Harvesting change: labor and agrarian reform in Nicaragua, 1979-1990

537 Pages·1991·1.42 MB·English

by  Laura J. Enríquez

Harvesting Change : Labor and Agrarian
title:
Reform in Nicaragua, 1979-1990
author: EnrÃquez, Laura J.
publisher: University of North Carolina Press
isbn10 | asin: 0807819573
print isbn13: 9780807819579
ebook isbn13: 9780807861271
language: English
Land reform--Nicaragua, Agriculture--
subject Economic aspects--Nicaragua, Agricultural
laborers--Supply and demand--Nicaragua.
publication date: 1991
lcc: HD1333.N5E57 1991eb
ddc: 333.3/17285
Land reform--Nicaragua, Agriculture--
subject: Economic aspects--Nicaragua, Agricultural
laborers--Supply and demand--Nicaragua.
Page iii
Harvesting Change
Labor and Agrarian Reform in Nicaragua, 19791990
Laura J. Enríquez
The University of North Carolina Press
Chapel Hill and London
Page iv
© 1991 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
95 94 93 92 91 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Enríquez, Laura J.
Harvesting change : labor and agrarian reform in Nicaragua,
19791990 / by Laura J. Enríquez.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8078-1957-3. ISBN 0-8078-4315-6 (pbk.)
1. Land reformNicaragua. 2. Agricultural laborersNicaragua
Supply and demand. 3. AgricultureEconomic aspectsNicaragua.
I. Title.
HD 1333.N5E57 1991
333.3'17285dc20 90-50715
CIP
Page v
A Maurizio, Margarita, Gladys
y tantos otros
quienes han comprometido sus vidas
para que el futuro de su pueblo sea mejor
Page vii
Contents
Preface xiii
1 1
The Problem of Breaking Out of Dependent Capitalist
Development
2 18
The Development of Dependent Capitalism in Nicaragua
3 55
The Nature of Agroexport Production
4 83
The Dilemmas of Revolutionary Policy: Agrarian Reform
and the Problem of Labor Supply
5 121
The Dilemmas of Revolutionary Policy: Alternative
Strategies for Resolution of the Labor Supply Problem
6 147
Conclusion
Postscript 156
Appendix Some Methodological Notes 179
Page viii
Notes 183
Bibliography 215
Index 237
Page ix
Tables
2.1. Land Distribution according to Size of Finca, 1963 37
3.1. Average Labor Supply Requirements per Manzana of 63
Advanced-Technology Coffee
3.2. Employment in Cotton Production, Permanent and 69
Temporary, 1960/611978/79
3.3. Average Labor Supply Requirements per Manzana of 71
Cotton
3.4. Harvested Area for Major Crops, 1960/611987/88 75
4.1. Land Redistributed and Families Benefited, October 91
1981December 1988
4.2. Changes in Land Tenure by Property Sector 93
5.1. Costs and Benefits of Volunteer Mobilization for the 130
1984/85 Coffee Harvest
5.2. Shifts in Wage/Price Relationship, 19811987 138
Page xi
Figures and Map
Figures
3.1. Monthly Agroexport Labor Requirements 61
3.2. The Cotton Production Cycle 68
3.3. The Cotton Cultivation and Commercialization 73
Process
Map
2.1. Macroregions of Nicaragua 27
Page xiii
Preface
When I arrived in Nicaragua in 1982 to begin the fieldwork for what
was later to become this book, the major question guiding my research
was the role played by internal structural obstacles, inherited from the
past, in conditioning the options open to Nicaragua's new policy
makers. Nicaragua's heritage of dependent development, such as the
incomplete nature of its economy and its consequent trade
dependence, would certainly affect efforts to transform it.
I went prepared to study this process of change in either industry or
agriculture, being particularly interested in the dilemmas that would
confront policy makers and their responses to these dilemmas. It
quickly became apparent, however, that to understand the essence of
the transformation process, I had to examine what was taking place in
the countryside. I knew that the dilemma that I ultimately chose to
study, the tension between agroexport production and agrarian reform,
had arisen in other countries that had experienced structural changes
in agriculture. It was for precisely this reason that the study seemed
like a worthwhile endeavor. Given the dependence on the production
of a few export crops that characterizes many small Third World
countries, efforts to change the nature of agricultural production so as
to improve the standard of living of the rural population and promote
more balanced development would inevitably threaten to undermine
the system of production that had heretofore been the basis of their
economies. My hope was that an examination of the process of
agrarian reform in Nicaragua would shed light on one of the many
such problems that were likely to be encountered by these countries'
planners in their efforts to find an alternative course of development.
Eight years later (in the autumn of 1990), as I write this preface, it
appears that most of the objectives held by Sandinista policy makers