Land Tenure and Agricultural Development

Abstract

Many authorities believe that unsuitable land-tenure systems constitute the major economic obstacle to agricultural development. But problems of land tenure and land reform merit consideration on other grounds. The impetus for land reform is invariably political and not economic; there have been few radical parties in Asia and Latin America who have not had the slogan ‘land to the tiller’ as a part of their campaign. Conversely, much of the opposition to land reform has come, not from those who argue that such changes are economically unwise, but from those who derive political power from the possession of land. Nowhere is this more clearly seen than in Latin America, where, since 1958, nearly every country has passed land-reform legislation; but few have implemented these acts, for the simple reason that those who passed the laws would be divesting themselves of their land and their power.