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ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS
MONDAY 6-02-2017
Morning Session One: Land Governance and Property Rights
Défis de Sécurisation Foncière Rurale dans des Contextes de Sociétés Rurales Ouest Africaines: Exemples du Burkina Faso et du Sénégal
Ibrahima KAFoncier Sans Frontières
Université Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis, Initiative Prospective Agricole et Rurale, Séné[email protected]
La question foncière est sans nul doute la problématique la plus débattue en Afrique, tant son importance est capitale dans une perspective de mobilisation de la terre dans les stratégies de développement, tant elle se situe au cœur des rapports intrinsèques entre l’État, les communautés etc. Au Burkina Faso, l’effort de réforme a été concluant. De toute la sous-région, le Burkina Faso est cité en exemple en matière de sécurisation foncière. Une Politique Nationale de Sécurisation Foncière a été adoptée en septembre 2007 et déclinée en loi, la loi n°034-2009 du 9 juin 2009 relative au foncier rural. Cette réforme propose un ensemble de réponses cohérentes relatives à différentes dimensions de la sécurisation foncière : Sécurisation des droits, Sécurisation des usagers, Sécurisation des usages, Sécurisation des ressources, Sécurisation des transactions, un régime de management des conflits etc. Quant au Sénégal, le besoin de réformer la loi n°64-46 du 17 juin 1964 portant Loi sur le Domaine National remonte au lendemain des politiques d’ajustement structurel qui ont introduit l’idée de la libéralisation du foncier. Depuis beaucoup d’étapes ont jalonné le processus de réforme. La dernière initiative gouvernementale avec la mise en place de la commission nationale de réforme foncière a permis d’avancer. Un document de politique foncière est produit avec la participation de tous les acteurs. Ce document de politique constitue une première étape dans la réforme foncière car il a permis de dégager la vision et les grandes orientations en matière de gouvernance foncière. La prochaine étape va consister à traduire le document de politique en acte législatifs et réglementaires pour encadrer la gouvernance foncière. Cette communication se propose d’aborder les défis de la sécurisation foncière rurale en abordant une question centrale : l’adéquation des offres de sécurisation foncière rurale aux situations objectives en milieu rural au Burkina Faso et au Sénégal.
Mots clés : Foncier, Politique Foncière, Sécurisation, Sociétés Rurales, Sénégal.
Rural Land Governance in Tigray National Regional State (Ethiopia): Assessment of Grassroots Level Institutions
Yared Berhe GebrelibanosMekelle University, Ethiopia
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Ethiopian Constitution empowers regional states (provinces) to define their land governance framework based on which the Tigray National Regional State (TNRS) Council issued various rural land laws and established, among others, the Tabia (sub-district) and Kushet (lowest land administration unit) and the Tabia Rural Land Adjudication Committee which are vested with land administration and dispute resolution mandates respectively at grass root levels. The TNRS, by doing so, aims to empower the rural society administer its land and resolve land related disputes in a speedy, participatory, cost effective, transparent and accountable way and thereby ensure good land governance. This paper explores into the state of rural land governance with a particular focus on whether the basic policy rationale for the existing grass root level institutional arrangements is serving its purposes. The findings of the study reveal that, unlike the good intentions of the lawmaker, the land sector in TNRS is characterized by poor land governance manifested by huge deficits in efficiency, speed and quality of services, impartiality and accountability. The weak land governance pertains to many factors but the most important of which is poor competency of the land administration and land adjudication committees personnel, the unpaid nature of the positions and rent-seeking practices, institutional and personal accountability problems, and resource allocation problems. In view of the foregoing limitations, the writer suggests that reform in grass-root level land administration and adjudication frameworks of the sector is vital. Accordingly, the writer recommends that land administration positions should be staffed by relevant professionals; land adjudication committee should be eliminated and the dispute resolution role should be given regular courts preferably by establishing specialized land courts or land benches. Yet, considering the special roles of traditional and alternative dispute resolution systems and potential case backlogs in the courts, land adjudication committees may still be allowed to operate by limiting their roles to the traditional and non-decisional roles of mediation/ conciliation.
Key words: Land Reform, Rural Land Governance, Institutional Arrangements, Ethiopia.
The Anatomy of Community Land Rights in Kenya: Examining the History, Policy and Legal Context in a Changing Landscape
Hashi AminaSagana, Biriq & Co. Advocates, Kenya
This paper speaks to the topic on enhancing tenure security for customary and common lands, through looking at the structure of governance in the management and administration of community land. Whether those traditional structures had an administration model that was inclusive and transferred rights equitably. It looks at how the traditional structures operated and transferred rights prior to formalization of customary tenure systems through legislation by African jurisdictions in order to recognize community land rights. This segment also peeks at whether legislation can be the way to; formalize the informal traditional systems in existence without missing the key principles that determined customary land administration success prior to statutory formalization. This write-up also miens at the antithesis, of whether there is a space where community governance structures are strengthened to protect and preserve communal land holdings on the one hand and address competing interest of individualization and development. Juxtaposing this with the view that formal legislation has an agenda to alienate and individualise communal land holdings in earnest. Further the paper
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looks at the 2016 Community land Act (Act umber 27 of 2016)-referencing it on its ability to address the prevailing issues on community land. Lastly a few recommendations are provided for discussion.
Key words: Community Land Rights, Tenure Security, Land Administration, Legal Pluralism, Kenya.
Impact Evaluation of Community Participation in State-Owned Land Registration Process: Case Study of the Commune Makebuko, Burundi
Herménégilde RurakengerezaDirection of Title Deeds and Land Registration, Ministry of Justice in Burundi, Burundi
In Burundi, the vast majority of the population find their livelihoods through the agricultural sector. Yet, land disputes represent almost 70 per cent of the court cases. Some of these disputes are related to state-owned land plots that have been either illegally and/or irregularly allocated, or encroached upon by local people or squatters. Considering this contested relations over land between the Burundian government and local settlers, the present study aims to assess the level of community participation during the identification and delineation of the contested land for the purpose of titling. The registration of state-owned land properties is sustained by the recent land reform policies and legislation. For instance, the 2011 land law clearly provides in its article 213 that all lands within the private domain of the State must be measured, delineated, and registered into a cadastral plan and the national land registry. Based on interviews with key informants and participant observation, the study shows that this registration process gathers a variety of actors from decentralized government structures, donors, civil society and non-governmental organizations, as well as community leaders. The inclusion of community members at different stages of the registration process contributes extensively in supporting and validating the claims of government representatives over contested land. Consequently, this contributes in increasing State’s land properties. Community participation should be promoted and reinforced in implementing land registration policies. This would surely strengthen government and local communities’ relationships and promote inclusive land governance.
Key words: Community Participation, Land Reform, State-Owned Land Registration, Burundi.
Land Reform in Zimbabwe: Revisiting Myths and Realities
Phillan ZamchiyaInstitute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Missing Abstract
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Morning Session Two: Land Governance and Property Rights
Institutional Proliferation and the Management of Returnees-Related Land Disputes in Burundi
Rosine Tchatchoua-DjomoAfrican Studies Centre, Leiden University, The Netherlands
Though policy makers foresee the restitution of property and land as a primary mechanism for state formation after violent conflicts, and as a sustainable solution to peace building, its implementation unveils critical challenges. In the case of 2000 Arusha Peace Accord to put en end to conflicts in Burundi, the negotiators recommended land restitution and compensation as a key strategy to strengthen an already fragile peace and justice to many former long-term refugees. This paper examines how the management of repatriation-induced land disputes works out in practice and the politics related to it in southern Burundi. Deriving from extensive ethnographic research in the province of Makamba, this paper demonstrates that institutional multiplicity provides choices and opportunities to both returnees and occupants seeking to get their claims validated and settled. Yet, rather than providing a solution to the multiple land disputes between returnees and occupants, institutional multiplicity contributes to intractable land disputes and confusion between local and higher-level government actors about their roles and who has the power to adjudicate local land disputes and to enforce property rights. Ultimately, the resolution of repatriation-induced land disputes resumes to broader political contention about legitimacy, power and control.
Key words: Authority, Control, Institutional Multiplicity, Land Disputes, Repatriation, Burundi.
