Land Reform Research Articles

Afghan Women’s Resistance - Forty Years of Struggle Against Gender Apartheid

The defeat of the U.S. client regime in Afghanistan and the seizure of power by the Taliban in August 2021 marked a real turning point. These events represented another major setback for the United States in the wake of a failed war in Iraq. Journalists rushed to compare the debacle in Kabul in 2021 to Saigon in 1975, as Afghans fearful of Taliban rule scrambled to get onto US planes. Many were left behind as the United States rushed to get its own forces and those of its allies out. 
 The August 2021 regime collapse in Afghanistan, although sudden in its final manifestation, was a long time coming. The United States realized it had been defeated at least by 2020, as the Trump administration agreed to a total US withdrawal in direct negotiations with the Taliban. The Biden administration continued this policy, which had two basic aspects: the United States would withdraw by the end of August 2021, and the Taliban would not attack US forces during the period of withdrawal. Both sides kept to the bargain; the Afghan people were not consulted at all, nor was the US-backed government of Ashraf Ghani, who was not even included in the negotiations.
 There was an important difference from the situation in Saigon in 1975, however. The forces that defeated the United States in Vietnam included female combatants and officers. Moreover, the regime they installed to replace the US client state espoused a modernist, if authoritarian, ideology that extolled gender equality, land reform, and other forms of social and economic transformation.
 In contrast, the return to power of the Taliban was instead a setback for women’s rights of epochal proportions, and for other social and political rights as well. They set about establishing an ultra-conservative fundamentalist regime of a type not seen since the Islamic State was driven out of Raqqa, Syria, in 2017. The Taliban have again established a theocracy, which openly supports long-standing hierarchies of gender, ethnicity, religion, and class, albeit with a somewhat modern form of organization, including a surveillance apparatus and modern weapons. With its denial of secondary education to girls, the new Taliban regime’s level of gender apartheid far exceeds those of Saudi Arabia and Iran. At this writing, not a single country, not even Saudi Arabia, has formally recognized the Taliban government.

Reflections of Reality: Kumar Sahani's Cinematic Vision and Social Commentary

A beacon of social realism in the vast field of Indian cinema is Kumar Sahani's cinematic legacy. This research examines Sahani's steadfast dedication to empathy and sincerity when tackling issues of social marginalization, gender, caste, and class. Sahani presents the brutal truths of Indian society with painstaking attention to detail and empathetic narrative, asking viewers to acknowledge their own involvement in the continuation of injustice. In films like "Maya Darpan" and "Tarang," marginalized people's sufferings are depicted graphically, offering subtle criticisms of deeply ingrained societal structures. Sahani urges societal transformation and self-reflection via her examination of topics including land reform, gender inequity, and intercommunal strife. Sahani's cinematic creations are ultimately timeless reminders of the transformational potential of art in encouraging empathy, introspection, and the quest for a more fair and just society.

Legal principles of regulating the land management mechanism in land resource management

Today, economic relations in the field of land use require the presence of an effective tool to ensure environmentally safe and economically efficient use of land in agricultural production. Considering that the land, according to the Constitution of Ukraine, is defined as the main national wealth of the people and is under special protection of the state, there is a need to protect and restore agricultural lands, which is a priority task in the process of ensuring sustainable development of the country. Modern land relations in the agricultural sector are the subject of constant discussions in the process of implementing the state’s agrarian policy, which generates a number of problematic issues that require immediate resolution. As a result of carrying out an ineffective land reform, a number of socio-ecological-economic problems have arisen in the field of agricultural land use, which have caused an imbalance in the development of rural areas. Therefore, a necessary condition for ensuring the effectiveness of management decisions in the agricultural sector is the formation of technical, economic and legal prerequisites for assessing the state of land resources, organizing and planning their rational use and protection, which are implemented through the functioning of the land management system. However, due to a number of reasons and contradictions, the effectiveness of the modern land management system remains low. The land management mechanism in the general system of land resource management for the effective use of agricultural land, investment and productive potential of land in rural areas, creating conditions for increasing social, transforming it into a powerful factor of economic growth. The main functions and role of the land management mechanism in the land resource management system have been considered and grouped.

Pedigree-Based Genetic Diversity in the South African Boerboel Dog Breed.

