MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Heated debate over who owns Argentina's rich farmlands

Politicians and Church leaders are weighing into an increasingly heated debate over who owns the fertile farmlands of Argentina, which used to be known as the world's bread basket.

The country is a top-five supplier of soybeans, wheat, corn and beef, and while its farming exports brought in about US$12 billion last year, a third of Argentines live below the poverty line.

Some say the ownership of most of Argentina's farmlands by a rich elite is partly to blame for such inequality, though farming groups say concentration fosters greater productivity.

"The growth of conglomerates in the economy ? especially the multinationals ? has produced a situation that's harmful to small-holder farmers," said Luis D'Elía, a former protest leader picked by the Argentine government to lead a land redistribution programme. D'Elía said 90% of Argentina's productive lands are owned by 8% of the population.

Meanwhile, the influential Catholic Church of Argentina said recently the lack of a state policy on land distribution was making it hard for small-scale farmers to compete with big business.

"For many small farmers, access to productive land is a central problem due to the lack of adequate legislation that limits the concentration (of land ownership) and widespread corruption," Argentina's Episcopal Conference said in a report.

However, some representatives of the crucial agricultural sector say concentrated patterns of land ownership help raise output levels.

"From a production viewpoint, concentration ? within certain limits ? is necessary for efficiency. It has competitive advantages related to buying and selling power," said Hugo Biolcati, vice-president of the Argentine Rural Society.

Like other South American countries, Argentina's most productive farmlands have long been held by a few powerful landowners. But the recent debate has also focused on the presence of foreign landowners.

"It's a consequence of globalization," said sociologist Rosendo Fraga. "The land in Argentina today is immensely cheaper than in other countries and this inevitably generates an inflow of capital."

D'Elía used bolt-cutters to destroy a fence and trespass on land used by US environmentalist Douglas Tompkins in northeast Argentina in August, saying the the US citizen had blocked off a road.

However, not everyone in the government thinks foreign capital is necessarily bad for the country's farming industry.

"Do I agree with foreigners buying farmland? This is a young country that was itself built on immigration," Agriculture Secretary Miguel Campos said in a recent online news conference. Buenos Aires Herald