Agricultural Land Tenure Research Articles

Household Ecology: Economic Change and Domestic Life among the Kekchi Maya in Belize.

Development and economic change are often seen as destructive to the family and to other traditional forms of social organization. Wilk's study of household ecology reveals that the Kekchi Maya of Belize have responded by creating new forms of family organization, working together to face challenges posed by development. Not merely survivors of an ancient splendor, the Kekchi Maya build upon their rich heritage to approach such problems as ethnic strife and rainforest destruction as creative agents. Wilk combines a wealth of detail on agricultural calendars, hunting practices, land tenure, and labor exchanges in a general interpretation of cultural and ecological transformation. He provides a comprehensive analysis of how tropical farmers survive in the difficult rainforest environment, tracing the ingenuity and adaptability of Mayan culture. Fully incorporating the historical context of ecological processes, he documents the importance of household organization in shaping the trajectory of ecological change and shows how delicate this adaptation can be. Analyzing household response to localized economic and ecological settings, Wilk argues that the transformation of the rural economy and of Mayan culture proceeds through the conjunction of global and local processes. The Kekchi refuse to fit into the models of economic evolution set forth in existing scholarship. This sensitive and well-written study challenges current orthodoxies about economic and social change and suggests new approaches to rural development and household ecology.

Bonded Histories: Genealogies of Labor Servitude in Colonial India.

To the modern world, the notions that freedom is an innate condition of human beings and that money possesses the power to bind people appear as natural facts. Bonded Histories traces the historical processes by which these notions became established as dominant discourses in India during colonial rule and continued into post-colonial India. Gyan Prakash locates the formulation of these discourses in the history of bonded labour in southern Bihar. He focuses on the emergence and subsequent transformation of the relationship of reciprocal power and dependence between landlords and labourers. The author explores the way in which these transformations were connected with broader shifts in the political economy of this part of the subcontinent; with the changing structures of agricultural production, land tenure and revenue demand; with local social hierarchies and the ideology of castes; and with Hindu cosmologies, spirit cults and their articulation in ritual practices.

Land Tenure and Investment in African Agriculture: Theory and Evidence

Economists using a narrowly defined neo-classical model have derived the hypothesis, often treated as an empirically demonstrated proposition, that traditional African systems of ‘communal’ land tenure are inefficient when land has scarcity value. By way of contrast, individualised tenure, typically defined as demarcation and registration of freehold title, is viewed as superior because owners are given incentives to use land most efficiently and thereby maximise agriculture's contribution to social well-being.

Agricultural policy and land tenure in an Irish marginal county

This paper has a twofold objective. Firstly, recent land policy both at EEC and Irish government levels is evaluated from the perspective of the small family farm in County Leitrim. one of Ireland's most marginal farming areas. Secondly, recent changes in a small sample ot County Leitrim farms are analysed in terms of their land tenure and household characteristics. The data reveal considerable social and cultural obstacles to an efficient system of land transfer resulting in a low level of land mobility. The policy response to such marginal conditions has not been encouraging either at EEC or National government level. Inadequate EEC directives have resulted in failure and while some positive intervention has been achieved by Irish agenicies such as the Land Commission, there has been a general failure to show awareness of conditions on the ground. State intervention through the welfare code has resulted in a strong dependency mentality which has greatly reduced the incentive to exploit either individual or communal resources.

Agricultural development and land tenure in India

The role of agriculture in economic development is crucial in developing countries. The progress of Indian agriculture requires not only irrigation facilities, supply of seeds, fertilizers and innovations in cultivation methods, but also the creation of a sound, progressive and just land tenure system. This article evaluates the present system of land tenure in India in terms of its adequacy in providing a structurally viable base for agriculture. The main elements of the Indian Land Reform Policy form a balanced and coordinated approach to the problems of economic development. However, it must be pointed out that any more delay in the implementation of land reforms may eventually thwart the pace of economic development in India.

The Economic Theory of Agricultural Land Tenure. J. M. Currie

<i>The Economic Theory of Agricultural Land Tenure</i>. J. M. Currie

Toward a Cultural Ecology of Mountains: The Central Andes and the Himalayas Compared [and Comments and Reply

A model of the cultural ecology of tropical high mountains based on a comparison of the Central Andes and the Himalayas is presented. It is argued that mountain adaptations have three basic elements: (1) an array of vertical production zones, each characterized by a complex interaction of variables including agricultural regime, social organization, stratification, land tenure, labor organization, and level of productivity; (2) choice by the population of an overall production strategy for the exploitation of the vertical production zones available to it, a strategy that may involve specialization in one zone or, in response to a variety of constraints, the combined exploitation of several zones; and (3) a potential for change in production strategy, within the constraints of the mountain environment, under the influence of endogenous and exogenous factors.

