Alternative title: agrarian reform





Objectives of reform


Political and social objectives








Economic objectives




Types of reform

Whether it is called land reform or agrarian reform, the operational concept covers five main types of reform, classified according to whether they deal with land title and terms of holding, land distribution, the scale of operation, the pattern of cultivation, or supplementary measures such as credit, marketing, or extension services.

Grimani Breviari [Credit: Bettmann/Corbis]Grimani BreviariBettmann/CorbisReforms concerned with the title to land and the terms of holding reflect a transition from tradition-bound to formal and contractual systems of landholding. Their implementation involves property surveys, recording of titles, and provisions to free the landholder from restrictions or obligations imposed by tradition. Property surveys are conducted wherever land is held by a tribe or clan or where reallocation of cultivable land routinely follows tradition. In these situations the landholder may lack the incentive to improve the land because the right of disposal belongs to the tribe, clan, or feudal lord, as in medieval Europe and in parts of present-day Africa and the South Pacific islands. Such reform affects landholding in at least three ways: it may increase security of tenure and hence incentives; it may reorganize the system of inheritance in favour of offspring; and it may bring land onto the market so that land transactions become possible. This reform, however, has little immediate effect on the scale of operation, but it does facilitate future land concentration and fragmentation. In countries where the terms of holding and tenancy are regulated by tradition, reform may seek to convert tenancy into a contractual agreement that offers some protection to the tenant and more security and incentive to improve the land and advance technology, as in Japan, India, and Pakistan.

The most common type of reform involves the redistribution of land titles from one individual to another, from individuals to a group or community at large, or from a group to individuals. The land of one landlord may be redistributed to many individuals, as in Egypt, Iran, or Ireland. Or the land of individuals may be reallocated in favour of the community at large by abolishing private ownership, as in Cuba. Or, again, public land may be distributed to individuals, as in various parts of Latin America.

The impact of redistribution on the scale of operations and on marketability of the land depends on the form it takes and the restrictions attached to it. If the redistributed farm was previously operated as a unit, its division means fragmentation and reduction of scale; however, if it was operated in fragments by tenants, transfer of title to the tenants would not affect the scale. The final results depend on the measures taken to prevent adverse effects.

land reform: cooperative workers drying coffee in Kenya [Credit: Brian Seed from TSW—CLICK/Chicago]land reform: cooperative workers drying coffee in KenyaBrian Seed from TSW—CLICK/ChicagoLand-tenure reform, of course, can improve the scale of operations by enlarging the farm or by reducing it. Enlargement applies when the holding is increased in size, either by adding to it or by consolidating its fragmented parts. Farm consolidation involves reallocation of the total farmland within a region by land exchange, sale, or lease such that no one loses and all gain by increasing efficiency. The scale of operations may be increased by pooling resources, as in farm cooperatives and collectives that offer facilities otherwise inaccessible to a small farm.

An equally common approach is to divide large, extensively cultivated farms into smaller and more intensively cultivable units. Reduction of the scale, however, has potential problems since it may result in excessively small units or in the breakup of efficiently run farms. Operations below the optimum level may inhibit improvements in technology, capital investment, and diversification.

Changes in the pattern of cultivation relate directly to cultivation, land yield, and labour productivity. While other types of reform may influence productivity indirectly by enhancing security of tenure and the scale of operation, improvements in the pattern of cultivation affect productivity directly, through advances in technology, improved irrigation, and the application of chemicals.

Technological advance usually implies mechanization, although it may be biological and organizational only, as in crop rotation, reconditioning of the soil, improved seeding, or better utilization of available technology. The state of technology determines the level of productivity or the ratio between outputs and inputs. More advanced technology permits the cultivation of more land per unit of labour, deeper plowing, better timing of farm operations, reclamation of areas previously inaccessible, and possibly wider diversification of the crops than previously attainable. By easing the physical burden of farm work, it helps to conserve human energy. Improved technology may also be the most direct way to modify tradition without an open confrontation or a political revolution. Mechanization and advanced technology may, of course, cause displacement of labour, unemployment, or the absorption of capital at the expense of other sectors, at least in the short run; in the long run, the positive effects tend to prevail.

