The ‘chinamperos’ have provided Mexico City with food for generations. Do they have a future?

ONU - 12/04
Xochimilco, nestled in the heart of Mexico City, is home to the ‘chinamperos,’ farmers who have used indigenous techniques to grow food for centuries. Today, their way of life is under threat from environmental degradation, urban expansion and climate change.

The chinamperos get their name from ‘chinampas,’ the human-made islands of floating gardens on which they farm. It was the Aztecs who discovered that, by layering mud, plants and branches on shallow lake beds, they could create highly fertile plots of land.

For hundreds of years, the chinampas sustained farming communities, but the climate crisis, a lack of enthusiasm for farming amongst younger people and the huge, growing water needs of the metropolis, could combine to ensure that this ancestral way of life is under threat.

A team from from UN University met with the farmers of Xochimilco ahead of the release of the 2025 Interconnected Disaster Risks report which tracks how disasters are linked to each o...
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