Agricultural land tenure in England and Wales and Ontario: Past, present and future

This paper compares trends of agricultural land tenure in England and Wales and Ontario over the past century and examines recent changes in farm tenure, particularly the emergence of mixed-tenure holdings. Different historic and cultural backgrounds have resulted in disparate concerns over present trends in tenure patterns; fear of loss of a let-land sector in England and Wales is counterbalanced by apprehension over an emerging land rental sector in Ontario. Changes in the agricultural sector and in land owning motives are resulting in new forms of land proprietorship and changes in the land owning body. There are common concerns over the increasing purchase of land by absentee and foreign owners. On both sides of the Atlantic, however, there remains a lack of detailed knowledge on the structure of agricultural land tenure, particularly knowledge of who owns the land.

REVIEWS OF BOOKS

NORTHERN IRELAND: ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES, edited by J.G. Cruickshank and D.N. Wilcock. Belfast: The Queen's University of Belfast and The New University of Ulster, 1982. 294pp. £7.50stg. Reviewed by M.S. Cinnéide INTEGRATION AND DIVISION: GEOGRAPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE NORTHERN IRELAND PROBLEM, edited by Frederick W. Boal and J. Neville H. Douglas. London: Academic Press, 1982. 368pp. £19-80stg. Reviewed by D.G. Pringle TOPOTHESIA: ESSAYS IN HONOUR OF T.S. O'MAILLE., edited by B.S. MacAodha. Galway: Regional Technical College, 1982. 179pp. IR£15-00. Reviewed by P.J. Duffy MAN AND ENVIRONMENT IN SOUTH-WEST IRELAND, 4000 B.C.-A.D. 800, by Ann Lynch. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports British Scries No. 85. 175pp. £6-50stg. Reviewed by G.F. Mitchell CELTIC LEINSTER: TOWARDS AN HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF EARLY IRISH CIVILISATION A.D. 500-1600, by Alfred P. Smyth. Irish Academic Press, 1982. 197pp. IR£25. Reviewed by F.H.A. Aalen IRELAND AND FRANCE, 17TH-20TH CENTURIES: TOWARDS A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF RURAL HISTORY, edited by L.M. Cullcn and F. Furct. Paris: Éditions de l'École des Hautcs Études en Sciences Sociales, 1980, 237pp. Reviewed by P. O'Flanagan IRELAND: LAND, POLITICS AND PEOPLE, edited by P.J. Drudy. Irish Studies 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. 551 pp. £25stg. Reviewed by Kevin Wheian IRELAND'S SEA FISHERIES: A HIS TORY, bv John de Courcy Ireland. Dublin: Glendale Press, 1981. 184pp. IR£.10-40.Reviewed by Gordon L. Herries Davies POPULATION AND LABOUR FORCE PROJECTIONS BY COUNTY AND REGION 1979-1991, by John Blackwell and John McGregor. National Economic and Social Council Report Number 63. Dublin: Stationery Office, 1982. 85pp. IR£2-02. Reviewed by John Coward AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND 1975 – A GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEY, by J.A. Walsh and A.A. Horncr. Dublin: Report to the National Board for Science and Technology, 1981. Reviewed by Desmond A. Gillmor STRUCTURAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES ON THE ADOPTION OF AGRICULTURAL INNOVATIONS, by J.A. Walsh. Dublin: Our Lady of Mercy College, Carysfort Park, Blackrock, Discussion Paper No. 1, 1982. 44pp. IR£1-00; AGRICULTURAL LAND-TENURE AND TRANSFER, by P.W. Kelly. Dublin: An Foras Taluntais, Socio-economic Research Series, No. I, 1982. 100pp. IR£3.00. Reviewed by Mary E. Cawley STATE AND COMMUNITY: RURAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES IN THE SLIEVE LEAGUE PENINSULA, CO. DONEGAL, by Colm Regan and Proinnsias Brcathnach. Department of Geography, Mavnooth College, Occasional Papers, No. 2, 1981.81pp. IR£2-50. Reviewed by R.H. Buchanan MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND, by D.A. Gillmor. Dublin: Bank of Ireland, 1982. 44pp. No price. Reviewed by Barry M. Brunt A REVIEW OF INDUSTRIAL POLICY, by the Telesis Consultancy Group. NationalEconomic and Social Council Report Number 64. Dublin: Stationery Office, 1982. 440pp. IR£7-00. Reviewed by Proinnsias Breathnach TRANSPORT POLICY IN IRELAND, by Sean D. Barrett. Dublin: Irish Management Institute, 1982. 200pp. IR£8-00. Reviewed by James E. Killen TECHNOLOGY AND THE INFRASTRUCTURE. Dublin: An Foras Forbartha, 1981. 85pp. IR£3-00; INFRASTRUCTURE: FINANCE, EMPLOYMENT, ORGANISATION. Dublin: An Foras Forbartha, 1982. 80pp. IR£3-00.Reviewed by A.A. Homer THE CLIMATE OF DUBLIN. Dublin: Meteorological Service, 1983. 146pp. IR£,600. Reviewed by Stu Daultrey URBANA — DUBLIN'S LIST I BUILDINGS: A CONSERVATION REPORT. Dublin: An Taisce/Heritage Trust, 1982. 32pp. IR£2-50. Reviewed by A.J. Parker OFFICE DEVELOPMENT IN DUBLIN 1960-1980, by Patrick Malone. Dublin: Department of Geography, Trinity College, and Lisney & Son, 1981. 79pp. IR£5-00. Reviewed by Michael J. Bannon SOCIAL NEED AND COMMUNITY SOCIAL SERVICF.S, by Ann Lavan. Dublin: Tallaght Welfare Society, 1981. 261pp. IRT5-00. Reviewed by W.J. McGaughey INISHMURRAY: ANCIENT MONASTIC ISLAND, bv Patrick Ucraughty. Dublin: The O'Brien Press, 1982. 96pp. IR£800. Reviewed by W. Nolan ANTIQUE MAPS OF THE BRITISH ISLES, by David Smith. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd., 1982. 243pp. £25stg. Reviewed by J.H. Andrews MAP REVIEWS STREET MAP OF I.IMF.RICK. 1:9,000. Dublin: Ordnance Survey oflreland. 1982. IR£1 -80; STREET MAP OF I.ISBURN. 1:8,000. Belfast: Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland, 1982. £l-50stg; STREET MAPS OF BALLYNAHINCH, DOWNPATRICK & NEWCASTLE. 1:10,000. Belfast: Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland, 1982. £1-50stg. Reviewed by E. Buckmaster

Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Aggregate Supply Response of Crops in a Developing Region. By S. L. Bapna. Sultan Chand &amp; Sons, Land Use and Living Space. By Robin H. Best. Methuen, Population and Technology. By ESTER Boserup. Innovation Diffusion: A New Perspective. By Lawrence A. Brown. Methuen, Science and Agricultural Development. Edited by Lawrence Busch. Data Collection in Developing Countries. By D. J. Casley and D. A. Lury. The Economic Theory of Agricultural Land Tenure. By J. M. Currie. Marketing Behaviour: Issues in Managerial and Buyer Decision‐Making. By Gordon Foxall. Manufacturing Green Gold: Capital, Labor and Technology in the Lettuce Industry. By W. H. Friedland, A. E. Barton and R. J. Thomas. Rural Employment: Trends, Options, Choices. By Ian Hodge and Martin Whitby. Maidens, Meal and Money: Capitalism and the Domestic Economy. By Claude Meillassoux. Maidens, Meal and Money: Capitalism and the Domestic Economy. By Claude Meillassoux. Implications of Tractorisation for Farm Employment, Productivity and Income (volumes I and II). Performance of Futures Markets: The Case of Potatoes. By A. B. Paul, K. H. Kahl and W. G. Tomek. Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation. By Amartya Sen. Biological Efficiency in Agriculture. By C. R. W. Spedding, J. M. Walsingham and A. M. Hoxey.

BOOK REVIEWS

ABSTRACTBook reviewed in this articles. Monetary Control in the United Kingdom. By M. J. Artis and M. K. Lewis Population and Technology. By Ester Boserup. (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1981, pp. 255, £9.95). The Changing Contours of British Industrial Relations. Edited by William Brows Unemployment: A Disequilibrium Approach. By Mark Casson. Economic Evaluation and the Environment. By Charles Cooper Macroeconomic Analysis: Essays in Macroeconomics and Econometrics. Edited by D. Currie, R. Nobay and D. Peel. The Economic Theory of Agricultural Land Tenure. By J. M. Currie. International Production and the Multinational Enterprise. By John H. Dunning Inside the Multinationals. By Alan M. Rugman Fundamentals of Transport Economics. By Stephen Glaister. Economic History of the United States. By Barry W. Poulson. The Economics of Industries and Firms. By Malcolm C. Sawyer. Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation. By Amartya Sen. The Economic Prerequisite to Democracy. By Dan Usher. The Economic Theory of the State. By David K. Whynes and Roger A. Bowles.

