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Saving Mexican Citrus: What Farmers Can Learn From the Todolí Foundation

mmexicanfood

2026-01-27 12:00:00

10 min read

How the Todolí Citrus Foundation’s living collection offers a roadmap for Mexican farmers to preserve heirloom citrus, build climate resilience, and revive flavors.

Saving Mexican Citrus: What Farmers Can Learn From the Todolí Foundation

Hook: For many Mexican farmers and regional cooks, the loss of a single lime or naranja criolla variety isn’t just an agricultural setback — it’s a fading flavor in recipes, a missing ingredient at markets, and a crack in a cultural identity. With rising temperatures, new pests, and consolidated commercial nurseries, growers face hard choices: simplify to survive short-term, or steward diversity for long-term resilience?

This features piece draws a practical line from the Todolí Citrus Foundation’s work in Spain — a living collection of more than 500 citrus varieties — to the urgent need for heirloom orchard conservation across Mexico. It shows how citrus biodiversity supports climate resilience, preserves culinary heritage, and offers actionable steps Mexican farmers can take now to build resilient, profitable groves.

The Todolí Model: What a Spanish “Garden of Eden” Teaches Us

The Todolí Citrus Foundation has become world-renowned for curating an enormous living collection that includes Buddha’s hands, sudachi, finger lime and rare bergamots. That collection is more than botanical showmanship — it is an insurance policy. By maintaining diverse genetic stock in a single, managed landscape, Todolí preserves characteristics — heat tolerance, disease resistance, unusual aromas — that commercial groves may need as climate patterns shift.

Key lessons from Todolí:

Maintain a living collection of scion and rootstock material so traits can be tested and shared.
Grow trees in ecologically rich systems that support pollinators, soil life and natural pest control.
Document varieties carefully: provenance, fruit characteristics, and cultivation notes become usable data for breeders, chefs and markets (digital cataloging and spreadsheet-first tools).
Position biodiversity as both conservation and innovation — rare fruits create unique gastronomic products for premium markets.

Why Mexico Needs This Now: Climate, Disease, and Cultural Loss

Mexico is a citrus nation: from coastal Veracruz to the highland groves of Jalisco and the limes that define Yucatán cuisine. Yet threats are stacking up. Rising temperatures, more intense droughts in some regions and extreme rainfall in others, combined with the spread of pests like the Asian citrus psyllid and diseases such as huanglongbing (HLB), force growers into narrower choices.

When farmers replace diverse, locally adapted trees with a single high-yielding variety, the result can be short-term gains and long-term vulnerability. The emotional loss — the disappearance of a lime used for a regional salsa or a bitter orange that seasons a mole — is also a loss of culinary diversity that affects restaurants and home cooks.

Living collections are not a luxury; they are practical tools for adaptation.

From Garden to Grove: Practical Steps Mexican Farmers Can Take

Here are concrete, actionable steps farmers and community leaders can apply — whether you manage a family orchard, a community grove, or a small commercial operation.

