Public Policies Shaping Mexican Small Farmer Practices and Environmental Conservation: The Impacts of 28 Years of PROCAMPO (1994–2022) in the Yucatán Peninsula

Abstract

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs, generally viewed as policies to modernize and increase agricultural production and commercialization, also have social and environmental impacts. Among the first Mexican CCT programs, PROCAMPO is directed toward traditional agriculture and pays farmers for permanent cultivation, ignoring traditional fallow systems. It was implemented nationally in 1994 to counteract the effects of trade liberalization. Its objectives encompassed modernizing and improving agricultural competitiveness and environmental conservation. Here, we analyze PROCAMPO from the perspective of environmental conservation to understand its effects on agricultural practices and forest cover, specifically in the Yucatán Peninsula, where agriculture sustainability was previously achieved via an alternating cycle of multi-crop system (milpa) and forest. We performed an in-depth program analysis, reviewing 51 documents, including scientific literature, technical evaluations, and official records. Research consistently showed direct effects of PROCAMPO on agricultural practices resulting in extensive land use change, including a reduction in crop diversity and the elimination of traditional milpas and fallow. PROCAMPO has impacted conservation by causing high rates of deforestation. Our findings show the need to reorient the design and implementation of agricultural policy to increase agroecosystem resilience and ecological service provision to face climate change.