Abstract
Throughout this century the demise of the West Indian estate agricultural system has been occurring unrelentlessly. At different times and to varying degrees, the reasons for this have included: local labour problems; absentee landownership; major fluctuations in commodity prices on the world market; and inadequate supportive government policies in many of the region's newly independent nations. The decline of this farming system is most evident in Grenada, where the political events of the past 20 years have hastened the process. Initially, it was the confiscation of some estates through a programme of ‘land for the landless’. Then, between 1979 and 1983 it was People's Revolutionary Government promoting state farms at the expense of individual estates. More recently, the government has been divesting parcels of acquired land to ‘potentially suitable’ small farmers, via a model farm scheme. This paper traces developments on 112 estates since 1940.
Published Version
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