A number of socio-economic studies concerning land use, tenancy, and redistribution inspired by the Charter of the Alliance for Progress and by various meetings of OAS organizations are beginning to appear in several Latin American countries, especially Chile, Brazil, and Mexico. This is certainly one of the most comprehensive. It is the work of Solon Barraclough, Jefe del Estudio de Tenencia de la Tierra, José Irineu Cabral, Director Ejecutivo del CIDA, and a large number of associates and collaborators who are given proper acknowledgment in a most important explanatory preface.
The study is a statistical reference work on the many facets of land tenancy and not a volume for casual entertainment. The reviewer suggests that the reader begin with the Preface and with Part IV, “Realizations and Possibilities of Agrarian Reform.” Then he can examine the rest of the book as a source for the data upon which the conclusions have been based. The final part is divided into a discussion of the private sector (largely the INPROA), of government activity, and of alternatives and conclusions. Most of the last are based on the authors’ detailed study of the characteristics and problems of land tenancy in the five geographical regions of Chile, each having special local differences which suggest a variety of solutions.
Among other significant points the authors call attention to a rapid rise in the price of agricultural products as compared to industrial products and to foreign imports. This steep rise, uninterrupted since 1954, indicates the extent of the Chilean inflation. A possible result of the increase in prices of foreign goods is the slow decline in the annual importation of farm machinery, although there have been significant increases in the use of fertilizers and of pesticides which account in large part for moderate increases in farm productivity.
Part IV devotes considerable space to a discussion of the excellent work of the Catholic Church since 1962 through its private organization, INPROA. Sponsorship of local cooperatives at several selected sites (all to the south of Santiago) has resulted in a markedly increased output and in better utilization of limited land. Those interested in a closer study of these experimental fundos controlled by INPROA should consult William C. Thiesenhusen, Chile’s Experiments in Agrarian Reform (1966).
The authors also discuss the development and management of “fiscal lands” amounting in 1963 to 14,300,000 hectares, mostly controlled by the Ministry of Land Cultivation and the Ministry of Agriculture. Colonization of these lands has increased rapidly since 1960, much of it fostered by the new Land Law of 1962 (#15020).
The study concludes with one hundred pages of statistical appendices and a detailed index. Only after additional detailed studies of this type have been prepared for several other Latin American countries, can a more complete picture of the general agrarian problems of the continent be fully understood.