Impact of NAFTA on Women Workers Engaged in Production of Corn in Mexico

Introduction

Three countries concentrate more than 60% of corn production worldwide: the US, China and Brazil. The US is the world’s top producer and exporter, with 40% of global production, followed by China with 18% and Brazil with 8%. The US has 140 million hectares of corn planted, of which 20% of the total cultivated area (some 28 million hectares) is transgenic corn.

World trade in this cereal is estimated at 79 million tons, the highest figure in the last three trade years (Commerce Exchange of Rosario, 2006). Globally, 10 companies currently control half of the global seed market, and only six control all of the transgenics market. DuPont and Monsanto jointly dominate the world’s corn seeds market (65%). In 2001, Monsanto controlled 91% of the global market of genetically modified seeds, and acquired more than 60% of the Brazilian market of conventional corn seeds within two years (1997-1999).

Mexico has a strategic significance in world corn production for being its place of origin and domestication, and one of the world’s genetic diversity reserves. In spite of a loss in profitability regarding other crops, corn continues to be the most important crop in the country, with a production of more than 18 million tons. Around 8.5 million hectares (equal to 50.3% of the total planted farmlands in Mexico) are planted with corn, and 93% of the country’s farmers – mostly with plots under 5 hectares – and 12 million peasants live off it. Of the total number of corn farmers, more than 80% use their own seeds, adapted to a huge diversity of geoclimatic situations. Although Mexico has experienced more than 50 years since the green revolution, hybrid and commercial seeds are only used by 15% of farmers; the rest use native corn and continue to maintain and reproduce its diversity.

Women’s activities and position in the corn value chain

In Mesoamerican cultures, the relationship of peasant women with corn continues to be strong. Women have been traditionally the guardians and keepers of corn seeds not only for community knowledge but also for food security.

In Peru, following a tradition from the pre-Hispanic era, it is men that plow and women who place the corn seeds. Women who place the seeds in the plow should be fertile – in other words, able to have children – so they can transmit that ability to the farmed land and the corn seed that is plowed. Also, women are the ones that choose and keep the seeds in storage. Currently, they are the only ones that enter the cellar to take out the corn and use it as food or seed.

In Mexico, planting the corn fields, drying the cobs, shelling them, cooking and grinding the grains until you have uniform dough, beating it constantly, and frying the tortillas one by one are tasks that make up the close relationship between corn and women in their daily lives. 

This implies getting up at dawn, lighting the fire – with firewood –, fetching water, grinding and drying the corn along with preparing beans, and putting chili or some sauce. The operation is repeated with every meal the family has daily. The chores grow in parties, where most of ritual and festive foods are based on corn. 

Also, and given the large migration of men toward northern Mexico or the US and Canada looking for better incomes to maintain their families, women take charge of their children’s education, take care of the home and obtain food. 

The text of a flyer written by indigenous women reflects how they perceive their own actions: “We are present and are an important part of our communities in various ways: in the land and the community because we work with Mother Earth. We take part in plowing corn and plowing vegetables to obtain food. We prepare bread, mole and make tortillas. We make present our beliefs, our customs, our language, our way of living, our way of being”… 

Apart from the tasks mentioned, women take part fully in the corn harvest and also play a key role in its storage and management. In the transformation of corn, they perform a strong grinding activity when they have no access to public mills for lacking the resources to carry out their daily nixtamal (treatment of corn with lime for making tortillas). 

In the preparation of tortillas, the daily exposure to the fire’s smoke is known as a very serious health problem among peasant women that can have serious consequences for breathing and eyesight. Bodily posture, crouching, also causes backbone problems.

Regarding the role that peasants have played in the conservation of species and the way control is being lost on genetic variability, a representative from peasant communities of the Tuxtleca, Veracruz region, member of the Colectivo de Educación Integral de la Mujer (CEDIM), said: “Women and men peasants have created thousands of varieties of corn with different colors, flavors, sizes, that adapt to all of the country’s fields, whether they are high, low, dry, humid. It has been a creation of love and care, which we nurture and it nurtures us, it is the heart of what our forefathers have given us and the main heritage we have for our children. Now all this is threatened by the greed of a few companies that want to appropriate this treasure in order to strip us of our seed”.

Impact of NAFTA on Mexico’s corn sector

Until 1993, Mexico was self-sufficient in corn production, but since 1994, when the NAFTA came into effect, the support structures of national production have been gradually lifted and corn prices in Mexico have fallen steadily. 

Indeed, corn prices for local farmers dropped in 1982 from 1,300 pesos a ton to less than 600 pesos a ton in 1998. This is due in part to the growing competition from the imports of US corn, which competes in the market with artificially low prices as a result of government-subsidized crop production. This process means that while domestic corn production has fallen, corn imports have tripled. 

Meanwhile, many Mexican corn farmers, who have traditionally planted local highly genetically diverse species, have been forced to leave their plots in search for other jobs.4 At the same time, between 1994 and 1999 the price of tortillas rose 500%. Most of that growth is due to the ensuing inflation after the peso crisis (1998) and the lifting of consumer subsidies. In spite of that, prices rose in real terms by 279%. The price of tortillas almost tripled while the price for farmers dropped by half (quoted in Heinrich Boell, 2006).

Indeed corn production in Mexico had a negative effect during the first seven years of NAFTA: planted land fell 3%, production some 4.7% and yield 2%.

