Agricultural development policies and their relationship to food security: legal challenges and their impact on the rights of farmers in northern Sinaloa, Mexico

This study aims to analyse the perceptions of farmers in five municipalities in Sinaloa, Mexico (Ahome, Guasave, Choix, El Fuerte, and Sinaloa) regarding agricultural policies, the legal framework, and food security in conditions of structural inequalities and difficulties for sustainable rural development. Using an exploratory-descriptive quantitative approach, a structured questionnaire was administered to a probabilistic sample of 314 farmers in the five municipalities. Psychometric validation using Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega coefficients (α and ω > 0.94) confirmed high internal consistency. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) revealed three latent dimensions that explain 61.56% of the total variance. The results show a high interrelation between the dimensions referring to the effectiveness of agricultural policies and the legal framework, forming a key institutional axis for the functioning of the agrifood system. In contrast, the dimension related to food security is positioned at a greater analytical distance, suggesting that its perception depends mainly on institutional performance and the actual availability of food, rather than on the regulatory guidelines them-selves. The dendrogrammatic analysis reinforces this relationship, highlighting the formation of a solid institutional block in contrast to a dimension of food security with more relative independence. It is concluded that, although there is legal certainty in land tenure, current governance fails to comply with Rawls' principle of difference, creating an implementation gap where the regulatory presence of the state does not translate into tangible food welfare for small producers.