printable version
The Rural Development and Conservation, Agriculture and Food Self-Sufficiency Commission approved the modification to the Sustainable Rural Development Law (LDRS) to integrate the nopal as part of the list of strategic crops in Mexico.
Basic and strategic products are those foods that are part of the diet of the majority of the population in general or differentiated by region, and agricultural products whose production process is related to significant segments of the rural population or national strategic objectives.
The LDRS establishes that the State must take measures to ensure the supply of food and basic and strategic products to the population, promoting access to them by the least favored social groups and giving priority to national production.
Currently, the list consists of 12 products: corn, sugar cane, beans, wheat, rice, sorghum, coffee, eggs, milk, beef, pork, poultry, fish and, now, cactus.
- The nopal is one of the most important crops in Mexico as a food, due to its ecological functions and medicinal and industrial applications and, of course, from a cultural and historical point of view.
- More than 100 species of have been reported in Mexico. Opuntia (cultivated and wild), genus to which this crop belongs (nopalitos, tuna, xoconostles), most of them endemic and with a wide distribution, found from sea level to 2700 meters above sea level.
- In 2020, more than 860 thousand tons of nopalitos were produced, mainly in Morelos and Mexico City (Milpa Alta). 55 thousand tons are exported, mainly to the USA.
- In the case of tuna and xoconostle, more than 470 thousand tons are produced, mainly in the State of Mexico, Puebla and Zacatecas, and 17 thousand tons are exported.
- In order to obtain new plant varieties, some Mexican institutions have made efforts to take advantage of the diversity of this crop and the advances in the knowledge of its genetics, such as the Autonomous University of Chapingo and the National Institute of Forestry, Agricultural and Livestock Research (INIFAP).
- In 2006, the Guidelines for the examination of the distinctiveness, uniformity and stability of varieties of nopal, tuna and xoconostles were adopted at the international level by the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), a protocol led by Mexico, which recognizes 10 shades of fruit colors, among other characteristics, for the identification of varieties, and which constitutes the basis for the registration of varieties in the world, as is the case in Israel (6) and the USA (4).
- In the case of Mexico, there are only two protected varieties, called “Mango” and “Venustiana”, whose breeder is the Autonomous University of Chapingo.
- However, traditional varieties selected by the producers themselves have been described and registered in the National Catalogue of Plant Varieties. There are 61 varieties of nopal-tuna and 30 of xoconostle registered, which allows us to provide certainty to avoid their illegitimate appropriation.
- The Sustainable Rural Development Law establishes priority actions to promote production for those crops that are considered basic for food or for their relevance to the rural population.
The approval by the Rural Development and Conservation, Agriculture and Food Self-Sufficiency Commission of the Chamber of Deputies to reform Article 179 of the Sustainable Rural Development Law in order to incorporate the nopal within the list of basic and strategic foods, implies the obligation of the State to promote its production and access, which can provide special support that promotes its conservation and evolution.
