Estudios Rurales

Between Reforms and Resistances: The Land Question in Contemporary Latin America

Agustín Juncal Pérez, Pablo Volkind, Gabriel Carini — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0300

The text offers a long-term perspective on the agrarian structure in Latin America, historically characterized by a high concentration of land, transformations in property rights, and persistent social conflicts. This structural configuration has sustained the leading role of the agro-export sector, whose technological and productive transformations have deepened rural inequalities.

Since the early 20th century, particularly after the mid-century revolutions, the debate on agrarian reform emerged as a way to democratize access to land. However, the policies implemented—ranging from redistributive models to preventive modernization strategies—generally failed to alter the concentration pattern and often contributed to its consolidation under the “Green Revolution” paradigm. At the same time, forms of resistance and political organization developed, along with disputes over the meaning of land as a productive and social resource.

The dossier introduced by this text brings together research that addresses the agrarian question from historical, institutional, and organizational perspectives. The articles analyze reform and counter-reform policies, land concentration processes, and contemporary disputes over the social function of land. Through case studies in El Salvador, Uruguay, Brazil, and Bolivia, the works highlight the persistence of an unfinished agenda surrounding the land issue, marked by new forms of concentration, territorial conflicts, state silences, and social adaptation strategies. Thus, the dossier provides analytical tools to rethink the agrarian problem in Latin America from a critical, situated, and long-term perspective.

A dam about to burst: the reopening of the debate on the land problem in El Salvador (1959-1970).

Matías Oberlin Molina — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0300

The 1960s were crucial for the reopening of the debate around the land problem in El Salvador. Since the indigenous peasant massacre of 1932, the military governments had erected a dam that prevented the demand for agrarian reform from emerging. After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, some sectors of Salvadoran society began to rediscuss the structure of property and/or land tenure, opening the first cracks in the dam. However, it was necessary to wait until the end of the decade for the government to abandon a repressive policy towards the claim - which even involved the banning of the third political force in 1967 - and to assume the need to open the debate. In this article we propose to historically reconstruct the genealogy of the demand for agrarian reform and the scenario that made possible the reopening of the Salvadoran chapter of the debate, which had a particular outcome after the beginning of the war with Honduras in 1969.

State land policy under the Uruguayan dictatorship (1973-1984): technicians, civilians and the military

Agustín Juncal, Joaquín Cardeillac — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0300

The Southern Cone dictatorships of the 1970s definitively closed the debate on land reform. This article analyses public land policy during the Uruguayan civil-military dictatorship (1973-1985). Although this is a preliminary analysis, it does allow us to draw some conclusions. The first is that public land policies were conducted by technicians, both civilian and military. The second is the evidence of a retraction in land purchases, especially when compared to the periods 1948-1958 and 1967-1972. The third is that the Uruguayan case shows the survival of public land policies during the dictatorship, something different from what happened during the same period in Argentina or Chile.

The politics of silence on agrarian reform in the PT governments in Brazil and the impeachment of Dilma Roussef (2002-2016)

Débora Franco Lerrer — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0300

Description of some of the concomitant processes that led to the marginalization of the agraria reform policy during the PT federal administration in Brazil until the 2016 Cup. These governments, in addition to strenghthening the abribusiness pact, distributed less land to farm workers. Additonally, they associated public policies focused on this sector with the projection of the term family farmers, but detached from the struggles around the Brazilian agrarian questiona, wich led to the strengthening of the actors linked to the maitenance of land concentration.

Expansion, Retrenchment, and Integration Strategies in Uruguayan Agriculture: The Case of Flexible Business Organization

Soledad Figueredo Rolle — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0300

This article explores the contemporary dynamics of production in large agricultural enterprises in Uruguay, focusing on the coexistence of centralized and flexible structures. Through an in-depth analysis of companies adopting flexible production models, it aims to understand the structural transformations in the agricultural sector within the context of the Uruguayan agribusiness. The study reveals that, although the flexible production model has grown significantly, it does not encompass all large-scale production. This allows for the identification of new business organizational forms that respond to mixed and adaptive logics.

An approach to the agrarian structure of the department of Cochabamba (Bolivia) through the National Agricultural Censuses 1950, 1984, 2013

Francisco Jimenez — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0300

In Bolivia, the problem of land tenure and distribution were and are key issues to understand and analyze its historical development. In this work, a comparative analysis is carried out of the variables that make up the land component of the agrarian structure in the department of Cochabamba, a region of significant economic relevance within the Bolivian agricultural sector, standing out as one of the main producers of agri-food in the country. To do this, the statistical information provided by the three agricultural censuses carried out in the contemporary history of Bolivia is recovered: the I National Agricultural Census of 1950, the II National Agricultural Census of 1984 and the I Agricultural Census of the Plurinational State of Bolivia of 2013.

