Contractual Practice and Land Conflicts: The ‘Plant & Share’ Arrangement in Côte d'Ivoire

Abstract

This paper tackles the broad issue of agrarian contracts, property rights and conflicts in the context of rural Côte d'Ivoire. Since the beginning of the 2000s, a new type of contractual arrangement has been developing rapidly: the 'Plant & Share' contract. Through such a contract, a landowner provides the land to a farmer who develops a perennial tree crop plantation; when production starts, the plantation, the plantation and the land, or the product is shared. The aim of the paper is to discuss the conflictive features of the arrangement. I argue that this contract, in spite of its potential for tensions and conflicts, constitutes an alternative to the much more conflictive land sales that currently dominate extra-familial land transfers in the country.

Shifting visions of property under competing political regimes: changing uses of Côte d'Ivoire's 1998 Land Law

“…2.See Leroy et al . (2012); Colin (2013, 2017); Ruf (2013); Tarrouth & Colin (2016); Colin & Tarrouth (2017). …”

Impacts of conflicting land tenure systems on land acquisition by agribusiness developers in Côte d’Ivoire

“…For example, the land governance regime in Cote d'Ivoire consists of two systems of laws that are superimposed on top of one another, those being traditional rules and modern land tenure conventions, which is often a source of confusion. According to the 1998 Rural Land Act 98-750, land pressure often results in tensions because traditional land users fear that they will lose access to and control of their traditional land for large-scale farming (Colin, 2017). In Cote d'Ivoire, conflicts are quite visible between agribusiness developers and rural communities when a party ignores the terms of the contract or does not wish to respect the transfer of property rights (Kouamé, 2010).…”

“…However, the land tenancy market in Cote d'Ivoire has evolved in recent years through the actions of rural land users and agribusiness developers. Colin (2017) argues that land lease in South Comoé, Cote d'Ivoire occurs mostly under sharecropping practices of 'domientché/ yomientché', which means plant and share in the local language of the Abouré and Agni Sawih people. According to Colin (2013), this land contract arrangement is considered to be the most widely used lease contract in many rural areas in Cote d'Ivoire.…”