Agriculture in Bolivia

In 2018, Bolivia produced 9.6 million tons of sugarcane, 2.9 million tons of soy, 1.2 million tons of maize, 1.1 million tons of potato, 1 million tons of sorghum, 700 thousand tons of banana, 541 thousand tons of rice, 301 thousand tons of wheat, in addition to smaller yields of other agricultural products, such as tangerine, cassava, orange, beans, sunflower seed, cotton etc. .[2]

Like the economy at large, agriculture faced major structural obstacles that kept it from reaching its vast potential. The lack of roads and easy access to ports hindered farmers from getting their produce to domestic markets and to the export markets that provided the most potential for the sector's growth.[1] A lack of credit for farmers was another long-standing problem, caused by government policies, the use of credit for political ends, and the strict lending procedures of the commercial banking sector. Bolivia also suffered from the worst farming technology in South America and an insufficient network of research and extension institutions to reverse that trend.[1] The combined lack of infrastructure and technology made farmers vulnerable to almost yearly droughts and floods.[1] The traditional use of pricing policies ensuring lower food prices for urban residents also lessened incentives for farmers.[1] In addition, farmers increasingly had to compete with contraband imports in a wide range of agricultural products.[1] Beyond these specific obstacles, agriculture, like all sectors of the economy, also suffered from the country's endemic political instability, economic mismanagement, and slow economic growth.[1]

Llamas on the Bolivian altiplano.

Livestock production was active and well diversified. Beef cattle numbered an estimated 6 million in 1988 and dominated all livestock production, being the most popular meat in Bolivia.[4] Unlike the rest of the agricultural sector, beef output grew over 4 percent a year during the 1980s. Over 70 percent of all cattle were raised in the eastern plains; Beni was responsible for over 40 percent of the national herd.[4] Twenty percent of all cattle were found in the valleys and about 10 percent in the highlands, where they had served as beasts of burden since the Spanish introduced cattle in colonial times.[4] In 1988 Bolivia slaughtered 200,000 tons of cattle and exported 48,000 live cattle to Brazil, as well as processed beef to Chile and Peru.[4] The country's medium and large cattle ranchers were organized into two large producer associations one in Beni and one in Santa Cruz that marketed beef and attempted to set domestic prices.[4] Bolivia had the potential to double its beef output in a relatively short period of time.[4]

A Bolivian livestock farmer

The number of dairy cattle in Bolivia in the late 1980s was unknown but was well below what the country needed to meet domestic demand. The rate of milk consumption among Bolivians was among the lowest in the world. In 1988 Bolivia consumed 130,000 tons of milk, 80,000 tons from its five dairies, 23,000 tons in donations from developed countries, and the rest in contraband, mostly in the form of evaporated milk.[4] Dairy farms were medium to large in size and were concentrated in Cochabamba and Santa Cruz departments. The government was involved heavily in the dairy industry, but it was generally ineffective in improving nutritional levels in dairy products.[4]

Cattle on a farm near Copacabana

Other livestock included chickens, pigs, sheep, goats, llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, and even buffalo.[4] Chicken production also was centered in Cochabamba and Santa Cruz departments and experienced strong growth in the 1980s.[4] Although the poultry industry faced high feed costs and substantial Chilean contraband, it produced 25 million broilers and 200 million eggs in 1988.[4] The pork industry, also facing high feed costs, remained small. The pig population was estimated at slightly over 1 million, and the annual slaughter was roughly 45,000 tons of pork. Santa Cruz was expected to be the location of the pork industry's future growth. There were an estimated 10 million sheep and 1 million goats in Bolivia, mostly in the highlands, which was also home to 3 million llamas, 350,000 alpacas, and a dwindling number of vicuñas.[4] Appreciated for their fine wool and meat, llamas, alpacas, and vicuñas received government protection because of their declining numbers.[4]

In 2013, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that children engage in child labor in the agricultural sector. Agriculture is a sector where instances of such working conditions are most common in Bolivia. In fact, 70% of children aged 7 to 14 years old work in the agricultural sector.[5] In 2014, the Bureau of International Labor Affairs issued a List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor where Bolivia was classified as a country that resorts to child labor in the production of chestnuts, corn, peanuts and sugarcane.