University Extension and Rural Territories at Autonomous University of Baja California

Jesús Méndez Reyes — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0300

This conversation with the academic from northern Mexico addresses outreach activities at the Autonomous University of Baja California, linking the roles of academia, business, and government at different levels, as well as their impact on the economic and social sectors in which the institution serves. Agricultural labor and the rural landscape are a pervasive characteristic of the Baja California peninsula, not limited to the primary sector of economic activity but also encompassing industrial, cultural, social, historical, and heritage aspects, making this binational region a representative icon of Mexico.

“Victims of a clumsy economic policy”.

Cristian Jorge Wilson — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0300

The objective of this work is to analyze the political discourse and social representations of a sector of rural leadership based on a set of discursive analysis techniques, in a specific social, economic and political context: the convertibility crisis and the exit devaluation in Argentina (1998-2002). The Federation of Rural Associations of Entre Ríos (FARER) is taken as a study reference.

A series of texts, statements, arguments and representations are revealed as sources with the construction of a corpus of discourses. As an analysis strategy, Deep Content Analysis is adopted from: a- the examination of the internal structure and intentionality; b- the patterns of repetition of words or themes; and c- the rhetorical elements and the marks of subjectivity used. The corpus is composed of materials from the genre "internal communication" (minutes of meetings of the Board of Directors (CD), institutional reports and internal documents) and from the informative genre (newspaper articles collected in the provincial media El Diario).

Some of the conclusions allow us to affirm that FARER's arguments tended to reinforce the discourses historically supported by the Argentine Rural Confederations (CRA), based on a liberal-conservative discursive modality, as well as social representations aimed at shaping images (and beliefs) of the agricultural sector as the driving force of the national economy.

Keywords: political discourse; social representations; convertibility crisis; FARER.

Policies to promote Agroecology: contributions from a Buenos Aires Experimental Station in the period 2020-2023

Maximiliano Perez — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0300

Agroecology has grown as an approach that can provide answers to the social, economic, environmental and productive unsustainability of the dominant model of horticultural production in the province of Buenos Aires. In recent years, there has been growing institutional recognition of agroecology and the incipient implementation of public policies by the provincial government. In this framework, we describe the institutional management process of the Gorina Experimental Station (EEG-MDA) belonging to the state of Buenos Aires during the period 2020-2023, in which it managed to achieve recognition as an Agroecological Unit. Different public policy instruments are addressed to promote agroecology—innovation and management of agroecological knowledge, access to resources, access to markets and food security—in the layout and construction of the agroecological profile of this experimental station. In terms of impact on public policies, the actions carried out in the EEG-MDA in the period analyzed achieved technical results that strengthen the advance of agroecological management in the territory. This experience shows the relevant role that this space of the provincial State can assume in the generation of knowledge and technologies of agroecological management for a public policy that strengthens sustainable productive development, that improves the quality of life and the quality of food produced for the Buenos Aires population.

"Here those who buy land are from outside or businessmen".

Sofía Hang — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0300

The concentration in the use and ownership of productive land is a problem for family farming, generating their exclusion and modifications in the territories. This concentration, in Argentina, is observed in the comparison of the data of the last National Agricultural Censuses (1988, 2002 and 2018) and in the testimonies of family producers.

From a qualitative approach based on analysis of census data and interviews with family producers, the present research analyses the consequences of the concentration of land in two districts of the southwest (SO) of the province of Buenos Aires (Argentina), Adolfo Alsina and Puan.

The results show that those who buy land in the area are businessmen, more capitalized producers and people who are not from the area, who buy land as a form of investment, while family farming is not in a position to do it. In the same way, access to land tenure is concentrated, causing family farming to also have difficulties in leasing land.

The main conclusion is that the concentration of land has direct consequences on the way family farming access to land and remain in the territories, because of land’s market and the lack of public policies.

Entrepreneurial profile and precision agriculture in the Argentinean pampas: the Province of Buenos Aires case.

Valeria Hernandez, Pascale Phelinas — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0300

This article analyzes the adoption of precision agriculture (PA) in the Pampas region of Argentina, focusing on the province of Buenos Aires based on a survey conducted in 2017-2018 with a total of 265 agricultural producers and the results of qualitative fieldwork carried out between September 2017 and January 2018. The study seeks to identify adoption trajectories, their economic and institutional drivers, as well as the main characteristics of adopters, looking at the differences with non-adopters. It also seeks to understand the different groups of adopters by considering the sophistication of the technologies used. The article is structured in three sections: first, the analytical framework is described, discussing on the one hand the theories of adoption and on the other hand describing the construction of an adoption indicator of precision technologies. Second, the data used are analyzed and the main results of the survey conducted on the adoption of AP are discussed. Likewise, the opinions of the different groups of adopters on the observed benefits (monetary and non-monetary) of the incorporated technological innovations are presented. In conclusion, we point out the sustainability challenges that this sector still faces.

