CORNELL/INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS STUDY F — INTENSIFICATION of PEASANT AGRICULTURE in YUCATAN
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
M a y 1984 A.E. Research 84-4 Reissued M a y 1986 CORNELL/INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS STUDY f — INTENSIFICATION OF PEASANT AGRICULTURE IN YUCATAN Peter T. Ewell v J DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences A Statutory College of the State University Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853 The Department of Agricultural Economics offers training in International Economics and Development leading to the MPS, MS, and PhD degrees. A component of the Program in Interna tional Agriculture of the New York State College of Agricul ture and Life Sciences, the course of study and research is flexible and designed to enable students to draw on the exper tise of faculty in many disciplines and with wide-ranging international experience, as well as on a core of faculty within the Department who address themselves exclusively to international questions. The geographical focus is on the developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It is the policy of Cornell University actively to support equality of educational and employment opportunity. No person shall be denied admission to any educational program or activity or be denied employment on the basis of any legally prohibited discrimination involving, but not limited to, such factors as race, color, creed, religion, national or ethnic origin, sex, age or handicap. The University is committed to the maintenance of affirmative action programs which will assure the continuation of such equality of oppor tunity. NEW YORK STATE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND LIFE SCIENCES A STATUTORY COLLEGE OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY CORNELL UNIVERSITY ITHACA, NEW YORK 14853-0398 US.A. D e p a r t m e n t o f Thomas T. Polcman A gricultural E c o n o m ic s __________ Warren Ha li Professor of International Food Economics May 1984 It is a pleasure to introduce Peter Ewell's study of agricultural intensification among the Mayan peasants of Yucatan. It is the fifth in a series dealing with the development of Mexico's tropical lowlands carried out by members of Cornell's Department of Agricultural Economics. If the series has had a theme so far it is that development of this potentially productive area has frequently been hampered rather than helped by the government's efforts to stimulate agricultural change. The history of Mexican agriculture during the past 40 years has been mixed. Mexico was the site of the first "agricultural miracle" of the postwar period, of the green revolution in its first blossom. As of the end of the Second World War, the country was importing 15-20 percent of the staple foods needed to feed a population of 22 million. By the mid-1960s, although the population had doubled, the deficit had been eliminated, and for a few years appreciable quantities of maize were exported. More recently the combination of rising population and stagnating production has brought about a reversal. Since the early 1970s Mexico has once again become an importer and in the last few years has depended on foreign sources for between a quarter and a third of its maize. The early successes were localized on large holdings in the arid North and Northwest and made possible by massive irrigation works and the application of technology developed in the United States. Most projects in the tropical Southeast have attempted to follow a similar pattern. They have tended to be large and centrally administered, with the peasants afforded minimal scope for individual decision making. Tacitly assumed has been that it is the government functionary, not the peasant, who knows best. Examples abound of the failures that ensued. I documented some of the earliest in my study two decades ago of the Papaloapan Project (1_), and Sara Scherr has updated the record (_2). The fiasco that resulted from the attempt to organize peasants into centrally-controlled collectives for the production of mechanized rice in the rainforest at Uxpanapa was the subject of an earlier study by Dr. Ewell (3). And Turner Price has chronicled the failings of schemes designed to encourage small farmers in the Selva Lacandona to plant extensive areas to maize (4_) . It would be gratifying to record that the government has finally learned that temperate-zone technology and centralized management will simply not work in the tropical Southeast. But this is not so. Even -i- today much of the remaining forest in Quintana Roo and Yucatan is being cleared through large mechanized projects. Dr. Ewell's study points to a different approach. It focuses on the Puuc region of southern Yucatan, an area where the peasants have successfully developed more intensive production systems. There, over the