Land Tenure And Agricultural Production In Sub Saharan Africa

Agricultural Land Redistribution and Land Administration in Sub-Saharan Africa: Case Studies of Recent Reforms focuses on “how” to undertake land reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa, but with relevant lessons for other developing countries. It provides details, with case studies, on how reforms were undertaken to address a pressing and controversial development challenge in Africa – land ownership inequality – and an intransigent development issue – inefficiency and corruption in land administration. An equally important contribution of the book is assessing reforms and highlighting valuable lessons for other countries contemplating reforms. The six case studies collectively cover two main areas of land governance: reforms in redistributing agricultural land and reforms in land administration. The first two case studies discuss reforms in redistributing agricultural land in Malawi and South Africa, part of the southern Africa region where land ownership inequalities rival those in Latin America. The remaining case studies, four in number, are focused on addressing corruption and inefficiency in land administration in a variety of contexts of governance including stable and post-conflict countries. The case studies cover: • Decentralizing land administration with demonstrations from Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Ghana; • Developing post-conflict land administration systems with examples from Liberia and Rwanda; • Re-engineering and computerizing land information systems with examples from Ghana and Uganda; and • Improving management of government land through land inventories with examples drawn from Ghana and Uganda. The common elements between sometimes disparate experiences provide lessons of relevance to African and other developing countries contemplating similar reforms. The rigorous analysis and yet down-to-earth lessons of experience are a reflection of the authors’ deep global experience underpinned by personal participation in the reforms covered by the book. This volume will be of interest to a wide audience including land specialists and practitioners, African policy makers, experts and managers in the international development community, and the academia.

This book examines the impacts of land tenure reform interventions implemented in Benin, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe. Since 2000, many African countries have introduced programs aimed at providing smallholder farmers with low-cost certificates for land held under customary tenure. Yet there are many contending views and debates on the impact of these land policies and this book reveals how tenure security, agricultural productivity, and social inclusion were affected by the interventions. It analyses the results of carefully selected, authoritative studies on interventions in Benin, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe and applies a realist synthesis methodology to explore the socio-political and economic contexts. Drawing on these results, the book argues that inadequate attention paid to the core characteristics of rural social systems obscures the benefits of customary tenure while overlooking the scope for reforms to reduce the gaps in social status among members of customary communities. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of land management and use, land and property law, tenure security, agrarian studies, political economy, and sustainable development. It will also appeal to development professionals and policymakers involved in land governance and land policy in Africa. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Land reform can be divided broadly into land tenure reform (the establishment of secure and formalized property rights in land) and land redistribution (the transfer of land from large to small farmers). This paper therefore is in two parts. The first part focuses on property rights, giving a short narrative of some of the key land tenure and land policy issues. Though these issues remain politically sensitive, a solid consensus is emerging on how to deal with them--but only once the confusion is cleared up surrounding private common property and formal and informal rights. The second part addr.

For 25 years, population growth has outpaced increases in agricultural production in Sub-Saharan Africa. The lack of food and the degradation of agricultural land have forced policymakers to reassess agricultural strategies for the region. This paper provides such a reassessment by identifying policies and investments that have worked and those that have not. The author sets out the common elements required for agricultural and rural development throughout the region. The strategy presented in this paper comprises elements from several development sectors, including transport, water supply, education, finance, and the environment. The author makes five broad recommendations to promote Region: adoption of policies to promote private sector farming and agricultural marketing, processing, and credit development and distribution of new technologies inclusion of farmers in decisions affecting their livelihood development of infrastructure and social programs in support of agriculture improved management of natural resources Projections of the likely effects of the proposed policies and investments are included. Tables throughout the text present statistics on agricultural growth rates, commodity prices, and deforestation in the region. An annex contains more general tables, with information on population growth and fertility rates, land use, agricultural exports, and droughts. The strategies suggested in this paper will be of interest to policymakers, academics, and to development practitioners involved in African agriculture.