UMFFAAC: Mexico’s Global Ag Model

Editor’s note: This story first appeared in AgriBusiness Global’s May/June print magazine. We now also distribute the magazine digitally for added circulation and convenience. Preview the digital edition here.

Worldwide food has been the subject of analysis the last decade, particularly during the food crisis of 2008, which showed the fragility of the agricultural trade system. The world is also dealing with population growth, increased protein demand in emerging countries, and the effects of climate change.

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According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, more than 100 million people suffer from severe hunger. In Latin America there are approximately 4.2 million people who have nothing to eat. The diagnostic toward 2050 estimates that the world population will increase to 10 billion inhabitants, so providing safe and healthy food is a challenge that involves governments, farmers, and society.

Mexico faces greater challenges. Although it has great productive potential, good agroclimatic conditions, and is placed among the 12 countries with the highest food production, it also ranks among those with the lowest yield per unit of area.

The opportunity to use the Mexican territory for agricultural activities is a key issue for public and private agendas. Agricultural production is concentrated in six states that contribute 53% of the total agricultural value of the 32 entities of the country. These are the regions with the climate and natural resources to boost production and, consequently, to generate economic growth and better life quality for rural people.

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Maintaining farmers at the technological vanguard must be a priority for Mexico. The technological tendencies that we observe include: the consolidation of fertigation automatic systems in greenhouses and at open field; more specific and effective supplies for crop protection; improved seeds; crop and harvest with robots; parametric insurance climate risk coverage; agricultural futures markets; drone uses; satellite mappings; real-time monitoring applications; and traceability systems from field to table.

In this way the challenges for the phytosanitary supply industry are of great relevance. The Mexican Union of Manufacturers and Formulators of Agrochemicals AC (UMFFAAC), which represents 30 associates that are the suppliers of inputs to the agricultural sector (national and international), promotes and actively participates in the development of post-patent technologies that benefit small farmers and commercial producers whose products reach the most demanding markets in the world.

Therefore, UMFFAAC contributes to the production of food by: supporting the diverse agricultural systems production; stimulating, with our wide range of products for crop protection, higher productivity; complying with the national and international normativities; and being highly competitive in the effectiveness and costs of our inputs.

The companies that constitute UMFFAAC work to make Mexican agriculture a global model to follow. Thus, participation as partners of the AgriBusiness GlobalSM Trade Summit 31 July-1 August in Atlanta City, New Jersey — where farmers, universities, governments, agricultural input suppliers, market analysts will unite — is a great opportunity to link the agri-food sector and boost Mexico production.

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