Mexico

General Information

· Main climates: Subtropical Steppe and Semiarid, Subtropical Desert and Arid, Tropical Wet and Dry, Tropical Wet and Dry at 600 m above sea, Tropical Wet, Subtropical at 1 000 m above sea, Tropical Steppe and Semiarid

· Total land area: 195 820 000 ha

· Internal renewable water resources: 357.4 km³

· Incoming water flow: km³

· GNP per capita, 1998: PPP$ 7 450

· Main food consumed: Maize, Sugar & honey, Oil & fat, Wheat, Meat

· Rice supply, 1999: 8.7 kg paddy/capita/year

Basic Statistics

Producing Zones and Cropping Seasons

Rice is grown principally in the Northeast, Southeast and the Gulf States. The following table shows rice producing zones.

Rice is planted, in most cases, once a year.

Production Practices

The following figure shows the harvested from different rice ecologies during the last five years.

Rice production in the Northeast is mostly under irrigated conditions and has good level of mechanisation. Land preparation is done with tractors and direct seeding is the main method of crop establishment. Rice production in this region is being reduced due to low return and competition from the growing of crop for export to United States of America. In the central region is also under irrigation, but with lower level of mechanisation. Land preparation is done with tractors, while manual transplanting and harvesting are popular. The traditional upland rice cultivation is dominant in the Gulf States and the Peninsular of Yucatan. Several improved rice varieties have been released for cultivation as shown in the following tables.

· Irrigated rice varieties

Upland rice varieties

Constraints and Issues of Sustainable Production:

There are several constraints to sustainable rice production in Mexico. Following are the majors:

• Limited irrigation water supply and salinity in northern and dry zone.

• Blast.

• Weed and red rice competition.

• Drought stresses in upland system in southeastern region.

• Low return from rice production.

The following table shows the rice production costs

The country has still large potential areas for expansion of rice cultivation. Sustainable rice production, however, will depend on the reduction of production cost and appropriate policy on rice.

Research and Development Institutes

· Instituto Nacional Investigaciones Forestry y Agropecuarias (INIFAP),Campo Experimental Zacatepec, Apartado Postal No. 12, Zacatepec-Morelos, Mexico

· Campo Agricola Experimental Cotaxtla A.P. 429 Km. 34 Carr. Veracruz-Cordoba 91700 Veracruz Veracruz Phone: (29) 348359

· Campo Agricola Experimental Istmo de Tehuantepec A.P. 51 Av. Efrain R. Gomez 32 70000 Juchitlan Oaxaca Phone: (971) 20341

· Centro de Investigaciones Agricolas de la Peninsula de Yucatan - INIA A.P. 50 Suc. D Calle 62, 465 - Edif. Santa Lucia 97000 Merida Yucatan Phone: (99) 286652 Fax: (99) 239303

· Centro de Investigaciones Agricolas del Golfo Norte INIA A.P. 172 Km. 60 Carret. Matamoros-Mazatlan 88900 Rio Bravo Tamaulipas Phone: (893) 40745 Fax: (893) 41075

· Centro de Investigaciones Agricolas del Golfo-Centro INIA A.P. 1224 y 453 Ocampo 190, Desp. 101 91700 Veracruz Veracruz Phone: (29) 327104

· Centro de Investigaciones Agricolas del Sureste INIA A.P. 429 Cotaxla Veracruz

· Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo A.P. 6-640 Lisboa 27 00600 Mexico Districto Federal Phone: (52-5) 726-9091 Telex: 1772023 CIMTME Fax: (52-595) 41069 Ema: [email protected]