The Boerboel dog breed (BBD) is indigenous to South Africa (SA) and plays an important role in safeguarding homes and farms. The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform, and Rural Development (DALRRD) classifies the BBD as a protected species, and it is valued for its intelligence, boldness, and strength, as well as for continually ensuring the safety of its owners. The aim of this study was to investigate genetic diversity within the BBD population using pedigree information. The original BBD data, which contained 87,808 records, were obtained from the Integrated Registration and Genetic Information System (INTERGIS). After editing, the pedigree data included 87,755 records of animals born between 1971 and 2019. Pedigree analyses were performed using PEDIG (Fortran 77 software) to determine the completeness, inbreeding coefficients, and genetic diversity as defined by the genetic contributions of the most important ancestors of the current animals. This study identified 91.2% inbred animals in the BBD population, with an average and maximum inbreeding of 7.5% and 50% of inbred animals, respectively. The estimated inbreeding rate per year was 0.20% with an effective population size of 83.1. The most influential ancestors explained 82.63% and 80.92% of the total genetic variation for males and females in the studied populations, respectively. Only 10 important ancestors explained more than 50% of the entire population's genetic diversity. The numbers of founders (f) were 348 and 356, and the effective numbers of founders (fe) were 57.4 and 60.1, respectively, for males and females. The numbers of founders were higher than the effective numbers of founders, implying a loss of genetic diversity due to unequal founder contributions. The BBD population was not critically endangered based on the inbreeding rates and effective population size; however, the population experienced a significant loss of genetic variability, unequal genetic contributions by founders, and a genetic bottleneck. Future breeding strategies could benefit from using equal proportions of parent stock and including new genetically distant breeds.

Understanding the Sustainable Mechanisms of Poverty Alleviation Resettlement in China’s Developed Regions under the Background of Land Relocation: Drivers, Paths and Outcomes

In the context of land relocation, poverty alleviation resettlement (PAR) is considered an effective approach to improve the man–land relationship and development issues. However, current studies pay little attention to PAR and its spillover effects within developed regions. Furthermore, the complete mechanism chain has received little research concentration. Thus, employing a qualitative survey, this study aims to investigate the overall mechanisms of developed regions’ PAR in the context of land relocation. The study will deal with the following questions: Why does PAR occur in developed regions? How does the resettlement approach to poverty alleviation (i.e., paths)? What are the effects of resettlement on poverty alleviation, including its own effects and spillover effects? Through answering these questions, this study will highlight PAR in developed regions and investigate the spillovers from social, economic and ecological perspectives. Particularly, a comprehensive mechanism analysis framework for PAR will be presented to motivate future studies. Results indicate that PAR is generally caused by ecological poverty alleviation, geological disaster prevention and county town urbanisation promotion and that emigration and resettlement are the paths to PAR. In addition, the direct outcome is the overall rise in the number of resettlers over time, and the spillovers show the sustainable collaboration of economic, social and ecological dimensions. These findings will influence future land reform and housing initiatives.

Land to the landless: Does the type of approach matter?

Uncertainty about land ownership is believed to increase vulnerability of marginalized groups in a society. When agriculture is not only responsible for employing more than half of the labor force population but also the main source of the livelihood of poor families, access to land becomes critical. This paper conducts a comprehensive analysis of the impact of land reform on agricultural output in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries. Employing a system of equations model and controlling for traditional variables, our study yields several noteworthy findings. First, our results reveal that land development exhibits a positive impact on agricultural output, emphasizing the importance of investment in agriculture. Conversely, the positive coefficient for civil unrest highlights the intricate relationship between land reform and social stability, suggesting that unrest may be a consequence of land reform aimed at addressing inequality. Second, the channel equations shed light on the indirect pathways through which factors like rural population growth rate, life expectancy, and capital stock influence agricultural output. These findings underscore the potential benefits of managing rural population growth, improving healthcare, and increasing investment in agriculture, albeit with varying degrees of impact. Third, our study dissects the different effects of land reform policies. Willing seller-willing buyer and various forms of expropriation are found to be significant in both land development and civil unrest equations, indicating their dual role in promoting land development while potentially contributing to social unrest. Striking a balance between land reform and stability emerges as a crucial policy challenge.

Redistributing Power: Land Reform, Rural Cooptation, and Grassroots Regime Institutions in Authoritarian Taiwan

Can redistributive policies such as land reform help authoritarian regimes coopt rural societies? Given that land reform has the potential to disrupt preexisting sociopolitical orders, this article highlights an unresolved puzzle of how regimes balance between the objectives of expanding its rural coalitional support through transformative redistribution and stabilizing its political control over rural institutions during land reform. Using a novel dataset of Taiwan’s 1950s rural reforms under the Kuomintang authoritarian regime, I find that stronger redistributive effects facilitated cooptation of new land reform beneficiaries through a key institution – the farmers’ association (FA). However, I also find that the restructuring of rank-and-file FA membership was still subject to meddling by the native landlord class. I thus argue that land reform, while allowing regimes to broaden their rural coalitions through socioeconomic redistribution, can also paradoxically compel regimes to concede power during institutional cooptation.

