Agrarian Problems Research Articles

Disputa territorial, conceitualização e atualidade da Reforma Agrária no Brasil

In Brazil, the agrarian question, understood as the agrarian problems resulting from the continued expansion and reproduction of capitalism in the countryside, is inextricably linked to the conflict between different development models vying for territorial control of the country. The first part of this paper provides an analysis of the conceptualization of agrarian reform, based on the work of some of the principle authors who have studied the issue, and the results of implementing agrarian reform policy in Brazil between 1985 and 2010. This is followed by a discussion of the ongoing territorial dispute between agribusiness, represented by the paradigm of Agrarian Capitalism, and the peasantry, represented by the Agrarian Question paradigm.

Avaliação do projeto Cédula da Terra (1997-2002)

O artigo avalia o projeto-piloto Cédula da Terra, inspirado no modelo de "reforma agrária assistida pelo mercado" do Banco Mundial, implementado a partir de 1994 sob formatos diferenciados, em países marcados por graves problemas agrários e fortes tensões sociais no campo, como Colômbia, África do Sul, Guatemala e Filipinas. No Brasil, o Cédula foi implantado em cinco Estados da federação e foi aclamado pelo Banco como uma experiência exitosa e exemplar. A partir dele surgiram outros programas similares em maior escala. O artigo interroga se o diagnóstico do Banco Mundial de fato se justifica e se o Cédula constituiu mesmo uma referência viável a ser replicada em maior escala no Brasil.

Theoretical and methodological problems of innovation development of the Russian agricultural and food processing complex

This paper focuses on the most important results of scientific research made by the Institution of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Agrarian Problems of RAS. The feature of this research is to implement cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary approaches to the analysis and projection of agricultural and food industry development. The conceptual framework for strategic cross-sectoral management of the Russian agricultural and food processing sector was elaborated; it is aimed at strengthening food security. The priority of ensuring food security is to develop a new model of the Russian agricultural complex which has potential for sustainable dynamic growth and innovation receptivity that allows solving problems of raising living standards, efficiency and competitiveness.

Rebellion and Agrarian Tensions in Sierra Leone

This paper assesses the extent to which customary governance in Sierra Leone can be held responsible for an increasingly unstable two‐class agrarian society. A case is made for regarding the civil war (1991–2002) as being an eruption of long‐term, entrenched agrarian tensions exacerbated by chiefly rule. Evidence is presented to suggest that the main rebel movement embodied in its plans to reorganize agricultural production some grasp of these longer‐term agrarian problems. Postwar attempts to implement co‐operative farming and mining are then described. The failure of these schemes is linked to the reinstitution of customary land law and local patronage systems. Current struggles over land now involve international capital. Deep agrarian reforms will be required as the price of keeping international capital engaged in the Sierra Leone countryside.

Guerra, cerco, fome e epidemias: memórias e experiências dos sertanejos do Contestado

Este artigo procura analisar o significado de determinadas ocorrências na Guerra do Contestado (1912-1916) compartilhadas pela memória da população serrana de Santa Catarina. As razões do movimento rebelde, a questão de terras, o cerco aos redutos rebeldes, a fome e a violência, são fenômenos estudados em entrevistas de sobreviventes e seus descendentes.

‘Rich India’ of Our Ancient Legends (India in the Russian Periodicals of the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century: Social and Economic Aspects)

In comparison with other countries, India and especially its social and economic life could hardly be placed among the subjects which were regularly discussed by the Russian press. Nevertheless, these publications offer an idea about what the image of India was in Russia, what the Russian people knew and thought about India’s socio-economic and particularly agrarian problems, what was the range of questions they were interested in, and in what perspective and context these questions were being considered. Russian interest in India was determined by several governing factors, such as existence of certain common tendencies in the social and economic life of both the countries, perception of their own path of development as different from the West, confrontation of Britain and Russia in Central Asia and by pure economic considerations, among them, competition of Russian and Indian commodities in the world market, desire of the Russian commercial circles to start direct trade with India and borrowing English agricultural practice in India. Russian journals became the source for this article, both literary monthly (‘fat magazines’) and economics journals.

THE SITUATION IN THE LATGALIAN COUNTRYSIDE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE AGRARIAN REFORM IN THE 1920s

