ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that contrary to popular thinking, Mexico comes nowhere close to living up to its mythical reputation as a land of "great natural riches". Mexico, however, ranks far above many other countries in natural wealth; it has been well known historically for large-scale production of silver, oil, and copper, and for cultivation and export of a number of agricultural. Mexico's agricultural land is seriously deficient in both quantity and quality, and the same can be said for rain, which falls excessively in some places and scarcely at all in many areas where it is badly needed. Besides silver and oil, which top the list of Mexico's resources, other minerals have contributed to the building of the Mexican economy. Although Mexico is a large country, the ubiquitous difficult terrain, relative scarcity of cultivable soil, and highly uneven rainfall seriously limit the amount of land available for cultivation. Mexico's productivity improved with the Green Revolution, but change came slowly.
