INTER-COUNTRY EVALUATION OF SMALL FARMER ORGANIZATIONS: HONDURAS

v - 'What Happens in an Agrarian Reform

Judith TendJ.er

October 1.976

For Office of Development Programs of the Latin America Bureau of A. r.D.

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1'ab1e of Contents

Po1artzation in the Public Sector. • • 3

Shaking Up the Balance of Power. • • . . . . 5

Government Pro~ection Against Its Agencies • . . 8, · . . AID,'s Sector Loan: Ma.1:ly' Agencies and Diverse Beneficiaries. II

The spreading of risk • • • • • • • • • 12 • • • . • • • 15Sector lending and f'1ll1ng gaps • . • • •

AID I S past relations. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 17

Inter-agency COol"d.1natio:ll in Rural Development Projects. • • 22

The machine analogy • • • • • • • 23 . The single agency • . • • • . • • • • • 25 .Organiza.tional overlapping. • • • 26 Coordination av-ersion • •• . . 30

Agrarian Reform: Wot Giving Everybody' a Chance • 34

AID didacticism • • • •• • • • · 39. . Agrarian reform e.s precondition . • . • . • 41

Diffusing Power: The Case of the Cooperative Department. • • 43

Limiting Risks: The Chosen Forty Asen~amientos • · . . 50

Shoving Support for a Reform • • • • . • • 56

Agrarian Reform as a Development Project • 58 Legislation as precondition or goal? 60 Conclusion. • • • • • • • • • • • • . 64

Table 1 - Honduras: Comparison of BUdgets for National Agrarian Institute (INA) and Ministry of Natural Resources (MEN), 1966-1974•••••••••.•.• 67

i

v - What in an Agrarian Reform

The above discussion of the Na.tional Development Ba.J1k

(BNF) focused on what happens to asme.ll farmer program in a large . .

borrower banlt. In this section, the discussion moves to the

interactions betWeen public sector institutions in agriculture; "..: C'

" -. ,,' ~ ,

like the BNF-and the inwlvement of these agencies in both the ,.. ~

AID sector loan and the e.grarian reform.

AgI-a.1-ian reform looks like a decision, an act, an event

that is defined-in t1JD.e by the mom~nt the reform decree is issued.

But it 1.s really 'a process that goes on for severaJ. years, and not "{ ,

a. discrete happening. The issueJlce of the reform decree is only a..

m:Uestofle. Aft·er~his, t~~·7~eform. can be sloved don, heightened,

stopped a.J.togetbl!r, or reverS~d.· This Vill depend on the changing .:/

relative power of pro- and anti-reform forces within the gover~nt, '. . "

as well as without.

The population of the gover:cmentagencies of a country f" 1", 'I ... ,

is a microcosm of the population at large; it contains the same c·- r _,

~, t. .t >

opposing Sides on various political issues. It is only natural

that some of the government institutions dea.J.ing with agriculture, ":" ,"to',.", ::.'. '-~- P':',? ,!"",~".~ ... , . ,t, ,", .,: }' "

or some individuals within them, will not particularly like an

agrarian reform. These individuals or institutions will not f,,';

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