National Campesino Confederation Anticipates Agriculture Budget Cuts

ByArmando Manzo

This article by Armando Manzo originally appeared in the October 22, 2025 edition of El Sol de México.

In light of a likely 2 billion peso reduction in funding for the national agricultural sector in the 2026 budget, Joaquín Montenegro Gutiérrez, President of the Confederación Nacional Campesina (CNC), indicated that national agricultural production would be affected.

“Apparently, there’s a two billion peso decrease in agricultural spending. This is everyone’s concern. This would ultimately affect Mexico’s productive national agricultural sector. Well, this is our concern. That’s why we held this forum. Representatives from the 32 states came to present their needs, and the one that would affect us the most is the lack of budget,” Mondragón Gutiérrez said.

Joaquín Montenegro Gutiérrez, President of the Confederación Nacional Campesina

Contrary to cuts, the agricultural leader stated that his request to federal legislators is for a budget increase of at least 10%.

“All the states were submitting a request for a 10% increase to the current budget, which is what would more or less help the Mexican countryside. Well, that’s our proposal. The budget hasn’t been clearly defined yet,” he said.

“We have this perception that there will be a decline because some have told us so, and we hope that on November 15th, when the budget is presented, they will have listened to us and seen the dire problems that are brewing in the countryside,” the leader added.

In addition to the budget increase, Mondragón Gutiérrez indicated that the reinstatement of disaster insurance is also being requested.

“We’re also asking for catastrophic insurance coverage. We’re currently experiencing issues in the Sierra region, in parts of the semi-desert, with the damage to 3,000 hectares, which affected producers, around 35 cattle were also lost, and around 40 producers were affected.”

“We’re asking for what’s fair, no more, no less: support for healthcare, the return of catastrophic insurance, marketing, fair prices, and productive development.”

On October 20, CNC Querétaro attended the Listening to the Voices of the Field forum at Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies to address their concerns about the budget directly to legislators.

Rural Querétaro

Referring to the Querétaro countryside, Mondragón Gutiérrez noted that 12,000 hectares of crops and fodder have been lost, although there is instability at the end of the year.

“We’ve had losses, overall, around 12,000 hectares affected, obviously, including the 3,000 that are in the mountainous area and the semi-desert, but with what is in the part of San Juan del Río, Pedro Escobedo, Colón, Amealco and El Marqués, which are the productive areas and that sustain a part of Querétaro, we are partially stable, because what is some forages was affected by the rain, such as alfalfa and oats, but we were not greatly affected in this regard. We are not saying that we are productively excellent, no, but, more or less, we are 50% unstable,” he stated.