Lecture 15: Land and the search for development Flashcards
(9 cards)
Importance land in developing countries
- Primary sector is crucial in the Global South.
- Small-scale subsistence agriculture is widespread.
- Urban bias in development policy (e.g. investment in public sector and human capital) disadvantages rural areas (Lipton).
- 77% of world’s extreme poor live in rural areas.
- Access to land is crucial for the poor, with strong gender bias.
What is land reform?
= legislation to redistribute ownership or rights to farmland to benefit the poor by improving status, power, income
e.g pre-socialist land property China
Why is land unevenly distributed in the developing world?
Spanish and Portuguese colonisation
* Portuguese: route and point development, trade from coastal strongholds, no inland administration.
* Spanish: mining (silver, gold) and plantations → need for labour force → land and labour management.
Uneven land distribution: historical roots
Latin America and Philippines: Spanish colonial system
* Encomiendas: land/population granted to colonists and Church.
* Repartimiento: forced labour systems.
* Haciendas: large estates with local labour.
* Caciques: indigenous leaders managing tribute/labour.
* Resulted in latifundia (large estates) and minifundia (small household plots).
* Portuguese imitated with fazendas in Brazil using slave labour.
Sub-Saharan Africa:
* Lineage-based collective ownership.
* Partial privatisation by colonists.
* State ownership after decolonisation.
* Result: three conflicting land rights systems.
Asia:
* Feudal/hydraulic land tenure → leaseholds, urban rentiers.
* Partial colonial confiscation.
* Ownership largely maintained (except socialist states).
Land reform
* Access to land = access to livelihood (subsistence) or production (commercial).
* Unequal land ownership is historically built.
* Redistributing land = redistributing wealth.
Subsistence-oriented reforms
- Create small-scale family farms.
- Output mainly for household consumption.
- Multi-cropping.
- Low market dependency/risk.
- Motto: land belongs to those who work on it.
Plan-oriented (socialist) reforms
- Large collective farms.
- Output goes to other sectors (food for workers, inputs for industry).
- Local self-sufficiency.
- Plan decides production/consumption.
- Motto: land belongs to the state.
Market-oriented reforms
- Develop land markets (buy/rent).
- Assumes competition leads to optimal farm size, crop choice, innovation.
- Output for market.
- Motto: land belongs to who can buy it.
Soviet and Chinese land reforms
Phase 1
* Dispossess large landowners.
* Redistribute land to peasants (including landless).
* Create family farming (subsistence).
* Goal: consolidate revolution by allying with peasants.
Phase 2
* Form cooperatives → collectivisation.
* Plan-oriented development.
* Goal: control successful farmers, direct agriculture output for industrial needs.
Later phase
* Collectivisation failed: no competition, low productivity.
* Transition to market economy: land market creation.
* Aim: stimulate productivity and growth via market forces.
Market-oriented reform and competition
Market requires free production/consumption choices.
Price mechanism selects winners/losers.
Competition drives productivity, innovation, and knowledge.
How to win?
* Productivity increase → more output per labour → price drops → only most productive survive.
* Innovation → new product meets latent demand → high price = innovation rent.
* Labour exploitation → low wages, long hours → same effect as productivity increase.
Capitalism pushes for:
* Productivity to pressure workers.
* Industrial agriculture and GMOs to replace subsistence farming.
Alternatives to land reform
Technological
* Agro-industry vs agro-ecology.
* Agro-ecology = polyculture, manual labour replaces chemicals.
Geographical
* Frontier development (e.g. Brazil).
Expand into new lands → deforestation, habitat fragmentation (e.g. fishbone pattern in Rondônia).