* This paper is an original contribution that under development for further publication.
In Search of the Solution for Farmer-Pastoralist Conflicts in Tanzania: A Critical Review of the Existing Land Dispute Settlement System*
Godfrey Eliseus MassayTanzania Natural Resource Forum, Tanzania
Land use conflict between pastoralists and farmers in Tanzania has existed for many years. Researchers have identified a number of factors contributing to these conflicts, including the absence of land use planning, “green grabbing”, large scale agricultural investments, weak policy and institutional frameworks, climate change, corruption and failure of recognition of pastoralism as viable livelihood option by the government. Over the years, the media has periodically reported murders, the killing of livestock and the loss of properties resulting from these conflicts. Efforts have been made by different actors, including civil society organizations, to address farmer/pastoralist conflict through programmes involving mass education, land use planning, policy reforms and developing community institutions and building citizen voices. However, these efforts have not
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managed to end conflict between these groups. Elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa, it has also been observed that traditional systems are failing to resolve these conflicts. This paper urges that resolving the conflicts between farmers and pastoralists becomes more difficult because the conflicts are by very nature linked to historical evictions that happened during colonial and post colonial period until early 1990s. It also points the limitations of Tanzania’s formal land dispute settlement machinery, which does not provide appropriate forums and mechanisms for resolving farmer/pastoralist conflicts. The paper argues that the existing systems do not favour the interests of farmers and pastoralists interests and calls for specific reforms. Drawing from the experience of a farmer-pastoralists platform established by the Tanzania Natural Resource Forum (TNRF), a local NGO working on natural resource governance issues in Tanzania, this paper propose for an alternative mechanism based on popular participation for the victims in resolving such conflicts.
Key words: Conflicts, Dispute Settlement, Farmers, Pastoralists, Tanzania.
* This paper is listed as forthcoming occasional paper to be published by South African Institute of International Affairs.
Land Governance Assessment Framework: Disputes Resolution in Zambia
Dimuna PhiriReconciliation Western Australia, Australia
Zambia has both dual legal and dual tenure systems comprising of statutory and customary conceptual frameworks. As demonstrated by legislation, the institutional frameworks that exist in both systems are also recognized in conflict management. However, combinations of research show visibility of contestations in conflict management as land and property disputes remain relatively high in the country. Although, efforts by the Zambian government have framed impacts in the response to land and property challenges. This paper instead argues that responses to land disputes must particularly aim to address the underlying issues in order to produce effective outcomes. This paper presents the results of the Land Governance Assessment Framework in Zambia with a specific focus on Land Dispute Resolution. It examines the judicial and customary systems of conflict management and other alternative dispute resolution channels. It further assesses, analyzes and captures the challenges, gaps and shortcomings posed by the systems in delivering and accessing justice.
Key words: Dual Legal System, Governance, Dispute Resolution, Conflict Management; Zambia
Analysis of Land Related Corruption in Zimbabwe
Manase Kudzai ChiwesheCentre for Development Studies, Chinhoyi University of Technology, Zimbabwe
Land remains an emotive and divisive issue in Zimbabwe. This paper provides an analysis of land related corruption in Zimbabwe. Corruption is pervasive across all types of tenurial systems in Zimbabwe. It uses document analysis to highlight the emerging patterns, scope, scale and impacts of
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land-based corruption. Corruption has become an intrinsic part of everyday life in Zimbabwe and the land sector is not unique in this. A Focualdian analysis is utilized to highlight how corruption is a manifestation of the microphysics of power. This analysis moves beyond simply naming political actors involved in corruption but rather to highlight how corruption is not a individual act but rather has to be understood as a function of systems and relationships. The paper focuses on communal areas, land reform programmes and urban land to indicate the existence of corruption. It also provides an overview of the challenges facing various initiatives instituted to combat corruption. The paper concludes that land corruption is a function of power in its various guises. Dealing with land corruption thus requires combating political power.
Key words: Corruption, Fast Track Land Reform Programme, Power, ZANU PF, Zimbabwe.
Afternoon Session One: Land Governance and Property Rights
Discrimination à l’Égard de la Femme en Matière de Succession au Burundi
Marie Goreth HatungimanaMinistry of Justice, Burundi
La culture burundaise depuis longtemps privait la fille de certains droits contrairement au garçon, comme le droit à l’école, droit de circuler librement, droit à l’héritage. Avec le temps, quelques limites et barrières qui freinaient la femme à jouir de ses droits civils, politiques et économiques ont été levées après que le pays ait ratifié certains textes nationaux et internationaux qui prônent l’égalité de genre. Néanmoins, en matière de succession une inégalité profonde entre l’homme et la femme s’observe et subsiste encore. Le Burundi étant un pays surpeuplé et dont la population est estimée à huit millions huit cent mille habitants, plus de 90 pourcent vivent de l’agriculture. La surpopulation entraine l’exiguïté des terres et une plus grande compétition dans l’accès à la terre. Malgré l’adoption de loi contre les discriminations, l’ignorance et l’absence de cadre juridique spécifique sur l’égalité des droits constituent des facteurs discriminatoires supplémentaires. En son article 23 la Constitution du Burundi dispose que tous les citoyens sont égaux devant la loi qui leur assure une protection légale. Il en est de même pour l’article 3 de la Convention de lutte contre toutes formes de discrimination à l’égard de la femme adoptée en 1979. Cependant, une loi régissant la succession tarde à venir pour lever cette inégalité de genre, tout en soulignant qu’un projet de loi la régissant avait été proposé par le parlement il y a des années, mais aucune suite réservée n’a été donnée. Cette inégalité de genre en matière de succession expose la femme burundaise à la pauvreté et aux violences basées sur le genre. Avec la propriété foncière, celle-ci aura à faire des épargnes bénéfiques pour le foyer et pour le pays en soi. Il est alors opportun de sensibiliser les femmes sur les instruments juridiques nationaux et internationaux qui garantissent l’égalité entre l’homme et la femme afin de leur faire connaître leurs droits, et leur apprendre à être plus flexibles et sensibles au changement. Non seulement les femmes, mais aussi les hommes doivent être sensibilisés sur ce point afin d’être plus conscients de l’égalité de genre. De plus, une loi régissant la succession s’impose en vue de lever ce défi.
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Mots clés: Discrimination, Droits fonciers, Genre, Succession, Burundi.
Gender Responsive Land Governance and Households Well-Being in Cameroon
Eric Patrick Feubi PamenLaboratory of Analysis and Research in Mathematical Economics (LAREM), University of Yaounde
2-Soa, [email protected]
Land access provides a supplementary source of income and food to the poor, as part of diversified livelihood strategies that also include work as wage labourers, trade or cottage industries and remittances. There has been very little evidence on how economic impact of land governance has evolved in Cameroon since independence. The main research question of this study is: What are the implications of gender responsive land governance on well-being in Cameroon? The aim of this paper is to show potential implications of gender responsive land governance on household’s well-being in Cameroon. The analytical framework of this study consists of using the Polychoric Principal Component to identify determinants of land tenure security in Cameroon. To capture the incorporation of gender responsive land governance into well-being analysis that may lead to a better understanding of the link between the two phenomena, we use a bivariate probit model that allows for correlated unobserved heterogeneity. We use cross-sectional microeconomic data from Cameroonian Households Consumption Surveys (CHCS). These are official surveys of the National Institute of Statistics making data available for 1996, 2001, 2007 and 2014. The study shows that land possession by female-headed households can have a relevant impact on the well-being of the household as a whole and that being landless increases the probability of being poor and vulnerable. This study is important for stakeholders since, among other things, if even attention to gender and land governance is not new, it has not always been acted upon. So that land tenure security and full and equal access of women to ownership, property rights and land titles in Cameroon could be seen not only as an assets as others but also as an engine for economic growth that can be engaged in the post-2015 development agenda.
Key words: Land Governance, Gender, Inclusive Economic Growth, Agriculture, Cameroon.
