Moving from Conflict to Post-conflict: Changes in the Organization of Production and Distribution in Rural Colombia

Abstract: We analyze changes in the organizational forms of agricultural production and distribution in regions where the levels of violence have substantially decreased in the past eight years. As expected in a previous study, we find that the propensity of rural production units to form organizational hybrids has decreased on the way to a post-conflict situation. Subjective perceptions of economic insecurity as well as victimization of the respondents are directly related to the formation of hybrids. Changes in the relationship between objective violence indexes and individual perceptions of insecurity are also observed. The research is based on surveys made in 2007 and 2015, respectively with 742 and 750 persons in charge of rural production units. The surveys were applied in five regions with a long history of violence and conflict. While formal peace agreements with the largest illegal groups have not yet been signed, the reduction in violence indexes and the trends observed in the comparison between these two surveys allow anticipating the contextual antecedents of economic and organizational choices of rural producers in a post-conflict situation.