Moving From Food Sovereignty to Food Solidarity

On small plots across rural Mexico, farmers are planting maize in the milpa style passed down through generations. But increasingly, many are guided by innovative tools thanks to the work of CIMMYT and partners through MasAgro/Cultivos para Mexico.

These farmers still plant as their parents taught them, yet improved seed, more efficient soil practices, and appropriate mechanization have helped them turn uncertain harvests into stable production. This is how traditional know-how combined with selective innovation is helping small farmers increase productivity and resilience. At its best, that is what food sovereignty should look like in practice: empowerment, not isolation.

The concept of food sovereignty emerged in the 1990s, fueled by concerns over trade liberalization, consolidated agribusiness, and widening gaps in rural opportunity. Today, the idea has resurfaced, not just because of political shifts but because of unprecedented volatility in the global environment – both natural and human. In 2024, for example, Mexico experienced severe droughts, and this year, epic rains. New geopolitical and trade tensions are straining global supply chains. Demographic changes are reshaping markets, and inflation pressures basic consumption. In this landscape, food has become a strategic commodity. Countries with strong agricultural systems, effective institutions, and resilient supply chains hold a growing competitive advantage. Any decision around maize, wheat, rice, beans, and other critical food security crops, therefore, always have a cultural element, economic logic, as well as a geopolitical strategic value.

When it comes to this emerging geopolitical context, Mexico stands at a crossroads. Only 10% of its territory is arable compared to a global average of 14%, but in parts of the country the climate and soil quality are some of the best in the world. That’s why the country holds the 13th largest agricultural area globally and remains a major exporter of fruits, vegetables, beef, and beer. Yet, Mexico also depends heavily on imports of staple grains. For the birthplace of maize, this dependence carries economic and cultural heft, and it’s natural to look at increasing the country’s food sovereignty to close that gap.

Any credible solution must begin with smallholder farmers. They represent almost 70% of producers in Mexico and about 60% of global food production. Yet, they are often left out of major investment streams and technology transfers. Many of their practices, especially in diversified systems, such as the milpa-based systems, outperform industrial monocultures in resilience and nutrient density. What they lack is not knowledge but access: access to credit, better inputs, timely information, adaptive technologies, and markets that reward quality and sustainability.

That menu of innovation does not have to replace traditional methods. Innovation works best when it strengthens what farmers already know. Tools such as AI-driven weather forecasts, small-scale machinery, and soil-conserving practices can be integrated into local systems without undermining identity or cultural heritage. The barrier is not compatibility, it is equity.

In this context, food sovereignty should be understood as building the capacity of farmers to make informed choices about their production systems. It should mean better opportunities, stronger safety nets, and higher confidence in their ability to withstand market or climate shocks. It should also mean real collaboration between research institutions and producers, ensuring that scientific innovation responds to lived experience and traditional practices shape future solutions.

Food sovereignty must not mean closing borders. Communities depending solely on their own production face significant risk. Historically, societies that didn’t trade lived at the mercy of nature, where a single failed harvest could mean starvation. Today, global cooperation allows countries to buffer volatility through trade, shared innovation, and diversified supply chains. In practical terms, this is food stability: a stronger, more resilient food system built through local empowerment and international cooperation.

CIMMYT’s work demonstrates how this model can succeed. With staff from 55 countries contributing research and fieldwork, CIMMYT develops climate adapted varieties, strengthens agronomic practices, conserves global maize and wheat biodiversity, and co-designs solutions with producers. Programs like the one CIMMYT and partners have rolled out show that when farmers, scientists, and the private sector collaborate, productivity rises, soils recover, and incomes stabilize. Tradition becomes a source of innovation rather than a barrier to it.

Mexico's competitive advantage lies not only in its land and climate but in the ingenuity of its smallholder farmers. As global agriculture moves toward more resilient and diversified systems, Mexico is well placed to lead if it invests in people, not just inputs. Food sovereignty, reframed as food stability and strengthened by global engagement, can evolve into something more strategic: food solidarity, where farmers across regions and countries share knowledge, resilience, and opportunity.

A food-secure future will depend on empowering the people who cultivate the land and ensuring their innovations flow across borders as freely as the trade that sustains us all.