Land reform is the reorganization of land structure in order to promote the fairer distribution of land.
The agrarian reform aims to provide for the redistribution of rural properties, that is, to effect the distribution of land to carry out its social function.
Agrarian reform is an imperative State intervention, for economic and political reasons, in the situation property of rural properties, as well as changes in land rights (right of property).
There are two different trends in the agrarian reform movement. One is derived from socialist and communist ideologies, whose purpose is that the entire soil becomes collective property, considering that this is the necessary precondition for achieving a just social order and equitable. The second trend is that of agrarian reformers such as Henry George, J.S. Mill and Franz Oppenheimer, who attack private land ownership. and they demand very strict measures from the state to avoid unjustified enrichment of the owners, caused by the income received from the lands.
The agrarian reform process is carried out by the State, which buys or expropriates land from large landowners, who own large tracts of land. land, on which usually most usable parts are not used, and then these plots are distributed to peasant families, or with low income. The State has the obligation to guarantee the right of access to land for those who live and work on it, but this statute is not always put into practice, as several families are expelled from the countryside, having their properties acquired by large landowners.
Rural properties destined for agrarian reform can be obtained in two ways, through expropriation or purchase, with expropriation being the original modality for obtaining land.
Agrarian Reform in Brazil
In Brazil, a country where rural inequalities are among the highest in the world (1% of landowners own about 50% of the land), there is INCRA (National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform), the body responsible for managing these problems. The theme generates many debates, since many families that receive the land end up selling it later, or the landowners do not think it is fair that their land be expropriated.
