A Geography of Agrarian Structures in Argentina: Productive Models, Socioenvironmental Impacts and Neodevelopmentalism
Authors: Jonas Adriaensens, Joost Desseinb, and Jeroen Adamc Ghent University
ABSTRACT:
In 2022, the Unión de Trabajadores de la Tierra proposed the Law of Access to Land to the Argentine Congress for the fourth time. This proposal followed the 2021 publication of the results of the 2018 agricultural census—the first valid agricultural census since 2002. In this paper, we compare the census results of 2018 with those of 2002, looking at two themes: (1) land concentration and distribution; and (2) crop cultivation and application of agrochemicals. We found that small-scale farms have drastically decreased in both units and hectare coverage in the past 20 years, mainly due to the expansion of monoculture cropping, which is part of a model of agriculture that is characterized by intensified application of agrochemicals and the cultivation of genetically modified crops. Although post-neoliberal governments emphasize the importance of small-scale farmers, they have advanced, not halted, the expansion of agribusiness at the cost of small-scale farming.
Keywords: Land access, neodevelopmentalism, agribusiness, agrarian census, social movements
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