The small Chilean agricultural farm. Popular front-military government (1938-1979) [town-country relationship, migration]

During the past forty years, the small agricultural household in Chile has suffered many consequences of the SE transformation of the nation. The small farmers, who until 1962 had been subordinated to the hacienda system, suddenly became dependent on the cooperative & agrifood industries created by various reforms promoting the modernization of agriculture (1962-1973). But the minifundios (small farms) rarely managed to survive, even though they were the main supply of basic food items consumed by both the Ru & Ur poor. Ru depopulation continues to increase rapidly, despite the fact that the Ur labor market has been saturated since 1950. Migrants settle on small plots on the outskirts of towns & form a Ru proletariat that survives only by a multiplication of precarious & marginal forms of employment. Subdivision of small plots through inheritance & the concentration of lands in the hands of a few increases the disparity between rich & poor. 6 Tables. Modified HA.