Increasing Land Prices and the Crisis of the Rural Economy in Colombia

• In Event: Regímenes de propiedad agraria, crisis y conflictos en torno a la tierra

Abstract

“Buy land they’re not making it any more” Mark Twain

The puzzle that this article attempts to solve is this: What are the forces propelling the rural land prices in Colombia making them one of the highest in Latin America and the eleventh highest in the world to the detriment of food production and sustanaible development? It analyses the forces driving the land prices and rents undermining food production, food security, and detonating of the current crises. This article contextualizes the importance of land ownership in Colombia within the wider problematic presented by the seminal work of Thomas Picketty (2014) of the increasing importance of wealth in capital accumulation. Although, that Picketty main focus was the Western industrial nations in which he argued wealth and inheritance in the 21 century might become as important as they once was in the 19th century. This article focuses on two main factors. First it investigates whether the accumulation of land ownership, an important component of wealth and a form of capital, has become a salient feauture of Colombia’s political economy forming part of a historical global trend. The interplay of wealth with the increasing global demand for land in Colombia by multinational corporations, sovereign funds, and speculators.

Author

• Nazih F Richani, Kean University