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

Impacts on family farming in Buenos Aires

Abstract

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.