Servicio de Asistencia Técnica y Extensión Rural – ATER como bien público para el fortalecimiento y perpetuación

Kleber Destefani Ferretti, Luis Carlos Zucatto — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0300

The Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Service (ATER) has a long history of being regulated, so the objective was to reflect on the possibilities of legitimizing it as a public good in Brazil. In this sense, a question arose: is there evidence that ATER can be understood as a “public good” in Brazil? The methodological approach was based on exploratory research that surveyed research and legislation on ATER and public goods, supported by the dialectical method that seeks to discuss information about the possibility of being converted as a public good, making a connection with the theory of path dependence that corroborates the construction of this study. Discussions have focused on regulations on Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Services (ATER), but for this transformation to occur, it is necessary for the Public Administration to understand the possibility and necessity of this change, so that it affects this public policy and there are no resource restrictions, since political representatives continue to exclude non-formal education, which includes the ATER service, from the characterization of a public good, which results from political interpretation or understandings due to its trajectory since implementation. It is concluded, through the evidence raised, that there is plausibility in incorporating this service as a public good, which is linked to the understanding of non-formal education, but it still requires in-depth studies.

Rural tourism and agriculture: a case study in Três Cachoeiras/RS

Maria Elisa Brambila Reck, Silvia Lima de Aquino — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0300

The article presents an analysis of the configuration of rural tourism in the municipality of Três Cachoeiras. The objective was to understand how the field of rural tourism was organized in Três Cachoeiras/RS, based on the analysis of the habitus and trajectory of the families that dedicate themselves to the activities that make up this sector, as well as the capitals that articulate the social relations that the conform. From a methodological point of view, we opted for a qualitative approach, which privileged the analysis from the perspective of the actors involved in tourist activities, in the rural areas of the municipality. Information collection was carried out through fieldwork carried out in two locations in the municipality of Três Cachoeiras. The fieldwork included semi-structured interviews with owners of tourist establishments from September to October 2023. Based on the information collected in the fieldwork, it was possible to highlight the life trajectories of people involved with rural tourism in the municipality de Três Cachoeiras and understand why families opt for rural tourism. Thus, with the research it was possible to verify, on the one hand, that the support base for rural tourism in Três Cachoeiras is centered on agriculture, so that rural tourism offers families a second income opportunity. On the other hand, it was also possible to verify that retirement plays an important role in family income and in their permanence in tourism.

Strategies employed by organizations in the aquaculture value chain in Tocantins (Brazil) to promote productive inclusion

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0300

This study aims to analyze the strategies used by organizations in the aquaculture value chain in the state of Tocantins to promote the productive inclusion of fish farmers. As part of the methodological procedures, semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of the Sectoral Chamber of Fisheries of the state of Tocantins (CSP/TO). The data generated by the study were analyzed through a thematic qualitative content analysis, based on Bardin (2020). The research concludes that, despite efforts to boost aquaculture in the state, there is a lack of coordination among the actions of the participating organizations, even though they share the common goal of fostering the development of fish farming in Tocantins. Therefore, the study highlights the urgent need to establish effective partnerships and collaborative networks that enable a more integrated approach to the sector's demands and the state's specific context. This collaboration cannot be achieved by a single organization in isolation, underscoring the importance of an intersectoral approach to ensure the adequate productive inclusion of fish farmers through their integration into formal and viable markets aligned with their reality.

Las encrucijadas del agronegocio: un estudio sobre los lugares de las mujeres en la división sexual del trabajo en el espacio rural de Saladillo

Alejandra Inés Santiago — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0300

The doctoral thesis “The Crossroads of Agribusiness: A Study on the Places of Women in the Sexual Division of Labor in the Rural Space of Saladillo” analyzes the roles occupied by women within the agribusiness model in rural Buenos Aires. From a multi-scalar perspective with a gender focus, the research combines tools from sociology and geography to understand how global transformations reshape labor relations and reinforce structural inequalities. Through a case study in Saladillo and interviews with rural women, it becomes evident that, despite their active participation in productive and technical tasks, their contributions are often rendered invisible or dismissed as mere "help." The thesis highlights how unequal access to resources, training, and recognition affects women differently, especially according to their social class. It advocates for a broad concept of work that includes care and unpaid labor, and underscores the need for public policies that acknowledge the central role of women in rural life and promote more equitable conditions.