Relations between land tenure security and agricultural productivity: Exploring the effect of land registration

Uwacu Alban Singirankabo*, Maurits Willem Ertsen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

32 Citations (Scopus)
62 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Article number138
Number of pages18
JournalLand
Volume9
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

Keywords

  • Agricultural productivity
  • Land registration
  • Land tenure security

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