Brigham Young University signed a 15-year agreement with the Mexican Ministry of Education recently to start a program for small-scale agriculture in Mexico, according to James B. Jensen, director of BYU's Ezra Taft Benson Agriculture and Food Institute.

Carlos I. Perez Torres, director general of the National Agricultural Technical College and High School system in the Mexican Ministry of Education, visited BYU to sign the agreement.The small-scale agriculture program developed by the Benson Institute is designed to help farmers produce all the food necessary to feed a family of seven by cultivating small, two-acre plots of land, said Luis Espinosa, public relations director at the Benson Institute.

"We've had a program with Mexico for a long time, but now [with the North American Pact that opened up free trade agreementsT there's a critical interest in our help," Brother Jensen said.

While some small-scale programs already are being carried out successfully in several Latin American countries, Brother Jensen said efforts will be expanded to greatly improve nutrition, stabilize families and triple the cash flow of farmers.

The Mexican Ministry of Education is now interested in integrating the small-scale agriculture program into more than 40 agricultural colleges, Brother Jensen said. The ministry hopes to expand the program gradually to agricultural-technical high schools and ideally to all small farmers in Mexico.

Brother Jensen said Mexicans are anxious to promote small-scale agriculture, because it will strengthen one of the weakest links in their food production chain. He said although Mexico exports vast quantities of food, it has problems feeding its own people.

The small-scale agriculture program works, Brother Jensen explained, because it caters to the specific needs of small Latin American farms instead of trying to translate the large-scale farming of the United States into a small-scale plan for Latin America. In comparison with the average 2.5-acre farm in Latin America, U.S. farms range from 300 to 10,000 acres.

The Benson Institute's small-scale agricultural program shows that everything a family needs for a completely balanced diet can be grown on a 2.5-acre plot. Then any excess can be sold. Instead of the program being based on money and market forces, it is based on the nutritional needs of the family.

Brother Espinosa said one of the Benson Institute goals is to put its agricultural technology solely in the hands of Latin Americans, letting it branch out locally instead of always having it originate at BYU.

"There is no limit to success if you don't care who gets credit for it," Brother Jensen said.

The agreement with Mexico, signed April 13, establishes a local resource base for the program, said Richard Brimhall, associate director of the institute.

One of the agricultural campuses in Mexico is already being established as an international center for small-scale agriculture. At this site, teams from every Mexican state can come to be trained, Brother Brimhall said. As the small-scale agricultural program takes root, teams from other countries will be trained at the center.