Land Access, Land Use Conflict and Smallholder Commercialization in Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the effect of land access and land use conflict on crop commercialization of smallholder farmers in Southwest Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was used in selecting 300 respondents and primary data were collected using structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Land Market Index (LMI), Land Use Conflict Index (LUCI), Crop Commercialization Index (CCI) and Tobit regression model. Majority (95.3%) of the farmers were male, natives (81.3%), and married (97.3%) with an average household size of 9 persons. Also, 69.3% had formal education and an average of 24 years of farming experience. Majority (78.0%) of the farmers had their total landholding through non-market means (inheritance, borrowed and gift), 14.0% acquired their total landholding through market means (purchase, rent and lease), and the mean LMI was 0.16(±0.35), showing farmers had access to 16% of farmlands through market participation. Farmers were coping with conflict on majority (90.4%) of their landholdings and 95.2% of conflicts could be attributed to competition for natural resources, especially farmer-herder clashes (94.2%). The mean LUCI was 0.91(±0.27), implying farmers experienced conflicts on 91% of farmlands. Mean commercialization of maize, cassava and yam were 84.19%(±16.0), 84.01%(±16.67) and 61.42%(±24.83), respectively, indicating that the crops driving commercialization were maize and cassava. Tobit regression results indicated that farm size, presence of local market and LMI significantly (P<0.01) increase commercialization. In conclusion, extent of land market participation significantly increases commercialization while land use conflict reduces crop commercialization, although not significantly. Policy efforts should be intensified with a view to facilitating land access by farming households through market participation, and also reducing or resolving all arable land use and related resource use conflict.