Agricultural production per head in Latin America has been some 10 percent below its pre-World War II level for the past two decades. Mexico is the only notable exception to this general picture of relative stagnation. Malnutrition is widespread, with intake of calories and proteins averaging from one-sixth to one-third below that of Europe or North America. While Latin America's agricultural exports are estimated to have increased by about 16 percent since the 1930s, agricultural imports, mostly foodstuffs, have gone up by more than 80 percent in volume, with serious balance-of-payments consequences in many cases.1 Meanwhile, agrarian reform has become a major public issue, especially since the Cuban revolution, arousing passionate debate among politicians, laymen, and economists. Attitudes about the role of land reform differ widely. Many Latin Americans, including a few economists, believe land reform to be the solution to the agricultural production problem,, apparently believing that reform by itself will automatically increase productivity.2 On the other hand, bank missions, foreign "experts," and economic planners usually play down the urgency of agrarian reform, emphasizing instead greater agricultural investment, improved price policy, accelerated rural-urban migration, and cheaper farm inputs. Although they recognize an agrarian problem apart from the productivity problem, many economists regard it