Improvement of administrative-legal regulation of land relations in the Republic of Kazakhstan

Relevance. Administrative-legal regulation in the field of land relations in the Republic of Kazakhstan today is to ensure the functioning of the system of public administration regarding the ownership, use, and further disposal of land resources and is aimed primarily at creating an effective regulatory framework. Purpose. The purpose of the study is to examine and analyse the administrative-legal regulation of land relations in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Methodology. The methodological basis of the study is the following methods and techniques of scientific knowledge: system-structural, dialectical, and comparative methods, system, generalisation, synthesis and abstraction, historical-legal, formal-legal, normative-dogmatic, and comparative-legal research methods. Results. The conducted study allowed forming an understanding of the administrative-legal regulation of land relations in the Republic of Kazakhstan and analysing its features. The study describes the mechanisms and ways to improve administrative-legal regulation. Conclusions. Economic and political processes in the Republic of Kazakhstan in recent years have demonstrated the need to introduce changes not only in the system of land relations regulation but also in the importance of implementing and improving land reform. These changes were reflected in the work on the adoption of a number of legislative initiatives and regulations in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Modification of the approach to administrative-legal regulation of land relations in the Republic of Kazakhstan in recent years has initiated the introduction of land reform and adaptation of this regulation to its requirements. Thus, if the recommendations made based on the study are implemented, it will be possible to accelerate the implementation of land reform and improve the overall administrative-legal regulation in the field of land resources. Keywords: land management; landowners; moratorium; land degradation; resource conservation

Between Land Reform and Postcolonial Frustration: Understanding the Social Roots of Local Opposition to the PAIGC/PAICV in Santo Antão, Cabo Verde, 1975–91

AbstractThis study discusses the processes of increasing social malaise and an “oppositional mood” in the Cape Verdean island of Santo Antão, where growing frustration between 1975 and 1990 led to the building of massive political opposition against the single-party regime in the archipelago. Early scrutiny of the shortcomings of independent administration, anger about the installation of a new police force, resettlement schemes, a failed agrarian reform, regime violence to achieve that reform, and a generalised mood of decline in the second half of the 1980s, constitute different elements explaining the unrest in that island. Based on newly available, local archives as an innovative source, the interpretation of a remote Cape Verdean opposition island also addresses the potential of studying opposition against “winning parties” and regimes after independence in wider regional frameworks, referring to discontent and “oppositional mood” elsewhere in postcolonial (Lusophone) Africa.

Oligarchy and proprietary rights on land in Kenya

This study sought to discuss oligarchy and proprietary rights on land in Kenya. Oligarch Landownership in Kenya has been a persistent problem, with few monarchs holding the larger tracks of land for their selfish gains, whereas the majority of the population, which comprises marginalised peasants, are left scrambling for the infertile leftovers, enough reason which triggered an investigation, a thorough research into how this came to be and its implications for proprietary rights. Through this research acting as a looking glass into this nightmare haunting most Kenyans, solutions are proposed to improve the solution and ensure that the core of justice and fairness are adhered to. Secondary sources were selected for data analysis from various academic sources and scrutinised for viability for inclusion in the study. A meta-synthesis of the selected samples was conducted, and literature gaps were identified in solutions to the proposed problem. The results from this study indicate that historical, political, and economic aspects in Kenya have played a major role in the grounding of oligarchy land ownership in Kenya. The study's conclusion includes examining the broader implications of oligarchic landownership for Kenya's social, economic, and political development. The study proposes several potential solutions and reforms, including advocating for comprehensive land reforms, fortified land administration systems, empowerment of marginalised groups, and cultivating accountability and transparency in land governance.

Modern trends in the development of plant production under agrarian crises

Modern trends in the development of plant production under agrarian crises

Indigenous People’s Land Rights in Post-Soeharto Indonesia

Abstract One of the challenges during the democratic transition from the New Order regime to the Reformasi era was advancing the idea of an agrarian transition to reconcile structural inequalities regarding land ownership. However, this transition was unfortunately not accompanied by a rearrangement of land ownership to allow the practice of land-grabbing inherited from the New Order regime to persist in contemporary Indonesia. This article examines the reasons behind the failure of the agrarian transition in Indonesia, by focusing on case studies in Tegalrejo Village, Malang Regency and the Pamona indigenous peoples, Poso Regency. We argue that the modus operandi of land-grabbing practices is highly dependent on state power and weak protection of communal land rights. By explaining these two factors, this article provides recommendations to strengthen the community’s position in dealing with land-grabbing practices by limiting the power of the state and encouraging land reform aimed at securing community land rights.