Improvements in irrigation include increasing the water supply, draining swampy land, and regulating the quantity and quality of water flow. Irrigation is especially important in that it involves large investments and infringes on tenure rights, both matters that invite public responsibility and intervention. Irrigation and technology are closely related to the use of fertilizer and other chemicals. Chemicals may be difficult to apply without irrigation, and neither may be practical unless farming technology has advanced beyond relatively primitive methods. Improvement of the pattern of cultivation may be inhibited, however, by traditional attitudes, the lack of skills, or the scarcity of capital. Another difficulty is that changes in the pattern of cultivation are usually long-term investments that may be too slow to satisfy immediate pressures for reform.

Many improvements and changes may have to be implemented in areas outside the immediate sphere of agriculture, such as credit, marketing, and education. Unless the farmer is able and ready to take advantage of new opportunities and his product can be marketed profitably, reform efforts may be futile. Costly or inaccessible credit and the excessive charges of middlemen increase the relative costs of farming. Therefore, supervised credit, subsidies, and low-interest loans that help to replace traditional sources of credit have been common, and credit and marketing cooperatives and market regulation have been used to protect farmers against exploitation by middlemen.

Finally, improvements in general education are essential in any reform that involves the modernization of agriculture. Extension services, literacy promotion programs, the teaching of home economics, and vocational training are of special importance in helping the young and unemployed and in providing skilled labour for industry.


Evaluation and criteria of success

Agrarian reform is a complex process of directed change, and its effects touch society in many ways. Therefore its evaluation may be difficult because the various social, political, and economic objectives may be inconsistent with each other. Even champions of reform and planners may have different ideas about it. Moreover, there are no generally accepted criteria for determining the success of such a program, nor adequate tools for measuring its progress.

Economic criteria

Economic indicators and criteria are basically the requisites of economic development. Economic development may be defined as a sustained increase in and achievement of a given level of per capita real income. To be sustained, the rise of per capita real income must be accompanied by changes in the economic and social structures of society, increase in total investment (capital formation), higher productivity, and full employment.

Capital formation in agriculture implies that more resources will be put at the disposal of the farmer in the form of machinery, fertilizers, and irrigation and drainage facilities, all of which contribute to the productive capacity and productivity of the land and the worker. Because capital formation partly depends on domestic saving, a higher rate of capital formation may thus be an indicator of the success of the reform in aiding economic development.

Another indicator is change in land yield or labour productivity. A rise in yield or productivity implies higher efficiency, better use of resources, and an advance in the state of technology. It also suggests an increase in the level of income and potential saving and investment. In fact, the increase in productivity may be the most important single indicator of the contribution made by reform to economic development. Change in the level of rural employment or unemployment provides another indicator, which should be reflected in the level and distribution of income.

Finally, an important indicator may be the change in agriculture’s responsiveness to the demands of industry and manufacturing. The ability of agriculture to provide labour, food, industrial raw materials, and a market for industrial products is a significant measure of its contribution to industrialization and development.

Social criteria

Social and political accomplishments are more difficult to measure. One of the important indicators may be the degree of peasant participation in activities such as voting, representation, and decision making. Social and political stability, or the tendency to change governments by constitutional and nonviolent means and continuity of the social and political order without resort to force, are other indicators.

But these various indicators can only suggest that change has taken place. The results depend on the magnitude and relevance of the change. Assuming that measurement is feasible, three approaches to evaluation may be followed: the goal achievement approach, the perceived achievement approach, and the closing-the-gap (integrative) approach.

