Rural Poverty and the Problem of Increasing Food Production on Small Farms: the Case of Colombia

CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Research Papers in Economics Rural Poverty and the Problem of Increasing Food Production on Small Farms: The Case of Colombia Refugio I. Rochin It is increasingly recognized that "At the they do one-fourth of the farmland, the Colombian root of the world's food problems are serious small farmers manage to produce two-thirds of all imbalances in the availability of resources, the food output in the agricultural sector. And yet the distribution of incomes, and the conditions under gross income of the small farmer is between one- which food is produced and traded" [Walters, p. tenth and two percent of the gross returns of the 530]. The root cause of the food problem in average member of the Colombian rural elite and Colombia is not merely a serious imbalance in large landowners [Vallianatos, p. 80]. Concomi- resource availability but an even more serious tantly, the elite that owns most of the country's problem of widespread poverty among small farms resources controls the employment of a large and its ramifications. number of agricultural workers. This paper 1) surveys the extent of rural There is no uniquely correct way of measuring poverty in Colombia, 2) examines some of the the extent of rural poverty, nor is there a standard poverty related problems standing in the way of way of measuring income. However, on the basis raising food output on small farms, and 3) ad- of a study by INCORA,1 close to 6.5 million rural dresses these problems with some suggestions for Colombians (out of 10 million), were living in decision-makers. A basic premise of this paper is poverty in 1970; nearly one-third of the country's that a more comprehensive understanding of the entire population. To measure this, INCORA conditions of poverty at the farm level is of para- adopted an arbitrary standard that a family mount importance in determining the relevance (which includes about 6 people on average) was in and potential success of strategies aimed at solving a state of absolute poverty when it had an annual the causes of the food problem. income equivalent to 14,700 pesos (about US $550) or less in 1970. Accordingly, INCORA estimated that there were 935,000 poor families Widespread Rural Poverty in rural Colombia in 1970. Of this total, 190,000 families were landless, 658,000 owned less than The majority in Colombia's agricultural sector 5 hectares of land and had incomes less than 80 is still living in a subsistence rural economy. percent of the benchmark income, 37,000 were However, a massive exodus of the rural population families with 5 to 10 hectares of land with incomes from agriculture to the cities reflects the desperate less than 60 percent of the benchmark, and effort of many to escape the crushing poverty of 50,000 were tenant and sharecropper families their social and physical environment. Of great working plots of less than 15 hectares. Comparing concern is the fact that the rural sector produces 1970 real income to that of 1962, INCORA's and sends to the cities less food than its potential study pointed to a worsening situation. and more migrants than can be employed. Part of the problem of food supply is that the vast rural majority works in a context that inhibits Indicators of Poverty in Garcia Rovira the utilization of the work capacity. Cultivating as The province of Garcia Rovira mirrors in almost Refugio I. Rochin is an assistant professor, Department of a classic fashion the nature of the problems of Agricultural Economics, University of California, Davis. Giannini Foundation Research Paper No. 456. 1INCORA is the National Agrarian Reform Institute. 181 June 1977 Western J. Agr. Econ. rural poverty and food production. Located in high proportion of the resources suitable to the northeast Colombia about eight hours away by low income farms is dedicated to corn, bean, pea, jeep from Bogota, this province is typical of the wheat, and poultry production, in contrast with Andean region; it is mountainous and insuffi- a greater percentage allocated to tobacco, potato, cient in good quality land relative to its popula- and dairy activities within the farms with higher tion. The province suffers not only from rapid income levels). Moreover, as expected, the use growth in population but also from the destruc- of institutional credit and outlays for biological tion of its natural resources. inputs are consistently higher within the high Because Garcia Rovira has some public service income farm group which allows them to reap institutions and was also chosen for a regional relatively greater harvests from production. For project of "integrated rural