Les Enjeux de l'Accès de la Femme à la Terre au Burundi. Rapport Alternatif sur la Mise en Œuvre de la Convention sur l’Élimination de toutes Formes de Discrimination
à l'égard de la Femme
Camille MunezeroAssociation pour la Paix et les Droits de l'Homme (APDH), Burundi
La Constitution du Burundi ainsi que les instruments juridiques internationaux ratifiés par le Burundi garantissent le principe de l’égalité et de la non-discrimination en droits et en dignité en faveur de tous les burundais sans distinction aucune. Toutefois, les domaines des successions, des régimes matrimoniaux et des libéralités demeurent régies par le droit coutumier. Ainsi, en matière d’accès à la terre, les femmes burundaises en général, la femme Twa en particulier, subissent un traitement
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discriminatoire par rapport aux hommes. Ce traitement inéquitable en matière d’appropriation des terres, en droit comme en fait, les empêche de bénéficier des opportunités économiques au même titre que les hommes et les maintient dans une situation de pauvreté et d’inégalité sociale. Le rapport note des avancées mais elles restent confrontées non seulement à la persistance des barrières culturelles discriminatoires, mais aussi et surtout au vide juridique occasionné par l’absence d’une loi sur les successions, les libéralités et les régimes matrimoniaux qui semble avoir perdu l’attention du Gouvernement avec la suspension du débat y relatif. Ce rapport émet un certain nombre de recommandations, qui plaident pour la mise en place d’un cadre légal, institutionnel, administratif ainsi que toutes les mesures appropriées pour lutter effectivement contre la discrimination à l’égard des femmes afin de permettre un traitement égalitaire entre les hommes et les femmes et accroîtrait leur situation socio-économique avec un impact positif évident sur le développement du ménage et de la communauté.
Mots-clés: Accès à la Terre, Inégalités, Femmes, Production Agricole, Burundi.
The Role of Non-Governmental Organisations in Relation to the Land Rights of Rural Women in the Post-Apartheid: The Case Study of Itireleng Developmental and
Educational Project in Mopani District, Limpopo Province
Thotoane RamalefaneUniversity of Cape Town, South Africa
This paper presents the main findings of a study conducted in 2009 on the role of Itireleng in Mopani District, Limpopo Province. It focuses on the question of whether the organisation’s interventions that aimed at assisting members of the farmer associations to access, use and have rights in land facilitated the land rights of women living in communal areas under the jurisdiction of traditional leadership. The findings of the study suggested that Itireleng assisted rural women whose rights in land were previously enclosed within the patriarchal land rights institutions and social relations which disadvantaged against them, to be able to have property rights in land. By participating in Itireleng’s initiatives women were able to access, control and have secure rights of access to land. This paper highlights three main findings of this study. First, Itireleng assisted female farmers to have a direct access in productive resources. The analysis revealed that women were able to: use technology; access income; achieve food security. Second, Itireleng assisted rural women to participate effectively in the decision-making processes that affect the land they are using through participating in traditional land governance. Thrid, Itireleng assisted women to acquire, exercise and secure property rights in land. These findings contradict the picture painted by most studies focusing on women’s land rights and the role of NGOs in relation to women’s land rights. The main argument for studies on women’s land rights is that, it is difficult for married women or women living under the authority of a male relative to acquire property rights. Despite their efforts, women still experience patriarchal relations when trying to access the land. This current study contributes to this existing literature with a different perspective. This study critically analysis the role of NGOs in assisting women living within the claims for patriarchal relations that disadvantaged against them to be able to access, control, and have security of tenure.
Key words: Customary Land Tenure, Women Empowerment, Land Rights, South Africa.
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The Political Economy of Peasant Agricultural Production and Commodity Markets in Zimbabwe: 15 Years Post the FTLRP
Toendepi ShonheSam Moyo African Institute for Agrarian Studies, Zimbabwe
Re-visiting primitive accumulation as a conceptual framework for analysis, the political economy questions of who drives, benefits and losses in agrarian change and commodity circuits can be assessed to inform debate and policy. This paper therefore provides a qualitative and quantitative analysis of how capital finance is linked to agrarian change, beyond evidence on the role of politics and state practice, using one of the key agricultural commodities – tobacco, maize and tomatoes. Many scholars have studied agrarian change in post 2000 Zimbabwe, however the increasing role of contract farming for cash crops, which is linked to international and domestic capital remains understudied. The re-financialisation of agricultural production after 2008 and the changing marketing system for the crops has attracted changes in labour relations, capital accumulation and class formation across agro-ecological regions and settlement models, in ways that call for the re-examination of the tri-modal agricultural development and class formation trajectories proposed by Moyo (2011). Relying on empirical evidence gathered from Hwedza district, one the areas that experienced both large-scale land redistribution and a shift in tobacco production patterns, this paper analyses the role of government input support schemes, access to bank credit, on-farm re-investment, remittances, non-farm income and contract farming to reveal how different modes of capital finance are impacting on agricultural outcomes across crops, agro-ecological regions and settlement models. Hwedza district is unique in that it is located in four agro-ecological regions (IIa, IIb, III and IV) of Zimbabwe and is comprised of four settlement models (Old resettlement, small scale commercial farms, communal area and newly resettled – A1 and A2 farms), providing scope for comparative analysis across the variegated settlement models. Broadly, agrarian change has resulted in an expanding, politically independent middle class backed by agricultural production and marketing is observed among the farmers. The paper contributes to ongoing debate on agrarian change under neo-liberalism and policy analysis and development in Zimbabwe, Southern Africa and beyond.
Key words: Agrarian Change, Agrarian Reform, Tobacco Production, Large-Scale Investment, Zimbabwe.
Afternoon Session Two: Land Governance and Property Rights
African Youths; The Forgotten Category in Land Governance. A Case Study of Post-Conflict Acholi Region, Northern Uganda
Doreen Nancy KobusingyeAfrican Studies Centre, Leiden University, the Netherlands
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This paper demonstrates how war may significantly enhance the authority of male youths in land governance, at the expense of the elders and customary authority. Conventional analyses of rural youth in Africa describe their migration to cities in search of education and employment, and due to pressure on rural land, which leaves elders and customary institutions firmly in charge of land governance. This paper, in contrast, suggests that in post-conflict environments an entirely different dynamic may take place, as the majority of youths remain in rural communities and become the new power holders over or managers of land. This argument builds on findings from ethnographic research conducted between 2011 and 2013 in Acholi sub-region in Northern Uganda. The analysis highlights different war-related processes through which youth claim and establish authority in land governance. First, after war, youth fill up the vacuum in land governance left by the death of elders during the violence. Moreover, war favours youth in the ongoing struggle for authority between youth and elders, in particular when staying in IDP camps and participation in the war have eroded conventional legitimacy of the elders. Third, the youth are better disposed to seize opportunities created by war, notably the commoditization of land. An important dynamic is also that war legitimizes violence as a way of accessing land, a strategy which is mainly employed by youth. The paper concludes by asserting that this new (claims to) authority of youth in land governance may have irreversible effects on customary tenure, as ownership of rural land is becoming increasingly individualized and conflicts become more difficult to solve.
Key words: Authority, Land Governance, Post-Conflict, War, Youth.
* This article has been submitted to a journal for consideration for publication.
Fractured Intimacy: Oil Induced Gender-Based Violence in the ‘Oil-Rich’ Albertine Region, Western Uganda
Eria SerwajjaDevelopment Studies Department, Makerere University, Uganda
Discovery of oil in Uganda has (re)kindled numerous ‘development’ expectations among the citizenry with many contextualizing it as a panacea for the country’s development challenges. The key questions here are: how are the new oil finds transforming the local communities? Who are the ‘winners’ and ‘losers’? How are the local communities navigating and responding to the transformative processes? The experiences ‘from below’ reveal that oil is invariably transforming the social and economic fabric with violence between and among intimate kin as a daily occurrence in the extraction enclaves. The collective ‘pre-oil’ social relations between intimates are no longer binding and valid, and all that women have witnessed is violence. Transformation in social relations triggered particularly by financial compensation for land and related property has ignited gender-based violence in two ways. First, it has occasioned the abandonment of ‘first wives’ and taking on of ‘younger’ ones whom men consider suitable companions given their improved financial status. Two, violence is an overt rejection by women to ‘adverse incorporation’ and/or outright exclusion from land compensation agreements. A range of individual and collective responses have been deployed by women with some seeking the intervention of the Family Protection Unit of the Police, Local Councils, while others approach traditional authorities and clan leaders. To deal with the shock, survive hardships and fill the void left by the ‘departure’ of their husbands, some of the abandoned
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‘first wives’ formed ‘support and care’ groups. Meanwhile, others live together under the same roof, share housing and utility bills, and in due course console and encourage each other.
