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Graduate Student Research (2020 Deadline)
Tanzania - Project E3-003: Essays on Land Governance and Agricultural Productivity in Tanzania
Mentor: Onesmo Selejio, Univesity of Dar es Salaam
Mentee: Fatma Ibrahim
Dates: July 2020 - September 2021
Project Overview:
Developed countries have used land governance policy for reasons such as enhancing land ownership security among smallholder farmers and settling land conflicts to curb the challenge of food insecurity by promoting agricultural productivity (Van Dijk, 2003; Koirala et al., 2016; USAID, 2016; Charoenratana and Shinohara, 2018; Paltasingh, 2018). In Tanzania, the majority of the interventions put forward so far have focused on strengthening agricultural production, with little emphasis on productivity (URT, 2016). Furthermore, in sub-Saharan African countries, particularly Tanzania, there is scanty evidence in the literature regarding the linkage between land governance on agricultural productivity, with most published studies focusing on the role of land titles as a means of enhancing smallholder farmers’ perceptions over security of land ownership and resulting changes to land use decision making and investments (Holden et al., 2009; Deininger et al., 2011; Lawry et al., 2014). Therefore, this research study seeks to fill a gap by investigating the potential impact of land governance on agricultural productivity in Tanzania using an econometric approach.
The agricultural sector in Tanzania is dominated by smallholder farmers, with most of them facing limited land governance, which has been a key barrier to agricultural productivity and contributes to food insecurity in the sector. Moreover, limited land governance has resulted in land conflicts among smallholder farmers, which sets back progress on agricultural and industrial rural development goals. Therefore, this research project has come at an opportune time, at which the research findings could demonstrate a linkage between land governance and agricultural productivity in developing countries, particularly Tanzania. The project should raise awareness of the importance of land governance as one of the economic pillars in generating agricultural productivity and industrial development in the agricultural sector. Furthermore the research project should have impact on promotion and reformulation of policies that support land governance towards the agricultural and industrial sectors. In light of this, the findings should provide valuable insights to policy makers in government agencies, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who are currently helping to draw up the next National Five-Year Development Plan (FYDP III, 2021/2022 – 2025/2026) on how to improve agricultural productivity through land governance.
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