The Role of Social Network Analysis of the Mexican Farmers in Promoting Mexico’s Economy

Introduction

Social media has gained popularity gradually over the past years. The availability and accessibility of internet-enabled gadgets have also made it easy to utilize Social Network Analysis (SNA) for the improvement of the community, businesses or the overall economy. Unfortunately, many Mexican farmers that rely on farming for their income do not utilize social media or technology in their day-to-day lives. Numerous studies have proven the efficiency of SNA in solving economic, community problems, and improving lives. Existing research shows that Mexican farmers are unable to utilize the available land due to lack of capital to advance their farming techniques and purchase technology for farming purposes. The living standards of the Mexican people have been addressed significantly especially because of the drug trade and other crimes which have led to low living standards. In order to identify the challenges to growth and development among Mexican farmers, it is important to identify the credit accessibility and the willingness of the farmers to borrow credit and advance their farming techniques.

Background to the problem

In numerous case studies, the use of social network analysis has helped devise ways to increase productivity. In Sri Lanka, rice farmers get to supply the international market with high quality rice by acquiring funding through the internet to purchase the necessary technology and acquire the foreign buyers. The farmers rely on the traditional paper and pencil method to transact and document their day to day activities. Despite growing a wide variety of crops, Mexican farming only accounts for less than 5% of the country’s GDP. The US purchases more than 70% of the agricultural goods produced in Mexico. Despite the promising economic growth from the agricultural sector, it is worth noting that only 15% of the Mexican land is used for farming. A major challenge to advancing farming in the region has been acquiring capital especially for illiterate farmers. The farmers have overly relied on outdated technology which has been a major hindrance to farming and the production of healthy crops.

The Programa de Apoyos Directos al Campo (PROCAMPO) has helped many farmers retain their farms and continue farming in Mexico (Beuchelt et al., 2015). Unfortunately, this is only one approach aimed at helping farmers in Mexico. The Mexican government has been trying to educate the farmers on various ways to source credit both locally and internationally in order to advance both small and large scale farming. Fortunately, information technology has blended the world into one global village hence increasing the ease of such strategies in business growth. Producers, local and foreign distributors, the Mexican government as well as other third parties can be helpful in inputting information for the successful execution of the SNA. Since the farming business contributes more than $19Billion in the US, enhancing credit borrowing will not only improve Mexico’s economy but the US as well. In addition,  Rodrigues-Pose and  Villarreal (2015) present evidence that access to easy credit will enhance a balance in terms of development for small and large scale farmers in Mexico.

Research questions

In order to device appropriate solutions to the problem, the following questions must be answered.

Question 1: what are the credit problems facing Mexican farmers?

In order to answer this question, the following sub questions must be answered:

1.  Who are the key players of the Mexican financial market? (the key players can be identified by looking at the formal and non-formal lenders as well as the local and foreign investors). The key players can also be used as information sources for the project.
2. How complex is the credit acquisition process?
3. Are the prices paid to the farmers fair compared to other farmers in the region?
4. What measures is the government taking to facilitate easy borrowing from the Mexican financial institutions?

Question 2: What are the ways of reaching Mexican farmers and educating them on various ways of acquiring credit for technology to advance their farming techniques?

In order to identify the challenges and effective ways to facilitate the solution, the data collection process should emphasize on factors including:

• Urban/ Rural demographic
• Gender
• Education level
• Social media presence (do the farmers have a Facebook/Twitter/Instagram account?)
1. If the farmers have an social media account, how many followers do they have?
2. Can their phones access these accounts?
3. Are they aware of mobile lenders?
4. If they got the money, what would they use it for?

Data

Unfortunately, the data needed may be challenging to collect. This is because only a few studies have been published presenting conclusions regarding the improvement of farming in Mexico. Considering the size of the targeted population, it is wise to uses a smaller and random sample in order to arrive at more accurate results. The survey will emphasize on the use of social media among the Mexican farmers especially those who practice farming on a full time and large-scale basis. Accurate data can also be identified through survey. Data collection would be based on measures such as establishing the density of the number of existing and potential networks. It is important to coordinate the local producers’ communications with the efforts of foreign investors.

Other essential factors that should be considered in the survey include the price paid to the producers as compared to the other farmers in the region. Compared to the other farmers in the region, are the prices fair? If the prices were good enough, then it would be expected that the farmers would be able to invest in new technology and use state of the art farming techniques. Considering the rarity of the use of SNA in Mexico, this may be the first case of using SNA to grow the farming sector in Mexico and improve the living standards of the farmers and their families. The success of this project would mean happier farmers, high quality produce, development and better communication between the local farmers and the foreign markets.

References

Beuchelt, T., Vila, C., Gohring, L., Rodriguez, V., Hellin, J., Sonder, K., et al. (2015). Social and Income trade offs of conservation agriculturepractices on crop residue use inMexico central highlands. Agricultural systems, 134, 61-75.

Rodrigues-Pose, A., & Villarreal, P. (2015). Innovation and Regional Growth in Mexico: 2000-2010. Growth and Change, 46(2), 172-195.