Inventory your orchard.
Make a simple catalog of varieties on your land. Photograph fruits, label trees, and record local names, harvest times and flavor notes. Even a phone-based spreadsheet or a voice memo system works. This small investment creates a baseline for monitoring diversity loss and selecting material for conservation — and can be paired with spreadsheet-first mobile tools for searchable records.
Establish a small living collection on-farm.
Set aside a low-production area (0.2–1 ha) as a genetic bank where rare scions and experimental rootstocks are grafted and observed. Prioritize varieties with unique culinary traits and those that have shown tolerance to drought or pests.
Implement basic nursery hygiene and propagation practices.
Healthy propagation reduces disease spread. Use clean tools, disinfect grafting knives and label each graft stick. Learn simple grafting methods — cleft, whip-and-tongue and bud grafting — and practice with a mentor. Consider cold storage protocols for budwood when moving material between regions.
Choose climate-smart rootstocks.
Rootstock choice affects drought tolerance, soil compatibility and disease resistance. Work with local extension services, universities or private nurseries to source rootstocks proven in similar microclimates. Where available, maintain trials with Poncirus or hybrid rootstocks that can add cold or disease tolerance.
Design agroecological orchards, not monocultures.
Integrate shade trees, legume groundcovers, and nectar plants for pollinators. Use contour planting and microcatchments to harvest rainwater. These measures reduce stress on trees and increase biodiversity which helps control pests naturally.
Build community nurseries and budwood exchange networks.
Working alone is slow. Form cooperative nurseries or participate in exchange networks to multiply heirloom scions under standardized hygiene. Formalized exchanges can include documentation protocols that help track origin and health.
Document flavors, recipes and cultural knowledge.
Pair botanical conservation with culinary documentation. Record local uses of each variety — recipes, fermentation methods, traditional drinks — to create market demand and cultural value for heirloom fruit.
Use markets and chefs to fund conservation.
Specialty restaurants and boutique processors pay premiums for unique citrus. Collaborate with local chefs, food entrepreneurs and markets to develop preserves, aguas frescas and candied peels that highlight heirloom identities (see neighborhood market strategies and modern revenue systems).

Technical Guidance: Grafting, Rootstocks and Nursery Protocols

For growers ready to act, a few practical technical notes make the difference between success and wasted effort.

Grafting basics: Select healthy scion wood from mature, disease-free trees. Use at least 2–3 buds per scion for bud grafting. Keep scion material cool and shaded, and graft promptly. Sterilize blades with alcohol between cuts.
Nursery hygiene: Use clean potting media, rotate crops in beds, and inspect nursery plants weekly for pests. Quarantine new arrivals for several weeks.
Rootstock trials: Run small replicated trials testing 3–5 rootstocks under local conditions. Measure growth, yield, and stress indicators over 2–3 seasons before scaling up.
Post-graft care: Ensure adequate irrigation and shade for the first 6–12 months. Gradually acclimate grafted plants to full sun.

Agroecology in Practice: Making Orchards More Resilient

Agroecological practices are central to turning diversity into resilience. Specific systems-level changes include:

Polyculture rows: Rotate citrus with nitrogen-fixing trees and shade trees to protect soil and microclimate.
Water-smart infrastructure: Build swales, retention ponds, and microirrigation to buffer seasonal variability.
Habitat for beneficials: Plant native flowers and small ponds to encourage pollinators, frogs and predatory insects that suppress pests.
Reduced chemical dependence: Prioritize physical and biological controls and only use targeted treatments when necessary, following integrated pest management (IPM).

Conservation & Policy: Scale-Up Strategies for Mexico Agriculture

Individual farms are crucial, but systemic change requires networks, policy support and funding. Key strategies include:

Community genebanks: Local repositories that store budwood and knowledge provide redundancy across regions.
Public–private partnerships: Universities, NGOs and specialty buyers can fund pilot collections and nursery training.
Regulatory clarity: Simplify legal pathways for safe exchange of plant material while maintaining phytosanitary safeguards.
Funding streams: Leverage climate adaptation funds, agricultural extension grants, and gastronomy tourism programs to pay for conservation efforts.

2026 Trends & Why This Is the Moment to Act

As of early 2026, several trends shape the window of opportunity:

Accelerated rootstock breeding: Public and private breeding programs in 2024–2025 prioritized drought and disease tolerance, producing candidate rootstocks now entering field trials across North America. Smallholder access to these materials via cooperative nurseries is a near-term priority.
Digital cataloging: Low-cost mobile tools now allow farmers to create searchable catalogs of orchard material, linking fruit descriptors to GPS, photos and tasting notes. These systems enable traceability and marketing of heirloom produce.
Climate finance for smallholders: Early 2026 has seen more accessible adaptation grants targeting biodiversity-based resilience in agriculture, making it financially feasible to establish living collections and agroecological infrastructure.
Gastronomic demand: Chefs and specialty buyers increasingly seek unique citrus aromatics and terroir-driven fruit. This trend creates premium markets for heirloom varieties.