Goal achievement considers a program successful to the extent that it realizes the goals specified prior to the reform. Probably the most common economic goal is maximization, according to which efficiency dictates that reform should continue up to the point where the marginal benefit of reform is equal to its marginal cost. Land distribution in this case will continue up to the point where its net benefit is zero. Another common goal is to realize incremental gains as the reform proceeds. The reform would be successful to the extent that the effects have been positive. A 20-percent increase in capital formation in a capital-poor economy, however, may be more significant than a 20-percent increase in a capital-rich economy. Similarly, a 20-percent decline in the number of dissatisfied peasants in a peaceful or democratic society may be more conducive to stability and harmony than a 20-percent decline in a radical or violent society. Hence, this approach requires that a critical minimum achievement be specified as a criterion of success in each situation. Or, as a third alternative, the evaluation may compare the results with targets proclaimed in advance. The degree of success will be the extent to which those targets have been realized. Problems, however, will arise, especially when the goals happen to be contradictory or change over time.

Perceived achievement considers reform successful if the relevant parties perceive their goals as having been satisfied. One of the main objectives of reform has been to reduce conflict and promote harmony, both of which depend on whether a person or group perceives its expectations as fulfilled, whether it has hope that these expectations will be fulfilled, and whether it is able to express these expectations openly. The evaluation, therefore, is primarily subjective, and the net impact can be assessed only by synthesizing the views of the parties affected, including those who might be satisfied to have their losses minimized, just as much as others would want their gains maximized.

The closing-the-gap approach considers a reform successful to the extent that it closes the gap between the sector subject to reform and the more advanced sectors in society; in other words, reform would be expected to help integrate agriculture with the rest of the economy and the rural population with the urban community in terms of opportunities and levels of living. In this sense the reform would remove the dualism between the agrarian and the nonagrarian, between the technologically backward and the technologically advanced, and thus would increase labour mobility in response to the demands of the economy and development.

History of land reform

The ideas and principles discussed so far may be illustrated by a selective survey of the history of land reform.

Ancient reforms






Modern European reforms

The French Revolution brought a new era in the history of land reform. Reform meant dealing with survivals of the medieval tenures that had left a common heritage in most European countries and, through them, in the colonies. The measures and approaches varied from place to place and period to period.

On the eve of the Revolution, French society was polarized, with the nobility and clergy on one side and the rising business class on the other. The middle class was relatively small, especially in the rural areas. The majority of the peasants were hereditary tenants, either censiers, who paid a fixed money rent, or mainmortables, or serfs, who paid rent in the form of labour services, corvée, of about three days a week. The peasants paid various other feudal dues and taxes, from which the nobility and clergy were exempted. The Revolution overthrew the ancien régime and the feudal order and introduced land reform.

The reform repealed feudal tenures, freed all persons from serfdom, abolished feudal courts, and cancelled all payments not based on real property, including tithes. Rents based on real property were redeemable. Once the law had been passed, however, the peasants seized the land and refused to pay any rents or redemption fees; in 1792 all payments were finally cancelled. Land of the clergy and political emigrants was confiscated and sold at auction, together with common land. The terms of sale, however, often favoured the wealthy, which may explain the rise of a new class of large landowners among the supporters of Napoleon.

The social and political objectives of the reformers were fully realized. The censiers and serfs became owners. Feudalism was destroyed, and the new regime won peasant support. The economic effects, however, were limited. Incentives could not be increased substantially since the peasants already had full security of tenure prior to the reform. The scale of operations was not changed; and no facilities for credit, marketing, or capital formation were created. The major achievements were the reinforcement of private, individual ownership and perpetuation of the small family farm as a basis of democracy. The small family farm has characterized French agriculture ever since.