Property rights, labor reallocation, and gender inequality in rural China

This study examines the gender-differentiated effects of improved land property rights on labor reallocation in China, using quasi-exogenous variation in the timing of the implementation of the Rural Land Contracting Law, which allows farmers to lease out their land. We find that while men and women tend to shift labor from the agricultural into non-agricultural sector following the land reform, women lag behind men. Our findings reveal a noticeable gender gap in the growth of off-farm labor participation (+16.69 % among men; + 1.95 % among women) and hours worked in off-farm sectors. The gender-differentiated effects on off-farm employment are likely caused by disadvantaged labor market conditions for women. These findings underscore the importance of improved land property rights in fostering rural structural transformation. Moreover, our results suggest that implementing land reforms without accompanying changes to address the root causes of gendered differences in off-farm employment could limit their full potential. This study has significant policy implications for the rural transformation of developing countries.

Informal land leasing and social relations: Insights from Zimbabwe’s small scale farms

This article examines the role of social relations in enabling informal land leasing in Zimbabwe's small scale (A1 villagised) settlements after the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP). After Fast Track Land Reform (FTLRP) in Zimbabwe, although some studies have explored informal land leasing, limited attention has been provided to the increasing informal subdivision in A1 villagised plots. The paper uses social relations as a basis for understanding the nature of informal land subdivisions, drawing insights from Zimbabwe’s small-scale farms in Zvimba District, Mashonaland West Province. Using qualitative insights, the article argues that in cases where land is provided through land reform, policy formulators should acknowledge the existence of these subdivisions for people with limited access to land. This article concludes that social relations enable people to access land through informal channels in resettlement areas enabling people to bypass legal policy directives through land subdivisions.

Land reform in the Republic of Kazakhstan: Problems of legal regulation of land relations

Relevance. The relevance of the study is due to the need to resolve problems in the agricultural sector, which consist in violations of current legislation and reducing the level of efficiency of the functioning of the segment under study. Purpose. The purpose of the study is to analyse the regulatory framework for the legislative regulation of land relations in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Methodology. Methods such as dogmatic, legal hermeneutics, logical analysis, deduction, induction were used. Results. In the course of the study, the legal framework and the relevant application practice were examined. In this regard, problematic aspects, shortcomings, and contradictions of the contained norms were identified. The importance of reforming the agrarian economy was noted, which consists in the organisation of cooperatives and joint-stock enterprises without the involvement of the state. It was identified that this necessity lies in the importance of a system of broad cooperation for the effective implementation of activities on combined land plots and individual means of production, increasing the productivity of agriculture, and rational use of land resources. It was noted that it is necessary to ensure the full exercise by agrarian organisations, citizens, and foreign persons of the right to land, establish the terms of transactions that will exclude the possibility of their embezzlement, irrational use, speculation, transfer to other categories. Conclusions. It was identified that it will be influential to create a special law and introduce norms into other acts, which will contain norms on a more detailed procedure for the targeted use of land, regulate monitoring and control, and features of limited turnover. The practical value of the results obtained lies in the development of recommendations, the implementation of which in law enforcement practice will provide an opportunity to increase the level of efficiency and quality of legislative regulation of land relations.

South African Land Reforms Under the Auspices of the “Radical Economic Transformation”

Abstract The land question is an emotive issue across the world. At independence, erstwhile colonies adopted land reforms to address colonial imbalances in landholding. South Africa is one such country that has embarked on land reforms with the view to correcting economic imbalances created by the apartheid past. However, land reform in South Africa has not only been slow but has failed to deal with the twin challenges of poverty and inequality. Using qualitative research design and neoclassical theory, this paper investigates South Africa’s land reforms under the auspices of radical economic transformation. The paper argues that the wholesale expropriation of land without compensation does not fit into the obtaining (neoliberal) economic blueprint that has dominated the country over the years. The call for a radical transformation of landholding rights in the country without structural changes in macroeconomic management remains political rhetoric.