During the first independence of the Latvian Republic, the radical agrarian reform between 1920 and 1937 was the most important attempt to solve the agrarian problem. At the core of the reform was the nationalization of the estates, the buildings, the interior inventory and the cattle, and the distribution of the land which had become property of the National Land Fund (NLF) among landless peasants and small farmers. The objective of the paper is to identify the different factors that cumbered the beginning of the agrarian reform in Latgale and made it more complicated. In Latgale there was a big problem to abandon the system of land management under collective responsibility, which slowed down the personal initiative of the farmers and therefore constrained the introduction of more progressive methods of land cultivation and management. In Latgale, as a long-term adminstrative part of the guberniya of Vitebsk, archaic methods of managementi similar to those in Russia prevailed. After the formation of the Latvian state, when the region of Latgale joined the better developed regions of Vidzeme, Kurzeme and Zemgale, the agrarian underdevelopment of Latgale became particularly obvious. Therefore, eliminating this gap in the agrarian development became one of the most important tasks on the way to an economically and politically stable state. Although the Latvian law on the Agrarian reform was meant to apply to the whole territory of Latvia, the agrarian reform in Latgale needed to react to peculiarities that demanded additional measures. While preparing and implementing the agrarian reform in Latgale, it was necessary to consider the historical „heritage” from the times when Latgale was part of the Polish- Lithuanian state and the Russian Empire: - A non-efficient system of management which was based on rural management expertise; - An artificially created shortage of land among the Latgalian, i.e. Catholic farmers, since there were restrictions for them in land purchasing; - Poorly educated and conservative farmers. Since 1917, the situation of the Latgalian farmers became worse because of unlawful activities by different armies such as the requisition of cattle and looting. Because of the continuing existence of the Soviet regime until January, 1920, the registration of landless peasants and the land assignment started later in Latgale than in other regions. When the land assignment in Latgale started, at first the data that the land surveyors and regional managers of the National Land Fund had gathered on site had to be processed. The precise area under the administration of the National Land Fund was not known, nor was the area of the land which was used for agricultural purposes. There were no maps of the major part of the estate and village lands in Latgale. As long as Latgale used to be the part of the Guberniya of Vitebsk, there was no data about Latgale. Many archives of the agrarian commission were destroyed by the communists in 1919, and during World War I parts of them had already been taken to Russia. There was no organized land register in Latgale. From a legal point of view, the land was registered under the name of one owner, but in reality many heirs often cultivated the land together. In addition, there were some legally registered shared land properties in Latgale. There were not many landless peasants in Latgale, but there were indeed many small farmers who had obtained the right to acquire additional land. The quantity of the land of the National Fund in Latgale did not correspond to the large number of land claims. In Latgale, about 60% of the small farmers had a right to claim land. Since the procedure of land assignment was therefore much more difficult in Latgale than in other Latvian regions, the special instruction № 25 was drafted for Latgale in addition to the law on the agrarian reform. This instruction regulated the principles of land assignment from the National Fund in the region. The instruction provided for greater privileges for land claims put forward by locals. Although there were a lot of difficulties and problems during the preparation of the agrarian reform and the land assignment in Latgale, it finally proved to be a great achievement for the solution of the agrarian problems in Latvia in general.

Bint al-Shati's Wives of the Prophet: Feminist or Feminine?

The Egyptian writer and Islamic scholar Dr. cA'isha cAbd al-Rahman (b. 1913), who originated from the countryside, was a pioneering woman in many respects, although she did not consider herself to be a feminist. She was one of the first Egyptians to write about the agrarian problems of the country and the plight of the peasants; and of the pioneering generation of female Arab literati. She was also the first Muslim woman to undertake Quranic exegesis. Writing under her pen name, Bint al-Shati', she was also one of the first women to deal with the life of the Prophet Muhammad through vignettes of the women in his life. Like many other modern Muslim biographers of the Prophet, she rendered classical Islamic materials in a new style. Although her book on the Wives of the Prophet often portrays women in a negative light, content analysis indicates that the work also reflects feminist themes.

The Politics of Agriculture: Dramatizing Agrarian Plight in Lope's Fuenteovejuna

Among the numerous socio-historical subtexts that inform the plot of Lope's Fuenteovejuna is an often-overlooked economic subtext that is related to agrarian issues that were of great importance in Golden Age Spain. For the purpose of this study, Fuenteovejuna is resituated within the economic and political climate of early seventeenth-century Spain to show how many notorious agrarian dilemmas known to exist during Lope's time also appear in his play in references to farming, shepherding, crop production, grain storage, and famine. Such a recontextualization of the play likewise shows that the assorted allusions to agriculture are actually relevant to Lope's epoch and not to the time of the dramatic action, 1476. The study then explores how these agrarian problems are generally attributable to the Comendador in the play whose murder symbolically resolves the play's agrarian dilemmas and, similarly, acts as a symbolic resolution for early seventeenth-century agrarian problems that ground the play. (CMG)

Agrarian Problems in the New Republic

Le phenomene des revoltes agraires etait bien connu en Amerique coloniale. Cependant, les chercheurs ne s’accordent pas sur la signification qu’il convient de donner a la presence continue de revoltes rurales organisees au cours des annees qui suivirent la revolution americaine. Les historiens se sont surtout concentre sur deux mouvements post‑revolutionnaires : les Shays et Whiskey Rebellions. Par leur volonte de resituer ces mouvements, au‑dela des doleances agraires exprimees, dans le contexte politique plus large d’une nation en pleine creation, les travaux de David Szatmary et Thomas Slaughter, publies dans les annees 1980, ont joue un role important dans la recherche sur les revoltes rurales. Quelle a ete, depuis, l’evolution des etudes sur les Shays et Whiskey Rebellions ? Si les historiens ne s’accordent pas sur les causes et la composition des mouvements agraires, la plupart d’entre eux tendent a reduire la signification politique du petit fermier dans la nouvelle nation en releguant les mouvements au contexte de l’arriere‑pays ou de la frontiere. Une autre question divisant les historiens specialises dans l’etude de ces rebellions est celle de la part que les fermiers ont prise dans l’economie de marche. Ces mouvements demandent a etre analyses dans un cadre economique et social plus vaste, afin de mieux comprendre leur contribution au developpement de la democratie dans la jeune Republique.

