Citizens' anger may flare as they realize there are unused agricultural resources while the rural poor are becoming more impoverished and either migrating to cities and exerting an enormous environmental and social burden there or are compromising the environment. There must be a concerted effort to invest in rural schools and in health facilities benefiting peasants in the countryside. These facilities have been especially neglected in the long structural-adjustment period. The price policies that favored urban consumers should be abandoned in favor of pricing that gives campesinos a fair profit rate. Policies that favor nontraditional exports should be especially scrutinized so that when peasant farmers are able to compete, they are not discriminated against.
Credit needs to be available to participating small as well as larger growers.
Credit should also be made more available so that small farmers can invest in capital with a long gestation period, such as forest products and fruit trees in areas where fruit may be a viable nontraditional export product. In areas where staples are grown by peasant farmers, attention should be given to a price policy that does not discriminate against these crops. Land markets should function so as to include the possibility of peasants' buying land to enlarge their present farms. A mortgage bank, which is approachable by peasants, should be fostered, as should a land tax where property with the most potential is taxed at a higher rate than land with the least potential. Titling and registration projects, which enable those small farmers with precarious tenure to realize some security, are important to establish.