Introduction

This document focuses on the land tenure reforms that would be required over a large part of Africa and Asia in the event that future developments are designed to benefit the whole of society, its popular and working classes in particular and, of course, the peasants (over half the population of Asia and Africa), and seek the reduction of inequality and the radical eradication of ‘poverty’.

This development paradigm involves combination of a ‘mixed’ macro economy (combining private enterprise with public planning) based on the democratisation of market management and the state and its interventions, and a decision to opt for agricultural development based on peasant family farms.

The implementation of this set of basic principles, for which it would clearly be necessary to define specific methods for each country and phase of develop­ment, would lead to the formation of an ‘alternative’ on a national scale. It would, of course, have to be accompanied by an evolution to support it both regionally and globally through the construction of an alternative globalisation that would be negotiated rather than imposed unilaterally by dominant transnational capital, the collective imperialism of the triad (the United States, Europe, Japan) and United States hegemonic tendencies.

We only aim to deal here with a single aspect of this complex problem, namely, the rules governing access to the use of farmland. These rules must be created in a way that ‘integrates rather than excludes’, that is to say, a way that allows all farmers the right of access to land, which is a fundamental condition of the con­tinued existence of a ‘peasant society’. This basic right is certainly not enough by itself. It would have to be supported by policies enabling peasant family farms to

¹ This text was first published as Chap. 5, in: Samir Amin: Ending the Crisis (Fahamu Books, 2011). The copyright for this text belongs to the author.

S. Amin, Samir Amin, SpringerBriefs on Pioneers in Science and Practice 16, 91

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-01116-5_10, © The Author(s) 2014 produce their goods in a way that would ensure the growth of national produc­tion (which in turn would guarantee a secure food-supply for the country) and a parallel improvement in the real income of all the peasants concerned. It is a ques­tion of implementing a range of macroeconomic proposals and adequate forms of politically managing these, and ensuring that negotiations on the organisation of international exchange systems are subject to the requirements of the former. These aspects of the problem will not be discussed here.

10.2