Statement by the President on the Signing of an Agricultural Agreement With Mexico

The agricultural credit agreement we sign here today is an historic step forward in cooperation between our two countries under the Alianza para el Progreso.

It is especially significant that this agreement is in the field of agriculture. For improvement of the life of the campesino is one of the central goals of the Mexican revolution-and a major part of the Alliance for Progress. Here in Mexico you have carried forward the largest and most impressive land reform program in the entire history of the Hemisphere. Since the beginning of your revolution more than 133,000,000 acres of land have been distributed to almost two million people. And never has this program been more vigorously administered than during the last three years when the government of Lopez Mateos distributed 24 million acres to hundreds of thousands of campesinos.

The tangible results of your land reform can be witnessed in the 223% rise in agricultural output over the last two decades--a rise which has made Mexico virtually self-sufficient in foodstuffs and a major exporter of agricultural products. It can be seen too in the new hope which your revolution has brought to all those who work the land-the hope and expectation that they and their children will have ever-widening opportunities for education, health and a rising standard of living.

But if much has been done, much remains to be done. Farmers who own their own land need credit and technical assistance so that productivity and income can be raised. Land tenure must be made increasingly secure and agricultural units made economically stronger. New research programs and new marketing systems must help bring a new life to those who live on the land.

All these things--and much more--are part of your impressive agricultural development program. And I am glad that through today's agreement we will be able to assist you in this most important effort. This twenty million dollar loan will be added to your present agricultural credit program--a program designed to help the small farmer buy equipment, improve irrigation, increase storage, and gain access to those resources he so desperately needs to improve his income and raise the productivity of the land.

Today's agreement is another tangible reaffirmation of my country's unyielding and continuing commitment to work with the Mexican Government in its vast development effort to provide more jobs for its workers, a better life for its farmers, and to help Mexico rise to its inevitable high rank among the industrialized nations of the world.

And I hope also that this signing will be heeded beyond your borders and our Hemisphere. For as your own Mexican revolution has so vividly demonstrated--until all the campesinos of this Hemisphere have the opportunity to own the land they till--until they are given the resources to till that land productively--until every rural family has an opportunity for health and a decent income, and education for its children--until that day the peaceful revolution of the Americas will not be complete.