The Political Economy of Rural Poverty

The Political Economy of Rural Poverty The Political Economy of Rural Poverty The case for land reform M.Riad El-Ghonemy Routledge London and New York First published 1990 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/.” © 1990 M.Riad El-Ghonemy All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data El-Ghonemy, M.Riad 1924– The political economy of rural poverty: the case for land reform /M.Riad El-Ghonemy. p. cm. 1. Developing countries. Land tenure, related to poverty in agricultural communities I. Title 333.33′5′091724 ISBN 0-203-01330-1 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-14720-0 (Adobe e-Reader Format) ISBN 0-415-04082-5 (Print Edition) 0-415-04083-3 pbk Library of Congress-Cataloging-in-Publication Data El Ghonemy, Mohamad Riad. 1924– The political economy of rural poverty: the case for land reform /M.Riad El-Ghonemy. p. cm. Bibliography: p. Includes index ISBN 0-415-04082-5 0-415-04083-3 pbk 1. Land reform— Developing countries—Case studies. I. Title. HD13333.D44.E38 1989 333.3′1–dc19 88–36484 CIP Contents List of Figures vi List of Tables viii Acronyms and abbreviations xi Acknowledgements xii Introduction: the aims and analytical procedures 1 Part 1 Puzzles and dilemmas 1 Persistent poverty and crippled agriculture: a single problem 15 2 The ideological shift and dilemmas facing governments 38 Part 2 The analytical issues of land reform and rural poverty 3 Accessible opportunities: the meaning of land reform 69 4 Large estates: issues in efficiency and employment 100 Part 3 The obstacles and realities in reducing poverty 5 Institutional monopoly and rural poverty 119 6 Case studies of complete and partial land reform 154 7 The pace of poverty reduction: inter-country comparison 209 8 Policy implications and prospects for land reform 235 Appendices 252 Bibliography 262 Name index 274 Subject index 281 Figures 3.1 Linkages among the structural determinants of rural poverty 80 3.2 Linkages among access to land, command over food and rural 92 development 5.1 Average rent per Feddan (acre) in Egyptian provinces, 1938–52 131 5.2 The trend in crop productivity per Feddan in 1935–51, Egypt 133 5.3 Relationship between rural poverty and land concentration ratios 143 5.4 Relationship between landlessness and concentration of land 146 holdings 5.5 Agricultural production per head and land concentration index 147 6.1 Lorenz curves for changes in the degree of inequality in land 173 distribution in South Korea, 1930, 1945, 1970 and 1980 6.2 Lorenz curves for changes in the size distribution of land 184 holdings in Iraq, 1958, 1971, 1982 Tables 1.1 Performance of agriculture in developing countries, 1960–85 20 1.2 Food productivity in developing countries by regions, 1960–85 22 1.3 Food production in developing countries with egalitarian 23 agrarian systems, 1960–85 1.4 Productivity of agricultural labour force in 18 African countries 24 with rural poverty levels at 50 per cent and over, 1970–84 1.5 Changes in the concentration of size distribution of land holding 26 in 23 developing countries, 1950–84 1.6 Growth rates in landlessness and labour force in agriculture in 28 five developing countries, 1960–70 1.7 Farmers’ income loss and consumers’ gain from pricing policy in 33 Egypt, 1980 2.1 Regional change in the World Bank allocation for agriculture and 52 rural development 1977–87 2.2 Changes in food production and nutrition per head in 63 LDCs 61 which introduced the IMF/WB adjustment policies, 1970–1 and 1979–85 2.3 Performance of 11 countries with IMF programme according to 63 their concentration of land distribution, 1970–85 3.1 A hypothetical index of land and income distribution for 78 countries X and Y 4.1 Labour, land, and capital in agriculture, variations in samples 102 from developed and developing countries 4.2 Mozambique state farms’ marketed crops in two zones 1981–3 107 5.1 The average annual cash rent per Feddan (acre) and the rate of 130 increase, 1928–51 as compared with cost of living index in Egypt 5.2 Change in size distribution of land holdings in the large farms 136 sector, Kenya 1973–81 5.3 Changes in land use among food, and cash crops in Kenya, 137 1960–86 5.4 Relationship between rural poverty, land concentration, 141 agricultural growth and landlessness in 20 developing countries 5.5 Stability of land concentration among top size groups of large 144 holdings in six Latin American countries, 1950–80 6.1 Gini coefficient of land concentration in four Chinese regions 157 1929–36 6.2 Selected indicators of agrarian change in China, 1930–85 158 6.3 Distribution of land ownership—Korea 1927 