Land Structure it is the way in which agrarian properties are distributed and organized in a given country or space. In order to know the land tenure structure of a country, the quantity, size and social distribution of rural properties in the analyzed area are taken into account.
The land structure of a country or region is also greatly influenced by the level of land concentration the country, since the greater the concentration of land, the smaller the amount of land holdings and the larger the size of existing properties. In addition, the social distribution of land in countries where there is a large rural concentration tends to be more unequal, as the richest portion of the population has easier access to land, while the poorest population, most of the time, does not have access to land and/or the means of production.
In most developed countries, agricultural activities are carried out on smaller rural properties. family, highly productive and mechanized, focused on the production of food and raw materials to supply the domestic market from the country. In underdeveloped countries, mainly in Latin America and Africa, due to their colonial heritage in which the
plantations (large rural properties that produced monocultures aimed at supplying the international market), there large rural properties, concentrated in the hands of a few owners, which produce monocultures for export.According to the 1964 Land Statute, Brazilian rural properties can be divided into five categories:
Rural property: Any rural property used for agricultural or agro-industrial production.
Family Property (or Rural Module): It is the rural property operated by a certain family that absorbs all the family labor and manages to guarantee the livelihood of the entire family.
Smallholdings: They are small rural properties, with a larger extension than family properties, generally used in family or collective food production.
Large estates: Large rural properties aimed at modern monoculture production or real estate speculation.
Rural Company: They are medium and large rural properties, physical or legal, aimed at rational economic exploration of the agrarian space to develop agricultural products.
THE brazilian land structure it is one of the most concentrated in the world. While the minifundios represent 70% of the total rural properties and occupy an area of about 11% of the Brazilian agrarian space, the latifundios occupy about 55% of the rural area of Brazil.
This land concentration contributes to the aggravation of problems in the countryside, since most of the land, often unproductive, is found concentrated in the hands of few landowners, which increases the number of people without access to land, thus intensifying the conflicts caused by the dispute for lands. In addition, the large concentration of land also affects food production, since most of it is produced in smallholdings. As the area occupied by large estates is larger, national production and a large part of public policies related to the countryside are aimed at production of monocultures for export, making life even more difficult for the small producer, who is largely responsible for food production in the parents.
By Thamires Olimpia
Graduated in Geography
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/o-que-e/geografia/o-que-e-estrutura-fundiaria.htm