There were other reforms in most European countries. England resolved its land problems by the enclosure movement, which drove the small peasants into the towns, consolidated landholdings, and promoted large-scale operation and private ownership. Sweden and Denmark pioneered between 1827 and 1830 by peacefully abolishing village compulsion, or imposed labour service, and the strip system of cultivation, by consolidating the land, and by dividing the commons among the peasants. Though influenced by the French Revolution, only after the 1848 revolutions did Germany, Italy, and Spain free the peasants and redistribute the land. Reform in Ireland took a whole century before substantive results were achieved, in the mid-1930s, after Ireland was divided into Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State. The tenants were converted into owners by subsidized purchase of the land.

Alexander III [Credit: ©]Alexander III© first major Russian reform was the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. At the time of emancipation about 45 percent of the land was private property and the remainder was held as allotment land, cultivated in units averaging 9.5 acres (3.8 hectares) by the peasant serfs against rent in kind and labour, payable to feudal lords. In contrast, fewer than 1,000 noble families owned about 175,000,000 acres (70,000,000 hectares) and received rent therefrom. Conflict between such extremes of poverty and wealth caused restlessness among the peasants and rendered reform inevitable. As Tsar Alexander II put it: “It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to await the day when it will begin to abolish itself from below.”

The Emancipation Act of 1861 abolished serfdom and distributed allotment land among the peasants. The homestead became hereditary property of the individual, but the field land was vested in the village mir as a whole. The peasant paid redemption through the village authority, while the landlord received state bonds as compensation equal to 75 to 80 percent of the land market value. Though legally freed, the private serf had to ransom his freedom by surrendering a part of the allotment land. In contrast, serfs belonging to the imperial family were emancipated in 1863 and received the maximum amount of land fixed by law. Serfs of the state were emancipated in 1866 and allowed to keep the land they occupied against money rent. The Cossacks received two-thirds of the land, to be held in common, but in lieu of redemption payments they had to serve 20 years in the army. The serfs in mines and households were freed but received no economic assets.

Redemption payments, however, soon proved too burdensome, village restrictions were tight, and the allotment land area declined, all of which led to renewed restlessness and disturbances. Following the revolt of 1905, the government, under Pyotr Stolypin, tried to create middle-class, independent farmers by replacing the village tenure with private ownership, consolidating holdings, and encouraging land purchase by individuals; but the time was too short for effective implementation. The Soviet Revolution overthrew the tsarist regime and introduced the concepts of public ownership and collectivization.

By decree in 1918, the Soviets abolished private ownership of land, made farming the sole basis of landholding, and declared collectivization a major objective of policy. Marketing of agricultural products became a state monopoly. In 1929 Stalin embarked on a full course of collectivization, and by 1938 collective farms occupied 85.6 percent of the land and state farms 9.1 percent. Credit facilities and tractor stations supplemented collectivization, while agricultural production was integrated in the national plan for industrialization and development.

The costs of Soviet reform included the destruction of capital and the death of large numbers of kulaks, or rich peasants. Total output and productivity increased, however, and capital formation was made possible through forced saving, taxes, and regulated prices. The peasant received extensive social services such as health care, and education and better working conditions. The objectives of the decree of 1918 have been fully realized.

Reform in eastern Europe was complicated by the fact that most of the eastern European countries remained under foreign rule until the middle of the 19th century or later. In Hungary, the Decree of 1853 abolished the robot, or forced labour and feudal dues, freed the serfs, liberalized land transaction, and encouraged consolidation. The Romanian reform of 1864 freed the serfs and distributed both the land and the redemption payments in proportion to the number of cows or oxen each peasant had. Formal emancipation in Bulgaria was introduced by the Turkish government in the 1850s, but actual reform came in 1880, after independence. Each peasant, including sharecroppers and wage workers, who had worked the land for 10 years without interruption, was entitled to the land he had cultivated. With the exception of Bulgaria, the distribution of ownership throughout most of eastern Europe remained highly uneven. Political instability reached a dangerous point between the two world wars. From the end of World War II to 1989–90, eastern European countries ruled by communist governments displayed a strong tendency toward collective, cooperative, and mechanized agriculture.





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