Poverty, migration and maize management among producers in the state of Tlaxcala, Mexico.

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of migration and remittances on poverty alleviation and corn management among farmers in Tlaxcala. The data used in the research were collected through a survey applied to 1,884 corn growers distributed in the 60 municipalities of the state, classified as low, medium and high expenditure level. The results show that corn growers are in food poverty and that migration is an option to mitigate this situation; that remittances are essential for the social reproduction of corn growers, as they cover one fifth of monthly family expenses; and that migration causes the technological breakdown of corn management, promoting the inappropriate use of agrochemicals and the decrease in the use of peasant technologies, which turned out to be more efficient than modern technologies.