Development outcomes of land tenure formalization under customary and statutory land tenure systems in Tanzania
| dc.contributor.author | Msangi Haji Athumani | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-08-20T12:17:41Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-08-20T12:17:41Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023-11 | |
| dc.description | Thesis | |
| dc.description.abstract | As the global population continues to grow, urbanization and industrialization have led to a scarcity of land, putting additional pressure on agricultural land as various competing uses emerge, such as new settlements, commercial farming, and industrial establishments. This situation has made smallholders increasingly vulnerable to poverty, food insecurity, and conflicts due to the loss of land rights and tenure insecurity. In response to these challenges, Land Tenure Formalization (LTF) has become a popular policy approach and a prominent development agenda among development partners and national governments in the global south. However, the adoption of LTF interventions has been consistently low, and the reasons behind this low uptake are not well- documented in the existing literature. Where LTF interventions have been implemented, the empirical evidence on their effects is inconclusive and mixed, leading to uncertain implications for policy. This ambiguity in results stems from conceptual and methodological flaws in the treatment of LTF as a simple dichotomy between formalized and non-formalized land tenure, as well as issues with identification and the failure to account for potential complementarities between LTF and other interventions. To shed light on these issues, this study utilizes Tanzania's National Panel Survey data from 2014/2015 to examine the development outcomes of LTF, making a distinction between customary and statutory systems in Tanzania. The research specifically investigates the determinants of LTF using a Multinomial Logit (MNL) model, the development outcomes of LTF under customary and statutory tenure systems using a Multinomial Endogenous Switching Regression (MESR) model, and the potential complementarities between LTF and the Productive Social Safety Nets (PSSN) cash transfer program using an Inverse Probability Weighted Regression Adjustment (IPWRA) approach. The findings reveal significant differences in the determinants of LTF across land tenure systems. Factors such as household education level, formal employment status, migrant status, possession of dwelling certificate, and plot-to-dwelling distance positively and significantly influence statutory land tenure formalization, while agricultural occupation status has a negative impact on statutory land tenure formalization. In contrast, factors like household education level, rural resident status, farm size, financial assistance, and village land certificate significantly and positively influence customary land tenure formalization. However, formal employment status of the household head, migrant status of the household head, and purchased plots significantly and negatively influence customary land tenure formalization. Overall, these results suggest that Tanzania's LTF interventions are costly, bureaucratic, and tend to favor educated formal wage earners and migrants, leaving less educated, indigenous, and full-time farmers, who make up the majority of households reliant on agriculture, at a disadvantage. This renders the LTF interventions socially sub-optimal as they attract speculative rather than productive formalization. Similarly, the MESR estimates demonstrate that the effects of LTF differ significantly between customary and statutory land tenure systems. Possessing formal land tenure certificates, such as Certificate of Customary Right of Occupancy (CCRO) or Certificate of Granted Right of Occupancy (CGRO), significantly improves perceived land tenure security, with the effect being more pronounced and significant for CGRO holders compared to CCRO holders. Regarding credit access, the findings show variations in the effects of LTF on general, formal, and informal credit access. While there is no significant effect on general access to credit, possessing a CGRO significantly improves access to formal credit and reduces reliance on informal credit. Furthermore, regarding land investments, there are positive and significant effects of LTF on organic and inorganic fertilizer use, as well as investments in trees and permanent crops, but only for CGRO plots. The findings from the Inverse Probability Weighted Regression Adjustment (IPWRA) analysis reveal that when households participate jointly in Land Tenure Formalization (LTF) and the Productive Social Safety Nets (PSSN) programs, there is a significant improvement in farm productivity, households' consumption expenditure, and food security. Interestingly, the combined impact of LTF and PSSN is far greater than the sum of their individual effects, indicating a strong complementarity between these two programs. While the stand-alone impacts of LTF or PSSN are positive, they do not show significant effects on all food security indicators, except for PSSN, which has a slightly significant positive impact on food consumption scores. Moreover, when analyzing different tenure systems, the study suggests that the joint impact of statutory LTF with PSSN is stronger compared to the joint impact of customary LTF with PSSN, whereas the stand-alone impacts show the opposite pattern. Given the evidence of the costly and bureaucratic nature of the LTF system in Tanzania, there is a clear need for policy reforms and initiatives that promote more cost-effective, less bureaucratic, and inclusive LTF systems to achieve more socially optimal outcomes. Additionally, as the determinants and outcomes of LTF significantly differ between tenure systems, future empirical studies should acknowledge and consider this distinction in their conceptualization and methodologies to provide greater clarity and more meaningful policy insights. Considering the proven complementarities between LTF and PSSN programs, it is highly recommended to design pro-poor agricultural interventions that integrate complementary packages such as social protection programs to enhance their impact. Lastly, in light of the mixed and inconclusive evidence on the effects of LTF, this study calls for further empirical research to explore and better understand the potential interactions between LTF and other anti-poverty interventions, such as credit access, extension services, farm input subsidies, irrigation, and farm mechanization programs. Such studies would contribute to improving clarity and generating better policy implications for poverty reduction and agricultural development. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://www.suaire.sua.ac.tz/handle/123456789/6384 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | Sokoine University of Agriculture | |
| dc.subject | Land Tenure Formalization | |
| dc.subject | Customary tenure | |
| dc.subject | Statutory tenure | |
| dc.subject | Multinomial logit | |
| dc.subject | Tanzania | |
| dc.title | Development outcomes of land tenure formalization under customary and statutory land tenure systems in Tanzania | |
| dc.type | Thesis |