Farmland Ownership Research Articles

Factors Affecting the Income of Farmers Participating In Traditional and Modern Livestock Markets: Case Study from Benin Republic

Livestock markets in pastoral areas of Africa are institutions that facilitate the marketing of animals and their products. The income of farmers participating in these livestock markets is influenced by various social and economic factors. These factors are generally not considered by farmers when making their decisions. Knowledge and control of these factors will enable farmers to make rational decisions in the production and sale of their animals, and thus improve their income. It is in this context that this study aimed to determine the factors affecting the income of rural households engaged in animal husbandry in the Republic of Benin. Livestock production system in Benin has been mostly traditional. However, the system has been gradually modernized. The farmers have marketed their livestock and livestock products in two types of self-managed livestock markets which are “Marché à Bétail Autogéré” (MBA) as modern market and “Marché à bétails Traditionnel (MT) as traditional livestock markets. The data of the research were obtained from face-to-face surveys conducted with 300 farmers in livestock markets. Multivariate regression model was used to analyze the factors affecting rural household income. Model results show that the variables of education level, experience in livestock farming, access to credit, number of cattle, number of sheep, pasture use, access to veterinary services, and membership to a livestock organization had a significant positive effect on the incomes of farmers preferring the MBA livestock market. While the variables of experience in livestock farming, number of cattle, pasture use, farmland ownership, and number of sheep had a significant positive effect on the incomes of farmers preferring the MT livestock market.

Spatiotemporal Analysis of Size and Equity in Ownership Dynamics of Agricultural Landholdings in India Vis-à-Vis the World

The increasing threat to sustainable agriculture is a major concern of planners worldwide. Human population growth together with increasing food requirements and competition for land use is leading to land scarcity for agricultural purposes. Farm size influences the extent of the adoption of mechanization and modern methods of farm management practices, which in turn results in increased productivity, production efficiency and agricultural income. We studied changes in macroeconomic factors such as dependency on agriculture, growth of the sector, the pattern of landholdings and tenure rights across major agriculturally important countries, as well as the priority of agriculture for the national economy (i.e., the share of agriculture in the national income) and its relationship to changes in farm size. The data on the percentage of area under farming, population growth, size of the agricultural workforce and other social dimensions from 24 countries of different geographical sizes were analysed. We used parameters such as the extent of changes in cropland, family-owned land, the agricultural workforce and their productivity, number of holdings and their distribution, women-headed holdings and finally total and per capita agricultural income, and measured the changes over time and space. The published data from national and international sources were used to establish the relationship between farm size and farm efficiency measured through the selected parameters. The results clearly establish that the size of farm holdings had an inverse relationship with the population dependent on agriculture, share of agriculture in national income and tenure rights. Australia had the largest average agricultural landholding (3243 ha), while India and Bangladesh had the lowest (1.3 and 0.3 ha, respectively). The inequality in the distribution of farmland ownership was greater in developed countries than in developing countries. Female farmland ownership was less than 20% in most developing countries and the relationship between the number of farm households and farm outcomes was found to have weakened over time. India, a developing as well as an agriculturally important country, was subjected to detailed analysis to understand the spatiotemporal dynamics of the size, distribution and ownership patterns of agricultural landholding.

ANALYSIS OF POVERTY STATUS AND COPING STRATEGIES AMONG HOUSEHOLDS IN MICHIKA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA

The study examined poverty status and coping strategies among Small Scale Farmers in Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa State of Nigeria. Purposive and simple random sampling methods were used to select 342 respondents. Primary data were collected with the aid of questionnaire and analyzed using Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT), Logistic regression and Likert type Scale. The poverty status of the respondents revealed that 64% were poor with poverty gap of 33%. Poverty severity also revealed that the 17% of the respondents were mostly hit by core poverty. Credit size and household size were significant at P≤0.01 while age of household head, farm size, and ownership of farm land, educational level and gender were found to be significant at 5% and positively influence poverty status in the study areas. Plaiting of hair/barbing and credit from Micro-Finance banks (MFBs) were the major non-agricultural poverty coping strategies with mean of x = 3.0 and x = 2.89, respectively, and major agricultural poverty coping strategies were rain fed crop farming and gardening with mean value of x = 3.69 and x = 3.21, respectively. The study recommended that credit accessible to farmers and promote off farm activities as an alternative to livelihood strategies will go a long way in addressing their poverty situation.

