Brazil - Innovation Increases Land Access and Incomes of Poor Rural Families

Brazil has developed a community-led,
market-based approach to land reform in which poor rural
laborers and farmers, either landless or with insufficient
land for subsistence, form beneficiary associations through
which to obtain financing to buy agricultural properties,
for which they negotiate directly with willing sellers. The
financing package includes complementary funds for
investments to enhance land productivity (water,
electricity, livestock, farm machinery) or improve welfare
(housing, schools). The results are good: beneficiary
incomes have increased substantially, predominantly from
agricultural production, and the approach has accelerated
the pace and lowered the cost of land access by the rural
poor throughout the Northeast and elsewhere in Brazil.