Resource information
The scope and urgency of the threats to
Nigeria's rural land are no secret. In 2005, a working
group dedicated to formulating a national agricultural land
policy began the process with a comprehensive articulation
of the challenges facing Nigeria's agricultural land.
The litany included recognition that: 1) agricultural land
use in the country has been unsustainable, resulting in no
fewer than eleven types of extensive land degradation and
significant degradation of water resources; 2) the country
has not classified its land - including its prime
agricultural land - according to its use capabilities, and
thus has no foundation for allocating land among uses or
creating the mechanisms and processes for such allocation;
3) the majority of Nigeria's farmers are smallholders
relying on subsistence-level cultivation practices; 4) the
country's agricultural labor pool is shrinking, and
practices that promote better conservation of natural
resources have been too limited; and 5) the rural areas of
the country lack of basic and necessary infrastructure,
including roads, water, and health and educational
facilities. This part of the report analyzes how
Nigeria's land policy and legal framework can support
efforts to meet the country's expressed land policy
goal of sustainable productivity and additional goals of
equity and conflict avoidance. Section two makes a brief
overview of the links between land tenure systems,
agricultural productivity, and equity; section three makes a
review of the customary and formal land tenure systems in
Nigeria, and section four makes the same for the formal land
tenure system. Section five summarizes the existing legal
framework and its impact on productivity, equity and
potential for conflict. The last section concludes with
specific recommendations for unlocking the potential in the
country's rural land to meet the needs of its entire people.