Generational differences in urban settlement intentions of rural-to-urban migrants in China: Exploring the role of farmland holding

ABSTRACT This paper explored the role of farmland holding in urban settlement intentions of rural-to-urban migrants in China by decomposing the difference in urban settlement intentions between younger and older generations of rural-to-urban migrants. Using nationally representative data from the 2017 National Internal Migrants Dynamic Monitoring Survey (n = 90,072), we found that while farmland holding had a significant negative impact on urban settlement intentions proxied by permanent settlement intention (PSI) and hukou transfer intention (HTI), this impact was more pronounced for older-generation migrants than for new-generation migrants. In particular, the urban settlement intentions differential between younger and older generations of migrants could be attributed to numerous offsetting proxies, with farmland holding status serving as an important contributor to the PSI and HIT differences. The equalization of farmland ownership between generations provided a possible way to narrow the gap in urban settlement intentions between the younger and older generations of rural migrants in China.

Farmers' knowledge, attitude, and practice of rural industrial land changes and their influencing factors: Evidences from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, China

Rural industrial land within the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has undergone significant and profound changes because of the decisions of local micro-subjects. This study uses the knowledge-attitude-practice (KAP) analysis framework to analyze how farmers understand rural industrial land changes (RILC), how much farmers are willing to participate in RILC, and whether farmers have participated in RILC activities. Our results highlight that improving farmers’ knowledge regarding RILC is an effective method to increase the participation of local farmers in RILC activities and projects, and the degree of impact on farmers' practice from large to small is followed by the household effect, rural effect, and concept. A structural equation model was also developed to analyze the factors influencing the KAP of farmers. Although variation exists in the significant predictors of the different KAP components, political post, residential land ownership, farmland ownership, age, and employment satisfaction are shown to be the main external factors affecting farmer KAP. The structure of farmers' knowledge should be understood in detail to improve the level of knowledge of farmers. In addition, the publicity and education regarding RILC need to be improved to increase the understanding of farmers regarding rural industrial land policies to allow them to truly grasp the positive role of RILC, form good expectations for RILC and participate in sustainable rural industrial land use activities.

Navigating inconsistent preferences: A multimethod approach to making informed decisions

AbstractThis study presents a decision‐analytic framework for prioritizing conservation strategies. The framework is based on combining direct and indirect preference‐elicitation methods and analyzing inconsistencies between the methods. A case study with The Nature Conservancy's Chesapeake Bay (The United States) agriculture team is presented. Participants evaluated six strategies to engage with agribusinesses, farmers, and farm landowners and increase adoption of nutrient and soil conservation and stream and wetland restoration activities. Impact, feasibility, and risk criteria and performance measures were developed to compare the strategies. Participants individually evaluated the strategies using a multimethod approach. One method included direct ranking based on an intuitive assessment of the strategies. The second method included indirect ranking based on swing weighting and multicriteria analysis. Some participants made adjustments to reduce inconsistencies between the methods. Results show that final rankings were more consistent than initial rankings. Inconsistencies can be reduced by understanding potential bias in the direct method and clarifying assumptions in the indirect method. This study provides evidence that a multimethod approach can deliver useful insights to inform decisions.

Narrating values, persuading government: The unsettled stories of agricultural land ownership in the rural Canadian Prairies

Global conflicts over land grabbing, financialization, and conservation have generated resistance from diverse local peoples who insist that land must be more than a commodity; it has social, cultural, and ecological value alongside its economic productivity. Saskatchewan’s government has recently responded to similar conflicts over investment, privatization, and concentration of landholding, by engaging in public consultations on farmland ownership. Analyzing comments from public consultation surveys in 2015 and 2017, the paper employs insights from property theory, legal studies, geography, and scholarship on storytelling to analyze how respondents' values, expressed through stories, work to change or maintain property relations.As a resource, agricultural land is endowed with value that changes over time and space. Land tenure regimes consist of shifting social relations regarding this resource, and these relations are often arrived at and maintained through persuasive narratives framed through social value claims about heritage, identity, livelihoods, and community norms. These stories also have a material effect on resource use and property regimes. In Saskatchewan, as survey respondents employ stories to influence policy decisions on agricultural land tenure and advocate for the status quo, they utilize social values that justify their entitlements. Alternative property relations, advocated or proposed by some respondents, provide more fundamental challenges to absolutist notions of private property rights and thus face ideological barriers to acceptance and implementation through policy. However, telling different stories can be a way to alter property relations.