Key Words: Oil, Violence, Gender, Land, Compensation, Western Uganda.
Large-Scale Land Investment, State Authority and Local Communities: Insights from Ethiopia
Tsegaye Moreda ShegroErasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Over the past decade, the convergence of diverse global factors – such as food price volatility, the increased demand for biofuels and feeds, climate change, and the financialization of commodity markets – has resulted in a renewed interest in land resources. This has led to a rapid expansion in the scope and scale of (trans) national acquisition of arable land across many developing countries. Much of the appropriated land is under peripheral indigenous peoples’ territories and considered a common property resource. Those most threatened are poor rural people with customary tenure systems – among others, indigenous ethnic minority groups, pastoralists and peasants – who, in fact, need land the most. In Ethiopia, large swathes of land have been leased to foreign and domestic capital for large-scale production of food and agrofuels, mainly in lowland regions where the state has historically had limited control. Much of the land offered for leasing is classified by the state and other elites as ‘unused’ or ‘underutilised’, overlooking the spatially extensive use of land in shifting cultivation and pastoralism. This threatens the land rights and livelihoods of local communities in these lowlands. This article argues for viewing recent large-scale land acquisitions as part of state strategy for consolidating and enforcing political authority and control over territory and people. It examines the implications of such strategy for local communities, focusing particularly on the Benishangul-Gumuz region.
Key words: Control, Political Authority, Large-Scale Land Investment, Ethiopia.
Responsible Land Governance for Inclusive Development in Cameroon: Insights from WWF Cameroon*
Estelle Karyn Mandeng Ntsimi World Wide Fund for Nature-Cameroon Country Office
The protection and recognition of land rights for indigenous peoples and local communities is increasingly becoming a challenge in the light of current development strategies. Vision 2035 has as its main objective to make Cameroon an emerging country. This requires the transformation of rural areas with large-scale agriculture and development projects that may threaten the already fragile rights of these communities. The Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Land (VGGT), Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security sets out human rights-based principles, for responsible governance of land and natural resources, for the benefit of all with an emphasis on vulnerable and marginalized people. These guidelines provide a framework for countries in the
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establishment of laws, policies, strategies and programs which clarify and secure tenure rights. However, the major difficulty lies in putting the tenure guidelines adopted by governments into practice. In a bid to promote the VGGT, Worldwide Fund for nature (WWF) Cameroon as the leading conservation organization in the country, with the support of other local entities, has developed an action plan to ensure responsible land governance for inclusive development in Cameroon. Although this proposed action may provide concrete solutions, its success shall depend on a number of factors including: the evolving nature of the problem, social and institutional context, the ongoing land tenure reform and financial sustainability. WWF believes that the ultimate beneficiary of such a project would be Cameroon, for it will increase chances to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and to implement its current and future national & international commitments related to indigenous peoples, and biodiversity conservation and development.
Key words: Communities, Responsible Land Governance, Inclusive Development, Cameroon.
* This is an original contribution of WWF Cameroon.
Agricultural Development and Environmental Conservation Conflicts in Cameroon: A Problem of Strategies or Policy?
Mbunya Francis NkemnyiResource Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development, Cameroon
Ideally, both environmental protection and human development policies should improve human well-being through the conservation of ecosystems. Unfortunately, this is not often the case. Using mixed methods, this study explored how the access of land for agricultural development affects wildlife conservation in Cameroon, using the case of the Tofala Hill Wildlife Sanctuary (THWS). The main findings revealed that conservation efforts could be more sustainable if interventions focus more on understanding and developing strategies in solving conflicts between agricultural development and environmental conservation. Main conflicts were attributed to the fact that the process of transferring forest management rights to local institutions was observed to be unsustainable due to poor stakeholder participation. Moreover, there were no mechanisms put in place to check the success of forest management policies. Forest management was more of rule-making and less of consultations and confrontation with reality in the field. The shift in management authority as a strategy to improve sustainable forest management instead posed potential threats. This suggested that there was an urgent need to check and address both strategies and policies processes that governed forest management in Cameroon in order to properly address agricultural development and environmental conservation conflict.
Key words: Agriculture Development, Conservation Policies, Environmental Conservation, Tropical Forests, Cameroon.
* This article is still in development progress.
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TUESDAY 7-02-2017
Morning Session One: Agricultural Models of Commercialization
Inclusive Business Model? Examining the Investor-Outgrower Relationship in Tanzania
Emmanuel SulleUniversity of the Western Cape, South Africa
The inclusive business model is increasingly considered an alternative approach to land-based investment that could mitigate the often significant and adverse impacts of land grabs on rural people, while still supporting foreign direct investments particularly in agriculture in developing countries. Against this backdrop, since 2009, the Government of Tanzania has embarked on an agricultural transformation agenda which aims to increase private sector participation in agriculture through partnerships between smallholders and investors using the nucleus-outgrower model. This investment model has recently been promoted, especially in respect of large-scale investments in priority crops such as sugar cane and rice, as is being promoted under the ‘Southern Agriculture Growth Corridor of Tanzania’ and ‘Big Results Now’ initiatives. Analysing the case of a sugar cane production partnership between the former South African Company, Illovo, and outgrowers in Kilombero, Tanzania, the paper aims to explore investor-outgrower relationships, and where necessary and possible, highlight the impacts of other relationships such as those between investors and ruling elites, and between ruling elites and outgrowers. Emerging processes of class and social differentiation, ‘accumulation from below’ and ‘accumulation from above’ are discussed in the context of the past and present political economy of sugar industry to understand how the three relations have and continue to shape sugar cane production, imports and exports, and commodity distribution in the country. The paper ends with the discussion of the wider implications of the current global movement of capital and its ownership and the ways in which they shape the investor-smallholder relationship and ‘agrarian question’ in Tanzania.
Key words: Agrarian Reform, Inclusiveness, Sugar Cane Production, Political Economy, Tanzania.
Agribusinesses, Smallholder Tenure Security and Plot-Level Investments: Evidence from Rural Tanzania
Kacana SipanguleThe Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Germany
The last decade has witnessed an increase in the interest for agricultural land in developing countries. While a great deal of attention has been paid to understanding the impacts of this increased interest for agricultural land, very little is known about how local smallholder communities are affected when agribusinesses decrease or cease their operations. This paper introduces a new dimension to the literature by investigating how a decrease in the share of land held by an agribusiness in a village affects smallholder plot-level tenure security and investments in rural Tanzanian villages. Drawing on
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a panel of 4,355 plots, we find that a decrease in the share of land held by an agribusiness significantly increases the probability that a plot has de jure tenure security. Moreover, our results reveal that a decrease in the share of land held by agribusinesses significantly raises the time spent on the plot. This result is primarily driven by the number of household members engaged in contract farming and employed in the agricultural sector but not through changes in tenure security.
Key words: Tenure Security, Smallholders, Agribusiness, Tanzania, Property Rights.
*Paper to be submitted for publication. JEL Classification: Q12, Q13, Q15.
Being Set to Fail: The Imposition of the Agribusiness Model of Agriculture on Land Reform Beneficiaries in South Africa
Clemence RusengaUniversity of Cape Town, South Africa
The South African government has embarked on the redistribution of land to formerly disadvantaged groups to correct historical injustices as well as improve the socio-economic conditions of the beneficiaries. To achieve, especially the latter goal, the government has implemented what is called in this paper, the agribusiness model of agriculture. The agribusiness model of agriculture entails the dominance of commercial agriculture by agribusiness entities, the use of land as large-scale commercial farms and the increasing connection between agricultural production and downstream and upstream agribusinesses. This is the contemporary, hegemonic and mainstream model of agrarian capitalism which developed since the 1980s. Thus, land reform beneficiaries without prior experience in large-scale commercial farming are allocated large-scale, capital-intensive farms which they are expected to use productively with limited or no external support. Using case study data from Greater Tzaneen Municipality in Limpopo province this paper argues that land beneficiaries are being set to fail. The evidence shows that land beneficiaries struggle to produce within the large-scale commercial model because it is capital-intensive. Additionally, the beneficiaries are marginalised in the lucrative product markets controlled by agribusiness thereby undermining income generation and poverty reduction. The argument, therefore, is that land reform should be accompanied by market reform to enable the land reform beneficiaries to benefit from their production. Moreover, the agribusiness model is not suitable for their capabilities and negatively affects beneficiaries’ production and livelihoods.
