Venezuela"s agrarian reform at mid - 1977

Attention is focused on drawing conclusions from published statistical material, and care has been taken to compile data from the most recent and most authoritative sources. The paper describes adjustments to capital policy and land policy since l974, the adverse effects of regulated prices for beneficiaries, technical assistance and campesino organization, recent labor policy, income distribution, and provision of land through the reform. The latifundia system has been replaced. Most agricultural holdings are now operated by resident owners engaged in commercial agriculture. Sharecropping and tenancy have been almost eliminated. Growth in national agricultural production has not occurred by way of a just system of property, tenure, and land utilization which all ensure the adequate provision of credit and technical assistance. Growth in national agricultural production has been achieved by small numbers of medium and large commercial farmers. The agrarian reform has been instrumental in the rise of a capitalist agriculture which enjoys the benefits of law and order in the countryside, as well as massive, public infrastructural investments. The agrarian reform subsector has become less vital relative to other subsectors of Venezuelan agriculture. The author feels that the agrarian reform campesinos are becoming marginalized to the point of obscurity. Only a fundamental change in economic, social, and political conditions would contribute to an outcome in accord with campesino interests.