This study analyzes the impact of the Program for the Certification of Ejido Land Rights and the Titling of Urban Plots (PROCEDE) in the framework of land tenure security and negotiability of agricultural land in six municipios of the State of Colima, Mexico. Current rural development in Mexico is framed within neoliberal development policies, in this case specifically, those contained in the reformed Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution. One of the principal goals of this current legislation is the removal of restrictions on transferring ejidal lands in order to broaden the negotiability of the ejido To comply with this mandate, the Federal State had to implement an ambitious land regularization program that included census of plots contained in ejidal structures and the provision of individual land certificates, communal land certificates, and a title for the Urban plots, as pertained for each case. This program initiated in 1993, and one of its conditions is that ejidatarios' participation would be voluntary This study is based on fieldwork in twenty-one ejidos in the State of Colima, Mexico. The universe of participants was two hundred and fourteen ejidatarios, both in a fieldwork-based survey, as well as case studies The analysis reveal that PROCEDE is considered a beneficial program overall, especially as one that has strengthened land tenure security on the ejido units. Not enough evidence was found to conclude that this federal program has improved negotiability of land This study, however, argues that the strengthening of tenure security through the issuing of individual land certificates is not enough to promote rural development, since land tenure regularization through certification is only one component in the myriad of needs for development of the countryside in Mexico
