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1.4 Which are the Most Important Problem Areas?
Experiences
continent-wide and specific to a country show that a deficient, unequal system of land
tenure is an obstacle to development efforts in the agricultural-rural sector and for
overall economic and social change. |
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1.4.1 Land Tenure Systems and Agricultural-Rural Development
Presently,
adequate and affordable food supplies must be made available to nearly six billion people.
This increase in agricultural production, however, is hindered or even averted by the
following:
Farms which are too small with lacking capital and insufficient
education of the smallholders,
High land concentration amongst
large landholders with limited interest in cultivation,
Uncertainty of ownership, leasing and user relationships that, for
example, do not offer tenant farmers incentives or development opportunities,
Considerable limitations on the access to land for the landless,
Increasing tendency for agricultural land to be divided into smaller
plots, for example, by forms of inheritance,
Lack of mechanisms for resolving land conflicts,
Decay of autochthonous land tenure institutions with latent endangerment of community
pasture, water and gathering rights
and over exploitation of natural resources,
Insufficient individual or cooperative organization for combating
erosion, maintenance of irrigation systems and infrastructure,
Unequal distribution of water rights,
Inadequate access to technical innovations for smallholders,
Lack of regulations and limitations on user rights for the
maintenance of an ecological balance (fertilizer application, feed supplements,
pesticides), and
Insufficient legal foundation for the mobility of user rights in line
with decreasing interest in agricultural land use, especially for large landholders.
Photo 1: Intensive agriculture in the highlands of Ethiopia
(Source: Arndt)
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Increase in
agricultural production |
An increase in
employment opportunities, the efficient use of human resources and improved work
conditions are necessary for the production of goods in demand, to generate income, to
integrate rural populations better in the society and to reduce the migration from rural areas to the cities not having climaxed yet in Africa
or Asia. Systems of labor organization should not be separated from the dominating system
of land tenure since the maximum use of labor potential is hindered by the following:
Increasing landlessness,
Capital-intensive farming practices having a low productivity by
large enterprises with wage laborers,
Lack of incentives and opportunities for advancement for employees,
Failure of labor rent and share-tenancy
development and lack of mechanisms for finding solutions to conflicts in disputed work or
lease contracts,
Lack of organization of the workforce for representation of their
interests or their deliberate suppression.
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Efficient use
of human resources and improved work conditions |
The reduction
of poverty is not only necessary to satisfy basic needs, but also to secure a life with
human dignity. Only a fair distribution of income allows as many people as possible to be
a part of the benefits of development (participation vs. marginalization). An inequitable
system of land tenure impedes this in part by the following:
Exploitation of the poor, especially the landless, also by the
largely undiminished power of the large landholders,
Dependency of many tenant farmers as a result of legal uncertainty
and non-social lease conditions,
Income distribution according to power, not contribution to
production,
Limited freedom in decisions on land use,
Lack of mechanisms for conflict resolution,
Low mobility of labor, land, and capital due to dependency
relationships (bonded labor),
Unproductive investments by the elite and a state price policy in the
interest of the old rural elite and urban groups, and
Lack of union-like organizational forms for collective action.
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Growth and
more equal distribution of income |
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