The
International
Conference
on
Agrarian
Reform
and
Rural
Development
(ICARRD
+20)
starts
this
week
in
Cartagena
in
Colombia,
hosted
by
the
Colombian
government
and
technically
supported
by
the
UN
Food
and
Agriculture
Organisation.
The
conference
comes
20
years
after the
first
ICARRD held
in
Porto
Alegre,
Brazil
in
2006.
This
gave
rise
to
the Voluntary
Guidelines
on
Responsible
Governance
of
Tenure,
an
ambitious
framework
for
land
governance
taken
up
by
governments
around
the
world.
Government
delegations,
civil
society
groups,
social
movements
and
academics
will
come
together
this
week
to
debate
what
are
the
new
challenges
for
land,
forests,
fisheries
and
food
in
today’s
world?
In
a
talk
at
the
Institute
for
Poverty,
Land
and
Agrarian
Studies
(PLAAS)
at
the
University
of
the
Western
Cape
in
South
Africa,
I
made
the
case
that
a
core
focus
must
be
on
land
redistribution,
as
a
route
to
linking
agrarian
reform
and
rural
development.
You
can
watch
the 30-minute
talk and
the
discussion
that
followed
through
the
following
video
link.
Estimates
suggest
that
the
largest
1%
of
farms
now
occupy
over
70%
of
the
world’s
agricultural
land
while
the
bottom
40%
hold
just
3%.
This
threatens
the
livelihoods
of
the
2.5
billion
people
who
depend
directly
on
land
and
it
produces
a
global
food
system
skewed
towards
a
handful
of
commodity
crops
grown
at
scale
for
distant
markets.
I
argued
that,
“Redistributing
control
of
farms,
farming
and
land
ownership,
as
part
of
a
wider
commitment
to
reducing
inequality
at
all
scales,
must
be
a
major
policy
priority.”
Given
the
on-going
concentration
of
wealth
–
including
land
–
addressing
inequality
is
a
core
challenge
of
development.
This
was
the
point
also
made
by
a
leading
group
of
economists
in
advance
of
the
G20
meeting
in
South
Africa
in
October.
They observed that,
“extreme
concentrations
of
wealth
translate
into
undemocratic
concentrations
of
power,
unravelling
trust
in
our
societies
and
polarizing
our
politics.”
The
issue
of
global
inequality
is
such
a
threat
to
global
prosperity,
they
asserted,
that
an
international
panel
on
inequality
needs
to
be
established
parallel
to
the
IPCC
on
climate.
Yet
land
redistribution
was
not
even
mentioned
in their
G20
report,
despite
many
countries
around
the
world
having
large
agrarian
populations.
This
is
surprising,
given
the
experience
of
other
nations
in
achieving
more
equitable
development
on
the
back
of
land
reform.
The
East
Asian
experience
of
industrialisation
and
sustained
economic
growth
was
based
on
land
reform
as
an
early
impetus.
Japan,
Korea,
Taiwan
and
China,
for
example,
all
benefited
from
land
reform.
In a
2017
article, The
Economist,
perhaps
surprisingly,
sung
the
praises
of
land
reform
as
the
‘path
to
prosperity’.
Speaking
about
Taiwan
after
1945,
it
noted,
“Yields
on
sugar
and
rice
leapt.
New
markets
sprang
up
for
exotic
fruits
and
vegetables.
Household
farmers
dominated
early
exports.
Crucially,
income
inequality
shrank
thanks
to
the
new
farmer-capitalists.
Less
spent
on
imports
of
food,
more
money
in
Taiwanese
pockets,
a
new
entrepreneurialism:
farming
was
the
start
of
Taiwan’s
economic
miracle.”
While
not
immediately
replicable,
the
East
Asian
lessons
are
important,
I
argued
in
the
talk.
Centring
land
redistribution
in
debates
about
inequality
and
longer-term
economic
development
is
essential.
The
talk
drew
from
a
forthcoming
edited
book
– Redistributive
land
reform:
challenging
inequality
in
the
21st century –
that
will
be
published
by
Bloomsbury.
This
includes
case
study
chapters
on
Bolivia,
Brazil,
Colombia,
India,
the
Philippines,
South
Africa,
Zimbabwe
and
Scotland.
In
all
these
countries,
land
redistribution
has
occurred.
Often
in
particular
periods,
and
not
always
in
ways
that
have
generated
major
structural
changes
in
the
economy.
But,
despite
the
general
view
often
heard
that
land
reform
is
a
thing
of
the
past,
there
are
many
types
of
land
reform
that
are
happening,
often
in
surprising
contexts.
Drawing
on
the
chapters
from
the
forthcoming
book,
the
talk
made
the
case
that:
-
There
have
been
some
major
redistributive
land
reform
efforts
in
the
last
few
decades,
even
in
the
midst
of
neoliberal
policy. -
Redistribution
to
smallholder
farms
can
boost
productivity
(the
inverse
relationship)
and,
if
well
supported
with
a
wider
policy
of
agrarian
reform,
can
have
wider
economic
impacts
on
economic
growth. -
Redistribution
efforts
can
offer
alternatives
to
large-scale
corporate
agriculture,
supporting
local
experiments
in
alternative
food
systems
and
revived
rural
areas.
Echoing
the Cape
Town
Declaration from
last
October,
the
IPC
for
Food
Sovereignty
argues
in
their position
paper
for
ICARRD+20,
there
is
a
need
for
governments
“to
move
beyond
voluntary
commitments
and
adopt
binding,
measurable
actions
to
ensure
redistributive
land
reform.”
The
coming
days
in
Cartegna
will
show
whether
a
bold,
forward-looking
agenda
on
land
inequality
and
redistribution
can
emerge.
This
post
was
written
by Ian
Scoones and
first
appeared
on Zimbabweland.
Post
published
in:
Agriculture