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Related: About this forumPoor Utilization of the Land Behind Food Shortages in Venezuela
Poor Utilization of the Land Behind Food Shortages in Venezuela
A hacienda from the Western state of Lara that was being used for cattle grazing until recently when peasants occupied it and began cultivating the land (Aporrea tvi)
Punto Fijo, May 23rd, 2013 (Venezuelanalysis.com) As Venezuela continues to suffer shortages in many key food items and a dependence on food imports, some officials are pointing poor land utilization as a key cause of the problem.
Last week, Venezuela approved the import of large quantities of food from countries like Brazil to counter the continuous shortages in key items like chicken, cooking oil, butter, and toilet paper.
Analysts have attributed the shortages to delays in acquiring foreign exchange for imports, and government price controls that discourage production among the private sector.
But various officials have pointed to a deeper problem that goes back decades in Venezuela: the poor utilization of Venezuelas agricultural lands.
PSUV legislator Braulio Álvarez addressed the problem on state television last week, assuring that large landowners do not utilize their land to its potential.
Large producers like those who make up [the producers association] Fedeagro have left 30 to 40 percent of their lands uncultivated, he said.
Álvarez said that large landowners prefer to engage in speculative activities in currency exchange and imports rather than invest in producing their land.
We have the capacity to produce much more, he said.
State officials insist that while food production has increased overall during the Chavez era, it has not been enough to meet demand and much more must be done.
As a result, Venezuela is now looking to get countries like China and Brazil involved in its agricultural sector, requesting their assistance in raising production.
Last week, Chinas Vice President Li Yuanchao took note of Venezuelas agricultural capacity during a visit to a farming project in central Venezuela.
Venezuela has large expanses of land and favorable conditions for agricultural development. If they take advantage of it, the country has the capacity to be self-sufficient in agricultural products, he said.
But World Bank statistics seem to confirm the view that much of Venezuelas land is vastly underutilized. With a total land area of 92 million hectares, Venezuela cultivates less than 3 million.
The rest of the land is used for extensive cattle grazing, or left unused, a problem that has gone unchanged for decades according to statistics on land use.
The problem is linked to the existence of latifundios, large estates that are left at a low level of productivity by their owners who graze cattle on fertile land instead of cultivating it.
A similar situation exists in neighboring Colombia, where FARC negotiators have recently emphasized latifundio and extensive cattle grazing as the central problems that must be addressed if a peace agreement is to be reached.
Colombian Minister of Agriculture Juan Restrepo recently noted the severity of the problem in that country, where only 5 million hectares are cultivated out of a total of 114 million hectares.
The value added of one hectare of cultivation is on average 12 times greater than a hectare dedicated to extensive grazing, he said.
The problem of underutilized land has been a major point of emphasis of the Venezuelan government since Hugo Chavez came to power in 1999.
During the Chavez government, nearly 4 million hectares (10 million acres) of land were expropriated from landowners who had left it idle or underutilized.
However, much of the expropriated lands have not been transformed into productive farms after being transferred to farmers cooperatives or state companies.
This situation led President Nicolas Maduro to announce changes in recent weeks, including putting farms under the control of state governments, and bringing in foreign investment.
Weve decided to hand these farms over to the state governors, so that with the help of the Ministry of Agriculture they can convert them into models of food production, said Maduro recently.
Recent agreements signed with Brazil, Uruguay, China and Argentina all included plans for these countries to aid Venezuela in developing its agricultural sector.
Foreign Minister Elías Jaua noted that the Chinese and others will be transferring technology and aiding in the management of state-owned farms.
We are teaming up to manage these farms together, so we can reach the level of efficiency necessary to make them useful to the Venezuelan people, he said.
Opposition politicians insist that the expropriated lands should be returned to their previous owners, and opposition leader Henrique Capriles has promised that if elected he would review all the expropriations.
Published on May 23rd 2013 at 2.55pm
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http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/9538
naaman fletcher
(7,362 posts)If this situation has been going on for decades, then, by definition, it is not the reason why there are shortages today as opposed to, say, 5 years ago.
On a second note, if this has been going on for decades, then it is proof that the Chavez land reforms have failed to increase production.
coldmountain
(802 posts)naaman fletcher
(7,362 posts)There is no incentive to produce food.
Just in the newspaper today it was revealed that the price VZLA is paying brazil for beef is TWICE what a venezuelan is permitted to sell beef for.
Socialistlemur
(770 posts)A fast growing population is caused by lack of birth control, poor education and lack of career opportunities for women. I have a friend who is an anthropologist and did work in eastern Venezuela, told me teenage pregnancy and unwed mothers are very common, and the government is very lax about it, they have no educational programs nor do they even hand out contraceptives. Its a very male dominated society. This of course perpetuates the vicious cycle of poverty, and leads to a very high crime rate. To compound the problem their jails are really bad and serve as schools for criminals. It's a recipe for a dysfunctional society. She is going to write her PhD thesis on this case but expects very little will be done. As for the land use, it seems to be a very large country, maybe they should not use foreign exchange controls to make national agriculture so uncompetitive. They have a bad case of Dutch Disease.
joshcryer
(62,270 posts)Basically in Zimbabwe the white people who ran the farms were kicked out and the land was given to black Zimbabwans. The lands were then razed for their equipment, copper, steel, whatever, and left to fester. Many people who got the lands were politically connected. There's a somewhat biased documentary on this called "Mugabe and the White African." (Mainly because it paints the white farmers in too good a light and glosses over their over racism.)
Now, in Venezuela the land is being said to be underutilized after the redistribution. Could it be that it was simply done wrong? If you're going to give land to farmers you must give them incentives. And if they don't use the land in a certain period of time they lose it. This is how Cuba does it. Which is why they are 85% agriculturally self sufficient. (One of the few things outside of health care and education Cuba has done right.)
It's clear that the land redistribution in Venezuela has been a failure. But I don't blame the farmers because I have no evidence cronyism was involved. I blame the government for not supporting the farmers. Venezuela is not Zimbabwe.
Socialistlemur
(770 posts)There's a basic principle involved: farm support can't be used effectively if the currency exchange is controlled and kept so high it's a lot cheaper to import. The government policy is a case of Dutch Disease on steroids, and it's evident they lack the cash flow from oil to keep up the pretense and sell food at low prices AND in large quantities. This is called Dutch Disease because they had this problem in the 1960's in the Netherlands, when they began gas exports from super giant Groningen gas field. The exports brought in foreign currency which drove up the guilder to such an extent they could not produce and sell their products. Venezuela has suffered from Dutch disease for a long time, but the Chavez government had enjoyed a huge cash inflow when prices began to climb from around $15 per barrel in 1998 and have held at $100 per barrel in the last few years. This cash flow was used to create a multitude of social programs, buy weapons, give aid to Cuba and other nations, and also quite a bit seems to have been stolen. But the system is unsustainable because it kills local production. Last year before the elections the government knew they had to devalue the currency and rationalize the economy, but Chavez wanted to win the elections, he had cancer, and thus decided to open up the cash flows to increase consumption. Maduro inherited power in December, he's not a very smart man, and also realized he had to keep the people happy because there were more elections coming. And so he, or his handlers?, decided to keep business as usual. Now we see the consequences of this policy. Venezuelans are used to consuming more of everything, they are not producing, the currency was devalued but not enough, and the country lacks the cash to keep importing to satisfy demand. Something has to give.