When NAFTA was being negotiated, 3 million producers, or 40 percent of all Mexicans working in agriculture, were cultivating corn. Mexico’s corn producers were hit the hardest by NAFTA. Mexico’s borders opened 10 years ahead of schedule to allow cheaper imports of corn and beans from the U.S. and Canada. As a result, small, poor farmers who produced for the local markets were forced to compete with cheaper imports. For those that did not lose their jobs, monthly income for self-employed farmers fell from 1959 pesos a month in 1991 to 228 pesos a month in 2003.

NAFTA expected free-from-tax imports of 2.5 million tons of corn coming from the US and 1,000 tons coming from Canada. Once this quota was exceeded, Mexico could apply a tariff-quota according to the basis imported and the deregulation category. The tariff-exempted import quota would rise yearly until it covered all imports. However, between 1994 and 2002 Mexico imported more than 15 million tons of corn over the quotas. Also, between 1996 and 1998 it imported corn over the quota expected for the 14 year of NAFTA (2008), which caused more than a 30% fall in farmers’ earnings. 

This policy of discouraging national production has increased food dependency – in 2002, 25% of domestic consumption came from imports – and deepened de-capitalization and poverty in rural areas. It has harmed the food sovereignty of the nation, devastated the food security network of the country.

Specific impact of NAFTA on women engaged in corn production

Looking through a gendered lens the effects of NAFTA has been particularly distressing and destabilizing. What the NAFTA did to the Mexican women corn workers can be put in a nutshell as follows:

• Poverty increased by five percent in female-headed households since the implementation of NAFTA.
• Women, more than men, benefited from non-traditional agricultural jobs, gaining 83 percent of the new jobs created in the sector.
• For the same job in the non-traditional agriculture sector, women make 25 to 30 percent less than men. This helps to explain why women gained more jobs in this sector – they are cheaper labor.
• Of women farmers in Mexico, only three percent have more then 10 hectares of land, much less then men.
• Women make up the poorest of farmers in Mexico.
• Additionally women have also been burdened with the task of fetching, carrying and storing the water needed for the harvest or for their families, for which they often need to walk long distances. The privatization of water has turned the natural element into a commodity, limiting its use and submitting it to market rules, which has affected the lower income sectors, especially women, who are marginalized from production processes and are further displaced from their control over natural resources.

There are four major areas where women are located in terms of employment post NAFTA impact.

• First, women, generally living on two or fewer hectors of land, continue to grow food at the subsistence level for domestic consumption and to sell informally at the local markets.
• Women have also found some employment in the fruit sector with non-traditional agricultural exports (NTAEs). However, the new jobs that women have gained have been highly sex segregated with women situated at the bottom of the value chain typically and disproportionately engaged in propagating, cleaning, sorting, quality control, and packaging. Men typically assume the tasks of supervising, transporting, storing, and operating machinery. In general, work in the agro-industrial sector is paid by the piece, not per work period, meaning that workers tend to work the necessary hours to fill their quota. Women typically earn 25-30 percent less than men.
• After being driven away from the agro-sector, women have gained employment in maquila factories. Almost 70 percent of the maquila workforce in Mexico is composed of women. Working conditions in the maquilas are often unsafe, tenuous and insecure for women and adolescent girls. Sixty-three percent of the jobs are without fringe benefits, and 17 percent offer less than minimum wage.
• There has also been an increase in the informal economy whereby women have been the latest major entrants. A growing number of women are now working in the informal sector to supplement their family’s household income. Of the jobs created since NAFTA, close to 40 percent have been in the informal sector. These jobs are not counted in the formal economy and are unprotected by labor laws. Most women in this sector work long hours and earn very little from their businesses. In both the rural and urban areas, women work more hours per day than men when unpaid household labor is included. A typical woman’s working day is more than 18 hours and exceeds that of men by as much as 43 percent.

Conclusions

The above case study highlights the plight of the Mexican women post trade liberalization. Mexico previously had programs in place to stabilize prices, support farmers and to ensure a certain level of national production. When Mexico liberalized its agricultural sector, the new policies devastated rural employment, increased poverty, and increased dumping and migration. Prices have gone up drastically. 

Women have had to deal with these shifts in a variety of ways. They have found some work as a result of liberalization, but their jobs tend to be precarious, low-paid and even dangerous in the case of the maquiladoras. There are a growing number of men and women migrating to the U.S., leading to an increase in female-headed households in Mexico. Finally, poor families in the rural sector are having difficulty making ends meet. Their growing challenge to provide healthcare and food for their families is exacerbating food insecurity.

References

NAFTA and the FTAA: Impact on Mexico’s Agriculture Sector, women’ edge coalition, 2004. Also available at:

• http://www.womensedge.org/documents/mexicocasestudyfactsheet.pdf 

Heinrich Boell Foundation (2006). Especial Agrodiálogo. Available at:

• http://boell-latinoamerica.org/es/web/686.html

PORTER, G. (s/f). Agricultural Trade Liberalization and the Environment in North America: Analyzing the “Production Effect”. Available at:

• http://www.cec.org/files/pdf/ECONOMY/Gareth-PorterExSumen.pdf  

Chiappe, Marta B. 2006, Case study on corn productive chain in Case studies highlighting the gendered dynamic around agriculture, trade and food sovereignty, IGTN, IATP

Spieldoch, Alexandra 2007, A Row to Hoe: The Gender Impact of Trade Liberalization on our Food System, Agricultural Markets and Women‘s Human Rights, IGTN, IATP