Land in Colombia is concentrated in the hands of a few, and the recent evidence from Oxfam International shows that this tendency is on the increase.[1] Some actors have accumulated disproportionately large swathes of land which means that genuine conversations about agrarian reform have not taken place.[2] The large-scale landowners, terratenientes, have titles over vast areas of land and their monopoly over the country’s productive agriculture is growing.[3]

In terms of how these accumulated lands are used, of the 43 million hectares currently used in Colombia for agricultural purposes, 34.4 million (80%) are destined for cattle farming, leaving just 20% for crop production.[4] According to Oxfam´s analysis, most of the land currently being used for cattle farming could be put to better use to produce food or for environmental conservation projects, and in fact the land assessed as adequate for cattle farming is half of that currently being used.[5]

75% of land used in Colombia for producing crops is used for agricultural production for export and for large scale agro-industry.[6] This production has slowly displaced food production for internal consumption, which means that every year Colombia imports more basic foods that used to be produced in the country. Intensive agriculture techniques have resulted in greater use of fertilisers, which in turn generates greater dependency on the large agri-businesses that produce these chemicals, less crop rotation and a deterioration of soil quality.[7] These practices represent a loss of food sovereignty and an adherence to a global tendency towards privatised food systems, a trend that can be observed in many Latin American Countries.

As well as agricultural production, the economy is focused on extractive industries, with coal production nearly doubling in between 2000 and 2010, and mining concessions being approved at an extremely fast rate.[8] As previously mentioned, both periods of Juan Manuel Santos’ administration have made mining concessions the driver of development, as laid down in the National Development Plans.[9] In 2016 there were a total of 8,971 mining titles in the country, which represent 4,432,789 hectares.[10]


Bearing in mind the statistics on land use, the 150,000 hectares destined for coca leaf production seems relatively small.[11] And yet national and international attention remains focused on coca and it dominates foreign policy towards Colombia, whereas there are few policies focused on the reduction of land used for cattle farming, for example, a policy that could have a greater impact in ensuring a more equitable distribution of land.


Land in Colombia is so fertile that a wide range of crops can be produced on it due to the high concentration of minerals in the earth. The presence of these minerals means that the land is also full of natural resources, which are in high demand in the rest of the world. This richness is at the centre of tensions between different interests over land usage and is the fuel that generates the many different conflicts identified in the country.
Hannah Matthews
Footnotes:
[1] Oxfam: Radiografía de la Desigualdad: Lo que nos dice el último censo agropecuario sobre la distribución de la tierra en Colombia, July 2017
[2] Interview Camilo Sánchez, 18 October 2017
[3] Op. Cit. Oxfam: Radiografía de la Desigualdad: Lo que nos dice el último censo agropecuario sobre la distribución de la tierra en Colombia
[4] Ibid. Radiografía de la Desigualdad: Lo que nos dice el último censo agropecuario sobre la distribución de la tierra en Colombia
[5] Ibid. Radiografía de la Desigualdad: Lo que nos dice el último censo agropecuario sobre la distribución de la tierra en Colombia
[6] Ibid. Radiografía de la Desigualdad: Lo que nos dice el último censo agropecuario sobre la distribución de la tierra en Colombia
[7] Jaskiran Chohan: Charla sobre Cumplimiento y Resistencia al Régimen Global de Alimentos en Colombia: Zonas de Reserva Campesina como propuestas para la soberanía alimentaria, 9 October 2017
[8] Article 19: A Deadly Shade of Green Threats to Environmental Human Rights Defenders in Latin America, 2016
[9] Departamento Nacional de Planeación, Consulte el Plan Nacional de Desarrollo, 2014-2018
[10] CCAJAR: Observatorio para la protección de los Defensores de Derechos Humanos, Defender: El Territorio y el Ambiente en Contextos de Actividad de Empresas Extractivas, octubre de 2017
[11] El Tiempo: Entre 145.000 y 150.000 hectáreas tendrían cultivos de coca en el país, 10 July 2017
*Cover photo: Caldwell Manners/ECAP