Introduction 

• Land is an important factor of production. 

• Without land it is impossible to practice the agricultural business. 

• However the efficiency of utilization of land is influenced to a large extent by the condition of holding the land. 

Land Tenure 

• Land tenure is defined as the possession of the legal rights to the use of land. 

• Various kinds of rights to the use of land give rise to different tenure systems. 

Land Tenure System 

• All land tenure systems fall into two major classes, namely: 

Collective Tenure Systems 

This includes: 

 Communal Tenure Systems 

• This involves the possession of rights over land by the whole community. 

• It works quite well under conditions of unlimited, land resources. 

 Advantages of Communal Tenure 

• Landless problem does not exist. 

• Land is not fragmented. 

• Allows for free movement of animals in search of better pastures and water. 

• Promotes community spirit among the members. 

Disadvantages of Communal Tenure 

• No incentive among the users to conserve the land resources. 

• Everybody strives to maximize returns from the land without the drive to invest, for example, in terms of soil conservation and maintenance of soil fertility. 

• There is a tendency of overstocking and continuous cropping; which leads to soil erosion and loss of land productivity. 

• As a result of communal grazing of livestock, it is impossible to improve livestock through;

- controlled breeding, 

- proper feeding, 

- disease and parasite control. 

• Since there is no title deed, (certificate of ownership) it is virtually impossible to secure loans to develop the land. 

Co-operative Tenure System 

• This category includes various collective arrangements under the government or other authorities. 

• Farmers voluntarily group together and buy land which they subsequently operate on co-operative basis. 

• Examples are co-operative ranches. 

Advantages of Co-operative Tenure 

• No land disputes. 

• Labour is well utilized. 

• Profit is distributed according to the number of shares. 

• Resource use is enhanced for high production. 

Disadvantages of co-operative tenure.

• Incase of poor management everybody will loose.

• No individual title deed hence cannot secure loans

State ownership

• Land is owned by the whole state and is refered to as government land.

Examples in Kenya;

• Areas not allocated to individuals

• Land under local county councils/cities and towns

• Land under forest, game reserve and parks, land for infra-structure and public utility

Advantages of state ownership

• Generation of income for the state

• All the citizens benefit from whatever comes out of the land.

Disadvantages

• Non-competitive in terms of production

• No individual motivation when working on the land.

Individual Tenure system

The various forms of individual land tenure are;

• Owner operator,

• Plantation and Concestion,

• Land-lordism/Tenancy

Owner operator

• This category includes all persons who operate on land to which they have absolute individual rights.

• Examples are the majority of individual land owners in areas where demarcation and registration of land has taken place and title deeds issued.

Advantages

• The owner is free to make permanent production plans.

• The owner can pledge the land title deed to secure loans(credit) from lending agencies for further development

• An individual is motivated to work harder than when under communal arrangement

• Managerial failures usually affect small units of production and are therefore negligible.

• It is easy for the owner to get agricultural advice.

Disadvantages

• Cost such as machinery for processing may be too high for the individual owner

• Innovation may be inadequate due to low levels of education.

• Lack of capital to invest.

Plantation and concession

• In this form of land tenure, the individual is usually a company or a corporation.

• Most of them engage in the production of only one commodity

• They are rigid in their production plans and in most cases labour is hired on wage basis.

• Example are coffee, tea, sugarcane, sisal estates in Kenya.

Advantages

• High production from the land hence high economic gains

• Allows foreigners to use and develop land

• No land disputes

• Create employment for the local people

• Generate government revenue through taxation.

Disadvantages

• Individuals own large pieces of land while others are landless

• Large areas of land may be left underdeveloped.

• Foreigners may repatriate profit to their countries.

•

Landlordism and tenancy

• The arrangement here involves the ownership of land by one individual or group of individuals (landlord) who lease it to another individual (tenant). 

• A legal lease specifies the length of time during which the tenure is operative; 

        and that serves as a security of tenure to the tenant. 

• The efficiency of production in this arrangement is greatly affected by the length of lease, its legal backing and rent payable. 

Advantages 

• A person without land can get a chance to use land. 

• A landlord who cannot operate the land, for any reason, can still earn income by leasing it to a needy tenant. 

• It is a flexible arrangement; that is, it allows room for change of production plans should need arise. 

• Security of tenure gives the tenant incentive to invest depending on the length of tenure. 

Disadvantages 

• Poor land use and low production if the tenant does not have enough funds to improve on land. 

• Tenants cannot produce long term crops, 

• Landlords can exploit the tenants by overcharging. 

• Lack of incentives to improve land by the tenants since it does not belong to them. 

Land Reforms 

Definition 

• Land reform is any organized action designed to improve the structure of land tenure and land use. 

Forms of Land Reform

Land Consolidation 

• This means bringing or putting together, into one piece; fragmented parcels or pieces of land scattered over a large area. 

The objective of land consolidation are : 

• To save on time spent while moving from one piece of land to another. 

• To facilitate effective and efficient farm planning. 

• To create an incentive among land operators to invest on and develop land.

• To facilitate mechanization and improve production through efficiency. 

• To improve level of production through effective supervision of the labour force and sound farming methods, 

 Land Fragmentation and Sub-division 

• This is the subdividing of a (large) piece of land into smaller portions.

• Sometimes it becomes necessary to sub-divide land for the following reasons: 

- To sell part of the land. 

- The parent may wish to subdivide and distribute his land among the sons, daughters and other dependants. 

- The government may decide to subdivide large farms in order to settle landless citizens. 

Land Adjudication and Registration

• Land adjudication involves;

- Establishing the legitimate ownership,

- Measurements (to make permanent boundaries) 

- Recording of land details. 

• Once land has been adjudicated, and any disputes concerning the same land are settled,

• It is then registered in the "Register of Land".

• And the owner is issued with a land title deed or certificate of legal ownership. 

Importance of land title deed

• The legal owner of the land has security of tenure and hence an incentive to invest and improve productivity. 

• A farmer can mortgage the land by offering land title certificate as a security to loaning agencies to secure capital to finance development projects. 

• If a farmer who cannot operate the farm, he can still earn income from it by leasing it. 

• Disputes concerning land boundaries and/or land ownership no longer arise.  

Land Settlement and Resettlement

Definition 

• Land settlement means the occupation of land which was previously uninhabited. 

• Land resettlement, on the other hand, is the transfer of people from an already densely populated area to a sparsely populated one. 

Objectives 

• To settle the landless citizens. 

• To relieve population pressure in densely populated areas. 

• To increase or promote agricultural productivity by farming on land that was previously unused or lying idle. 

• To create self-employment thus improving the living standards. 

• Land reclamation, especially by creating tsetse fly-barriers.