農業・農村問題を環境の視点から見る 農村地域の汚濁負荷の特徴とその削減

農業・農村問題を環境の視点から見る 農村地域の汚濁負荷の特徴とその削減

農業・農村問題を環境の視点から見る 環境保全型農業への転換と農村環境整備の方向

農業・農村問題を環境の視点から見る 環境保全型農業への転換と農村環境整備の方向

農業・農村問題を環境の視点から見る 文化景域としての農村環境の保全 土地利用計画の視点から

農業・農村問題を環境の視点から見る 文化景域としての農村環境の保全 土地利用計画の視点から

農業・農村問題を環境の視点から見る 農業基本法の改正と環境問題

農業・農村問題を環境の視点から見る 農業基本法の改正と環境問題

農業・農村問題を環境の視点から見る 農業・農村をめぐる環境と経済 ルーラルアメニティの保全的活用政策を中心に

農業・農村問題を環境の視点から見る 農業・農村をめぐる環境と経済 ルーラルアメニティの保全的活用政策を中心に

農業・農村問題を環境の視点から見る 農村地域の水環境保全

農業・農村問題を環境の視点から見る 農村地域の水環境保全

Évangélisation, problèmes agraires et théologie de la libération au Guatemala : La Coopérative de l'Ixcán Grande

Nora Benamra Solorzano, Evangelism, Agrarian Problems and Liberation Theology in Guatemala In the 1960s, the Guatemalan Catholic Church, guided by an evangelical logic, became involved in socio-economic projects directed towards helping the poorest inhabitants — the Indian majority of the country. The progressive wing of the church is associated with the new directions championed by liberation theology which is behind the creation of agricultural cooperatives favoring the emancipation of Indian communities. The Cooperative oflxcàn Grande in the region of Guiché, in spite of its destruction by the army in 1982, is an organizational model for these populations. communities. The Cooperative of lxcàn Grande in the region of Guiché, in spite of its destruction by the army in 1982, is an organizational model for these populations.

Y. Nishida, Agrarian Problems in the Post-War Reforms

Y. Nishida, Agrarian Problems in the Post-War Reforms

Voltaire et la ‘glorieuse revolution’ anglaise de 1688

Summary Voltaire and the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688 From the start of his career Voltaire was pro‐English. Britain was for him the country of a ‘sage liberté’ which was the beneficial result of the civil wars. His contacts with the British community in Paris and the exiled Lord Bolingbroke help explain why he sought refuge in London after his imprisonment and his subsequent passion for English institutions. Voltaire's view of institutions was not always very accurate; he only saw the positive side and, intentionally or not, concealed a great deal. The religious foundation of the English character escaped him, as did the agrarian problems. For him the regime of 1689 constituted a constitutional ideal; the balance it achieved was a perfection to whose defects he was blind. Voltaire had always been split between his admiration for the English system and his respect for the ‘enlightened’ work of Frederick the Great and Catherine Il. He inclined, especially towards the end of his life, towards England. He was one of the originators of a current, still very much alive in France, of an anglophilia of the left’. But the undeniable weakness in Voltaire's thought was his failure ever to ask how far the representative government he so admired was capable of being practised by the French.

Agrarian reform problems in post‐revolutionary Iran

The late Shah's agrarian reform policies were designed to accomplish two objectives. One was to accelerate the breakdown of traditional agriculture. The other was to facilitate, through active state intervention, the modernization and commercialization of agriculture. Theoretically consistent, in practice these two broad objectives created numerous economic dislocations, the crippling effects of which have yet to be remedied. Marginalization of the peasantry, rural unemployment and underemployment, the destruction of contextually efficient traditional methods of production, rural-urban migration, to name a few, were the disappointing policy outcomes of a regime obsessed with modernization. Even more disappointing was the inability to devise location-specific development strategies that could go beyond simple technical improvements. The process of commercialization was also severely hindered due to mismanagement, insufficient private investment and above all inadequate budgetary allocation. In short, agricultural modernization only led to the creation of a few isolated modern enclaves highly efficient and export-oriented with little or no positive impact on the overall agricultural growth. The post-revolutionary state thus inherited an agricultural sector which, at best, could be characterized as a slow growth sector.