In Latin America agrarian reform has been the major state initiative in agricultural development and rural income redistribution over the last severa 1 decades. In some countri es, agrari an reform fundamentally altered rural class structure and the national distribution of wealth and power. In other countries, efforts at reform were minimal, sometimes only involving co1onization or resettlement schemes. Whatever the form or scale, each agrarian reform has involved state intervention in the redistribution of land to formerly landless or land-poor households.