Tech Industry Pressures Agricultural Water Supply
The agricultural sector in Mexico’s Bajío region is facing growing competition from the technology and data center industries over access to reliable water supplies. The region is already showing signs of water stress and has become a magnet for industries that typically require significant amounts of water, according to experts at INVEX.
Against this backdrop, efforts to modernize agriculture are also facing pressure due to their energy and water requirements, explained Ricardo Aguilar Abe, chief economist at INVEX. He added that one of the sector’s main challenges is to improve resource efficiency through the adoption of technology, which can, in turn, boost agricultural productivity.
“The challenges we’re currently facing involve modernization and resource scarcity—particularly water and electricity—or, rather, insufficient supply. We know that some sectors, such as technology, are consuming a significant share of the electricity that the agribusiness sector may need. This is an important issue to analyze,” he said.
As technology investments continue to grow in Mexico and Querétaro accounts for 72% of the country’s installed data center capacity, Aguilar Abe emphasized the need for public policies to balance the energy demands of data centers and industrial facilities with the needs of the agricultural sector.
“We also need to consider that these new technological developments, particularly in artificial intelligence, and the investments they are expected to attract will require significant amounts of water. Public policy should seek to balance the water needs of data centers, companies, and industrial complexes with the need to ensure that the agricultural sector can continue to recover,” he said.
Roberto Saldaña Rosas, INVEX’s director of agribusiness, noted that the Bajío agricultural region is located in an area where groundwater levels have declined. He therefore stressed the importance of balancing technological development, energy needs, and agri-food production.