Key words: Land Reform, Agri-Business, Large-Scale Farming, South Africa.
Land Reform and the Fate of Farmworkers: Complexities of ‘Belonging’ on Community-Owned Capitalist Farming Enterprises in Levubu Valley, South Africa
Tshililo ManenzheParliament of the Republic of South Africa, South Africa
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This paper explores the evolving ‘cultural politics’ that shape, and are shaped by, access to and control over resources within community-owned large-scale commercial farms in Levubu Valley, in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. It discusses the tensions and conflicts that arise on such farms, and argues that such tensions can be attributed to the contradictory unity of capital and labour within community-owned enterprises, as well as cross-cutting ‘modes of belonging’ on such farms. These result in difficult choices to be made between enhancing social reproduction, or ensuring accumulation and profitability. ‘Modes of belonging’ can be understood as routinized discourses, social practices and institutional arrangements through which people make claims for resources and rights; they explain the manner in which people become incorporated in particular places as well as the social relations among actors. The paper is based on empirical findings from a study of commercial partnerships on farms transferred to land restitution claimant communities since 2005. The paper concludes by raising questions about the implications for agrarian transformation and suggests that policy makers should re-think assumptions about the benefits of community-owned large-scale farms, and reimagine alternatives that could result in more benefits to beneficiary households
Key Words: Belonging, Land Reform, Capitalism, Large-Scale Commercial Farming, South Africa.
Improving Marketing Strategies Post Fast Track Land Reform Program: Towards Commercialization of Family Farms in Zimbabwe
Rangarirai Gavin MuchetuDoshisha Univesity, Kyoto, Japan
Generally small-scale farmers seek to secure food through production and then sell off surplus to get income for investment (inputs and capital accumulation) and for social service’s needs. The FTLRP resettled approximately 180 thousand black families on agricultural land that was previously held by just over 4500 commercial white farmers. Increased numbers of farmers meant increased demand for agricultural capital goods, putting pressure on the under resourced government of Zimbabwe to provide inputs in light of FTLRP and economic melt-down induced capital flight. Therefore, it has become paramount to encourage, invest and disseminate information about market oriented agricultural production. The process of commercialization includes integration and active participation of smallholder farmers in the use of productivity enhancing technologies to produce increased farm surpluses, access markets (including market information) and eventually improve their rural incomes and living standards. Using Commercialization Index, this paper analyses the level of participation of farmers in input and output markets for each crop as well as the overall farm household production. It provides options for government led structural transformative policy alternatives to improve production, improve rural household income and reduce poverty.
Key words: Commercialization, Family Farms, Land Reform, Markets, Structural Transformation.
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Morning Session Two: Agricultural Models of Commercialization
The Soya Boom and Agro-Food Systems Change in Rural Mozambique
Refiloe Joala and Phillan ZamchiyaInstitute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
[email protected]@gmail.com
African food systems are undergoing profound transformations. Beyond the ‘land grabs’ question, this study seeks to bring to light the wider impact of land-based investments on agro-food systems, agrarian change trajectories, food security, land-based livelihoods and the associated patterns of social differentiation. This is on-going research, and for this first phase of the study, we adopted a qualitative, field-based research design in order to allow for a detailed description of the unfolding processes of change in Gurúè district in northern Mozambique. This study looks at the three remaining large-scale commercial farms in Gurúè namely, Hoyo Hoyo Agribusiness, AgroMoz and Muririmo Macadamia, and other agri-business investments. We examine in which stages of agro-food value chains is investment taking place and the impact of this investment on local production production systems, food environments and food consumption patterns. We argue that the promotion of soya production to provide animal feed in national and globalised value chains is affecting local food production practices and strategies, and how people now access food. Our research shows that large-scale land acquisitions for capital-intensive commercial agriculture have led to a significant reduction in crop production by affected small-scale farmers, increased market dependency for food, increased pressures on rural land and displacements not only from land, but from natural food sources, medicinal plants and perennial water sources.
Key words: Agro-Food Systems, Agro-Investment, Food Security, Mozambique.
The Integration of the Peasantry into Global Markets and Accumulation Trajectories: A Focus on Tobacco and Sugar Growers in Zimbabwe
Freedom MazwiSam Moyo African Institute for Agrarian Studies, Zimbabwe
The outcome of encounters between private capital and agricultural producers has historically produced differentiated outcomes amongst the peasantry. This paper analyses the impacts of the integration of Zimbabwe agricultural producers post Fast Track Land Reform into global markets utilising a case study of tobacco contract farmers in Zvimba and sugar outgrowers found in Chiredzi. Drawing from primary data, this paper argues that the interface between private led capital and the peasantry has led to “accumulation from below” for a select group of farmers and adverse incorporation for the vast majority of agricultural producers. This is largely reflected by high levels of indebtedness among the farmers, incapacity to make infrastructural investments as well as poor nutritional diets. Integration into global markets thus does not necessarily bring about “win-win” outcomes foreseen by the World Bank. Utilising the Marxist Agrarian Political Economy, the adverse incorporation frameworks as well as the New Institutional Economics framework, the paper notes that
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there has been a process of “dependent capitalisation” amongst sugar outgrowers and asymmetrical power relations which underpin agrarian relations in both sectors. While early literature which emerged post 2000 seemed to unanimously agree that the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) had effectively led to the collapse of Zimbabwe’s agriculture sector, later studies have begun to reflect some partial recovery when it comes to agricultural production and social differentiation amongst producers within the varied agriculture crops. This study also reflects an increased social differentiation in the sugar and tobacco sectors with emergent groups being classified as the “rich”, “middle” and the “poor” peasantries whose differentiation is underpinned by different access to inputs, credit, contracts, land sizes, labour, extension services and machinery utilisation. While observing the tendency to rely on non-farm activities amongst the sampled households, this study does not see any “disappearing peasantries” but rather concludes that a tri-modal agrarian structure is firmly in place.
Key words: Agrarian structure, Agricultural Investments, Social Differentiation, Zimbabwe.
Rice Production and Processing in Ogun State, Nigeria: The Relevance of the Indigenous Institutional Arrangement
Evans OsabuohienCovenant University, Nigeria
This study examines rice production and processing in Ogun State, Nigeria utilising qualitative technique based on Key Informant Interviews (KIIs). Analyses from the study show that agricultural financing constitutes the greatest challenge that confronts rice production and processing. Other findings from the discourse reveal that in some rice producing areas where there is the existence of rice farmers’ clusters; there is access to modern rice processing machines such as winnowers, threshers and destoners. The operations of Rice Growers Association of Nigerian (RGAN) in Ogun State are coordinated by its executive committee, which constitute the indigenous institutional arrangement. This study recommends that sincere and concerted efforts on the part of the government in implementing the goals of agricultural transformation agenda be made to engender the welfare of rice farmers through the development of the rice value chain. The need for actively involving the rice farmers through the RGAN is also germane.
Key words: Indigenous Institutional Arrangement, Rice Production, Finances, Nigeria.
Natural Resource Governance: Case Studies from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa
Chux DanielsUniversity of Sussex, [email protected]
Evidence suggests that a nation’s natural resource (e.g. petroleum, forests and minerals) is linked to various factors which include its governance, competitiveness, political system, corruption by government officials, rule of law and even violent conflicts. Various studies indicate that natural
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resources can support the provision of public good amenities (e.g. education, healthcare and sanitation) thereby contributing to sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development in Africa through, for instance, reduction in poverty levels, inequality and exclusion. However, the governance and management of natural resources remain a challenge in various countries across Africa. This governance challenge has implications for public policies and policy-making. In this paper I examine cases from four African countries: Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. The cases demonstrate that in spite of the challenges and weaknesses observed in some aspects, there are evidence of innovation in natural resource governance in these countries, resulting in transformative changes in resource management and socio-economic development. Nevertheless, improvements in public policies and policy-making are imperative if these innovations and progress in governance are to be sustained, strengthened, scaled up and fully harnessed.
