This report is a synthesis of information gleaned from four case studies of World Bank-financed land programs in Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Ghana, and the Lao People's Democratic Republic. The case studies were designed to both broaden and deepen our understanding of how land policies affect women and men, with an aim to applying this knowledge in very practical ways to World Ban-supported land projects.

Mixed evidence on the impact of formal title in much of Africa is often used to question the relevance of dealing with land policy issues in this continent. The authors use data from Uganda to assess the impact of a disaggregated set of rights on investment, productivity, and land values, and to test the hypothesis that individuals' lack of knowledge of the new law reduces their tenure security. Results point toward strong and positive effects of greater tenure security and transferability.

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

An extensive review of literature on the
determinants of adoption and impacts of land management
technologies in the Ethiopian highlands was undertaken to
guide policy makers and development agencies in crafting
programs and policies that can better and more effectively
address land degradation in Ethiopia. Several
generalizations emerge from the review: 1) the profitability
of land management technologies is a very important factor

This paper reviews past studies on the
costs of land degradation in Ethiopia, with a view to
drawing implications for policies, programs, and future
research on sustainable land management (SLM). Given the
wide range of methods and assumptions used in the studies,
their findings concerning annual costs of land degradation
relative to agricultural gross domestic product (AGDP) are
of remarkably similar magnitude. The minimum estimated

Global agriculture will face multiple challenges over the coming decades. It must produce more food to feed an increasingly affluent and growing world population that will demand a more diverse diet, contribute to overall development and poverty alleviation in many developing countries, confront increased competition for alternative uses of finite land and water resources, adapt to climate change, and contribute to preserving biodiversity and restoring fragile ecosystems.

The importance of land rental for
overall economic development has long been recognized in
theory, yet empirical evidence on the productivity and
equity impacts of such markets and the extent to which they
realize their potential has been scant. Representative data
from China's nine most important agricultural provinces
illustrate the impact of rental markets on households'
economic strategies and welfare, and the productivity of

This paper is motivated by the emphasis
on secure property rights as a determinant of economic
development in recent literature. The authors use village
and household level information from about 800 villages
throughout China to explore whether legal reform increased
protection of land rights against unauthorized reallocation
or expropriation with below-average compensation by the
state. The analysis provides nation-wide evidence on a

Land is the integrating component of all
livelihoods depending on farm, forest, rangeland, or water
(rivers, lakes, coastal marine) habitats. Due to varying
political, social, and economic factors, the heavy use of
natural resources to supply a rapidly growing global
population and economy has resulted in the unintended
mismanagement and degradation of land and ecosystems. This
book provides strategic focus to the implementation of

Although many African countries have
recently adopted highly innovative and pro-poor land laws,
lack of implementation thwarts their potentially
far-reaching impact on productivity, poverty reduction, and
governance. The authors use a representative household
survey from Ethiopia where, over a short period,
certificates to more than 20 million plots were issued to
describe the certification process, explore its incidence

This paper uses Ethiopian data to
explore credit rationing in semi-formal credit markets and
its effects on farmers' resource allocation and crop
productivity. Credit rationing -- both voluntarily and
involuntarily -- is found to be widespread in the sampled
rural villages, largely because of risk-related factors.
Political and social networks emerge as key determinants of
access to credit among smallholder, peasant farmers.

Did the rise in food prices have a long-term impact on agricultural production? Using household-level panel data from seven provinces of Indonesia, this paper finds that the price shock created a forward-looking incentive to invest, which can dynamically enhance productivity in agriculture. It also finds that the impact of the price shock on investment behavior differs by initial wealth. In response to price increases, wealthy farmers invested more in productive assets, while poor farmers increased their financial savings as well as consumption.