Agrarian Reform in Ecuador's Guayas River Basin

Abstract

Ecuador's agricultural sector is one of the most technologically backward in Latin America, and production increases in recent years have lagged behind population growth.' It has been argued frequently that a major reason-or even the major reason-for this poor performance has been the land tenure structure.2 If one accepts this thesis, as this writer does, then a significant improvement in agricultural performance would appear to require a fundamental change in the land tenure structure, together with modernization of production techniques, expansion of credit and technical assistance, and improvements in marketing. As has been indicated elsewhere [Blankstein and Zuvekas 1973], no serious attempt at comprehensive agrarian reform was made until 1964, and the modest but promising effort undertaken in that year was aborted in 1966 after only minimal accomplishments. Because the subsequent political climate made it difficult for the government to implement even a modest confiscatory approach, supporters of land redistribution began to give more consideration to alternative approaches. These ranged from revolutionary politics and land invasions at one extreme, to colonization at the other. In between, mention might be made of the modest efforts of the Catholic Church to redistribute some of its own lands.3 Another interesting development was a scheme, financed by an AID loan in