sustain modest but continuous levels of production.
Consumption
47. Traditionally, consumption in the indigenous communities was directly
related to their production, as well as to those products obtained through
hunting, gathering, and fishing. Aside from the products that they obtain
in the regional markets, the basic diet consists of tortilla made from
maize, beans, diverse sauces made from red and green tomato, and garnished
with a variety of chilis. This diet includes cocoa or chocolate, honey,
and vanilla. Soups are prepared from squashes, young maize, and onions
grown in the home gardens, avocado, and many varieties of mushrooms. Meat,
whether beef, pork, or chicken, is not a part of the usual diet and reserved
for special family feast days or community ritual observances. Nevertheless,
there are food items of animal origin and obtained through hunting, including
deer, wild boar, monkey, diverse snakes, iguanas and their eggs, frogs,
maguey grubs, ants, and crickets. Several different types of shrimp, crayfish,
fish, snails, turtles, ducks, and various edible birds are hunted or gathered
in lakes and rivers. From the home garden, the indigenous household obtains
many fruits and edible plants. They also produce their own alcoholic beverages
including pulque, chica, teshuino, and mezcal.
48. All these items of the traditional indigenous diet have changed
significantly in the last few decades. The trend has been to move to increased
reliance on manufactured food items. This change has had a strong negative
nutritional impact on the indigenous population; particularly young children
and women who are particularly vulnerable to the influences of the publicity
of companies dedicated to the sale of processed foods. Another critical
factor contributing to the change in diet is the sale of the products,
formerly for household consumption, in exchange for products of low nutritional
value such as sodas, candy, cookies, and other snack food. Evidence of
these changes is shown in the following map, which illustrates that, the
areas of the country with the highest level of under nutrition and malnourishment
coincides with the indigenous regions.
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Instituto de Ecología, UNAM
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