Modernizing peasant agriculture: Lessons from El Palmar, Colombia

This paper examines the short-run and anticipated long-run output and income results of the modernization of production in a Colombian peasant community, El Palmar. The study finds that in the short run there were increases in output and in producer income, as well as increases in local employment and trade opportunities which benefited land-poor households. However, the incidence of extreme poverty in the community was still high after 10 years of modernization. The gains from modernization had been limited by the failure of the projects to achieve stable, low-risk increases in the productivity of peasant resources, and many producers had pulled back from adoption of full technological packages in favor of selective and limited adoption. The lessons from the community of El Palmar are applied to an assessment of the peasant modernization program of the Colombian government, where it is shown that the problems encountered in El Palmar are reflective of problems with the Colombian modernization strategy in general. The conclusion drawn is that the income gains that can be achieved from the modernization of peasant production, in the context of peasant land scarcity and the poor market conditions for traditional peasant products, are limited.