Private Property Rights and Sharecropping

The purpose of this study is to derive a theory of share tenancy with which to explore the nature of resource allocation under one of the main forms of land tenure in agriculture. Share tenancy is a land lease under which rent is a contracted percentage of the output yield from the tenant per period of time. As a rule, the landowner provides land, and the tenant provides labor; other inputs may be provided by either party. Share tenancy (or sharecropping) is thus share contracting, defined here as two or more individual parties combining privately owned resources for the production of certain mutually agreed outputs, the actual outputs to be shared according to certain mutually accepted percentages as returns to the contracting parties for their productive resources forsaken. The theory, to be derived from standard economic principles, may be generalized to all forms of land tenure under similar ownership of resources. The prevailing impression is that sharecropping results in inefficient allocation of resources.' It will be shown here that the inefficiency argument is illusory. The implied resource allocation under private property rights is the same whether the landowner cultivates the land himself, hires farmhands to do the tilling, leases his holdings on a fixed rent basis,

TECHNISCHE UND WIRTSCHAFTLICHE VERÄNDERUNGEN IN DER LANDWIRTSCHAFT UND IHR EINFLUSS AUF DIE LANDWIRTSCHAFT‐ LICHE BEVöLKERUNG SOZIOLOGISCHE ASPEKTE DER KONZENTRATION

SummaryTechnological and Economic Changes in Agriculture and their Impact on Farm PopulationThe most important actual reaction in European agriculture to technological and economic changes is the trend towards concentration. This paper deals with the sociological consequences of concentration, without going further into the differences caused by various forms of concentration.Attention is given to: the impact of concentration on the freedom and independence of farmers; the problem of concentration of power and its control; the relations between agricultural land tenure and concentration; the influence of concentration on the position of rural people in the society and on group relationships; the importance of higher levels of education for the success of concentration; the significance of the guiding image of the ‘family farm’ within the framework of concentration; and the relations between concentration and changes in agricultural structure.The following conclusions arise from these considerations:a. The implications of concentration on the rural population do not introduce fundamental changes, but they increase the force of tendencies which were either already working in agriculture, or workingin the global society without yet having touched agriculture.b. Concentration does not offer a permanent solution to the problems of agriculture, but it is actually the best form of adjustment to changing economic and social conditions.c. Concentration is most suitable for viable farms and qualified operators. The process of concentration will promote the disappearance of submarginal economic units.d. The interdependence of agriculture, industry and trade will be considerably increased by concentration in agriculture. Remainders of economic and social independency in the rural society will be broken down. The forces of concentration promote and establish the integration of agriculture in the global society.

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:The Economic Background to Agriculture Policy. By Edith H. WHETHAM.An Enquiry into the Problems of Agricultural Price Stabilization and Support Policies.The Commonwealth and Europe.Farming for Profits. By KEITH DEXTER AND DEREK BARBER.The Eurnomics of Agricultural Land Tenure. By GRAHAM HALLETT.Economics of American Agriculture (2nd edition). By W. W. WILCOX AND W. W. COCHRANE.Mechanisation in Agricultural. Edited by J. L. MEIJ.Techno‐Economic Survey of Madhya Pradcsh.Farm animals. Their Growth Breeding and Inheritance. By JOHN HAMMOND.Times Series Analysis. By E. J. HANNAN.Stochastic Processes: Problems and Solutions. By LAJOS TAKACS.

Philippine Agrarian Reform under Magsaysay

his nation revived hope in a time of despair and inspired other men in government to a new level of ad? ministrative activity unknown before in the Philippines. Because as Secretary of National Defense he had be? come acutely aware of the plight of the small farmer during his military and economic fight against the Huks, and because this struggle was so closely related to his major goal of restoring the people's faith in the government, his heart was most of ali in that aspect of his program which he called improvement. The rural improvement program was divided into two types of activity. The first entailed merely the extension and intensification of governmental services in rural areas?e.g. drilling of artesian wells, building irrigation systems, and expanding rural health services? and was designed to increase agricultural production and raise rural living standards. Because it involved merely the more rapid flow of government funds to rural areas, it engendered little or no opposition. The second type of activity was designed in the long run to accomplish the same objectives, but in the process it became necessary to change the whole economic and social structure of Philippine rural life. Transformation of the existing pattern of agricultural credit, land tenure, and landlord-tenant relations may be called in their totality reform. Because there were not enough men with his own dedication to public service to fill ali the important posts and because his concept of democratic decision-making gave more consideration to the views of the opponents of reform than the most rabid social reformers would have liked, agrarian re? form under Magsaysay certainly did not accomplish the impossible,1 but it did accomplish more in three years than had ali the administrations in the past thirty years. Agrarian reform involved plucking some of the gaudiest feathers of the privileged birds of Philippine politics, many of whom protested vociferously. It is hard to imagine how settlement of public lands could be included under the category of agrarian re? orm. Transformation of land tenure patterns from public to private ownership cannot be said to transform the conomic and social structure of life of

