| Until the early 1980s, Mexican economic policy was characterized by import substitution industrialization. Agriculture's role was to provide a cheap and abundant food supply for the urban sector, and to generate foreign exchange through exports. While Mexico achieved food self-sufficiency by the early 1960s, conflicting policies succeeded in undermining basic grain production and exacerbating an existent dichotomy between traditional and rainfed production. Austerity measures imposed during the 1980s resulting from the collapse of world oil prices further undermined small-scale production. These effects are viewed in the context of the bean subsector, characterized by a bimodal system of production; while the majority of Mexican bean producers are... |
