Making Secure Land Tenure Count for Global Development Goals and National Policy: Evidence from Zambia

Abstract

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

Does Title Increase Large Farm Productivity? Institutional Determinants of Large Land-Based Investments' Performance in Zambia

“…While perceived risk of conflict is, with 2% negligible, levels of perceived transferability are also very low; with 30%, the share of parcels that can be sold is comparable to the average (26%) from a nation-wide household survey (Ali et al 2020), implying that land cultivated by large farms is no more transferable than that by smallholders despite much higher levels of formalization. Only about half of titled land is perceived to be transferable by sale, suggesting that rights supposedly associated with having title may be difficult or impossible to exercise, possibly because traditional authorities continue to exercise oversight over patterns of land use.…”

“…Based on table 1, the total area owned by large farms in the province amounts to 175,753. 23 Survey evidence suggests farmers below 5 ha cultivate virtually all the land they own (Ali et al 2020) compared to between a third or about half of the area (measured by imagery or farmers' own estimate) for farms greater than 5 ha. This would imply that large farms account for at most 26% of the total area owned by farmers in Eastern Province, though only about 12% of cultivated area, 24 an estimate of owned area well below the more than 50% of land that recent studies suggest is held by farms in the 5-100 ha group nationally by (Jayne et al 2014a).…”

The Farming Question: Intergenerational Linkages, Gender and Youth Aspirations in Rural Zambia☆

“…54% of the land (Sitko and Chamberlin 2016) and 88% of agricultural parcels are under customary law (Ali et al 2019). Few households possess formal documents, and 67% of the farm households perceive their lands to have insecure tenure (Ali et al 2019). 16% of the parcels are associated with a formal right to bequest but land can be transferred within families as part of the customary law (Ali et al 2019).…”

History and Prospects for African Land Governance: Institutions, Technology and ‘Land Rights for All’

“…A subsequent Lands Act (1995), which is still in effect, allowed the Lands Commissioner to convert customary land to 99 year leases, thus restoring value to land. This reform worsened economic inequality by concentrating land titles in Zambian elites and foreigners, while existing occupiers could be deemed squatters and evicted [112,113].…”