Agrarian Reform In Peru

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Agrarian reform is the government administration of possession and use of land. In most cases the redistributed land is generally used for agricultural purposes. Over the course of Peru’s history, land has been expropriated from one small group of land owners to the individuals who worked the land. Peru was involved in a series of different reformations of land in the 20th century.

Before reform the land ownership structure in Peru was very uneven. Overall in 1961, large estates were responsible for only 1.2% of the peruvian farms, but controlled more than 52% of the land. The peasant communities, on the other hand, were responsible for 84.6% of the farms and controlled less than 41% of the land. The percentages were even more lopsided when it came to the coastal segment of Peru. Plantation only represented 5.4% of the farms but were in possession of 86% of the land. Because of these numbers land ownership was obviously unequal and greatly inefficient. The landlords had far too much land and not enough labor, while the peasants had too little land and too much labor.

The first system came about in the 1950’s. This eliminated the old system of debt peonage. Under debt peonage, debtors would work to pay off loans or debt with direct labor instead of money. It had been in effect from the 1500’s up until the first reform. With agrarian reform these debtors were able to gain titles to the land that they had worked on.

The second reform occurred in 1968. This was led by colonel Juan Velasco Alavarado. The center of his control from 1968 - 1975 revolved around political and economic strategy. Both of the strategies main focus was agrarian reform. It was once again used to expropriate farms and diversify the ownership of land in Peru. Velasco used the reform of land to break apart the elite and politically powerful land owners and facilitate a more governmentally cooperative society. His government then implemented a system of price controls that in the eyes of many did more harm than good. They adopted a program of import substitution industrialization. It was a program that would substitute imported goods for locally produced goods. This was overall unsuccessful and ran the government into deeper debt. When the reform was first put into effect, the government expected productivity to rise but due to the overall inefficiency of the now small farms the agricultural sector could not keep up with the growth rate.

In the 1980’s much of the land moved from a cooperative with the government to private holdings. This did not cause Peru to revert back to the old agrarian structure, but led to a more equal distribution of land ownership. In the same decade, Hernando De Soto and the Institute for Liberty and Democracy changed the property system in Peru. This change led to more than 1.2 million families being given titles to the land that they worked. Land was expropriated starting with the largest plantations. This sent out a message showing that the government was serious in their efforts to positively affect the uneven land ownership in Peru. Agrarian reform in this decade, aside from helping to bring equality to land ownership was also responsible for counterterrorism against the Shining Path, a terrorist group in Peru.

Agrarian reform did complete a massive restructuring in Peru, but the extent of the positive effects can be controversial.

[edit] References

Kay, Cristobal (1982).Achievements and contradictions of the peruvian agrarian reform. Journal of Development Studies. 18, 141-170, 30

Eguren, Fernando (1998, Feb). ARnet Regional Reports South America 1998. Retrieved March 26, 2008, from International Land Coalition Web site: http://www.landcoalition.org/program/arnetr98cepes.htm

(1992, Sep). Peru land reform. Retrieved March 20, 2008, from Countries of the world Web site: http://www.photius.com/countries/peru/economy/peru_economy_land_reform.html