Pluriactividad, consumo y persistencia del maíz en dos municipios del noroeste del Estado de México.

Abstract

This paper’s main objective is to describe and analyze the socioeconomic and cultural importance of maize production. Based on information obtained through interviews, questionnaires and ethnographic field work, we seek to inquire how maize, and more specifically the milpa system, has persisted despite the negative impacts of neoliberal economic policies on small farmers in two municipalities in the northwest of the State of Mexico: Atlacomulco and San Felipe del Progreso. One of our findings is that, even though agricultural activities have undergone a sustained crisis, they continue to be carried out because they are rooted and are part of people’s identity, responding to long-lasting sociocultural factors, such as the consumption of maize in a large variety of forms, as well as the consumption of other products associated with the milpa system. We contend that this persistence is possible in economic terms because of the presence of non-agricultural activities. In this way, pluriactivity, economic reconversion and different forms of mobility have become the main sources of income that allow families to survive and that lead to the persistence of maize production.