Drivers of peri-urban farmers’ land-use decisions: an analysis of factors and characteristics

ABSTRACT Loss of agricultural land due to urban sprawl has negative impacts on community lifestyles and green landscapes in peri-urban areas. However, researchers rarely investigate the complex decisions made by landowners and land managers about changes in farmland at the fringes of cities. A postal questionnaire was sent to 1,600 farmland owners and managers on the fringes of Adelaide, South Australia, to elicit information on internal and external factors driving their land-use decisions. Descriptive statistics were developed for farmers’ demographics, farming life, industry and motivations in managing land while investigating 28 primary factors representing the socio-economic, environmental and institutional land governance influences on land-use decisions. Results demonstrate the advantage of deriving latent factors to identify these land-use transformations, as they identify a different set of factors with higher importance than the farmers’ recommendations alone. These findings can improve the knowledge of farmers’ land-use decision-making behaviour to model complex land-use transitions on city fringes.

The Impact of Energy Production on Farmland Markets: Evidence from New York’s 2008 Hydraulic Fracturing Moratorium

Future conventional and renewable energy production will predominantly occur on farmland, resulting in economic gains as well as potential negative externalities for farmland owners and rural communities. However there is limited research on the economic impact of energy production that takes place on farmland. This study uses the discrete change in expectations caused by the 2008 New York State moratorium on hydraulic fracturing to investigate the net impact of shale gas development on farmland values. We use a difference-in-differences empirical design with a hedonic pricing model. We find that the moratorium led to net economic losses for rural landowners in New York’s Southern tier, as reflected in farmland values declining approximately $1,400/acre.

Climate change adaptation and cocoa farm rehabilitation behaviour in Ahafo Ano North District of Ashanti region, Ghana

AbstractSustainable cocoa production is the hub of economic development and growth in Ghana. Climate change has been implicated in the dwindling productivity of the Ghanaian cocoa sub-sector, although deforestation for cocoa farmland expansion poses significant long-term risks to ecosystem stability and environmental conservation. This study assessed farmers’ perception of climate change, their adaptation methods and the factors explaining involvement in the renovation/rehabilitation of old cocoa farms. The data were collected from 378 cocoa farmers in Ahafo Ano North District in the Ashanti region. The data were analysed with Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Ordinary Least Square regression, Negative Binomial regression and Two-stage Probit regression. The results showed that the majority of the farmers were older than 50 years and attained primary education. High temperature (64.29%), too stormy rainfall (64.29%) and too much rainfall (61.90%) were largely perceived by cocoa farmers in 2015. The farmers were adapting to climate change through diversification into other crops (70.63%), planting of hybrid varieties (71.69%), commitment to spray cocoa pods regularly (74.87%) and initiation of some changes in the planting and harvesting times (71.96%). The adaptation was significantly influenced (p< 0.05) by cocoa farming experience, number of children under the age of 5 years, perception of extremely high temperature, perception too low rainfall, perception of delay in commencement of rainfall, cultivation of cocoa as the primary crop, perception of delay in rainfall stop and delay in regular farm clearing and rented farm. Cocoa rehabilitation decision was influenced by climate change adaptation indicator, monthly income, perception of extreme temperature and sharecropping. The implications of the results were that promotion of climate change perception would facilitate adaptation, and the form of cocoa farmland ownership as well as climate change adaptation indicator influenced farmers’ involvement in cocoa farm rehabilitation.

