The Effect of Tenure Security and Land Fragmentation on Productivity and Investment in Smallholder Agriculture: Evidence from Tiyo Woreda, Arsi, Ethiopia
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Date
1998-05
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A.A.U
Abstract
Heavy state intervention over rural lands, lack of established legal and institutional framework to
access, use and transfer land has ca u se d land tenure insecurity in Ethiopia. At the same time,
population pressure, periodic land redistribution and inheritance practices led to subdivision of
holdings as the number of young landless farmers grew up with no alternative off-farm
employment opportunity. Despite the prevalence of the problem, there have not been rigorous
empirical investigations that explicitly address the issue of tenure insecurity and land
fragmentation in relation to agricultural productivity in Ethiopia.
This study is undertaken to investigate whether the existing land tenure system in Ethiopia
affects farm productivity and resource management practices . Specifically, it tests the general
hypothesis that tenure insecurity and fragmentation of holdings undermine productivity and
discourage land improvements. Based on a household survey data from Arsi, the study has
supported the proposition that land tenure insecurity and fragmentation have significant effect
on productivity and land improving investments.
Though the study does n ot provide evidence to support t he direct impact of tenure insecurity on
Input application , the results implied that the disincentive effects of tenure insecurity on land
improvements could contribute t o lower productivity of land in the long-term. Fragmentation of
holdings, on the other hand, is found to undermine productivity directly by affecting the
management of farming operations as well as through its negative effect on input u se. The study
also found that land fragmentation discourages farmers' incentive to manure their fields.
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Keywords
Evidence from Tiyo Woreda, Arsi, Ethiopia, Productivity and Investment in Smallholder Agriculture, Tenure Security and Land Fragmentation