Case Examples: How a Mexican Pilot Project Could Look

Imagine a pilot in coastal Veracruz that pairs three elements: a community nursery, a living collection of 30 heirloom varieties, and a partnership with a local culinary school. The pilot would:

Collect scions and oral histories from elder growers;
Run rootstock trials with 3 promising candidates over two seasons;
Train 20 growers in grafting and agroecological orchard design;
Develop branded preserves and citrus-based condiments sold through a regional market and a network of restaurants (revenue partnerships).

Such a project channels conservation into income and strengthens local food systems — a living example of how conservation dovetails with economic opportunity.

How Chefs, Buyers and Consumers Can Help

Conserving citrus biodiversity is not only a farmer’s job. Chefs, restaurateurs and consumers shape demand. Practical ways the food sector can support heirloom orchards include:

Prioritizing heirloom citrus on menus, with storytelling about provenance;
Buying preserves, zests and oils made from small-batch orchards to create market incentives (consider sustainable packaging and small-run labeling);
Partnering with growers for experimental crops and limited-run tastings that translate rare aromas into economic value (use street-market micro-event playbooks for launch planning).

Overcoming Barriers: Common Obstacles and Solutions

Resistance often centers on cost, labor and short-term risk. Here are solutions grounded in experience:

Barrier: Cost of establishing a living collection. Solution: Start micro: 10–20 trees as demonstration plots, then scale with group funding (collective revenue models).
Barrier: Uncertainty about demand. Solution: Pre-sell preserves or secure chef partners before planting orchard expansions.
Barrier: Risk of disease spread through exchanges. Solution: Adopt quarantine steps, simple molecular or nursery-level testing where possible, and partner with extension services for phytosanitary training.

Measuring Success: What Resilience Looks Like

Trackable indicators help justify ongoing investment. Consider monitoring:

Varietal richness on-farm (number of distinct types maintained);
Yield stability across climate events (relative yield decline compared to monoculture plots);
Number of market outlets for heirloom products (market strategy case studies); and
Farmer and youth engagement in nurseries and documentation activities.

Conclusion: From Todolí to Mexico — A Roadmap for Action

The Todolí Citrus Foundation demonstrates that a living collection and biodiversity-forward management are powerful tools against uncertainty. For Mexican growers, the message is clear: preserving heirloom citrus is a form of climate adaptation, cultural stewardship and market innovation all at once.

Practical, incremental actions — inventorying, creating small living collections, practicing clean grafting, running rootstock trials, and building market linkages — can move an entire region from vulnerability to resilience. In 2026, with better breeding materials, digital tools, and more climate finance available, the time to act is now.

Actionable Takeaways:

Start a 10–20 tree living collection this season; document every variety.
Begin a simple rootstock trial with 3 candidates and track results for 2 years.
Form or join a local budwood exchange and agree on quarantine and hygiene rules (community exchange models).
Partner with a chef or market to create demand for heirloom citrus products (market playbooks).

To protect the flavors that define Mexican regional cuisine and to build groves that can weather the unpredictable future, farmers, chefs, researchers and consumers must work together. Todolí shows one pathway — Mexico can build many more, grounded in local knowledge and scientific support.

Call to Action

If you manage an orchard, start by making an inventory this month. If you are a chef or buyer, commit to sourcing one heirloom citrus product this year. And if you’re a policymaker or funder, consider supporting community genebanks and nursery training programs in 2026. Join a growing network of growers and food professionals who are turning conservation into culinary opportunity — because saving citrus is saving taste, culture and climate resilience.

Get involved: Contact your local agricultural extension, start a budwood exchange, or partner with conservation organizations to begin a living collection. The next decade will decide which varieties survive; the actions we take now will keep Mexico’s citrus future flavorful and resilient.

mexicanfood

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