and 1930 166 6.4 Stability in the size distribution of land holdings after land 169 reform in South Korea 1960 to 1980 6.5 Changes in conditions of agricultural income and rural quality of 181 life, Iraq, 1948–80 6.6 Changes in the distribution of land holdings in Iraq, 1952–82 183 6.7 Areas acquired for redistribution by Egyptian land reform laws, 190 1952 to 1969 6.8 Changes in the size distribution of landownership in Egypt, 191 1951–84 6.9 Average yields per Feddan in three land reform districts, and 193 national averages, Egypt 1954–64 6.10 Changes in asset ownership and per capita income in a land 195 reform area, Gabaris, Egypt, 1953–73 6.11 Incidence of poverty in rural Egypt, 1949/50–1982 198 7.1 The scope of land reform and changes in productivity and other 211 poverty characteristics in 14 selected developing countries, 1960–85 7.2 Index of food production in Mexico 1956–68 216 7.3 Temporal changes in population and number of rural poor 219 7.4 Agricultural growth and poverty in Pakistan and Thailand, 222 1960–83 7.5 Variation in poverty reduction between All India and Kerala, 229 1956–78 7.6 Comparison of quality and quantity of life between Kerala and 230 All India 1970–81 Acronyms and abbreviations BMR Basic metabolic rate CIDA Inter-American Committee for Agricultural Development, Washington D.C. CLR Complete Land Reform CPE Centrally Planned Economies CPI Consumers’ Price Index ECLA United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America, Santiago, Chile ECWA United Nations Economic Commission for West Asia, Baghdad FAO The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy GDP Gross Domestic Product GFCF Gross Fixed Capital Formation GNP Gross National Product IDB Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, D.C. IFPRI International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, D.C. ILO International Labour Organization, Geneva, Switzerland IMF International Monetary Fund LC Land Concentration LDC Less Developed Country MNC Multinational Corporation OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development PLR Partial Land Reform UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNICEF United Nations International Children’s Fund UNRISD United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, Geneva US AID United States Agency for International Development WB World Bank WCARRD World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development WHO World Health Organization Acknowledgements I am greatly indebted to the Agricultural Economics Unit at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University and to George Peters in particular. At his invitation, I have been fortunate in receiving invaluable administrative assistance, and the intellectual insight into fundamental development problems through the seminars and discussions with the faculty and the graduate students. I also owe George Peters thanks for calling my attention to a number of gaps in the preparation of the statistical analysis and in my judgement about the analytical apparatus of the neo-classical economics, although he may still object to what I say. Most of the findings on the relationship between land distribution, nutrition, poverty and rates of agricultural growth which appear in the book were part of two seminars which I gave in 1986 and 1988. I have greatly benefited from the suggestions and criticisms that I have received from Godfrey Tyler, who read the entire draft of the manuscript. He helped weed out obscurities and clarify the presentation of data. In the course of writing the book, he has been a tireless sounding-board on a wide range of issues. Tony Mollett kindly read the drafts of Chapters 4 and 5, and offered valuable comments. Alan Maunder offered helpful comments on Chapter 3 which clarified the discussion on the institution of property rights. Within Queen Elizabeth House, I received helpful suggestions and criticisms from Frances Stewart, who read an earlier draft of Chapter 5 which I presented as a paper at the Conference of The Development Studies Association, University of Birmingham, in 1988. I am grateful to Hans Singer, for his continued encouragement and interest in the subject of this book, particularly during my visiting fellowship at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. Laurence Smith and Richard King provided most helpful comments on Chapters 3 and 5, and their generous invitation to me to give seminars at the University of Glasgow, Scotland and North Carolina, USA, respectively, offered me the opportunity to talk to their graduate students.

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