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Background: As part of a global policy response for addressing malnutrition, food system actions have been proposed. Within food system interventions, policies directed to supply chains have the potential to increase the availability and affordability of a healthy diet. This qualitative study aimed to identify opportunities to integrate nutrition as a priority into the food supply policy space in Mexico. Methods: Data were collected through analysis of 19 policy documents and 20 semi-structured stakeholder interviews. As an analytical framework, we used policy space analysis and embedded the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) and the steps of the food chain of the conceptual framework of food systems for diets and nutrition. Results: Policy issues relevant to nutrition were viewed differently in the economic and agricultural sectors versus the health sector. Overall, the main policy objective related to nutrition within the economic and agricultural sectors was to contribute to food security in terms of food quantity. Nutrition was an objective in itself only in the health sector, with a focus on food quality. Our policy space analysis reveals an opportunity to promote a new integrated vision with the recent creation of an intersectoral group working on the public agenda for a food system transformation. This newer integrative narrative on food systems presents an opportunity to shift the existing food security narrative from quantity towards considerations of diet quality. Conclusion: The political context and public agenda are favorable to pursue a food system transformation to deliver sustainable healthy diets. Mexico can provide a case study for other low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) for putting nutrition at the center of food policy, despite the ongoing constraints on achieving this.

Resumen Este articulo es una aproximacion al tema de la estrategia de politica publica para el desarrollo rural en Mexico. Tiene por objetivo establecer contrastes entre la politica que se derivaria de la normatividad vigente y la incidencia efectiva de la accion gubernamental sobre las condiciones productivas y sociales del medio rural; asi como, entre los instrumentos normativos que rigen la planeacion, diseno y ejercicio de la politica publica y sus resultados en los ultimos anos. La primera seccion revisa diversos enfoques teoricos para establecer una definicion del desarrollo rural con fines de analisis de politica, considerando la complejidad y los multiples factores que explican la realidad del campo mexicano y de la poblacion que ahi habita. La segunda seccion presenta un ejercicio evaluativo revisando tres indicadores especificos de las zonas rurales: 1) desigualdad; 2) pobreza; 3) producto agropecuario. La tercera seccion puntualiza el desarrollo rural estudiando los dos mecanismos normativos vigentes de planeacion y ejecucion de politica publica para el desarrollo rural y agroalimentario: 1) la Ley de Desarrollo Rural Sustentable del 2001 (LDRS); 2) el Programa Especial Concurrente para el Desarrollo Rural Sustentable (PEC), aportando argumentos para concluir que en Mexico el desarrollo rural ha carecido de una estrategia nacional, lo cual marca un distanciamiento con lo establecido en la normatividad y con el caracter decisivo que tiene lo rural en el desarrollo economico y social del pais. Abstract This article is an approach to the issue of public policy strategy for rural development in Mexico. It aims to establish contrasts between the policy which would result from current regulations and the actual impact of government action on productive and social conditions in rural areas; and between regulatory instruments governing the planning, design and practice of public policy and its results in recent years. The first section reviews various theoretical approaches to establish a definition of rural development for policy analysis, considering the complexity and the many factors that explain the reality of the Mexican countryside and the population that lives there. The second section presents an evaluation exercise reviewing three specific indicators in rural areas: 1) inequality; 2) poverty; 3) agricultural product. The third section points out the rural development considering the two existing regulatory mechanisms of planning and execution of public policy for rural and agricultural development: 1) Rural Sustainable Development Act of 2001 (RSDA); 2) the Special Concurrent Program for Sustainable Rural Development (SCP), providing arguments to conclude that rural development in Mexico has lacked a national strategy, which marks a rift with the provisions of the regulations and the decisiveness that has rural economic and social development.

ResumenUna gran parte de los mercados agroalimentarios son de ámbito local o regional; pero, en situaciones de escasez, el mercado internacional es el que mueve el precio en el margen e impacta de manera directa en los mercados nacionales.Cuatro grandes comercializadoras de granos alimenticios: Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Bunge, Cargill y Louis Dreyfus, (llamadas las ABCD), controlan la mayor parte del comercio internacional de cereales y granos, y tienen gran influencia sobre la determinación de los precios internacionales de los alimentos. Con más de un siglo de antigüedad, constituyen un grupo de empresas sumamente peculiar. De actitud discreta, han cambiado muy poco en su larga existencia. Se ubican entre las más grandes compañías a nivel mundial, pero son empresas tradicionalmente familiares. Además de las actividades de comercio, transporte y almacenamiento de granos, participan de manera importante en el financiamiento de la producción, a través de la entrega de paquetes tecnológicos e insumos (semillas, fertilizantes y agroquímicos); sus empresas subsidiarias en numerosos países consumen gran parte de las materias primas que comercializan, de manera que sus precios son más bien precios de transferencia; almacenan en instalaciones propias; transportan en sus propios ferrocarriles y barcos; son productores ganaderos y avícolas; tienen gran importancia en la producción de alimentos para animales y en los mercados de biocombustibles; son propietarias o arrendatarias de tierras; y son entidades financieras que participan activamente en los mercados de derivados.AbstractA large part of the food markets are local or regional; but in situations of production shortages, the international market is what moves the price at the margin and impacts directly on national markets.Four major traders of food grains: Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus, (called the ABCD), control most of the international trade in cereals and grains, and have great influence on determining international prices food. More than a century old, they constitute a most peculiar group of companies. With a low profile, they have changed very little in its long existence. They are among the largest companies worldwide, but are traditionally family-owned firms. In addition to trading, transport and storage activities, they participate in the financing of agricultural production, through the delivery of technology packages and inputs (seeds, fertilizers and agrochemicals); their subsidiaries in numerous countries consume most of the commodities they sell, so their prices are rather transfer prices. They use their own trains and ships to transport the grains; storage is made in their own storage facilities. They are livestock and poultry producers, have great importance in the production of animal feed and biofuel markets; and are owners or lessees of land. They are also financial institutions active in the derivatives markets.

This study examined the impact of agricultural transfers (TA) on the measured perform-ance of the agricultural sector through agricultural value added per worker (VA), for which the TA were differentiated according to their purpose. Series data for the period 1986 to 2010 were used two semi-log-arithmic models. The results indicate that the TA on public goods are the most effective for each dollar invested in this field the VA grows at 1.6 %, the categorization indirect production development recorded investment in the best impact per dollar spent, the VA grows 7.6 %.