ABSTRACT
The petrolization of the economy and the ensuing revelation of the full extent of the debt crisis compounded the ongoing agricultural crisis associated with demographic pressures, chronic rural poverty, sluggish growth in many crop complexes, increasing reliance on export crops, and the correlative loss of self–sufficiency in basic foods. The agricultural crisis is in many ways the product of the very policies designed to alleviate it in that the modernization strategy pursued has effectively codified peasant marginality. Peasant nutrition and income levels were to be improved along with productive efficiency Departing from tradition, the Sistema Alimentario Mexicano emphasized rain–fed areas, underutilized lands, and production for the domestic rather than the export market. The main agricultural question for the government is whether, even if the nation can be returned to self-sufficiency in basic foods, the correlative processes that have impoverished the peasantry can be reversed.