Key words: Natural Resource, Governance, Innovation, Africa.
Land Access and Agricultural Inclusive Growth in Cameroon
Christophe Raoul Besso and Eric Patrick Feubi PamenLaboratory of Analysis and Research in Mathematical Economics (LAREM), University of Yaounde
2-Soa, [email protected][email protected]
The aim of this work is to assess the impact of access to land on agricultural inclusive growth. We used both the analysis of agricultural statistics and the simulations (25 per cent increase in financial capital in agriculture) using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. It appears that access to land and agricultural production have positive growth, as well as the rate of growth per worker. But the growth rates of the agricultural labor force in relation to the total labor force are negative. Simulations of the computable general equilibrium (CGE) model show that labor wage increases by 29 per cent with an increase in labor demand of 42 per cent in the agricultural sector and a decrease in household incomes of 26 per cent. This reduction in farm household incomes can be offset by the increase in the purchasing power of the same households through the reduction of inflation. Despite some contradictions between the statistical analysis and the simulations, it is clearly demonstrated that access to land makes it possible to increase agricultural production, but the population does not benefit entirely from the benefits of this growth.
Key words: Agricultural Inclusive Growth, Land Access, Computable General Equilibrium Model, Cameroon.
Afternoon Session One: Food Security
Examining the Nexus between Gender Transformation, Agricultural Transformation and Household Food Insecurity in South Africa: Evidence from a 2013 Household
Survey
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Christopher ManyambaUniversity of Pretoria, South Africa
Very little research has been conducted to check the linkage between gender transformation, agricultural transformation and household food insecurity in South Africa. This paper uses data from a sub sample (n=5897) of a nationally representative survey (N=25,500) to examine if agricultural production, market performance and economic factors can transform women involved in agriculture to ensure household food security in South Africa. Priority setting in many countries in this area is based largely on longstanding assumptions about gender and facts on agriculture rather than on rigorous research using current data. Recent endeavours on research on the transformation of gender and food security to improve women’s livelihoods have produced inconsistent results, due to the multidimensionality of both gender and food security concepts. This paper argues that in a bid towards agricultural transformation to ensure food security in sub Saharan Africa, it is crucial to transform the women who are involved in agriculture. Most of them are mothers and primary caretakers and are more likely to influence health and nutrition outcomes of their children and their families as a whole.
Key words: Gender Transformation, Agricultural Change, Food Insecurity, South Africa.
Public Spending Programmes for Improved Household Food and Nutrition Security – South African Exploratory Evidence
Maria MolokommeHuman Science Research Council, South Africa
Government departments in South Africa assist food and nutritionally insecure people in different ways. However, the country lacks a coherent picture of the scale of these state funded household food and nutrition security (FNS) interventions. This information gap is a concern for reasons connected with both country-level and international policy commitments. South Africa needs this information for measuring and monitoring the extent to which it is realizing its Constitutional imperatives of ensuring access to enough healthy food for all people. At a global level, this issue now forms a core indicator in the post-2015 SDGs. Conceptually, this paper distinguishes direct from indirect public spending for improving household food and nutrition status. Examples of direct food security programmes are agricultural inputs schemes for subsistence production, food parcels to vulnerable households and public school feeding schemes (including ECD centres). The mechanisms of indirect interventions, like social grants or public employment schemes, would be more intricate as household food security is but one of multiple outcomes. In practice, the direct and indirect spending streams might be tightly intertwined and this could compound the difficulties of disentangling the unique effect of an intervention. This study combines South African household survey data and findings from semi-structured interviews. It tests how strongly the prevalence of household food and nutrition insecurity correlates with targeted government spending for the provision of adequate food to the needy. The argument and findings contribute to policy-oriented research aimed at strengthening the efficiency and sustainability of food and nutrition security policies in developing countries.
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Key Words: Food, Nutrition, Insecurity, Public Policy, South Africa.
Causes of Bovine Liver Condemnation: A Case Study of Three Abattoirs in the Eastern Cape Province South Africa*
Ishmael Festus Jajaa, Borden Mushongab, Ezekiel Greenc, Voster Muchenjea
a Department of Livestock and Pasture Science, University of Fort Hare, South AfricabFaculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Namibia, Namibia
c Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Fort Hare, South [email protected]
Abattoir meat inspection is necessary for the detection, control, and prevention of foodborne zoonosis as well as other disease conditions which may lead to food insecurity through the condemnation of meat. A study was conducted in three abattoirs represented as X, Y, and Z to determine the causes of liver condemnation. A retrospective study (RS) (n = 51 302) involving the use of abattoir slaughter records of 2010-2012 and an Post mortem meat inspection (PMMI) (n = 1374) was conducted from July to December 2013. The RS revealed the primary cause of liver condemnation as Fasciolosis (6%), fibrosis (3%), abscess (1.1%) and cyst (0.5%). The total monetary loss because of liver condemnation during the period 2010 to 2012 was estimated as ZAR 113, 960 (USD 10, 651) for the abattoir surveyed. Furthermore, during the PMMI, Fasciolosis (13%, 14%, and 9%) and abscess (8%, 4%, and 5%) were the major factors that led to liver condemnation at X, Y, and Z, respectively. Other causes of liver condemnations were calcification (8%, 4% and 5%), hepatitis (8%, 5% and 5%) and Cysticercosis (2%, 2% and 1%) from the respective abattoirs. The monetary loss associated with condemnation of the liver during the AAS was estimated as ZAR 59, 227 (USD 5536). This study identified major causes of liver condemnation as abscess, calcification, Fasciolosis, fibrosis, hepatitis and Cysticercosis and their associated financial losses. The findings of this study may be beneficial for future assessment in similar surveys, for the epidemiology of zoonotic diseases affecting cattle liver in South Africa.
Key words: Abattoir, Cattle, Meat Condemnation, Monetary Loss, Post Mortem, South Africa.
* This paper is currently under consideration for publication by the Journal of Sustainability.
The Local Consumer: Engaging New Perspectives in Agricultural Production
Dzifa Anyetei-AnumVirginia Polytechnic Institute, USA
The political economy of agriculture is multi-dimensional. This is reflected in the scope of related policies and programming – including land rights, infrastructure, education, gender, innovation, and environmental sustainability. Agricultural programming is dynamic, with that in mind, successful policy implementation must be considered within a regional, national, local and/or sectoral context. Nevertheless, this paper argues that current research and dialogue pertaining to agricultural initiatives in Africa are centered within the frameworks of production, labor and global distribution – almost to the exclusion of local consumption and consumer practices. Spheres of agricultural production and
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local consumption interact in multiple ways. Research into consumer practices could uncover grounded perspectives into the dynamics of local food cultures; shedding new insights into areas of connectivity between production and consumption. The inclusion of local consumption and consumer practices in research and dialogue, also creates a unique opportunity for multi-generational engagement in the agricultural industry. Consumption oriented research could reveal new insights into the challenge of engaging young people in the agri-food industry – as subjective consumers, but more specifically as educators, innovators and entrepreneurs.
Key words: Africa, Agricultural Production, Exclusion, Consumer Behaviour, Sociology.
“We Cannot Afford to Buy Cheapest Food”. Hunger in the Context of Plenty among Ugandan Low-Income Peri-Urban Dwellers
Janice Desire BusingyeKampala International University, Uganda
Rising urban populations in low income countries have continuously challenged urban governments, as regards access to basic necessities. In Uganda, almost a quarter of the population inhabit urban areas, in the hope of accessing better social services and necessities. This study investigated how such urban dwellers in Kampala and Wakiso districts in Central Uganda, who are assumed to have access to better services, fail to buy such a basic necessity as food, in the context of availability of plenty of food in the towns. Results of the study should assist governments and development workers refocus efforts on enabling poor urban dwellers cope with food scarcity. Findings from this qualitative study show that when faced with food scarcity, people cope by engaging in dehumanising practices, such as, reduction in meals per day, reducing on amounts of food consumed in a meal, diversifying livelihood activities, prostitution or rearing animals among others, to combat scarcity of food. For the groups of women and men (50 households) who participated in this study, effects of climate change led them to periods where they could not even afford the cheapest food available in the market. In addition, the extra activities they were able to carry out during the rainy seasons, reduced during the dry season. As a special category, this study concludes that peri-urban dwellers should be empowered to engage in various activities that allow them to afford food throughout the year.
