Improved Land Tenure for Mixed Farmers

While inappropriate land tenure institutions producing insecurity of tenure in smallholder production systems are associated with disincentives for investments in agriculture, including agricultural productivity, recent research suggests that a wholesale implementation of land titling is unlikely to be the answer. This is for reasons including the following:

- land titling is expensive
- there is evidence that customary systems will evolve spontaneously towards stronger and more alienable land rights
- even if an initial titling exercise is carried out, maintaining the system by registering land transfers and successions will be a high recurrent expenditure which may be put aside, wasting the initial investment
- land titling can be subverted by elites and special interest groups.

It is better to adopt an "adaptation" strategy to tenure reform. Defining exactly what such a strategy should consist of may require further research, but some elements would be:

- to strengthen institutions for mediation between farmers and others
- to implement titling in certain specific areas, e.g. peri-urban areas and resettlement schemes
- to legislate on specific issues, e.g. on gender or ethnic inequality in customary systems.

For mixed farming systems with communal grazing, it will be important to avoid:

- inflexible zoning of land for livestock or cultivation use, which will inhibit crop-livestock integration processes
- promoting subdivision of village grazing lands between individual households, or limiting customary access by outsiders such as pastoralists. Many of the arguments applying to pastoral land tenure systems on the need to retain flexibility of grazing movement apply here.

The gestion de terroir approach practised in Sahelian African countries, consisting of participatory planning for management of both private and common land within a village territory is relevant here, although even this has been criticised for neglecting the rights of pastoralists and other non-residents.

Related Policy Options

The following policy options included under Grazing Systems are relevant:

- strengthening local natural resource management
- promoting conflict resolution mechanisms

Key References

Bruce, J.W and S.E. Migot-Adholla (eds) 1994. Searching for Land Tenure Security in Africa Dubuque, Iowa, Kendall Hunt.

Painter, T.M. 1993. Getting it Right: Linking Concepts and Action for Improving the Use of Natural Resources in Sahelian West Africa. Drylands Networks Programme, IIED, London.

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