The last five years have been hard for the Mexican city of Ojinaga, a community of about 20,000 people located across Rio Grande from Presidio, Texas. About one-third of the population has been lost to a declining economy and soil salinity problems that make it difficult to grow crops on the area's 20,000 agricultural acres. Trouble handling sewage compounds the region's woes. Scientists with NMSU's Agricultural Experiment Station are seeking support from private and federal organizations on both sides of the border to help provide a solution for simultaneously clearing up several problems in Ojinaga. The project, which still requires funding, includes planting fast- growing eucalyptus trees and irrigating with a combination of sewage effluent and water from the Rio Conchos.
Eucalyptus trees are good for rehabilitating the land because they absorb excess salts.
Planting eucalyptus on about one-twelfth of the agricultural land would handle the community's sludge. But, the pulp mill could use wood produced on as much as 100 percent of Ojinaga's agricultural land. This project may someday serve as a training center, because it will incorporate technologies that could be easily transferred to other small, struggling rural communities, Mexal says. Both numbers and potato chips were crunched in research that could help American food producers understand potential buyers for their products in Mexico. Agricultural economists with NMSU's Agricultural Experiment Station asked 300 shoppers in a Chihuahua City mall to stop, shop, and snack.