Agriculture in Uganda

THIS is a comprehensive volume of information 4 contributed by the staff of the Department of Agriculture in Uganda on agricultural conditions-including native agriculture, land tenure, soils, manures-imported, artificial, green and cover crops; climate, crops and allied subjects. The important associative sciences of mycology and entomology are also dealt with very thoroughly, the fungus and insect pests being discussed at length under each crop, though bees and locusts are treated in a separate section. Agriculture in Uganda By the Staff of the Department of Agriculture, Uganda. Edited by Dr. J. D. Tothill. (Published by authority of the Government of the Uganda Protectorate.) Pp. xvi + 552 + 30 plates. (London: Oxford University Press, 1940.) 20s. net.

Legal Aspects of Land Tenure

Man's relations to land are of two major types: land use and land tenure. The first refers to the use made of land in supplying human needs; the latter includes the relations among men, determining their rights and responsibilities in land.' Legal aspects of land tenure are concerned with the laws of property in agricultural land. The law of property may be found in constitutional provisions, statutes, court decisions, common law, or local custom. The laws governing land tenure, whether they concern the State or the individual, the owner or the tenant, the trustee or the mortgagee, or the heir or the squatter, are laws of property, concerned with the distribution of rights in land. Any adjustment in our system of agricultural land tenure represents an adjustment in the position of agricultural land as property. For example, a rural zoning ordinance always changes the rights of the holder of a piece of land; an easement for an electrical transmission line divides rights in land between the owner and the public utility company; and the Kansas law requiring that the landlord compensate the tenant for certain unexhausted improvements under specified conditions reduces the landlord's rights in the land. The tenurial relationships established among men are social phenomena and are never static; they are ever changing. In fact, man's economic, social, political, and religious history is replete with terrific and sustained struggles for a better and better distribution of the rights and responsibilities in land. These struggles have always had as their objective the readaptation of the manmade tenure system to the needs of the time. The battle, of necessity, has been terrific because of the reluctance of those in power to yield to change, and has been sustained owing to the slowness with which significant changes in fundamental arrangements are made even after the need has been recognized. But during the centuries the struggle has been carried on against the power of vested interests and in spite of the costliness of what are inevitably trial and error methods and the dead weight of cumbersome legal traditions. During the major part of our national life, however, owing to our preferred economic position and to numerous programs giving opportunities to or pacifying the disadvantaged, adjustments in our system of land tenure have been exceedingly few and we have tended to fall behind in light of the many new problems facing us.

Policy and Strategy of the New Zealand Labor Party

lHE election of i9ii iS a convenient point of departure for the modern history of New Zealand Labor. In that year the Reform (Conservative) Party began a term of office that lasted 20 years. The election was fought mainly on land tenure in agriculture. Prior to i9ii a large proportion of farm land belonged to the State and was held by farmers on perpetual leases at almost nominal rates, on the condition that they occupied and continued to improve the land. In this way the Seddon government had provided for a great many settlers who had little or no capital. At the same time the Liberals had introduced social and factory legislation that included universal pensions, the forty-four hour week, Arbitration Courts and recognition of unionism, together with a degree of State Socialism through Government ownership of railways, coal-mines, communications, and domination of banking, insurance and lending to settlers. The land policy proved to be the political weakness of the Liberals. Their opponents were able to swing the i9ii elections by bribing the numerous Crown tenants with the offer of freehold. This maneuver was made easy by the country quota, which put the farmer in a dominating position at the elections because the rural electorates were smaller than the urban by 28 per cent. The immediate effect of freehold was a great increase in farm indebtedness. Farmers were now able to mortgage the land which had formerly belonged to the State. The long-term effect was to pass State property over to private capitalists, though the immediate effect, in the io years following i9ii, was great prosperity for the farmers. The period coincided with the boom years for New Zealand exports. Farmers were able to speculate with their land on a large scale, and were tempted to capitalize far beyond limits set by subsequent price levels for land. Mortgages, from i840 to 19II,