Concentrated Land Holdings and Agricultural Stagnation

The structure of land holdings is pre-1959 Cuba was typical of much of Latin America. The great majority of the land was held in large estates. Small operators—peasant owners, sharecroppers, tenants and squatters—shared the remainder of the agricultural territory (see Table 6.1 for a detailed quantitative description of the distribution of land holdings prior to the revolutic.n). The most important agricultural acti­vities, sugar and cattle, were most thoroughly dominated by the large estates. Small farmers who did operate in sugar were dependent on contract relations with the mills. In cattle raising, where small operators played a significant role in breeding and raising calves, market power was in the hands of the large holders. The small farmers did play the main role in the production of food crops and secondary cash crops—tobacco and coffee. But the dynamic of Cuban agriculture was determined primarily by the activities of the large landowners.