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

Uwacu Alban Singirankabo and Maurits Willem Ertsen
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Uwacu Alban Singirankabo: Water Management Department, Delft University of Technology, 2628 CN Delft, The Netherlands
Maurits Willem Ertsen: Water Management Department, Delft University of Technology, 2628 CN Delft, The Netherlands

Land, 2020, vol. 9, issue 5, 1-18

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.

Keywords: land tenure security; agricultural productivity; land registration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (31)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:9:y:2020:i:5:p:138-:d:353258

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