ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some of the potential impacts of global warming on the agriculture of Mexico. It focuses on the results of several general circulation models, which project what climate may be like if Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere double, and utilises their output to estimate changes in evaporation and crop yields at selected sites in Mexico. The chapter explores the United States Environmental Protection Agency study on the international agricultural impacts of climate change. More than one-third of Mexico's rapidly growing population works in agriculture, a sector whose prosperity is critical to the nation's debt-burdened economy. Although only one-fifth of Mexico's cropland is irrigated, this area accounts for half the value of the country's agricultural production, including many export crops. For Mexican agriculture, the most important effects of the climate changes would be changes in the length of the growing season and in moisture availability.
