Climate Change Alters Yucatán's Farming Calendar

Yucatán’s farmers are tearing up the old planting calendar. Decades of predictable seasons have given way to erratic rain and shifting temperatures, forcing growers across the state to rethink when — and how — they plant, according to the state’s Secretaría de Desarrollo Rural (Seder).

The four seasons that once guided the agricultural cycle are no longer reliable, Seder says, pushing farmers to adjust dates, crop cycles and growing methods to avoid losses. There’s no new official planting calendar yet. Instead, producers are leaning on tools to reduce their dependence on rainfall: irrigation infrastructure, improved seed varieties, protected agriculture, staggered planting and dates set according to weather forecasts rather than tradition.

Henequen, the plant that built Mérida’s 19th-century fortunes, remains one of the region’s most climate-resistant crops, Seder officials note. But the agency argues the bigger fix isn’t picking hardier crops — it’s changing how farming is done altogether, through better seeds, integrated pest management, expanded irrigation and more training for growers.

Seder director Edgardo Medina Rodríguez also addressed a quieter worry: who’s going to do this work in the future. The agricultural workforce has aged, he said, but interest hasn’t disappeared. Degrees in agricultural engineering and veterinary medicine remain in demand, and graduates are bringing new techniques back to the field. Whether the children of longtime farmers stay in the business is harder to predict, he said, since interests vary too widely to generalize. Yucatán’s broader economic shift — new jobs in both rural towns and areas near the city — is also reshaping who works the land.

To keep young people engaged, the state is leaning on university partnerships and programs like backyard-scale production and a livestock-sector revival initiative. More than 25 students from technical institutes in Conkal and Tizimín, along with the veterinary school at the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, are working as field technicians, advising livestock producers directly. The federal Jóvenes Construyendo el Futuro program adds another route in for young people considering agriculture as a career.

Food security is a mixed picture. Yucatán produces enough pork, poultry, eggs and some fruits and vegetables to cover local demand, Medina Rodríguez said, but corn remains a major gap: the state imported US$262 million worth in 2024, according to Data México trade figures. That single import line outweighs the roughly US$63.4 million in agricultural exports Yucatán sent abroad that year — citrus products, vegetables, pickles, melons, watermelon and papaya, sold mainly to the United States, Canada, France, Japan and Poland. Animal-based exports, including fish, seafood, honey and milk, brought in just over US$111 million, still short of the corn bill alone.

The trade imbalance runs deeper: Yucatán imported more than US$158 million in pork, poultry, fish, seafood and crustaceans in 2024 — products the state also exports as surplus, according to Seder. It’s the kind of gap officials say reflects a food system in transition, one where old assumptions about what grows when, and what the state needs from outside, are being rewritten alongside the calendar. For more on how growers here have already begun adjusting to unpredictable rain, Yucatán Magazine previously reported on a milpa farmer who modifies the milpa after his planting season was upended.

Quick Facts

Yucatán imported US$262 million in corn in 2024, more than its total agricultural exports that year
The state exported roughly US$63.4 million in agricultural products, led by citrus, vegetables and melons
Top export markets: the United States, Canada, France, Japan and Poland
More than 25 students from Conkal, Tizimín and UADY’s veterinary program work as field technicians statewide

With reporting from Diario de Yucatán, with trade data from Data México.