On 25 March, the Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development announced the guaranteed price of white maize for medium-scale farms (with land up to 50 hectares and a production volume of 600 tonnes) within the framework of the Support Programme for Food Sovereignty. The purchases will be made at MXN 4 150 per tonne, mainly in Sinaloa, southern Sonora and Tamaulipas states that are key producing areas of irrigated maize crops of the current minor “spring/summer” season. The Government aims to benefit some 25 000 farmers and complements the existing programme for small farms (FPMA Food Policies). Due to lower availability of irrigation water at planting time, the area sown of the current minor season, which accounts for about 30 percent of the annual production, is estimated to be well below average.