Deforestation occurring in Bolivia's forest regions

Bolivia's vast forests and woodlands were one of the areas with the most potential for growth in agriculture. Official wood production grew by a third from the late 1970s to the late 1980s, when timber exports surpassed all other agricultural exports.[6] Timber exports in 1987 reached US$31 million.[6] Contraband in wood products, however, was expected to be equivalent to official exports.[6] Most of the smuggled wood was destined for Brazil.[6] Bolivia's eastern lowlands are richly endowed with hundreds of species of trees, scores of which have been commercially timbered.[6] Deforestation and the threat of erosion caused by slash-and-burn agriculture and colonization were growing concerns in the lowlands.[6] The government's Center for Forestry Development (Centro de Desarrollo Forestal) monitored the country's forests.[6]

Fish farming on Lake Titicaca

Fish was a potential source of protein in the Bolivian's protein-deficient diet, but river fishing was mostly for direct consumption.[6] With assistance from the British, the government was attempting to promote commercial fishing in the lowlands.[6] Several processing plants were being considered to market the trout, pacú, and dorados that filled the many rivers of the Oriente.[6]

Before the 1952 Revolution, Bolivia's land distribution was the worst in Latin America with some 4 percent of all landowners possessing more than 82 percent of the land.[7] A major success of the land reform program was the redistribution of nearly 50 percent of peasant lands within its first two years.[7] Although greatly improved from the pre-revolutionary period, broad disparities in land tenure remained in the 1980s.[7] Analysts estimated that over 90 percent of the farms in the highlands and valleys remained under twenty hectares in the 1980s.[7] These farms typically were one to three hectares in size and were worked by nearly 80 percent of Bolivia's more than 700,000 farmers.[7] The majority of farmers in the highlands were also members of agricultural cooperatives.[7] Only 40 percent of the farms in the eastern and northern lowlands were under twenty hectares; the most common size in that region was fifty to seventy-five hectares, but subsistence farming existed as well.[7]

A dry corn field with little fertility in the Altiplano.

Nearly 60 percent of all farmers lived in the highlands in the late 1980s.[7] Highland parcels were the smallest in the country, had the least fertile soils, and had been worked for the longest period of time.[7] Highland farmers received under 40 percent of all rural income, although they represented about 60 percent of the rural population.[7]

Twenty percent of the country's farmers were located in the relatively fertile valleys.[7] These farmers fared much better than their Altiplano counterparts on the high plateau (Altiplano) between the two mountain ranges in western Bolivia.[7] Plots averaged between five and ten hectares, and because of the more fertile and less exhausted soils, a larger share of that land was in use compared with the Altiplano.[7] Farmers in the valleys were frequently able to harvest two crops annually, as opposed to the one crop a year on the Altiplano.[7]

The largest farms were found on the sprawling and often isolated eastern lowlands, where about 20 percent of the country's farmers worked 65 percent of the country's land.[7] The lowlands produced the bulk of all agricultural output and virtually all of the sector's exports.[7] Although about 16 percent of the lowland farms were of subsistence size (five hectares or fewer), the great majority of the region's land was owned by medium-to-large landowners actively engaged in commercial agriculture.[7] The power center of the agricultural sector was located in the southeastern department of Santa Cruz, where landholdings often exceeded 5,000 hectares.[7]

Bolivia's land reform policies of the early 1950s were implemented much more rapidly and completely than those of other Latin American countries.[8] The land reform essentially allowed peasants to claim the land that they had traditionally worked.[8] For this reason, however, the size of many peasant plots did not increase as a result of the reform.[8]

