IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v97y2020ics0264837719317478.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Land tenure security and its implications for investments to urban agriculture in Soweto, South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Suchá, Lenka
  • Schlossarek, Martin
  • Dušková, Lenka
  • Malan, Naudé
  • Šarapatka, Bořivoj

Abstract

Land tenure regime is considered one of the most crucial assets determining viability of urban agriculture, especially in terms of investments. Many authors have built on traditional agricultural theory that only land ownership and (formal) secure land tenure can incite investments into farming, thus stressing the need of secure land tenure for more prosperous urban agriculture. However, these statements are often built on weak or nonexistent empirical evidence. This research aims to contribute to the discussion on land tenure for urban agriculture by mixed-method exploration of the above-mentioned theory. Additionally, we propose a farming investment index which measures the level of investments by using non-monetary information obtained from respondents. The results of our study show that land tenure security for urban farmers is often seen as a rather narrow concept, focusing only on legal tenure security but omitting its other dimensions such as perceived and de facto tenure security. Nevertheless, all three dimensions of tenure security positively influence investments to urban agriculture.

Suggested Citation

  • Suchá, Lenka & Schlossarek, Martin & Dušková, Lenka & Malan, Naudé & Šarapatka, Bořivoj, 2020. "Land tenure security and its implications for investments to urban agriculture in Soweto, South Africa," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:97:y:2020:i:c:s0264837719317478
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104739
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837719317478
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104739?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alain Durand Lasserve & Harris Selod, 2009. "The Formalization of Urban Land Tenure in Developing Countries," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) hal-00813117, HAL.
    2. Maxwell, Daniel G., 1995. "Alternative food security strategy: A household analysis of urban agriculture in Kampala," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(10), pages 1669-1681, October.
    3. Place, Frank & Otsuka, Keijiro, 2001. "Tenure, Agricultural Investment, and Productivity in the Customary Tenure Sector of Malawi," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(1), pages 77-99, October.
    4. Deininger, Klaus & Jin, Songqing, 2006. "Tenure security and land-related investment: Evidence from Ethiopia," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(5), pages 1245-1277, July.
    5. Sjaastad, Espen & Bromley, Daniel W., 1997. "Indigenous land rights in sub-Saharan Africa: Appropriation, security and investment demand," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 549-562, January.
    6. Erik Bryld, 2003. "Potentials, problems, and policy implications for urban agriculture in developing countries," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 20(1), pages 79-86, March.
    7. Jan K. Brueckner & Harris Selod, 2009. "A Theory of Urban Squatting and Land-Tenure Formalization in Developing Countries," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 28-51, February.
    8. Place, Frank, 2009. "Land Tenure and Agricultural Productivity in Africa: A Comparative Analysis of the Economics Literature and Recent Policy Strategies and Reforms," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 1326-1336, August.
    9. Ruel, Marie T. & Haddad, Lawrence & Garrett, James L., 1999. "Some Urban Facts of Life: Implications for Research and Policy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(11), pages 1917-1938, November.
    10. Zezza, Alberto & Tasciotti, Luca, 2010. "Urban agriculture, poverty, and food security: Empirical evidence from a sample of developing countries," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 265-273, August.
    11. Ruel, Marie T. & Haddad, Lawrence James & Garrett, James L., 1999. "Some urban facts of life," FCND discussion papers 64, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Suchá, Lenka & Dušková, Lenka, 2022. "Land access mechanisms of Soweto farmers: Moving beyond legal land tenure for urban agriculture," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    2. Navarro-Castañeda, Sandro & Arranz, José M. & Burguillo, Mercedes & Colla De Robertis, Esteban, 2021. "Land tenure security and agrarian investments in the Peruvian Highlands," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    3. Dan Li & Wenjing Zhong & Yitao Chen, 2022. "The Role of Farmland Titling in Urban Agricultural Resilience: Evidence from Metropolitan Guangzhou, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-20, November.