Key words: Peri-Urban, Food Insecurity, Climate Change, Central Uganda.
Women’s Economic Empowerment in Inclusive Agri-Business and Addressing Food Security in Ghana: A Case Study of North-Eastern Corridor in Northern Ghana.
Cosmas Kombat LambiniUniversity of Bayreuth, Germany
The role of women in agri-business and addressing food security in developing countries remains a critical issue on the international agricultural development agenda. Most studies in the literature focused on women’s differential access to formal education, formal sector employment, health care, and social institutions, as well as access to micro-credits (the most widely studied). The significant
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role of women’s economic empowerment in inclusive agri-business and addressing food security in developing countries is still under-represented and very limited case studies in the gender-economics literature (less frequently studied). By contrast, our paper evaluates and presents an inclusive agri-business model through the joint project between Sabab Lou Stiftung and the Anoshe Women’s Group in empowering women economic activities and addressing food security challenges in Chereponi District of Northern Ghana. This business model runs three modules, farming, animal rearing and a micro-credit with support from Sabab Lou Stiftung. The farming as a business module supports five hundred (500) members with tractor services and best agronomic management practices in soybean and maize production in a land area of 500 ac² (202 ha²) as well as in marketing of production outcomes. Based on field work a TOWS analysis of the current project is conducted and the paper introduces a framework for the analysis based on the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI). The study empirically shows that there is a positive relationship between women empowerment and inclusive agri-business as well as in addressing food security issues in the study area. The paper concludes that empowering rural women in inclusive agri-business could raise levels of productivity and production and achieve the dramatic improvements in household food security and household women empowerment.
Key words: Agri-Business, Inclusiveness, Women’s Economic Empowerment, Ghana.
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WEDNESDAY 8-02-2017
Morning Session One: Rural Livelihoods
The Complexities of Farm Workers’ Livelihoods in Zimbabwe’s Post-Fast Track Land Reform Programme
Takunda ChabataWomen’s University in Africa, Zimbabwe
[email protected] Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) that began in 2000, had varying effects on former farm workers’ livelihoods across the country. Farm workers who have for years depended on the large scale commercial farmers for their livelihoods suffered a huge blow at the inception of the FTLRP which cast a blind eye to their existence. Farm labour constituted 26 per cent of the wage labour force by 1999. This made the agricultural sector a significant employer in post-colonial Zimbabwe. And any negative adjustments to such a critical sector could mean jeopardising the livelihoods of millions of people who directly and indirectly depended on it. Land under the FTLRP was subdivided into two models (that is A1 and A2). The A1 model was designed for those people interested in small-holder farming, whilst the A2 model was meant for medium to large scale commercial farming. This means that whilst some white commercial farms were parcelled out to small-holder farmers under the A1 model, others were simply re-allocated (under the A2 model) to black farmers who wished to venture into commercial farming. The bulky of the permanent farm workers on the A2 farms remained on the farm compounds where they offered to work for the new black farm owners. Using mixed methods, this study assessed the fragile patterns of livelihoods for the resident farm workers. Most of these workers did not get land during the land reclamation frenzy. Their livelihoods, though in a larger part derive from the labour they sell to their new employers, remain limited and unreliable. This situation prompted the compound resident farm workers to diversify livelihoods, most of which were not sustainable.
Key words: Fast Track Land Reform Programme, Farm Workers, Livelihoods, Commercial Farms, Sustainability.
Post-Agrarian Livelihoods in South Africa’s Former ‘Homeland’ Rural AreasDavid Neves
University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Rural South Africa presents a highly dualistic agrarian landscape, and remains shaped by both its legacy of settler colonialism and the more-recent apartheid past. The South African countryside remains marked by the dichotomy between the former ‘White’ commercial farming areas, and the ex-‘homeland’ communal or areas. Its history of racialised land dispossession and displacement mean that global impulses towards ‘de-agrarianisation’ are strongly evident within South Africa. Hence within the ex ‘homeland’ communal areas, agriculture has steadily declined over almost a century. The livelihoods of South Africa’s rural ‘Black’ poor have, accordingly, long been characterized by
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diverse activities, and intertwined with urban employment, markets and resources. Rural livelihoods in the former homeland communal areas are typically constituted through the following four ‘domains’ or activities. The first are crucial but precarious linkages to formal and urban labour markets, the second receipt of state cash transfers from a relative widespread (for a developing country) welfare system, the third often modest levels of agricultural production and the fourth other, typically small-scale and survivalist, informal economic activities. In addition these activities are embedded in complex migratory networks, practices of household diversification, social reciprocity and mutuality. In this context long defined by patterns of de-agrarianisation, questions arise over the analytic salience and usefulness of the notion of ‘agrarian’ in understanding rural livelihoods. This issue encourages critical reflection on the prospects for inclusive and pro-poor agricultural development in Africa (particularly in societies that share South Africa’s history of settler colonialism), but also on the fate of rural populations across the continent who are increasingly redundant to the needs of capital.
Key words: De-Agrarianisation, Diversified Livelihoods, Land Reform, Rural South Africa.
The Impact of Large-Scale Agricultural Investments on the Livelihoods and Land Rights of the People in the Communal Areas of South Africa
Nkanyiso GumedeUniversity of the Western Cape, South Africa
A surge of ‘large-scale agricultural investments’ has been witnessed in the developing countries, especially after the world fuel, food and financial crises. Although instigated by a variety of institutional actors, about 70% of these investments occurred in African countries, purportedly holding large swathes of ‘underutilized’ land, and attracting much critical attention to their impacts on local communities. South Africa has largely been excluded from this literature, owing in part to the higher level of general economic development and the pervasion of its commercial agricultural sector. However, this has obscured a growth in landed investments within South Africa’s communal areas, and former Bantustans/labour reserves, the precise scale and extent of which is still not known. This paper discusses the results of a 2016 initiative to investigate the impact of these investments on the land rights and livelihoods of local communities. Typically, investments have proceeded on the basis of a strategic partnership, contractually binding communities to private investors via traditional leadership, and with government facilitating access to capital and infrastructure. A wide range of mechanisms to benefit local communities, such as land use fees, dividends in cash and kind, employment opportunities and skills transfer, have materialized minimally, and have generated intra-community conflicts. The limitation on land access triggered by the investment projects has further diminished household field cultivation, already hampered by unaffordable inputs, labour shortages and lack of support from government. Despite these shortcomings, some farmers with alternative land still engage on field cultivation at reduced scale. They also engaged on household garden cultivation for both consumption and sales, and further derived other benefits from their land. However, those without alternative land have suffered. It is finally argued that these investments do have some potential to positively contribute to the people’s livelihoods and even reduce threat to their land rights, but that would require strong monitoring of these partnerships by government and effective empowerment of the community representative structures.
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Key words: Large-Scale Investments, Land Tenure, Livelihoods, South Africa.
Provision of Alternative Source of Energy in Kinshasa: A Niche for Rural Livelihood and Innovation
Oracle Makangu DikiUniversity of Nagoya, Japan
In Kinshasa, charcoal has emerged as the main and cheapest alternative source of energy from the nineties. This increase has been fueled by two key factors. On the one hand, the lootings of 1991 and 1993 have destroyed the economic fabric then causing unemployment and poverty nationwide. One the other hand, the disuse and obsolescence of the hydro-electric infrastructures had allowed the gap between the global power supply and demand to widen even further, which had two consequences: (1) the deterioration of the service delivery (accidental power outages, hazardous voltages, unplanned selective power cut, etc.) and (2) the increase of price per kilowatt hour of energy used. Accordingly, many activities of certain scale had been informally developed around the charcoal filière, first, to fill the gap of energy deficit while also serving as a strategy for households to cope with poverty which, then, turned out to be a veritable niche of opportunities, innovations and of real enrichments. From production to retail sales, several jobs and wealth have been created and survival/livelihood, if not the welfare of many households, mostly the rural poor, have also been depended upon heavily. However, beyond this apparent prosperity, the lack of clear and comprehensive policies on agriculture, forest, energy and environment, coupled with the weakness of the State to regulate the social, economic and political life may, in the long run, impede the charcoal filière’s capacity to sustain the livelihood of its direct and indirect beneficiaries while also preserving the ecological balance of the productive system. This is what this paper is all about.