Livelihood resilience to environmental changes in areas of Kenya and Cameroon: a comparative analysis

Climate change is a major challenge for the agricultural sector worldwide. Smallholder farmers are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change owing to their high dependence on agriculture for livelihood sustenance. Building smallholder farmers’ livelihood resilience to the adverse effects of environmental change is critical to addressing their vulnerabilities. This paper comparatively assessed livelihood resilience of smallholder farmers in Isiolo County, Kenya and Northwestern Cameroon in the face of environmental changes. The results are based on household surveys of 339 farmers in Kenya and 350 farmers in Cameroon. Findings showed that using the same measures of livelihood resilience, farmers’ resilience were significantly different in the Kenyan and Cameroonian study areas (p < 0.05), with farmers in Cameroon being relatively more resilient than farmers in Kenya. In both study sites, a statistically significant causal relationship (p < 0.05) existed between farmers’ resilience and livelihood capital assets such as human capital (number of household members between 18 to 55 years, education level), natural capital (number of farms, size of farmland, number of agroforestry trees on the farm), financial capital (access to bank account, ownership of livestock, ownership of farmland, trees, and farm equipment), social capital (participation in agricultural group), and physical capital (use of irrigation). However, some livelihood capital assets were more important for building resilience in Isiolo County, Kenya while others were more important in Northwestern Cameroon. On the basis of these findings, it is recommended that climate change adaptation interventions and policies should take a critical look at the determinants of resilience in order to come up with effective plans of action that can enhance farmers’ resilience to environmental changes occurring in Kenya and Cameroon, and elsewhere.

Impact of Climate Change Adaptation on Household Food Security in Nigeria—A Difference-in-Difference Approach

Studies have shown that climate change adaptation options (CCA) are implemented to buffer the unfavorable climatic changes in Nigeria causing a decline in food security. Against the background of measuring the impact of CCA options using cross-sectional data, this study assessed how CCA had affected food security using panel data on farming households from 2010–2016 obtained from Nigerian General Household Survey (GHS). Data were analyzed using the Panel probit model (PPM), Propensity Score Matching (PSM), and Difference-in-Difference (DID) regression. PPM showed that the probability of adopting CCA options increased with farm size (p &lt; 0.01), extension contact (p &lt; 0.01), and marital status (p &lt; 0.01), but decreased with the age of the household head (p &lt; 0.01). Credit facilities (p &lt; 0.05), ownership of farmland (p &lt; 0.01), household size (p &lt; 0.01), years of schooling (p &lt; 0.01), household asset (p &lt; 0.01), and location (p &lt; 0.05) also had a significant but mixed effect on CCA choices. PSM revealed that farming households that adopted CCA strategies had 9% higher food security levels than non-adopters. Furthermore, the result of the DID model revealed a significant positive effect of CCA on household food security (β = 5.93, p &lt; 0.01). It was recommended that education and provision of quality advisory services to farmers is crucial to foster the implementation of CCA options.

EFFECT OF LAND OWNERSHIP ON THE TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF CROP FARMERS

The essence of this study was to examine the land ownership pattern in Osun State, Nigeria, with a view to assessing its effect on the technical efficiency of the farms. Precisely, the farm efficiency level was estimated; factors that determine farm efficiency were identified, and the impact of land ownership on-farm efficiency was also assessed. A three-stage random sampling was used to select 144 respondents. Data collected using a pretested interview schedule was subjected to descriptive statistics, stochastic production frontier function, and average treatment effect. The results show that land ownership by absolute interest accounted for about 65% of the farmers. The mean technical efficiency level of the farms was 47%. Farm size and labour are necessary factors to be increased to have increased output. The non-access to credit and land ownership by absolute interest constituted to technical inefficiency of the farms. Similarly, ownership of farmland by absolute interest reduced efficiency by 24% among sampled farmers and 25.5% among owners of farmland. The study, therefore, suggested that farm size should be increased, and credit facilities are made available to farmers to facilitate the acquisition of necessary inputs to increase output given the existing technology. This can be by way of making accessible to food crop farmers, lands belonging to the government, which are currently not in use.