past 40 years, some 3,500 families have gradually shifted from sub sistence milpa to the cultivation of fruits and vegetables for the market. Small-scale irrigation facilities were constructed by the government, but the farmers retained the freedom to modify their tradi tional technology as they saw fit. In explaining how this success came about, Dr. Ewell provides rare insights into the economic strategies followed by the peasants, and challenges the government to incorporate these into the planning of future projects. The study draws on nearly two years of field work, made possible by grants to Cornell by the Scott Paper Company and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Other researchers in Yucatan were gener ous with information and guidance: the Maya Food Systems project of CIDER/UNDP/UNRISD, directed by Rafael Baraona; the Milpa Project of the Graduate College of Agriculture at Chapingo, directed by Dr. Efraim Hernandez X.; the Puuc Regional History project of the National Institute of Anthropology and History, directed by Lie. Margarita Rosales: the Tropical Forestry and Land-Use project of the National Forestry Research Institute, coordinated by Ing. Bernd Neugebaur; and the "Dr. Hideyo Noguchi" Center for Regional Studies of the University of Yucatan. Ing. Abdo Magdub of the SARH, Ing. F.amon Alvarez of Irrigation District #48, Ing. Fernando Salas and Ing. Jorge Ludlow of BANRURAL, and Ing. Antonio Nava and Dr. Magella Dagduy of the SPP made data available and opened many doors. At Cornell Professors Daniel G. Sisler and H. David Thurston shared with me the pleasure of guiding Dr. Ewell's work. The maps were drawn by Joseph Baldwin. Mrs. Lillian Thomas prepared the charts and tables and saw the manuscript through the press. Lewis Relyea and Diane Beckley prepared the plates and printed the final copies. Thank you all. Comments are welcomed and these should be addressed to: Dr. Peter Ewell Centro Internacional de la Papa Apartado Postal 5969 Lima, PERU (Telephone: 354354) -ii- 1 Thomas T. Poleman, The Papaloapan Project: Agricultural Devel opment in the Mexican Tropics (Stanford University Press, 1964). 2^ Sara J. Scherr and Thomas T. Poleman, "Development and Equity in Tropical Mexico: Thirty Years of the Papaloapan Project" (Cornell/ International Agricultural Economics Study, A.E. Res. 83-3, July 1983). _3 Peter T. Ewell and Thomas T. Poleman, Uxpanapa: Resettlement and Agricultural Development in the Mexican Tropics (Pergamon Press, New York, 1980). 4^ Turner Price and Lana Hall, "Agricultural Development in the Mexican Tropics: Alternatives for the Selva Lacandona Region of Chiapas" (Cornell/lnternational Agricultural Economics Study, A.E. Res. 83-4, January 1983). -iii- TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Preface i Table of Contents v List of Plates viii Glossary ix CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER TWO - THE IMPORTANCE OF TRADITIONAL PEASANT AGRICULTURE IN MEXICO 7 The Dualistic Structure of Mexican Agriculture 7 Geography: High and Dry 7 Emphasis on Large-Scale Irrigation 9 The Agrarian Reform 10 The Gap Widens 12 The Stagnation of Basic Food Production and the Rapid Growth of High-Value Crops 15 A Shift in Government Priorities 22 The Peasant Economy 24 General Characteristics of Peasant Production 26 The Household Unit of Production and Consumption 26 Stratification Within Peasant Communities 27 The Polarization of the Agricultural Sector 28 Can the Peasantry Survive? 30 Chayanov and Lenin 30 The "Campesinistas" 35 The Marxist Political Economists 37 Approaches to the Study of Traditional Agricultural Systems 40 Applied Research to Improve Agronomic Practices 40 Agro-Ecological Research by Analogy with Natural Systems 43 Microeconomic Analysis 46 A Case Study of Maya Agriculture in Yucatan 49 CHAPTER THREE - PEASANT AGRICULTURE IN YUCATAN 51 The Milpa System 51 The Annual Calendar of Activities 52 Insecure Food Production and Low Economic Returns 57 -v- Page Chapter Three (Continued) Geographical Characteristics of Yucatan 59 Patterns of Access to Groundwater 62 Highly Variable Rainfall Patterns 64 Patchy Associations of Shallow Soils 66 Patterns of Primary and Secondary Vegetation 70 Regions of Agricultural Production 71 A Brief History of Peasant Agriculture 74 Pre-Hispanic Maya Agriculture 74 The Colonial Economy 76 Expansion of Commercial Agriculture and the Caste War 78 The Henequen Boom 80 The Revolution 83 Re-expansion of Peasant Agriculture into the Frontier 85 Maya Peasant Diversification Strategies 91 Milpa Production 94 Animal Production 97 Beekeeping 98 Migratory Labor 98 The Dilemma of the Mava Communities 100 CHAPTER FOUR - INTENSIVE PEASANT PRODUCTION IN THE PUUC REGION 101 The Fruit Zone of Yucatan 104 The Oxkutzcab Market 104 Geographical Diversity 106 The Evolution of Irrigated Fruit Production 108 The Development of Private Orchards 109 Traditional Production Systems