Land tenure reforms, tenure security and food security in poor agrarian economies: Causal linkages and research gaps

Food security is a global challenge and threatens mainly smallholder farmers in developing countries. The main aim of this paper is to determine factors that are associated with food security in Zambia. This study utilizes the household questionnaire survey dataset of 400 smallholder farmers in four districts conducted in southern Zambia in 2016. To measure food security, the study employs two food security indicators, namely the food consumption score (FCS) and the household hunger scale (HHS). Two ordered probit models are estimated with the dependent variables FCS and HHS. Both the FCS and HHS models’ findings reveal that higher education levels of household head, increasing livestock income, secure land tenure, increasing land size, and group membership increase the probability of household food and nutrition security. The results imply that policies supporting livestock development programs such as training of farmers in animal husbandry, as well as policies increasing land tenure security and empowerment of farmers groups, have the potential to enhance household food and nutrition security.

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Relations between Land Tenure Security and Agricultural Productivity: Exploring the Effect of Land Registration

Land ◽

10.3390/land9050138 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (5) ◽

pp. 138 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Uwacu Alban Singirankabo ◽

Maurits Willem Ertsen

Keyword(s):

Empirical Evidence ◽

Land Management ◽

Land Tenure ◽

Agricultural Productivity ◽

Costs And Benefits ◽

Tenure Security ◽

Land Registration ◽

Scholarly Literature ◽

Information Updating ◽

Management Institutions

This paper reviews the scholarly literature discussing the effect(s) of land registration on the relations between land tenure security and agricultural productivity. Using 85 studies, the paper focuses on the regular claim that land registration’s facilitation of formal documents-based land dealings leads to investment in a more productive agriculture. The paper shows that this claim is problematic for three reasons. First, most studies offer no empirical evidence to support the claim on the above-mentioned effect. Second, there are suggestions that land registration can actually threaten ‘de facto’ tenure security or even lead to insecurity of tenure. Third, the gendered realization of land registration and security may lead to uneven distribution of costs and benefits, but these effects are often ignored. Next to suggesting the importance of land information updating and the efficiency of local land management institutions, this paper also finds that more research with a combined locally-set approach is needed to better understand any relation(s) between land tenure security and agricultural productivity.

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