In retrospect, land reform was more of a social success than an economic one.[8] Although the reform improved income distribution, its main contribution was to transform a feudal society into a market society.[8] Land reform has remained a goal of successive governments since 1952, but the pace and scope of reform slowed.[8] The original Agrarian Reform Law was amended in 1963 and 1968.[8] By 1986 the government claimed to have redistributed 33 million hectares through the reform process.[8] But although peasants ate better, agricultural production did not increase in the way most government officials expected.[8] In addition, the reform process was hampered by price controls, a lack of extension services, inadequate credit, insufficient infrastructure, and regional conflicts between the highlands and lowlands.[8] The growth of the agricultural sector was barely positive during the 1950s, and annual growth, especially among food crops, did not keep pace with population growth, thus requiring increased imports of foodstuffs.[8]

A farm on the altiplano, producing wheat and potatoes but also sheep.

Land policy since 1952 also has been marked by the colonization of the lowlands.[8] Although government policy has encouraged colonization of these isolated areas since the 1940s, the process did not accelerate until the 1950s, when a major highway connected Cochabamba with Santa Cruz and a rail system linked Santa Cruz with São Paulo, Brazil.[8] The settlers included members of the former ruling oligarchy who had lost land in the reform, as well as more risk-taking highlanders, or Kollas, who came as wage laborers or who bought land.[8] In order to facilitate the colonization process, the government created the National Colonization Institute (Instituto Nacional de Colonización—INC), which typically helped highland families move to newly established government colonies, sometimes completely isolated from other towns.[8] From 1952 to the mid-1970s, the government helped 46,000 families (190,000 people) colonize the lowlands.[8] Government-sponsored colonization, however, accounted for just 15 percent of all the pioneers who ventured east.[8] Furthermore, INC colonies suffered a high dropout rate among participants, many of whom faulted the INC for providing insufficient support services and too few roads.[8] Other settlers included members of Japanese and North American Mennonite communities who were establishing colonies in neighboring Paraguay.[8]

Land policy and government agricultural policy in general shifted dramatically when orthodox economic policies were implemented in 1985.[8] The government, which had once monopolized the production of many key crops, set prices, marketed goods, and closely controlled credit, now effectively withdrew from the sector.[8] As a result, farmers in the late 1980s were in transition from a period characterized by import protection and close cooperation with the government to one of free competition with highly advanced international markets and contraband.[8]

North Bolivia Plantation

A produce farmer examining beans grown in a greenhouse

Bolivia contains slightly over 108 million hectares of land.[9] Forest or woodland comprised 40 percent of all land, or 56 million hectares, in the late 1980s.[9] Pasture accounted for a quarter of total land, or about 27 million hectares.[9] Crops covered only 2 percent of all land, or over 1 million hectares. The remaining 30 percent of the land was destined for "other uses", including 8 percent of all land that was arable but not in use.[9] Of the land deemed suitable for agricultural use, only about 10 percent was in use.[9]

As with land tenure, the country's land use was best explained in terms of its geography.[9] Most highland farmers worked minifundia plots of staples and vegetables, such as potatoes, corn, haba beans, and quinoaa, the Bolivian cereal grain, selling only 30 percent of their output.[9] Produce usually was marketed to truckers, the most common marketing outlet for Bolivian farmers, or was sold at large agricultural fairs, an Inca custom.[9] Although Indians in the highlands terraced their steep fields in the Inca style, traditional farming techniques also made farmers vulnerable to frost, irregular rainfall, and erosion.[9] Farm animals plowed the soil, and the abundance of sheep, llamas, and alpaca, used as a form of insurance income against bad weather, made overgrazing common, thus further eroding the soil and lessening soil fertility.[9]

