Ecobreves – MEXICO:: Fruit to Fight Poverty

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

MEXICO CITY, Dec 15 2003 (IPS) - Mexican scientists are working to turn 'pitaya' and 'xoconoxtle', native Mexican fruits, into products for export — and catalysts for development for poor communities. Researchers at the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM) aim to establish the best ways for growing, preserving, processing and marketing the fruits produced by peasant farmers in the southern state of Oaxaca.

The university experts must resolve the problem of the fruits' rapid fermentation if the farmers hope to export them.

Local sales of pitaya and xoconoxtle, whose production varies between 700 and 1,000 tons annually, is practically the only source of income for the small farmers of the Union of Ejidos and Communities of Lower Mixteca.

UAM sources say that if the project is successful it could help 300 families escape extreme poverty.