Land Tenure, Title Deeds, and Farm Productivity in the Southern Province of Zambia

This study relates to an on-going debate as to whether customary African land tenure must be reformed or converted to a statutory, individualised land tenure system (often referred to as a ‘titled’ system) as a pre-requisite to agricultural development. Past arguments in favour of titling claim that traditional tenure is insecure for the small farmer and thus creates disincentives for land improvements; that it prevents land from being used as collateral for credit; and that it prevents the transfer of land from inefficient users to efficient ones. Counter-arguments point out that farmers under customary tenure usually have durable usufruct rights, that credit is often inaccessible even where titles exist, and that informal land markets do operate to make land available to efficient users (whereas formal land markets are sometimes seen to have the opposite effect).