Key words: Charcoal, Land Access, Livelihoods, Filière, Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Political Economy of Land and Livelihoods: The Case of the #Khomani San of Tte Kalahari Desert
Gillo Momo LekaneWorkers' College (South Africa)
Land matters because it carries material, spiritual, and symbolic values. It is also an asset that can be bought or sold. In many African countries and in South Africa in particular land matters because over and above its various attributes it is a particular symbol of historical injustices. As such the land question remains one of the most challenging questions to address in contemporary African politics. This paper assesses the politics of land and livelihoods and draws from the #Khomani San’s experience. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews in the #Khomani San community located in the province of the Northern Cape bordering Botswana and Namibia. The findings revealed that land remains a critical asset and plays an important role in enhancing rural communities’ livelihood. It was discovered that one of the key challenges faced by the #Khomani San is the division
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within the community driven by the politics of identity characterised by the notion of ‘real versus fake San’. The findings also highlight the weakness of the essentialist discourse which at the initial stage gathers people around a common cause. But once the cause has been achieved, the apparent solid and common front adopted to win the case may struggle to hold together affecting negatively its beneficiaries in the process.
Key words: Land Reform, South Africa, #Khomani San, Colonialism, Strategic Essentialism.
Morning Session Two: Rural Livelihoods and Climate Change
Agrarian Futures in State of Flux: Interrogating Intergenerational Farm Succession Planning in Ghana
Gertrude Dzifa TorvikeyInstitute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, University of Ghana, Legon
In recent years, youth involvement in agriculture production in Ghana has returned to the discussion table as statistics are pointing to the fact that farmers are ageing and this has implication for productivity and sustainability. The study, sited in three farming areas (Somanya, Nsawam and Pretsea) focused on the determinants of the participation of farmers’ children in the family farm business and the terms of participation and how this will affect the sustainability of the farms. The study draws from life history interviews conducted in fifteen households and observations on farms to understand the intergenerational succession planning dynamics of the farming business. The study found that the participation of educated children proved very useful for farm management although decisions on farm succession remained undiscussed as aging farmers continued to hold on to key decision making powers. Concerned with agricultural business sustainability and intergenerational linkages, I submit that the political economic context of gerontocracy and a culture of orality impose the urgency to have a clear succession plan in agrarian households since this is necessary for sustainability of the farms.
Key words: Agriculture, Farming Business, Ghana, Succession Planning, Sustainability, Youth.
The Returns of "I Do": Multifaceted Female Decision-Making and Agricultural Yields in Tanzania
Rama Lionel NgenzebukeFree University of Brussels, Belgium
Using the third round of the Tanzanian National Panel Survey, this study delves into the productivity returns of multifaceted female empowerment in agriculture. Unlike the classic unidimensional approach to identify gender gaps in agricultural yields, this study lays emphasis on the overlapping of manifold aspects of female empowerment in agriculture - including female plot ownership, female
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plot management and female control over the agricultural output - through a threefold interaction model. Next, I use Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition technique to understand the mechanisms underlying significant yields gaps, as well as to assess the returns of female management and control rights to the classic yields gap against female-owned plots. This study identifies significant yields gaps that would go unnoticed through the classic unidimensional approach. More specifically, and this is the first returns of female decision-making rights, female owners who further manage and control their owned plots are more productive than female mere owners. Next, female decision- making rights contribute at narrowing the classic yields gap against female owned plots, mostly through the structural disadvantage, that is through lower productivity returns to factors of production, against female owners who would not manage their plot, nor control the agricultural output - the fruit of their labour. These findings are robust along several dimensions and call for a few implications with respect to collection and analysis of agricultural data, as well as to gender policies in agriculture.
Key words: Gender Gap, Agriculture, Yield Gaps, Decision-Making, Tanzania.
Economic Valuation of Modern and Indigenous Climate Services for Maize Farmers in Benin
Cocou Jaurès AmegnagloDepartment of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, University of Ghana, LegonFaculté des Sciences Economiques et de Gestion, Université d’Abomey Calavi, Benin
Climate risks, a major source of yield variability, contribute to chronic poverty, vulnerability and food insecurity. Analysts suggest that climate risks will increase in future and the use of climate services has been suggested. Future weather and climate patterns can be predicted based on scientific or indigenous knowledge. Researchers noticed that modern climate services are still at a nascent stage while the indigenous climate services are highly used by farmers but poorly understood by researchers. Calls for studies related to the economic valuation of climate services in order to speed up adoption of these services have been made in several quarters including those in the policy arena. This work intends to contribute to close these gaps in the literature by using non-markets valuation methods, econometric tools and qualitative analysis to value climate services forecasts. The study revealed that a large majority of farmers use indigenous climate services. Indigenous climate services are produced based on indigenous knowledge largely held by local elders, professional traditional forecasters and religious leaders. Farmers considered indigenous climate services to be of moderately high quality. The study revealed that the indigenous climate services generated significant benefits for farmers in terms of yield and income. The analysis also revealed that farmers need modern climate services and these services must be delivered one to two months before the onset of rainy season. The most desirable dissemination channels for modern climate services were radio, local elders, general meeting and extension agents. The use of modern climate services will increase farmers’ benefits. The use of indigenous and modern climate services leads to better agricultural performance then a national strategy of production and dissemination of climate services should be designed. The traditional system should be integrated in the national agro-meteorology strategy.
Key words: Benefits, Climate Risks, Climate Services, Indigenous, Non-Market Valuation Methods.
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Assessing the Impacts of Climate Shocks on Farm Performance and Adaptation Responses in the Niger Basin of Benin
Boris Odilon Kounagbè LokononUniversité de Parakou, Benin
This farm-level study in the Niger basin of Benin aims to assess the impacts of climate shocks on farm activities and to simulate adaptation policy responses using a recursive dynamic mathematical programming model. Eight types of farmers were identified, and the results show that the average farm income declines under climate shocks, by 17.43 to 69.48%, compared to the baseline scenario. Farmers of agro-ecological zone II will be affected the most by climate shocks, followed by those in agro-ecological zones III, I and IV. Moreover, land and labour shadow price declines over the years due to climate shocks and extreme events. The adaptation policy recommendations derived from the study are namely: (i) improved irrigation, (ii) better access to credit, (iii) research and development, and (iv) better access to the labour market. They will contribute to coping with the adverse impacts of climate shocks on farm income. However, the success of adaptation policies will depend on the ability of policymakers to implement them.
Key words: Climate Shocks, Agriculture, Adaptation, Mathematical Programming, Benin.
Adaptation and Farm Income: Insights from the Savanes Region of Togo
Mikémina PiloUniversity of Kara, Togo
The Savanes region of Togo is characterized by frequent droughts and floods which adversely affect farming, the primary source of livelihood for majority of households in the region. Given the rapidly changing climate, these adverse shocks are expected to become more pervasive. This situation seriously threatens the structural transformation of agriculture in the region. Adaptation adoption is therefore important for farm household to be able to withstand any future climatic shock. However, it is doubtful whether farmers know immediately what constitutes the best response to climate change when such agricultural practices as it requires are outside their range of experience. Consequently, the main objective of this study is to understand how adaptation strategies used by farm households in the Savanes region of Togo shape the impact of climate change on agricultural income. We estimate the Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR) model to account for the heterogeneity in the decision to adapt based on household survey data. Two main results come out of this study. First, adaptation enhances farm income for the farm households that adapted. Second, the decision not to adapt is rational for famers who did not adapt since they would have been 13.24 percent worse off in terms of farm income if they were to adapt. The policy recommendation drawn from this study encourages adaptation policies which build on indigenous knowledge since farm household that did not adapt may be using some indigenous practices - “farmer innovation” - not recognized as adaptation to adapt.
Key words: Adaptation, Savanes Region, Togo, Agriculture.
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