Paper short abstract:

Reverse rentals denote the renting out of redistributed farmland by beneficiaries to fragments of agrarian capital. In this article we outline reverse rental typologies, and theorise the impoverished land property on redistributed farmland in Zimbabwe, Brazil, Bolivia, South Africa, and Canada.

Paper long abstract:

Since the turn of the 21st reverse rentals have become a burgeoning feature of agrarian change in the global South. Reverse rentals denote the renting out of redistributed farmland by land reform beneficiaries to fragments of agrarian capital. A growing number of critical agrarian scholars have identified cases of reverse land rentals that seem to support a conceptualization of impoverished landed property in the global South. This is within contexts of market-driven redistributive land reforms in the global South and attendant creation, and reproduction of reverse rentals as the impoverished landed property in these spaces experience capital constrains that curtail expanded agricultural reproduction. Reverse rentals on redistributed farmland are occurring in Zimbabwe, Brazil, Bolivia, South Africa, and amongst aboriginal communities of Canada. In these spaces, land reform beneficiaries rent out redistributed land to fragments of agrarian capital. Through a comparative study, the present intervention theorises intersections of reverse land rentals and social reproduction among land reform beneficiaries. Methodologically, the study draws on emerging empirical findings through intersecting lenses of critical agrarian studies, agrarian political economy, and property theory. In particular, we probe intersections of land rent income and social reproduction, and manifestations of these in differentiated land holding entities such as communal versus individualised land tenure, and implications for property theory in land reform. In terms of policy implications, the article highlights the need to rethink redistributive land reforms in the neoliberal epoch and the deepening of market relations in post land reform localities.