Linking Land Use Choice with Land Access in Nigerian Agrarian Communities

Abstract

The article provides overview of land use decisions in the face of numerous bottlenecks within Nigerian agrarian population. Using a case study, the effects of access to land on land use choice were analysed. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select 104 respondents from 13 communities in Odukpani, Nigeria. A logistic regression model was specified to achieve the analyses. The result of the model was preceded by socio-demographic statistics of the study population. It was found that majority (92.3 per cent) of those with access to land had ownership rights, while 7.7 per cent had only land use rights. However, most (68.5 per cent) of them accessed 0.9 or less hectare of land, only 2.2 per cent had access to up to one or more hectare of land. Land was mainly devoted to agriculture in Odukpani. The logistic regression analyses showed that the size of land accessed has no significant effect on how it is used. However, having land ownership right is 0.1641 times likely to favour land use principally for agriculture than only having land use right. Conversely, having only land use right was 1/0.1641 (or 6.0939) times more likely to cause land use for agriculture than having land ownership right. Interestingly, a unit increase in perceived educational constraint increased the probability of land use for agriculture by 10.9133 times. Similarly, access to credit increased the probability of land use for agriculture by 23.5003 times, while short payback period of the loan received had a retarding effect on land use for agriculture by 0.1763 times. Psychometric scale scores showed that the cost of land (3.97), increase in land speculation (3.79) and conflict of interests by landlord (3.75) were the top three perceived constraints to accessing land in the study population. The study recommends agricultural development policies directed in favour of land access and with a view to tackling the identified constraints.