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Paraguay Land Reform and Land Policy
After decades of public controversy over government land policy,
two important agrarian laws were enacted in 1963 that guided land
policy through the late 1980s. The Agrarian Statute, as the laws
were called, limited the maximum size of a single landholding to
10,000 hectares in Eastern Paraguay and 20,000 hectares in the
Chaco, with landholdings in excess of this size subject to taxes or
possible purchase. This law, however, like many of the laws
involved in economic policy, was enforced only loosely or not at
all. A more fundamental component of the Agrarian Statute was the
creation of the Rural Welfare Institute (Instituto de Bienestar
Rural--IBR). The IBR, which superceded the Agrarian Reform
Institute, became the central government agency mandated to plan
colonization programs, issue land titles to farmers, and provide
new colonies with support services such as credit, markets, roads,
technical assistance, and other social services as available. From
1963 to the late 1980s, the IBR titled millions of hectares of land
and created hundreds of colonies, directly affecting the
circumstances of roughly one-quarter of the population. In the late
1980s, the IBR remained the key government agency, along with the
Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, in serving the land needs of
small farmers.
Although the IBR played an important role in stimulating the
celebrated "March to the East," the exodus from Paraguay's central
zone to the eastern border region that began in the 1960s was a
spontaneous process. The task of the IBR was so enormous and its
resources so limited that many of the country's farmers bypassed
the institute in order to participate in the eastward land grab.
Thousands of Paraguayans took it upon themselves to trek eastward
to the abundant, fertile, but forested land of Alto Paraná, Itapúa,
and other eastern departments. Many of the colonists were pioneers
in the truest sense, clearing densely forested areas for farming
mostly by axe. Few farmers had access to institutional credit, and
these newly colonized areas generally lacked schools, roads, and
other amenities.
Data as of December 1988
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