Share Of Farmland Research Articles

Women empowerment, Land Tenure and Property Rights, and household food security among smallholders in Nigeria

BackgroundEmpowering women, land tilting to enhance the security of Land Tenure and Property Rights (LTPRs) in agriculture vis-a-vis food and nutrition security are crucial in the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals. The main goal of this paper is to examine the crucial roles of women’s empowerment and LTPRs as they affect household food security among smallholder farmers in Nigeria.MethodologyCross-sectional data were obtained from 1152 maize and rice farmers, selected by multistage random sampling across 192 communities, 16 States and the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria. The data were collected on households’ socio-economics, food security situations, empowerment and LTPRs on parcels cultivated during the 2016/17 farming season by interviewing the adult members of the farmers’ households. HFS was assessed using the United States Department of Agriculture’ HFS Survey Module and Food and Agriculture Organization guidelines for measuring Household Dietary Diversity Score. LTPRs were measured in terms of tenure type and title registration to farmlands. HFS modelling was within the framework of Poisson, Instrumental Variable Poisson (IVP) and Zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) regression methods, with endogeneity concerns and choice of specification addressed within Hausman specification tests.ResultsThe results of the study show that households that have a share of farmland on purchase and also participate in off-farm activities are likely to be certainly food-secure in all regards. Crop diversity, households that cultivate maize only, the share of farmland on purchase and access to extension contact significantly reduce the severity of food insecurity while an increase in farm size increases the severity of food insecurity. Similarly, IV Poisson and ZIP Count results show that increase in the farm size results in the severity of food insecurity. The evidence with respect to women’s empowerment reveals that gender parity and female achievement in group membership, income control, as well as workload; reduce the extent of food insecurity among the farming households in Nigeria. We, however, discover that the female achievement in the productive decision and credit increases the severity of food insecurity among the smallholder farmers. The analyses also reveal that education of the household head, female achievement in the asset; group membership and workload are the major factors that positively influenced household dietary diversity.ConclusionThe study suggests the adoption of climate-smart practices to overcome the issue of marginal farmlands, promotion of crop and livelihood diversification among the smallholder farmers, effective extension services delivery, and improving women’s access to productive resources to enhance household food security status in Nigeria.

Determinants of scale of farm operation in the eastern region of Ghana

BackgroundGhana’s smallholder share area under cultivation is witnessing a gradual decline, relative to the share of farmland under medium scale that is growing rapidly. Little attention has, however, been given to examining the drivers that influence scale of operation.MethodUsing survey data from 231 farmers, this study employed the binary probit regression to assess factors that influence scale of farm operation among cassava and maize farmers in Ghana’s Eastern Region.ResultsThe findings showed that factors that were significant and positively related to farm size were age, secondary education, land acquisition for maize farmers, and tertiary education for cassava farmers. On the other hand, factors that were significant and negatively related to farm size were gender, marital status, access to extension services for cassava farmers, and household size, membership of farmer-based organization and access to credit for maize farmers.ConclusionThe study recommends the provision of mechanization support for medium-scale farmers coupled with the improvement of extension service delivery to medium-scale farmers. With messages focused on the adoption of improved technologies and mechanization of farm operations.

The size of an external patchwork of fields as an indicator of urgency for land consolidation and exchange on the example of the commune of Lesko

Abstract The patchwork of plots is one of the major factors that have a negative impact on both the organization and the level of agricultural production. Excessive fragmentation reduces the intensity of the work and increases the cost of agricultural production, thereby generating lower and lower income. This paper presents data regarding the share of farmland belonging to non-resident owners in the commune of Lesko, which encompasses 15 cadastral communities. The data studied include the number of plots, their surface areas, and the number of owners. The study was conducted using checkerboard matrix tables which allow one to determine the share of farmland owned by local and out-of-village non-residents. An approach like this allows one to establish a program of exchange of land between these two groups of owners and to eliminate the problematic patchwork of land ownership through land exchange and consolidation.

Investor ownership or social investment? Changing farmland ownership in Saskatchewan, Canada

There is growing recognition that land grabbing is a global phenomenon. In Canada, investors are particularly interested in Saskatchewan farmland, the province where 40 % of country’s agricultural land is situated. This article examines how the changing political, economic, and legal context under neoliberalism has shaped patterns of farmland ownership in Saskatchewan, between 2002 and 2014. Our research indicates that over this time, the amount of farmland owned by investors increased 16-fold. Also, the concentration of farmland ownership is on the rise, with the share of farmland owned by the largest four private owners increasing six-fold. Our methodology addresses some of the criticisms raised in the land grabbing literature. By using land titles data, we identified farmland investors and determined very precisely their landholdings thus allowing us to provide a fine-grained analysis of the actual patterns of farmland ownership. Although the article analyzes changes to farmland ownership in a specific historical, cultural and legislative context, it serves as the basis for a broader discussion of the values and priorities that land ownership policies reflect. Namely, we contrast an ‘open for business’ approach that prioritizes financial investment to one based on a land sovereignty approach that prioritizes social investment. The latter has greater potential if the aim is ecological sustainability and food sovereignty.

