Mexican agrarian philosophy has been characterised by remarkable consistency over the 70 years since the Revolution despite drastic changes in the overall economic context. The symbols of Revolutionary reform persist untarnished -' land and liberty', Zapata and the ejido, an unique form of peasant land tenure. ' El agro' and agrarian policy remain a highly sensitive area shrouded in the mystique of past social struggles, so that the legacy of previous development decisions tightly constrains present-day options.The 1917 Constitution established that all lands and waters are part of the national patrimony subject to control by the state for the public good. Subsequent reform legislation reflects ever-increasing state intervention in an attempt to accommodate the agrarian populist concerns about social justice in the countryside on which the legitimacy of the Partido Kevolucionario Institutional (PRI, Revolutionary Institutional Party) is based, as well as to spur productivity increases. Unfortunately, this reform process has created a cumbersome institutional structure which seems to be unable to cope effectively with contemporary harsh economic realities. ' Petrolisation' of the Mexican economy and the ensuing revelation of the full extent of the debt crisis have compounded the ongoing agricultural crisis, associated with demographic pressures, chronic rural poverty, sluggish growth in many crop complexes, increasing reliance on export crops and correlative loss of self-sufficiency in basic foods. Effective programs for stimulating domestic food output are urgently needed. However, the Mexican government has been unable to combine effectively the imperative of spurring agricultural production with its constitutional commitment to improving the peasant condition. Agricultural needs and agrarian institutions seem to be at cross purposes. 1 1 P. Lamartine Yates, Mexico's Agricultural Dilemma (Tucson, 1981).
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