MEXICO CITY – Mexico has created a special 5,000-member police force to fight agricultural, industrial and business crime.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the new force will be known as the Gendarmerie and is made up of new recruits with an average age of 28.  The Mexican army trained the new force with its commanding officers receiving training from police forces from Colombia, Chile, Spain, France and the U.S.

“The officers of the new gendarme force… are trained to serve the population on foot, and on horseback, in rural, urban, tourist and border zones,” President Enrique Peña Nieto said.

This should be good news for farmers. “If there is organized crime that could disrupt production, then the Gendarmerie will be there,” said Monte Alejandro Rubido, Director of the National Security Commission.

The Wall Street Journal reports that one example of the difficulties that farmers in Mexico have faced is in Michoacan where the Knights Templar cartel told lime farmers when to plant and took a cut on every product.  “The planters, pickers, packing house and distributors all had to pay a cut for the right to operate or ship to the criminals,” Rubido said.

Banana growers in the Mexican Gulf state of Tabasco have also come under gang pressure.  Rubito told the Wall Street Journal the when banana harvest season starts, extortion and kidnappings rise to some of the highest rates in Mexico.

The National Statistics Institute of Mexico estimated in 2012 that crime cost the country about $16.5 billion, or 1.3% of GDP.

The Gendarmerie will not be able to fix the problem overnight, but hopefully they will be able to help farmers working under these conditions.