The land of few is the future of all

Five months in Madrid far away from Colombia, and maybe few days less since I am cursing this master in Sustainable Development and Corporate Responsibility, has been more than enough for me to see how most of the development issues we have considered, are reflected in my country in a big problematic. My objective, more than going further and analyzing the conflict in Colombia through these blog posts, is to try to find solutions while being critical and constructive. By the way, at the end of the master I am going back to my country willing to be part of the change.

In this chapter: land property.

Colombia is a country with a high land concentration, it’s GINI coefficient for land (a measure of land concentration that ranges between 0 and 1, where 0 represents total equality) is 0.87, one of the highest in the world.[i] More over, the land has an under-utilization for agricultural proposes; only the 22.7% of the land surface with agricultural potential is used for crop establishment. In contrast, of the 39.2 million hectares used today in livestock, only 21 million are eligible for it. [ii]

Although this problem has historic reasons, the armed conflict in the country has increased this situation because of the high rates of dispossession and forced displacement. An estimated 6.6 million hectares were stripped by violence in the past two decades, this constitutes 15% of agricultural land area. Due to the before mentioned conflict, the government created in 2011 a new law called Ley de Restitución de Tierras. This is a legal procedure looking to restore the land and formally recognize the victims of dispossession and forced abandonment that have been presented since January 1 of 1991 during the internal armed conflict.

Picture: www.semana.com

It is important to take into account that this law seeks to restore just 2 million hectares of the total territory stripped, which is between 6.6 and 10 millions. Besides, until December of 2012, the administrative unit in charge of the enforcement registered 31.111 return applications that corresponds to 2.246.664 hectares. However, in one year of the law validation, they have restored less than 1% of the land claimed by the victims.[iii]

Furthermore, the rural population in Colombia does not only live in poverty, they live in misery. A well-known magazine in Colombia called Semana, published a shocking report[iv] in 2012 about the rural land in the country and revealed some of these figures:

• 60% of the rural employment is informal.
• 83% of the rural population is under the subsidized health scheme.
• 55% of the poor farmers have not received technical assistance.
• 11% do not have house and 16% lives in properties in poor conditions.
• 85% of the population lacks sewage.
• 60% do not have access to drinking water.
• Illiteracy is at about 18.5%

Taking this context into account, one can say that the rural issues in Colombia are not only about the armed forces and the more than 5 million inhabitants displaced by the violence. The situation is about how the government has wrongly valued the land, how economic priorities related to industrialization have prelate above the rural development and how farmers and their knowledge have been forgotten.

Picture: www.vanguardia.com

The Millennium Development Goals seek for a world without hunger, but in Colombia 12.6% of the population lives in hunger despite the fact that the economic growth has increased in almost 4% and that the land is sitting there waiting to be harvested for food production. “The FAO estimates that worldwide there are about 2.600 million hectares usable for agriculture that are not being used for cultivation. Of these, 900 million are in seven countries: Brazil, Congo, Angola, Sudan, Argentina, Bolivia and Colombia. The land of Colombia are being targeted investment speculative international.”[v]

My conclusion about the rural reality in Colombia is that we need more than just a law for returning the land and more than a peace agreement to recuperate the trust and confidence. We need to ensure the protection of farmers, their properties and their Human Rights. We need to invest in rural development and boost the work of small holders yields to improve food production, we need to reduce inequality and create opportunities, also for the rural population. This means to also to take civil society into account for decisions and peace agreements. All in all, for me our best asset is our land, and although all these ideas cannot develop from one day to another, I believe we have a great opportunity in our hands and land is waiting for our assertive actions.

” We will not solve hunger and stop climate change with industrial farming on large plantations. The solution lies in supporting knowledge and experimentation of farmers and peasants and increased revenues to help smallholders and contribute also to rural development”

Olivier De Schutter, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.

Comments Off on The land of few is the future of all / 23 Feb 2014 por anamariarocha
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