Apparently factor prices do matter in agricultural production and in the selection of production technology. And in South Africa, more attention should be focused on the technological needs of small scale farmers.

Articles in this edition develop several areas and introduce specific experiences relating to land reform. The main thread running through the articles is that of change; how we can help to understand what change means and how it can be managed.

Builds on a conceptual analysis of both land tenure and food security to set these various links in a dynamic framework that captures both the effects of access to resources on food security and the effects of food security on access to and use of resources. Uses this framework to examine a range of issues arising in empirical research and to discuss their implications for future research related to land policy and food policy. [author]

This study focuses on the responses of pasture leases to the possibility of agrarian reforms by using the survey of 145 pasture leases in Masbate, Bukidnon and South Cotabato where pasture leases where concentrated. This paper relies mainly on the descriptive method of analysis. Results indicate the opening up of pasture leases to bidding for the most productive use of the land subject to the clear-cut regulations that such activities be environmentally and economically sustainable.

This document reports on a workshop held in South Africa in June 2003 to address continuing insecurity of women's land rights. It brought together a broad group of participants covering NGO, grassroots, government, UN agency staff, researchers, activists, lawyers, and women living with HIV/AIDS.

Assesses the process of land registration in peri-urban areas of Mozambique and its outcomes for poor and marginalised groups. The research finds that there is little awareness of land registration processes on the part of low-income groups. The ‘individual’ registration process is slow and bureaucratic with high transaction costs and corrupt practices on the part of state institutions. Unlike the case of rural land, specific regulations governing the use of urban land are not yet in place.

FAC Policy Brief 55by Blessings Chinsinga and Michael Chasukwa There is often a mismatch between the apparent benevolent intents and the practical manifestations of the large scale land deals. The empirical realities of the large-scale land deals call for critical scrutiny and interrogation of the underlying interests of the stakeholders involved to assess the extent to which they genuinely prioritize win-win scenarios. As the experiences of the Green Belt Initiative (GBI) in Malawi demonstrated, the smallholder farmer is almost always the loser.

Paper is about how human society organizes its proprietary relationship to the biosphere and, in particular, the property implications of ecosystem management. Our premise is that ecosystem management is endangered by its "bigger-is-better" bias, the potential source of public backlash among landowners. We document both the expansionary nature of ecocentric management and the magnitude of inholdings (encumbered property interests) which accompany it.

The enclosure of open rangeland and its allocation to individuals or groups is a component of many African livestock development projects. In project after project, however, pastoralists have declined to fence or reallocate ownership of their land according to project specifications. It would now appear that the promise of a more efficient system of livestock production and range management is not, in itself, sufficient to induce pastoralists to adopt a fenced system of ranching.

While there is a consensus in Nicaragua that the security of property rights is a fundamental constraint to the long run development of the agricultural sector, there has been little empirical analysis to date of the relationship between land rights and rural economic activity.Using household level data collected between December, 1997– April, 1998 within the regions of Leon and Chinandega (known administratively as Region II), this paper investigates the relationship between rural land rights and agricultural credit, investment, and rural incomes (on farm and off farm).Results indicate tot

Since the early 1970s, the position of pastoralists in West Africa's Sahel zone has become ever more precarious. Their plight is evidenced by rural-urban migration movements as well as the results of field surveys. The last major drought of 1983-1985 delivered a major blow to communities which derive most of their food and revenues from herding. In many rangeland areas there is civil unrest - even building to armed conflict in places - owing to mounting tensions between various pastoral groups.

This paper begins by exploring the history of tenure in Tanzania's forests. It states that, while the government has retained ownership of forests centrally; locally, people have used forest resources without restriction. This has led to the over exploitation of many forest resources and a lack of sense of ownership and responsibility among forest communities.The author states that the government plans to transfer management rights for forests while retaining tenure centrally, but that there is confusion over how this division of rights can occur legally.