Characterization of Farming Systems Using Land as a Driver of Production and Sustainability in the Vhembe District, Limpopo, South Africa

South African agricultural farming systems are characterised by a duality in which there exists large-scale commercial farmers and small-scale farmers. Large-scale commercial farmers, historically identified as capital intensive and characterized by the size of the landholdings, are considered as the main drivers of national food security. Small-scale farmers on the other hand are viewed as important drivers of food security at the household level. These two main farming systems can be found within the Vhembe district municipality of the Limpopo Province and are characterised differently according to land descriptors. The study used an analysis of primary data obtained from in-depth interviews and secondary data obtained from an agricultural database to identify and characterize large- and small-scale farming systems within the Vhembe district. The study examined the land resource namely farm size and land ownership, topography and soil description, rainfall and its variability and threats and hazards used under three different high value crop (HVC) commodities, macadamia nuts, mangos and avocado pears. The study further examined yield and income from farming as drivers of production that would ensure the sustainability of long-term food security at both national and household level. The study revealed that gender of farmers within the farming systems was predominantly (79%) male across all commodities. Age distribution results showed an aging population of farmers mostly (90%) above the age of 51. Communal land ownership was the dominant (74%) land ownership amongst participants. Yield is not solely dependent on farm size and requires consideration of a broader array of land management aspects. There was a strong, significant correlation between income and farm size. These factors have implications for sustainability of the two farming systems and illustrate how certain aspects of land as a driver of production such as land ownership, rainfall variability, yield and income from farming can impact sustainability.

The Tax Implications of the American Families Plan on Iowa Farmland Owners

The Tax Implications of the American Families Plan on Iowa Farmland Owners

Smallholder farmers’ decisions to the combined use of soil conservation practices in Tiwa watershed, Northwest highlands of Ethiopia

Soil erosion by water is a critical problem in the northwest highland of Ethiopia. The limited decision of farmers to the combined use of soil conservation practices is one of the main accelerating factors to soil erosion by water. The study aimed to identify determinants influence farmers' decision to the combined use of vegetation stabilized terracing and composting under legume-cereal crop rotation on particular croplands in Tiwa watershed, northwest highlands of Ethiopia. The survey was conducted among randomly selected 155 household heads. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression models were used to identify the determinants. Farmland ownership status, plot distance from home, soil fertility status, and technical fitness of terraces were major influential factors for farmers’ decision to the combined use of vegetation stabilized terracing, compost, and legume-cereal crop rotation on a specific field. Therefore, to promote the combined use of soil conservation practices in the broad context, the policy should be recognized these institutional, technical, and plot-level factors influence farmers' decision to adopt over time.

Power and collective ownership: the experience of land reform

The main reason for the implementation of the next agrarian reform was the profound changes that have taken place in the field of socio-economic relations. The economy of the Russian Empire, after series of crisis and internal political upheavals, found itself in a state of prolonged depression. The economic lag behind Western European countries has led to dependence on foreign investment. The tasks set before the reform of February 19, 1861, were never realized. Starting the agrarian reform, the government headed by P. Stolypin set the task of comprehensively addressing the following issues: increase efficiency, marketability of agricultural production, strengthen the social resistance of the government in the countryside by destroying the community and transferring land to private ownership. It was believed that the appearance of the peasant’s sense of ownership would automatically remove the problem of dissatisfaction with the policy of the authorities in the countryside. The Peasant Land Bank was the main lever for reform. Pre-designed legislation expanded its powers. Of all the hamlets and cuttings, the highest were the share of those that appeared on the lands of the Peasant Land Bank. On the other hand, the State Noble Land Bank actually preserved the existence of the feudal in the form of the creation of aristocratic land tenure, credit support hindered the development of capitalist relations. The Peasant Land Bank, with the aim of lending to peasant land tenure, stimulated the growth of land prices, which indirectly helped the noble land tenure. The reform significantly accelerated the development of capitalist relations in the countryside: as a result of the destruction of the community, capitalist land ownership was created, strips were eliminated, the process of land concentration in the hands of wealthy peasants intensified, and the marketability of agriculture increased. However, in general, P. Stolypin’s reform did not achieve its goal – it did not ensure the creation of a strong capitalist system in the countryside, as aristocratic land tenure was preserved. During its implementation, there were no cardinal changes in land tenure and land use in the provinces of the Right Bank of Ukraine. The main reason was the predominant farmland ownership of peasants. The creation of farms and cuts contributed to a partial solution to the problem across the strip.

