Paper Title
Motivation for Developing Urban Agriculture in Mexico
Abstract
During the last three decades, international trade agreements and the evolution of the commercial systems at the
global level, have favoured the increased presence of Mexican agricultural products worldwide. However, government
protection of foreign markets and the benefits enjoyed by foreign investors and large corporations in MĂ©xico has caused
difficulties amongst small producers to maintain competitiveness in local markets and prevents their growth to break into
international markets. Reports indicate that one of the consequences of international trade agreements has been the
displacement and impoverishment of millions of Mexicans. Thus, there are incentives to look at urban agriculture as a viable
job alternative that can lead to food security; the need arises to take advantage of reduced spaces and inputs from large cities to
ensure food sufficiency, provide an economic return and ensure healthy food. However, in Mexico, widespread urban
agriculture systems exploitation still is not seized. This work identifies aspects of urban agriculture as a unique opportunity to
focus research efforts to propose a methodology dedicated to analyse existing conditions, identify and propose feasible
measures of physical implementation for continuous operation and exchange of information leading to improved quality and
quantity of production to make an attractive option of self-employment.
Index Terms—Urban agriculture, sustainable development, precision agriculture