MAIN CHALLENGES OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES THROUGH TOURISM AND AGRICULTURE LINKAGES IN MEXICO

According to several researchers (Telfer, 2000; Telfer and Wall, 1996; Momsen, 1998; Torres, 2003; Timms, 2006), main challenges for agriculture and tourism linkages are related to supply or production factors such as informal nature of local farming systems; which generates mistrust on tourism enterprises about quality and quantity supply. [...]the evaluation of how tourism has been able or could contribute to the reduction of poverty through "Pro-Poor Tourism" (Ashley et al., 2001; Torres and Momsen, 2004). There is also a profound need to lead understanding about capital accumulation and its propagation process, the prominence of the State, the increasing complexity and power of the non-agricultural parts of the food chain, as well as to seek conceptual flexibility about assumptions often implied in the analysis of agricultural development (Marsden, 1990). [...]the study of family production units in pluriactivity framework (alternation of agricultural activities and tourism) offers a more adequate way of analyze structural processes in Mexico, a fundamental understanding for the subsequent development of public policies and strategies aimed at halting the decline of conditions of agriculture in the Mexican rural sector, and consequently the living conditions of its marginalized population. According to self-experience in projects linking agriculture and tourism in two rural communities on the coast of the State of Oaxaca in Mexico, a careful diagnosis that details economic, environmental, social and cultural aspects is required.