Land reform can mean breaking up large estates, giving titles to people who already farm the land, limiting how much land one owner can hold, regulating rents, or turning communal land into private plots. Governments may pay owners full compensation, partial compensation or none at all.
Reforms have taken place across the world. Japan’s postwar reform created a nation of small owner-farmers, Taiwan and South Korea carried out reforms in the 1950s that are often credited with supporting later growth, and Mexico, Bolivia, Cuba, Zimbabwe and South Africa have had major and contested programs. Results vary widely with how a reform is carried out.