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Proceso de cálculo de la unidad agrícola familiar (UAF) mediante la metodología por unidades físicas homogéneas (UFH) a escala municipal: estudio de caso Aracataca, Magdalena, Colombia

2023; Universidad de Los Andes; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês

10.53010/nys7.01

2805-8631

W. Martínez, Manuel Felipe Ochoa, Carlos Duarte,

Latin American rural development

In 2021, the Colombian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development approved a new methodology for calculating the family agricultural unit (UAF, for its acronym in Spanish) at the national level. Conceptually, the UAF represents the portion of land that allows the sustenance and satisfaction of the basic needs of a peasant family, according to their location and the characteristics of the territory they inhabit. This article explains what homogeneous physical units consist of and the main methodological changes incorporated by the most recent methodology for calculating the UAF. To this end, we present the case study of the municipality of Aracataca, Magdalena, located in the Colombian Caribbean region, where peasant, family, and community agriculture plays a relevant role in the rural area of the municipality and where actions have been initiated to regularize land tenure. Territorial heterogeneity is a reality in a significant number of municipalities of the country, where, despite belonging to the same subnational entity, there are different soils, climates, roads, and markets. The article also presents some challenges and solutions in the process of calculating the UAF that allow generating reflections to optimize future implementations and, in this way, to carry out the updating of the UAF throughout the national territory to advance the Social Ordering of Rural Property and the Integral Rural Reform in Colombia.