Reviewing land registration and land security in Africa: A conceptual modelling approach

For decades, the issue of land tenure security has greatly influenced land tenure policy and, to some extent, agricultural development programs in Africa.;Colonial planners viewed security of tenure as a precondition for the shift from traditional to market oriented agriculture. They reasoned that without secure rights to land, the smallholding African producer would have no incentive to increase production by investing in land. Freehold title would provide security and allow the farmer to invest in agricultural improvements without the fear of losing the land upon which the investment was made. Titles in land would increase credit supply because land used as collateral would reduce commercial lenders' expected loan losses.;Land registration has been introduced in several African countries, most notably Kenya, as a means of increasing the security of rights in land. However, some evidence indicates that farmers have less security after registration and credit use has not expanded.;Given that the farming systems of Africa involve a number of complex relationships that affect land tenure security, a conceptual model is used to examine the impact of economic and environmental variables on the land security and decisionmaking process of households. The model is applied to research from Kenya and Botswana, to examine the impact of key variables on security and household decisionmaking.;The results indicate that for most households land registration in Kenya has less impact on security of access and security of holding than other variables identified in the conceptual model, such as precipitation patterns, access to capital and draft power for plowing. In Botswana, a country with a traditional land tenure system, some of the same economic and environmental variables affect land security, implying that land registration would have little effect on land security and household decisionmaking.