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The agrarian structure of developing countries is often distinguished by a two-tier form of distribution, with a small number of large landowners possessing most of the arable land, while substantial numbers of very small owners, tenants and settlers farm the remaining land, which is often of inferior quality. Large holdings are still a feature of Mexico's land system. The historical origins of the process of land concentration vary from region to region. It is particularly relevant to note that the private appropriation of land not only led to the formation and consolidation of large holdings, but also had the diametrically opposite effect of fragmenting smallholdings.
Many developing countries have sought to modernize their economies as quickly as possible by basing themselves for the most part on the often unwarranted belief that hasty industrialization can bring about a favorable development in general economic well-being, even if agriculture suffers in the process. They have adopted policies that shield domestic industrial production and manipulate the exchange rates of the national currency to the disadvantage of agriculture. These policies tax exports of farm produce and also support the purchasing power of the urban population, based on the control of food prices or other forms of intrusion that alter the market distribution mechanism and that have therefore often led to a lowering of exchange rates for agricultural, as against industrial, production. The consequential fall in farm income has affected small producers so badly that many have been forced to stop farming. These factors have given added momentum to the process of conc!.
entrations of landholdings. .
When a considerable proportion of quality land was really distributed to a majority of the rural poor, with policies favorable to family farming in place and when the power of rural elites to alter policies was broken, the results have included a measurable poverty reduction and improvement in human welfare.