MEXICO CITY - Mexican farmers and ranchers said Tuesday that the 10 billion dollars in support prices announced by the government will be insufficient to protect them when agricultural trade with the United States and Canada is liberalized in 2003.

The subsidies are aimed at propping up prices and aiding Mexican producers competing against highly subsidized U.S. and Canadian farm exports.

But the country's farmer and rancher associations want more subsidies, asserting the support prices are insufficient to protect a sector they describe as vital for Mexico's development.

"If in the past decade the farming sector has supported the other productive sectors, it's about time that it be rewarded with more subsidies," said Armando Paredes, president of the National Farming and Ranching Council (CNA).

Although he acknowledged the government's good intentions, Paredes said the farm sector required an additional 4.8 billion dollars in subsidies and announced that the CNA planned to lobby the legislature to obtain them.

For his part, Cruz Lopez, marketing secretary for the National Peasants Confederation (CNC), said that in addition to more subsidies, any plan needed to include incentives for the sector to recover its competitiveness.

Mexico, Canada and the United States are members of the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA).

NAFTA mandates the dismantling of most barriers to agricultural trade among the member countries in 2003.

Victor Suarez, executive director of the National Association of Farm Product Marketers, insisted on the need to keep trade barriers in place for at least another three years until the Mexican farming and ranching sectors are more developed.