A Comprehensive Agricultural Program for Puerto Rico

Koenig, Nathan, A Comprehensive Agricultural Program for Puerto Rico, Washington D.C.: U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1953.[Two copies - one hardcover and a softcover]

Reviewed in Journal of Farm Economics © 1954.

Cited in The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

From the Introduction:

This is a study of problems of people and their land in an area where both people and land long have been underemployed and also under-nourished.
(…)
The study points out that if the economic base of the island is to be effectively broadened and strengthened, it is essential that far more attention be given to diversifying and increasing production for local needs to the full extent that it is economically feasible while at the same time maximizing economic production for export. While agriculture, directly or indirectly, provides about 40 percent of Puerto Rico’s total net income, the mainstay of the economy is the growing of sugarcane and the production of sugar. More than two-fifths of the total cropland and most of the best soils are planted to this single crop from which is derived a little more than one-half the value of farm production
(…)
Since a great deal of land in Puerto Rico is still concentrated in the hands of a relatively few owners, the study urges that the program of divesting corporations of land holdings that are in violation of the 500-acre limitation be carried to completion by the Land Authority….