Farmers in the valleys used their farmland for a mixture of traditional and nontraditional purposes, producing both food and cash crops.[9] The primary food crops were tubers, barley, corn, wheat, fruits, and vegetables.[9] Export crops such as cacao, tea, and coffee were also planted, the latter because of the ideal altitude.[9] Livestock activity also was common.[9] Although yields were not always high, the valleys usually produced two crops a year and were less vulnerable to weather fluctuations than on the Altiplano.[9] Nevertheless, farmers in the valleys also relied on truckers for their marketing and suffered greater isolation than those on the Altiplano, particularly during the rainy season, October to April.[9] Although farmers in the valleys took more risks than those on the Altiplano, they still suffered from a low technological level and the lack of direct access to markets.[9]

Haystacks

The country's most productive farmers were those who cultivated the fertile plains of the lowlands, especially in the department of Santa Cruz.[9] Santa Cruz's rise to prominence was the consequence of infrastructure improvements in the 1950s, land reform, and colonization.[9] By the 1960s, Santa Cruz was responsible for the import substitution industrialization of sugar, rice, cotton, and oilseeds.[9] With the rapid increase in commodity prices in the early 1970s, cruceña (Santa Cruz region) lands were increasingly sown with cash crops, especially cotton and soybeans.[9] For political reasons, Santa Cruz also received a disproportionate share of the sector's credit in the 1970s, which also accelerated growth.[9] In contrast to the rest of the country, farmers in Santa Cruz were actively engaged in all aspects of the market economy, such as harvesting, processing, marketing, and even research and development.[9] These farmers were organized into powerful producer organizations that traditionally negotiated prices with the government and provided technical assistance to members.[9] Small farmers also continued to occupy Santa Cruz and many were responsible for the growing problems of deforestation because of slash-and-burn approaches to rice farming.[9] An estimated 100,000 landless wage earners in the agricultural sector cut sugarcane or picked cotton in Santa Cruz or performed seasonal labor in Argentina.[9]

The northern lowland departments of Pando and Beni were much more isolated than Santa Cruz, thus limiting their ability to be major agricultural producers.[9] They were originally settled in the late 19th century during a boom in rubber exports from the Amazon region.[9] As colonization proceeded, larger-scale commercial agriculture developed in coffee, rice, and especially cattle.[9] By the 1960s, large cattle ranches of 500 hectares and more flourished in Beni, making it the cattle capital of the country.[9] In the 1980s, Beni Department also became an important producer of commercial timber.[9]

The use of purchased items such as fertilizers, tractors, and irrigation systems were extremely low in the 1980s because traditional farming methods continued to dominate.[10] Because of their isolation and lack of technical support, Bolivian farmers used less fertilizer, about two kilograms per hectare, than any other country in the Western Hemisphere.[10] Most small farmers used natural fertilizers, such as manure, but even large farms in Santa Cruz found chemical fertilizers (all of which were imported) expensive because of transportation costs.[10] The signing of an accord for a natural gas pipeline with Brazil in 1988, however, improved Bolivia's prospects for manufacturing its own chemical fertilizers.[10] Bolivia's use of tractors, 0.2 per 1,000 hectares, was also the lowest in the Western Hemisphere.[10] Most tractors were used in Santa Cruz. As the lowlands took on a greater role in agriculture, that ratio was expected to improve.[10] By the late 1980s, just about 5 percent of the country's land was irrigated, one-third more than a decade earlier.[10]

Government extension services for farmers remained extremely inadequate in the late 1980s. Only one agricultural agent existed for each 7,000 farming households.[10] The chief research institution for agriculture was the Bolivian Institute for Agricultural Technology (Instituto Boliviano de Tecnología Agrícola—IBTA). Established in the mid-1970s, the IBTA concentrated mainly on new seed varieties for cash crops in the lowlands.[10] The Institute for the Rural Development of the Altiplano (Instituto para el Desarrollo Rural del Altiplano—IDRA), the Center for Tropical Agricultural Research (Centro de Investigaciones de Agricultura Tropical—CIAT), and the national universities performed further research into this field.[10]

• Hudson, Rex A.; Hanratty, Dennis Michael, eds. (1991). Bolivia: a country study. Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)