The Portuguese agriculture and the European integration: the past experience (EFTA) and the future perspective (EEC)

Abstract

In spite of a large talking about the adherence of Portugal to the common Market and the benefits for the country resulting from it, little has been said and written on the real consequences of that «European option», the most part of the questions remaining within a «fog zone». This is true mainly as to those problems that are going to arise and those perspectives that may be offered to the Portuguese agriculture, since the studies that have appeared almost only concern the industry. According to this, the present article intends to be a contribution for an answer not only to the most general question of «what is going to happen to the Portuguese agriculture?» but also to some more particular questions, namely as follows: a) what will be the evolution of its answer capacity to the basic needs of the country? b) what future awaits small farmers, whose life conditions are so bad already?; c) what is going to happen to the Agrarian Reform? From the analysis here done, two fundamental conclusions stand out. The first is that the adherence of Portugal to the EFTA, far from having improved the standard of life of the rural population and the answer capacity of the agricultural sector to the needs of Portugal, has contributed, on the contrary, to aggravate them. The second is that the adherence to the EEC may accelerate the growth of the agricultural product but it is rather unlikely that it will improve the general conditions of life of the Portuguese people and, in special, of the rural masses. One expects a trend for the refinement of the capitalist relations of production in rural aereas, giving them a more modern aspect (more «European») regarding the period before the 25^th April 1974, what will bring serious consequences for the small and medium farmers and for the agricultural workers, specially those in the zone of the Agrarian Reform.