Stevia farming in Veracruz: a development project?

Abstract

The “Prospera†program, Mexican social policy of conditioned transfers, recently included the strategy of “productive inclusion†as a way of making possible for beneficiaries to obtain income through productive projects. In the case of the region of Los Tuxtlas, this initiative took shape in the promotion of stevia plantations, a plant whose components have a high sweetening power and great market possibilities, even at the international level, since it is considered as a natural non-caloric and innocuous sweetener for human health. In this study, based on the analysis of the livelihoods of the families of the project’s beneficiaries and the registry of cultivation, processing and commercialization practices of stevia, the profitability of the project was observed and its potential social benefits were misinterpreted when it was handled for political-electoral aims, and the follow-up of productive practices were put aside.