Democracy and Regionalism: A Special Reference to the Study of Sambalpur District of Odisha

Growth is political and not managerial or administrative in the conceived technical sense (Leftwich 1984, 2000, 2004). That is the process of growth in human societies involves the organisation, mobilisation, combination, use and distribution of resources in new ways. That leads to inevitable disputes among individuals and groups or their combination on how such resources are to be used because of the calculation of gain and loss as a result of different configurations. It is appropriate in all the spheres from the grass-roots to national level in both developed and developing societies. However, the variation is that in a developed society changes come through institutionalised ways with more of a consensual mode of democratic politics. On the other hand, in embryonic societies with a high level of inequalities, a change threatens the interest of some directly which otherwise may be necessary for the promotion of development, like land reform. Therefore, both politics and state are central in the process of mobilisation, direction and development of resources in a new way that does not happen on its own. The research paper investigates the fusion of regional aspirations with democratic governance, elucidating how Sambalpur's cultural richness intertwines with demands for cultural preservation, political representation, and socio-economic progress. Beyond safeguarding cultural heritage, the study scrutinizes the district's needs for infrastructure development, equitable resource allocation, employment opportunities, and overall socio-economic advancement.

Colonial agricultural estates and rural development in twentieth-century Mexico

ABSTRACT This study documents that municipalities in central Mexico closer in the past to an agricultural estate (hacienda) are associated with higher literacy and lower poverty throughout the twentieth century than municipalities similar in other respects but farther from a hacienda. The results are robust to various specifications, neighbour matching analyses, and a placebo-type test. The complementarities between late-colonial haciendas in central Mexico and mining and trade appear to have set municipalities close to a hacienda on a distinct development path. The evidence points to local-scale economies in hacienda locations that coordinated new investments away from agriculture and towards the new industrial and commercial sectors. The twentieth-century land reform and the railroad play a small role in explaining hacienda legacy. Our findings highlight the role of landed estates as centres linking rural economic activity to the main colonial economic activities, mining and trade.

An An Ideological Land Reform Policy Shift of State Custodianship and ‘Transforming the Rural Land Economy’

In customary landholding practices land is regarded as more than an asset of economic value to be owned. African people’s rights in land and other natural resources exceed the idea of mere possession. To African rural land holders, land is not only a material resource for agricultural production, nor is the commercialisation and commoditisation of land the primary driving force for most customary landholding communities’ even though the land is productively used. This broader conceptualisation of the social function of land beyond the economic, aligns with modern property law on the proprietary function of property. However, excessive state limitations imposed on customary land tenure can hinder economically valuable property rights, but also other rights to social, cultural, and ontological resources embodied in the spirituality of African communities.
 Security of tenure for land reform beneficiaries cannot be secondary to commercialisation and commoditisation of the rural land economy in the national interest. Commercialisation and commoditisation are the by-products of recognised, protected, and enforceable property rights and not the “pre-requisites” or “qualifiers” for secure land tenure. Thus, the state custodial approach reflected in land reform law and policy that places an overemphasis on private property capitalism, above the constitutional mandate of security of land tenure is critically discussed. It is argued that if not carefully formulated transformative land reform law and policy can be conduits for a state custodianship approach that inadvertently reproduces apartheid-like ideology and preoccupations.
 Key words: Secure tenure, state custodianship, National Development Plan 2030, transformative land reform law and policy.

SDG 2 – ending hunger: the effect of Nigeria’s land titling on production output and food security of farming households

Achieving zero hunger is intricately linked to sustainable agricultural production and the workings of a farming system. With land being the most important resource in smallholder agriculture in developing countries; including Nigeria; the effect of legal land ownership is a sine qua non for the process of achieving zero hunger in Nigeria. This study examined Nigeria’s attempt at making agricultural land both accessible and utilizable for smallholders in Nigeria through the Presidential Technical Steering Committee on Land Reforms in 2009. The aim was to explore the extent to which land ownership had become legalized; so that it had positive investment incentives for smallholder farmers to improve their investment portfolio on their holdings. A secondary dataset of 4,032 respondents obtained from the Living Standard Survey Integrated Survey on Agriculture (LSMS/ISA) of the 2018/2019 season, was used for the study. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and a 2-stage least square model. The apriori being that legal land ownership provided a perception of security that would enhance farm-level investment; which would therefore increase production output and hence food security. The findings revealed that although land titling was low (~12%) within the agricultural system; its return on production output was highly significant (5.3; p < 0.05). The possession of land title would also increase per capita food consumption expenditure (0.35; p < 0.05) among the farming households. On average, households with access to land titles had a significantly higher (at p < 0.01) food expenditure (N9, 868.00) than those without land titles (N6171.72). Other farm-level investment variables such as credit use, and mechanization through tractor use were significant in improving food security amidst the security presented by possession of land title. Thus, expediting the implementation and coverage of formal land registration and titling may be a first step to contributing meaningfully to the food security drive of the SDGs in Nigeria.