Land Reform and Counter-reform

in Perú

Laureano del Castillo – CEPES

Lima, January 2005
Macro - regiones naturales del Perú.
 AVAIL AB IL IT Y O F AG R IC U L T U R E AN D C AT T L E
L AN D S (1 9 9 4 )

Fo r e s t
26%
Na t u r a l
p as tu r e s Un p lo w e d a n d
48% p r o t e c t io n la n d s
11%

A r a b le la n d s
15%

F r o m : III C e n a g r o 1 9 9 4 .

(Hectares)
III CENAGRO (1994)
1. Arable lands 5’476,976.70
* Irrigated 1’729,064.66
* Rain-fed 3’747,912.01
2. Natural pastures 16’906,470.30
3. Forest 9’053,705.47
4. Unplowed and protección lands 3’944,656.29
Según los datos de 1994 el total de la superficie agropecuaria alcanza a
Total 35’381,808.81
35’381,808.81 Has., de las cuales el 15.5% corresponde a superficie agrícola
(5’476,976.70 Has.) mientras que el restante 84.5% corresponde a superficie no
agrícola (29’904,832.03 Has.).
 1. Context of land reform
• Concentration of land
• Oligarchic domination
• Peasant movilization and “guerrillas”
• Social and political consensus
• National Security
• International pressure (Alianza para el
Progreso)
 2. Land reform characteristics
• Radical.- Began taking agroindustrial
complexes (sugar, cotton).
• Massive.- 64% of arable land
• Wide.- Whole country is declared “Land
Reform zone”
• Process.- Changes in the law during that
time (69-75).
 3. Objectives
• They were not clear at the begining
• Preventing more conflictivity and to
modernize rural society
• Preference for large units, as cooperatives
(empresas asociativas agrarias)
• Preference for “economía de escala”
• No attention to landless workers and small
farmers
 4. Success of land reform
• Land owners without their base
• Defeated peruvian oligarchic
• Democratization of land property
• Peasant citizen
 5. Excluded
• One million (1 000 000) of small farmers
kept out of any benefit of land reform
• Thousands of landless workers (no
beneficiaries)
• Peasant and Native Communities
• Women (no family chiefs)
Lands granted by land reform
Types Number Granted Has. Percentage

Cooperativas agrarias 607 1 697 341 17,5%

SAIS 44 1 866 939 19,3%

Grupos Campesinos 702 1 048 328 10,8%

Empresas de Propiedad 12 156 713 1,6%

Social

Comunidades 1 569 3 397 629 35,1%

campesinas

Individual grants --- 1 521 813 15,7%

TOTAL 9 688 763 100,0%

From: PETT, Tenencia de Tierras en Cifras (30.09.1993)

 6. Today´s Situation
• Agriculture dominated by small farmers and
“minifundio” (84% A.U.)
• Fragmentation (“Parcelación”) of
cooperatives in the coast, and
reestructuration in the mountains
• Violence attacks (1980-1993)
• That 84% of A.U. controls only 10,5% of
agropecuary surface
 7. Counter reform
• Desaceleration since 1976, during militar
government
• Stopped in 1979, after new Constitución
• Promoting division of cooperatives (parcelation)
• Reestructuration of agrarian enterprises in 1986
(Puno and Cusco)
• Terrorism: Shinning Path (Sendero Luminoso)
 End of land reform
• Fujimori and Legislative Decree 653
(1991).- Liberalization of rural property
• New Constitution 1993.- Eliminated land
reform and social function of property
• Land Law 1995.- Security for land owners
• Regularization of property rights
• End of Agrarian Justice in1996
 8. Results
Unit Size Nº of A.U. % A.U. Agropecuarian
Area
Minifundio 967 511 55,4% 3,2%
(Less than 1 to 2,99 Ha.)

Small farm 507 014 29,0% 7,3%

(3 to 9,99 Ha.)

Medium farm 219 600 12,6% 11,9%

(10 to 49,99 Ha.)

Big farms 51 648 3,0% 77,6%

(More than 50 Ha.)

Total 1 745 773 100,0% 100,0%

 Results
• Predomination of small farms and minifundio
(84% UA) with 10,5% area.
• Persons: 97% of AU and control 40% surface
• Large agriculture (3% AU) with 77,6% of area
• Communities (0,39% AU) control 54,5% of
surface
• Comercial enterprises (1 638 = 0,1% AU) with 1%
agropecuarian surface.
 Economic Results
• Almost 50% of population in poverty
(poverty and extreme poverty)
• Almost 2/3 of rural population in poverty
(33% poverty y 32% extreme poverty)
• Coastal agriculture with lack of rentability
 Illiteracy in rural areas
C O N C E R N I N G R A T E S O F I L L I T E R A C Y I N R U R A L A R E A S (1 9 9 3 )

U rb a n a re a s R u ra l a re a s

3 .5 %
9 .8 %
1 7 .1 %

4 2 .9 %

9 6 .5 %
9 0 .2 %
8 2 .9 %

5 7 .1 %

Men W om e n Men W om e n

F u e n te : IN EI.
Ela b o r a c ió n : A g r o D a ta - C EPES
L i te r a c y I l l i te r a c y
 9. Problems pending
• Peasant poverty: fragmentation of land and
minifundismo
• Lack of property titles of communities
• Lack of property titles of private owners
 10. Community property
• 5 680 peasant communities
• 1 100 native communites
• 25% peasant communities with titling
problems
• Native communities titles has no clear
geographic references
 12. Did land reform failed?
• No, but there were problems
• Conditions for development without
exclusions
• Did not allow capitalist development
• Important: peasant citizenship
• Land reform itself can´t eliminate poverty
and underdevelopment.