    4. Paltasingh, Kirtti Ranjan & Basantaray, Amit Kumar & Jena, Pabitra Kumar, 2022. "Land tenure security and farm efficiency in Indian agriculture: Revisiting an old debate," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    5. Laiyou Zhou & Hua Lu & Jinlang Zou, 2023. "Impact of Land Property Rights Security Cognition on Farmland Quality Protection: Evidence from Chinese Farmers," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-14, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Suchá, Lenka & Dušková, Lenka, 2022. "Land access mechanisms of Soweto farmers: Moving beyond legal land tenure for urban agriculture," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    2. Holden, Stein T. & Otsuka, Keijiro, 2014. "The roles of land tenure reforms and land markets in the context of population growth and land use intensification in Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 88-97.
    3. Umar, Bridget Bwalya & Kaluma, Ketiwe & Kapembwa, Julius & Membele, Garikai Martin, 2023. "Does the evidence match the rhetoric? Post-formalization land investments and credit access in Zambia: Cases from informal settlements in Lusaka City region," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    4. Keijiro Otsuka & Frank Place, 2014. "Changes in Land Tenure and Agricultural Intensification in Sub-Saharan Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-051, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Stéphane Korsaga, 2018. "Land Tenure Security, Land-Related Investments and Agricultural Performance in Sub-Saharan Africa: Efficiency or Equity? A Microeconomic Analysis Applied to the Case of Burkina Faso," Working Papers halshs-01699118, HAL.
    6. Gottlieb, Charles & Grobovšek, Jan, 2019. "Communal land and agricultural productivity," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 135-152.
    7. Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Deininger, Klaus & Goldstein, Markus, 2014. "Environmental and gender impacts of land tenure regularization in Africa: Pilot evidence from Rwanda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 262-275.
    8. Abdillah, Kiky Kirina & Abdul Manaf, Azima & Awang, Abd Hair, 2022. "Land tenure security for low-income residents' urban livelihoods: A human development approach review of temporary occupation license," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    9. Lovo, Stefania, 2016. "Tenure Insecurity and Investment in Soil Conservation. Evidence from Malawi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 219-229.
    10. Keijiro Otsuka & Frank Place, 2013. "Evolutionary Changes in Land Tenure and Agricultural Intensification in Sub-Saharan Africa," GRIPS Discussion Papers 13-22, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
    11. Alain Desdoigts & Hugues Kouassi Kouadio, 2013. "Deforestation, Migration, Land Appropriation and Reforms: Rural resilience against the backdrop of the Malthusian crisis in Ivory Coast," Erudite Working Paper 2013-01, Erudite.
    12. KOUADIO, Hugues, 2012. "Droit foncier, productivité et investissement dans l'agriculture : cas du café en Côte d'Ivoire [Land tenure, productivity and investment in agriculture: the case of coffee in Côte d'Ivoire]," MPRA Paper 49944, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Uwacu Alban Singirankabo & Maurits Willem Ertsen, 2020. "Relations between Land Tenure Security and Agricultural Productivity: Exploring the Effect of Land Registration," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-18, May.
    14. KOUADIO, Hugues & DESDOIGTS, Alain, 2012. "Déforestation, migrations, saturation et réformes foncières: La Côte d’Ivoire entre résilience rurale et litiges fonciers [Deforestation, migration, saturation and land reforms: Côte d'Ivoire betwe," MPRA Paper 49938, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Daniel Ayalew Ali & Klaus Deininger & Markus Goldstein, 2011. "Environmental and Gender Impacts of Land Tenure Regularization in Africa," World Bank Other Operational Studies 25527, The World Bank.
    16. Klaus Deininger & Daniel Ayalew Ali & Takashi Yamano, 2008. "Legal Knowledge and Economic Development: The Case of Land Rights in Uganda," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 84(4), pages 593-619.
    17. Leslie Gray & Laureen Elgert & Antoinette WinklerPrins, 2020. "Theorizing urban agriculture: north–south convergence," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(3), pages 869-883, September.
    18. Place, Frank, 2009. "Land Tenure and Agricultural Productivity in Africa: A Comparative Analysis of the Economics Literature and Recent Policy Strategies and Reforms," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 1326-1336, August.
    19. Ho, Hoang-Anh, 2021. "Land tenure and economic development: Evidence from Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    20. Hayford Mensah Ayerakwa & Fred Mawunyo Dzanku & Daniel Bruce Sarpong, 2020. "The geography of agriculture participation and food security in a small and a medium-sized city in Ghana," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 8(1), pages 1-21, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:97:y:2020:i:c:s0264837719317478. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.