Possibilities of biodiversity conservation in agricultural fields

The biodiversity loss is one of the biggest environmental problems in the world. The objective of this paper is to present some nature conservation practices on agricultural land. Farmlands play a significant role to preserve biodiversity because some highly protected species can only find their needs on agricultural land. The Biodiversity Strategy of the European Union (2010-2020) creates new directives to reduce biodiversity loss, preserve and improve diversity, especially on agricultural land. Furthermore the importance of this subject is that the share of farmland in Hungary is much higher (57%) than in the EU-27 on average (42%). The loss of agricultural land and the increase of land abandonment cause intensification of agricultural production leading to the loss of biodiversity.

Can designation without regulation preserve land in the face of urbanization? A case study of ZNIEFFs in the Paris region

Preservation through legal protection of natural areas is costly and limited in its extent. A much cheaper strategy to preserve natural areas could be to simply identify areas of ecological interest and let it be known. A survey was launched in France to identify such areas (called ZNIEFF) in the early 1980s. Since then, municipalities have had to account for ZNIEFFs in their formal land planning schemes, though they are not under any obligation to protect them. In this study, we tested the effectiveness of ZNIEFFs as a conservation tool in an area of high growth near Paris. Using GAM modeling, we compared the rate of urbanization inside and outside ZNIEFFs in the 17 years following designation, accounting for the share of farmland, the overall rate of urbanization and ZNIEFF proportion in the municipalities, and also accounting for demography and physical constraints (hydromorphy and slope). Overall, there was less urbanization inside ZNIEFFs, but this varied depending on the context. Surprisingly, they were better preserved in areas of more intense urbanization. This effect was increased if farmland area was already reduced (<30% of the municipality area). In contrast, when farmland was still predominant and urbanization rates were lower, ZNIEFFs tended to be more urbanized than the areas outside. This shows that the value of remnant natural areas varies considerably, perhaps as a function of the value attributed to farmland.

Long-term simulation of effects of energy crop cultivation on nitrogen leaching and surface water quality in Saxony/Germany

The production of energy crops in Germany is a growing agronomic sector and is expected to occupy a substantial share of farmland in the near future. At the same time, there are concerns that energy crops might cause increased nitrogen pollution of soil water, surface water and groundwater. Therefore, the Federal State of Saxony, Germany, funded a study on potential effects of an intensified cultivation of energy crops. In frame of this study, we used the Web GIS-based model STOFFBILANZ to simulate N leaching from the rooting zone and N loads of surface water for a reference scenario and an energy crop scenario. For the reference scenario, we used data representing the crop cultivation for the year 2005 at municipality level. We found that the total loads for N leaching from the rooting zone of cropland are highest for the loess region (8,067 t year−1), followed by mountainous region (6,797 t year−1) and lowland (5,443 t year−1). However, highest N fluxes in the leachate from rooting zones have been simulated for lowland (40.6 kg ha−1 year−1) and mountainous region (37.1 kg ha−1 year−1), while nitrate concentrations of leachate were highest for the lowland (101.8 mg l−1). In terms of diffuse N input into surface water, the mountainous region is the most important source area (total N load 6,380 t year−1, flux 34.6 kg ha−1 year−1). Retention by in-stream processes accounts for 15 % (3,784 t year−1) of the total N load leaving the study area (25,136 t year−1). In the 2020 energy crop scenario, shares of rape and silage maize (id., ensiled corn) were limited for each municipality to a maximum of 25 and 33 %, respectively. The conversion of grasslands to crop farming was not allowed. Under these conditions, we found slight to substantial reductions of nitrogen loads for leachate from the rooting zone and for surface waters. The simulated reduction depends strongly on local conditions. Only small reductions (ca. 4–8 %) were found for the lowlands and mountainous regions of Saxony, while reductions for the loess region were substantial (ca. 22 %). A major outcome of our study is that the cultivation of energy crops might reduce N loss if certain preconditions are assumed, for example, without conversion of grasslands to crop farming. However, effects might vary widely depending on local conditions.

Strategy for conservation of wild bees in an agricultural landscape

Investigations carried out by the author for 15 years on the Wielkopolsko-Kujawska Lowland (Western Poland) showed that wild bees (Apoidea) are today under strong human pressure. About 260 bee species were found in the area of 20 000 km 2. A similar number of species was recorded in this area by investigators half a century ago, which indicates that the survival of the fauna seems to be the result of some compensating factors reducing the effects of intensive agricultural management. The main factor among these is the mosaic structure of the landscape, consisting of meadows and residues of natural and semi-natural plant communities as a fauna refuge system and crop fields as an additional nutritive system. It was found that in a normally functioning agricultural landscape, the share of farmland should not exceed three-quarters of the total surface. The remaining part of the landscape should be made up of refuge habitats for Apoidea. Within such a system, qualitative and quantitative changes of the bee fauna can occur on a microregional scale and are usually of temporary character. On a regional scale they are not perceivable and probably not so important. Hence, instead of changes in fauna, one should rather speak about quantitative oscillations inside a given region. The second factor decreasing the negative effects of management is the introduction of extensive areas of some nutritive plants, e.g. rape.