Do land property rights matter for stimulating agricultural productivity? Empirical evidence from Burkina Faso

Abstract

Rural households in Burkina Faso face serious problems of food security due to very low agricultural productivity. Our study investigates how the existing land property rights affect agricultural productivity in the country. Unlike previous studies, we use nationally representative data and take into account the indirect link between land property rights security and agricultural productivity. The Conditional Recursive Mixed Process (CMP) regression is used for this purpose. The results show that formal land rights positively and significantly affect land productivity. It is also found that formal education, non-farm activities, receiving cash transfers, and social capital affect land productivity. Our findings show evidence that land property rights matter for stimulating agricultural productivity, especially by motivating large-scale private land related-investments in Burkina Faso. However, it would be too early and somehow naïve to claim that the possession of a legal title is the best way to grant land tenure security in the current context of Burkina Faso, where land market imperfections are a non-negligible issue.