1.3.2.2 Measures to Reform Land Management
The political goals of agrarian reforms can be largely achieved
on the basis of land ownership reform measures. Therefore,
in the past when these goals stood in the foreground, land
ownership reform were sufficient. An increase in production
and income- as it is demanded today, in addition --can only
be expected if the redistribution of the land is accompanied
by measures to prove land management. By these measures,new
farmers are either supplied with missing knowledge or inputs,
or functions that were carried out by the landlords until
then are taken over by someone else. In substance, these are
first and foremost the usual agrarian policy promotional measures
that are, in this case, integrated into the land ownership
reform process and thereby increase its chances of success.
An important task is advising and training
the beneficiaries of the reform. This is all the more important
if previously landless are granted land. In this case, both
the question of cropping techniques as well as farm organization
and guidance in marketing have to be supplied. If the new
farmers come from other regions, they do not have any knowledge
of the local soil and climatic conditions and their consequences
for agriculture. Tenants who were previously used to working
under the supervision of a landlord need help in adjusting
to the new situation. As a result of the size of the farming
units being reduced, animal keeping will surely spread and
bring along with it extension service tasks. Following an
agrarian reform the number, level of knowledge and the type
of production of the extension service clientele changes because
instead of a few landowners there are many small farmers that
have to be advised. That demands an increase in the number
of extension workers and, possibly, a change in the extension
service methods with a transition from individual to mass
extension methods. This may make it necessary to organize
the farmers in groups.
Before the extension work can be intensified, the extension
workers have to receive the necessary training concerning
both contents as well as methodology. Specifically regarding
farm organization and marketing, there are often considerable
gaps in knowledge. The extension personnel has to function
as intermediaries between the farmers and the state promotional
institutions and make public what the government offers. The
activities of the extension workers make it necessary to further
develop and reorientate the targets of research.
As a result of the change in land ownership and management,
investment and financial problems arise that demand a functioning
credit system. In particular, short term
credit is necessary for financing the running production and
cost of living until the harvest. In addition, the feeling
of security might lead the new owners to make investments
and, after all, the landlord used to often finance part of
the farm costs. A substitution has to be made available for
that if the farmers are to be kept from becoming dependent
once again as s result of debts. Unless their demand for credit
is met, the new farmers are sometimes unable to make use of
the land allotted to them.
In practice, however, it has proved to be very difficult
to organize functional credit programmes for small farmers.
The banks are frequently not very interested in loans for
small farmers, and if property rights are not transferred
completely, then there is no possibility of getting a mortgage
loan. Numerous experiments with group and cooperative credit
failed because the procedure for granting credit was too slow
and unwieldy and the loans were not repaid. Because of the
high personnel expenses for small farm credit, it is sometimes
not possible to avoid subsidizing them.
The organization of the marketing system
for both selling the products as well as procuring inputs
is important for the target of increasing the yield and incomes.
As the existing facilities are mainly set up to meet the requirements
of large farms, entirely new organization will have to be
established in some cases. This is also often necessary because
a change in the type of prodece is a result of a change in
the farm size structure and leads to marketing of products
for which there are no marketing channels. According to the
state's choice, state, cooperative, or private forms are given
preference. All of these can only then be successful if the
required transport and communication networks are at hand
as well as whether the legal framework and control instances
have been created.
All of these services have a better chance, if the majority
of the small farmers are organized in cooperatives
or similar groups. Innumerable agrarian reforms make provisions,
therefore, for the establishment of such organizations. These
vary according to the number of services they offer and the
extent of the self help concept behind them. Much more important
than the organizational form and the contents of the statutes
is that cooperation takes place; that is that the members
make use of the advantages of acting together.
The facts have shown that it is not always enough to offer
these measures to promote cultivation to the new farmers and
leave it up to them whether to make use of them or not.mt.
This would sometimes lead to a very slow adaptation by the
individual farm managers and result in yield increases being
hesitated. Therefore, it is believed necessary, in some cases,
to make provisions to enforce the employment of modern
farming methods. For this reason, the new farmers-after
the Egyptian agrarian reform had been passed-had to, according
to law, enter an agrarian reform cooperative that was given
certain key functions to ensure the farms success. These cooperatives
that were directed by a trained agronomist took over the responsibility
for providing seed, fertilizer, credit, plant protection,
machines, and marketing the produce. In addition, the crop
rotation was made uniform in order to allow ploughing to be
carried out without being limited to the boundaries of the
single plots. All other field operations were the business
of the individual farmers. Not only large increases in outputs,
but especially the fact that there was no decrease in outputs
immediately following the reform, proved the success of such
measures.
In the case of some settlement projects as well, production
under supervision plays a role and ensures that the
large capital investments for the project pay off. If training
for the purpose of creating more self- reliance is not included
in these measures, it can easily result in a continual need
for supervision and guidance which would cost the parties
financing the project accordingly.
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