ABSTRACT
Mexico’s real GDP per inhabitant was 5,700 dollars in 1989, a third that of Canada, almost half that of Australia. The distribution of GDP in 1991 (WDR 1993, p. 242) was made up of 9 per cent from agriculture, 8 per cent from extractive industry, 22 per cent from manufacturing and 61 per cent from services. The weakness of the agricultural sector is demonstrated by the fact that it employs 29 per cent of the economically active population but its contribution to GDP is small. In northern Mexico, especially on irrigated land, yields of cereals, cotton and other crops are high by world standards. In much of central and southern Mexico, the yields of maize, the original cereal of preColumbian times, are far below the world average. The cost of increasing yields substantially in the many rugged or dry areas would be high. Only 13 per cent of the area of Mexico is under crops compared with 38 per cent under permanent pasture and 22 per cent forested. There is scope for extending the cultivated area into the forest and, with irrigation, into areas that are at present pasture.