Nyadar: Religious and Cultural Resistance of Madurese Salt Farming Community

This article discusses the issues of religious and cultural resistance of Madurese salt farming communities as portrayed in the religious tradition of nyadar ritual. Nyadar is an annual religious tradition carried out by Madurese salt farming communities in Sumenep district, precisely in Pinggir Papas Village, Kalianget District and Gersik Putih Village, Gapura District, to conduct cultural resistance against the hegemony and dominance of the Salt Farming Corporation and Madurese salt farming community elites. The purpose of this study is to reveal changes in the cultural situation of the Madurese salt farming community. This study uses an ethnographic method with a constructivist paradigm with data collection methods using in-depth interviews, participant observation, and focus group discussions (FGD). The result of this research found that nyadar is a form of religious rituals that illustrates the solidarity of the community in fighting against the shackles of poverty and helplessness to fight the hegemony and domination of the economic liberalism capitalism in the globalization of the global salt economy which tends to favor the salt corporation, the owners of salt farm land, the religious figures, and the Madurese elites. The cultural resistance of the salt farming community is portrayed in the rejection of the various policies that will be enforced by the Government, PT. Garam, as well as salt corporates in the religious ritual tradition of nyadar including in determining the time of event, religious tourism destinations, and financial support to celebrate the religious ritual activities of nyadar.&#x0D;

A longitudinal study of agriculture households in Indonesia: The effect of land and labor mobility on welfare and poverty dynamics

The conventional wisdom of Arthur Lewis’s dual sector model says that households in the agricultural (traditional) sector who can move out to a non-agricultural (modern) sector will become better off. We then scrutinize the last three waves of the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS) to analyze the existence of the dual theorem. Our study uses Difference in Difference (DiD) regressions and ordered logit regressions to confirm that moving out of agriculture sectors has significantly increased the welfare of poor agricultural households, especially in the period of 2000–2007, but this is not the case of 2007–2014. Movement out of agricultural sectors decreases the probability of being always poor by 13.5 percentage points. However, when the economy transforms into a more advanced economy, simply moving out of agriculture does not guarantee that farmers, especially landless farmers, will become better off. Welfare improvement requires a shifting to formal non-agricultural sectors, but unfortunately farmers might not be readily equipped with the skills required in formal sectors. Our study also obviously confirms that farmland is an important asset for agricultural households. Agricultural households experiencing a decrease of agricultural land also decreased their expenditure per capita by IDR 36,833 in 2000 and IDR 68,683 in 2007. These findings suggest that, currently, moving out of agriculture is not the solution to improve the well-being of farmers. Keeping farmland ownership, raising investment in human capital, and the modernization of agriculture should be the main concerns in agricultural development.

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF INTEGRATED CROPPING CALENDAR ON LOWLAND RICE FARMING IN BENGKULU CITY

Bengkulu Province has rice productivity that is able to keep up with Lampung and West Sumatra (Top Five in production and on top three in land ownership throughout Sumatra), although rice farmland ownership is relatively low (less than 0.8 hectares) ). The climate change issue in the last two decades has impacted a significant decrease in rice production in Bengkulu Province. The government offers the Cropping Calendar (Katam) program, a technology that is able to provide a various information related to the croping such as the prediction of the beginning of the rainy season, the beginning of the cropping season, cropping patterns, potential cropping area and others to overcome these problems and the City of Bengkulu has begun to implement the program. The purpose of this study is to analyze the level of application of integrated Cropping calendar by lowland rice farmers in Bengkulu City and analyze the correlation between internal and external factors of farmers with the level of Cropping calendar application. The basic method of this research is explanatory with a combined approach (quantitative and qualitative). The results showed that the level of application of integrated cropping calendar innovations in rice farmers was low. Farming experience, knowledge about cropping calendar, communication behavior, and social strengthening are significantly related to the level of application of cropping calendar innovation in rice farmers.