Land property rights and household take-up of development programs: Evidence from land certification program in Ethiopia

Abstract

• The study examines the impact of land property rights on take-up of agricultural development interventions in Ethiopia. • We find that land certification has a positive impact on the take-up of agricultural extension package program. • Land certification status significantly predicts farm household adoption of chemical fertilizer. • Secure land rights play a key role in household participation in community level land and water management programs. • The study promotes land rights as mechanism to promote agricultural development and sustainable land and water management. Access to secure land plays a key role in the socio-economic development of agricultural households. Since 1998, large-scale land certification programs aimed at strengthening the land property rights of agricultural households in Ethiopia have been implemented across regions to varying degrees. Using a three-period, large-scale nationally representative panel dataset from Ethiopia, this paper investigates the importance of access to secure land property right in the form of land certification for household take-up of agricultural development interventions that aim to improve household agricultural productivity and sustainable land use at a community level. We studied the take-up of agricultural extension packages and participation in community level sustainable land and water management programs as outcome variables. To account for potential endogeneity in the allocation of certificates and other confounding factors, we applied different panel data methods including instrumental variable approach. We find that access to secure property rights have a positive and significant effect on household take-up agricultural development interventions: agricultural extension packages and sustainable land and water management interventions. Additionally, we find that land certificates significantly predict household adoption of chemical fertilizers.