• What is agrarian reform?
• Objectives of the agrarian reform
• Land reform measures
• Examples of agrarian reform
• Agrarian reform in Mexico

We explain what agrarian reform is, its history, objectives and what measures it usually involves. Also, examples in the world and in Mexico.

Agrarian reforms increase production with changes in property and technology.

What is agrarian reform?

The name of agrarian reform is known as the set of economic, social and political measures that seek to modernize and transform the productive structure of the countryside, that is, the agricultural platform. There is talk of agrarian reforms, in the plural, since there is no single or single way to achieve it.

In general, agrarian reforms were proposed in currently independent countries that were formerly colonies, such as the nations Latin American. They seek to address the need to deconcentrate land ownership (large estate) and achieve higher quotas of agricultural production through the use of new technologies and the creation of multiple productive units where there was previously idle land.

Already in the Antiquity classical, many change projects were registered regarding land tenure and exploitation. The Athenian statesman and poet Solon (c. 630-c. 560 BC), for example, transformed many of the laws that governed the exploitation agricultural and land mortgage. These measures were controversial at the time and spawned a brief period of anarchy, which led to the rise of the tyrant Pisistratus (c. 607-527 BC).

However, the agrarian reform was a concept that varied over time, aspiring to different objectives as the economic and social role of land tenure varied. For example, the French Revolution 1789 gave the agrarian reform a new leading role. In this case, the idea was to sweep the feudal model inherited from Middle Ages, freeing the serfs of their unpayable debts and abolishing the feudal courts.

In its contemporary sense, agrarian reform comes from the 19th century and is commonly associated with the struggle of progressive or revolutionary sectors against the large estates inherited from the imperial or colonial structure.

It was a common measure in the regimes socialists 20th century (such as the Soviet Union, Vietnam, China) and also their capitalist competitors, who saw in it the opportunity to improve the living standards of the peasantry (thus precisely preventing the Revolution) and also increase the rates of food production.

Objectives of the agrarian reform

In general, the great objective of all forms of agrarian reform is always the transformation of agriculture, that is, to substantially change the social, economic and political conditions in which agricultural production is carried out. This can, of course, translate into many different things, depending on who carries out the reform in question.

Thus, a socialist regime can see in agrarian reform the opportunity to collectivize productive lands and implement a communist agricultural model; while a democratic government capitalist It can consider the reform as an important chance to modernize agriculture and guarantee a more abundant food production, in order to satisfy the domestic market.

Land reform measures

Land reforms can give peasants more power over production.

As with the objectives, the measures implied by an agrarian reform can be very diverse. But generally they have to do with land tenure and the production model, so they usually involve actions such as:

• Expropriate idle lands and offer them to private productive initiatives that guarantee production, whether they are small and medium producers.
• Expropriate the idle lands of a single owner and grant them to the Condition, to implement different initiatives of public or collectivist exploitation.
• Introduce Internet Y electricity in agriculture, as well as machinery to maximize production and improve the standard of living of the peasantry.
• Limit the maximum amount of land that a single owner can have, to prevent present and future large estates.
• Empower the peasant class to the extent necessary, providing them public services, literacy, etc.

Examples of agrarian reform

Some examples of agrarian reform are the following:

• It was known as the "Spanish confiscation" to a long process of agrarian reform in which idle lands that were in "dead hands" were expropriated, that is, that were property of the Catholic Church and religious orders, and that even then it had not been possible to alienate. These lands were then put up for auction by the State. This began in 1798, with the so-called “Godoy confiscation” and lasted until around 1924.
• The collectivization of the lands of the Soviet Union by the regime of Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) is probably the most dramatic example of agricultural reform known, since its consequences were dire for the population. This was due to the bureaucratic and authoritarian model with which everything was carried out in his government, which forced almost a million agricultural owners (the so-called kulaks) to abandon their lands, imposing in return a highly inefficient and policed ​​model of exploitation that led directly to the great famine of 1932.
• The socialist government of Salvador Allende (1908-1973) in Chile in 1970 granted the status of law to a reform of Chilean land ownership that had been underway since 1962, in response to the crisis and great agricultural inefficiency of the South American nation. Towards the end of his government, around 6 million hectares had been expropriated throughout the country, and it had been arranged that no citizen He could own more than 80 hectares of basic irrigation.

Agrarian reform in Mexico

The distribution of land in Mexico began with the Revolution and culminated with Cárdenas.

Agrarian reform was one of the key actions of the Mexican Revolution in the transformation of the postcolonial state. Initiated with the approval of the Political Constitution of the Mexican States, it was based on the legal basis that the territory it was all domination of the nation and that the latter was the one who granted property to individuals, so that this relationship could always be transformed.

To this end, the Agrarian Reform Secretariat was created, dependent on the Executive power Federal government, which had to ensure the establishment of just working conditions for the peasantry and which gave the president the title of "Supreme agrarian authority."

The main mechanism devised at that time was the ejido, a new type of land demarcation, which established indivisible, inalienable and collectively owned portions of territory, destined for the production mainly of the indigenous peasantry.

This agrarian reform emerged as a mechanism to put an end to the abusive practices of exploitation of the rural population that were practiced in Mexico since the end of the colony, and it was one of the famous measures of the Revolutionary Government of Abelardo L. Rodríguez (1889-1967).

However, the distribution of land in Mexico reached its peak later, during the mandate of Lazaro Cardenas del Rio (1895-1970), who distributed more than 18 million hectares among 51,400 peasants.