More funds in the fields.

President Fox highlighted the growing public-private partnership among the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries, and Food (Sagarpa), Mexican development funds, the National Agriculture Council and the Association of Mexican Banks.

This partnership recognizes the 4-percent annual growth of the sector and channels over US$250 million to 18,000 rural growers. President Fox stated that there exists a new relationship of confidence and accountability among the financial and agricultural sectors.

This coordinated strategy opens the door to increasing amounts of private capital to the countryside that will further support the rapid rise in Mexican agricultural exportations.

The approach also encourages decentralized decision-making and closer coordination with infrastructure authorities--such as federal and local irrigation districts--to strengthen the underlying institutional framework of the Mexican agricultural sector.