Rural Migration and Agricultural Development in Colombia

Abstract

The author argues that economists should integrate rural migration into development plans and that special attention must be paid to the impact which this has on the agricultural sector. The early labor and land tenure systems set up by the conquerors of Colombia blocked movement which might have occured among the large Indian population. As these systems decayed and population pressure increased internal migration became more important. Population growth accelerated during the 1900s from 2.2% during 1938-51 to 3.2% in 1951-64 and a total of 2.7 million people moved into urban areas between 1951-64 a number equal to 36% of the rural population in 1951. Rural-urban migration has been seen as a selective process; migrants are generally younger and better educated than nonmigrants and migrants are most heavily drawn from regions closest to the cities. In most cases the direct costs to individuals of migration to large urban centers in Colombia increase with the distance of the move. 5 of 7 areas in Colombia studied had 37-45% of the people enumerated living outside of the general area of their birth. It is also shown that there has been a high degree of mobility among rural residents in Colombia without any apparent relationship to distance from the large industrial centers; also the proportion of migrants moving to large cities or satellite urban areas decreased as the travel time was increased. A higher proportion of the migrants in the more distant areas were moving into other rural regions or nearby villages and towns. Education also has an effect on migration the 2 areas with the lowest levels of education also had the lowest rates of out-migration. Most of the migrant families interviewed in a study owned less than 50 acres of land and many owned none at all; but generally there is little association between land owned and migration. A large proportion of rural-urban migrants are young when they move to the cities. Some implications for agricultural development are: 1) 3/4 of Colombias poor unproductive people still live in rural areas 2) migration is drawing out the individuals with the characteristics most appropriate for agricultural development programs 3) accelerated out-migration would aggravate some of the most pressing problems associated with agricultural production and 4) land reform programs could absorb a number of the young individuals who are now moving away from their birthplaces.