development," a the most part, the rural poor are epitomized by comprehensive benchmark survey was conducted an inadequate supply of productive land and in 1972 by the Instituto Colombiano Agrope- capital (relative to farm size) and low investments cuario [Rochin and Landoio].2 It covered a in education. random sample of 1,263 farm units drawn from Against these background data, the magnitude the universe of 15,411 farms recorded in the of rural poverty is highlighted by the fact that 1970-71 Census of Agriculture. Altogether, the 56 percent of the farmers interviewed did not survey included 8.2 percent of the farm units and want their children to be farmers. Reasons for 11.8 percent of the area and yielded insights to desiring nonfarming futures include: 1) "city many questions concerning the poor and the prob- life is better" (40.6 percent), 2) they want lems and possibilities of raising food production. something better for their children than farming By adapting the measure developed by (20.8 percent), 3) agriculture does not provide INCORA-that the threshold of absolute poverty sufficient income (17 percent), 4) they want a per family was about Col. $14,700 in 1970- better education for their children (17 percent), survey respondents were divided into two sub- and 5) there is not enough land to cultivate groups: 1) the "poor", who managed farm units (15.2 percent).3 with a gross production value of less than Col. $15,000 in 1971, and 2) the "rich", who managed farm units with gross production values equal to Poverty Dimensions of the Food Problem or greater than Col. $15,000. According to this division, the data indicate that about 83 percent In the midst of widespread rural poverty, of the farm families in Garcia Rovira are poor. there are a number of constraints obstructing Next, the mean values for several characteristics of ready solution of the food problem among small the sample for each sub-group were compared for farms, including 1) the intensive use of marginal significant differences and analyzed. The results land, 2) the limited time of the poor themselves of those factors that were significantly different and how they organize their work load, 3) the at the .01 probability level are summarized in cropping patterns specific to the poor, and 4) table 1. their dependence on supplementary off-farm Although the findings comparing "rich" and income. "poor" could be subjected to more rigorous According to the sample, 93.6 percent of the analysis, they tend to indicate that rural poverty farms are less than 50 hectares in size, 70.1 are (and at the opposite end of the spectrum-rural less than 10 hectares, and 32.7 are less than four. wealth) is a direct reflection of numerous factors; Farm units under 10 hectares in size cover only e.g., the maldistribution of productive land, dis- 18.9 percent of the area, whereas holdings larger parity of education, tenancy (in which land own- than 50 hectares (6.4 percent of the sample), ership predominates in the high income strata), account for 52.7 percent of the area; indicating and a dual structure of production (in which a a serious maldistribution of land. However, not all land is suitable for food production. On farms 2 The author monitored a grant from the Ford Foun- less than 10 hectares, only 55 percent of the dation that provided funds for the survey and he spent several days in the region working with the Instituto's 3 Because of multiple responses, the percentage figures project of "integrated rural development." sum to 109. 182 Rochin Increasing Food Production Table 1. Indicators of Poverty in Garcia Rovira, Colombia, 1972 Sample Means* "Rich" "Poor" Variable >15,000 pesos (N =161) <1 5,000 pesos (N = 1,023) Family Characteristics Number of productive members 3.6 2.9 Level of education: productive members 3.2 2.3 Level of education: head of family 2.3 1.8 Land Tenure Hectares under ownership 40.6 7.1 Hectares under sharecropping 2.7 1.7 Farm Size (Hectares) 48.4 10.7 Cropping land 9.2 2.9 Pasture land 19.6 3.9 Production Structure - Hectares Dedicated to: Tobacco 1.0 .2 Potato 2.5 .4 Capital Invested in (Pesos) Dairy 18,472.0 5,167.7 Sheep 2,558.0 407.0 Total Value of Farm Inventory (Pesos) 25,950.7 10,028.8 Biological Input Expenses (Pesos) per Hectare of: Tobacco 1,248.2 681.5 Potato 2,200.9 1,220.9 All crops 823.4 465.5 Biological Input Expenses (Pesos) for: Dairy 1,495.7 633.7 All livestock 2,617.2 1,340.3 Gross Value of Production (Pesos) from: All activities 36,744.5 5,058.8 All crops 26,214.9 3,073.3 All livestock 10,529.4 1,985.4 Tobacco 8,420.3 558.0 Potato 9,802.1 672.0 Dairy 8,006.1 177.9 *Mean values are significantly different at a probability level of .01.

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