Contemporary Discourses and Contestations around Pro‐Poor Land Policies and Land Governance

The meaning of land and land policies is diverse and contested across and within local and (inter)national settings. The phrase ‘land policy’, used to refer to all policies that have anything to do with land, may be convenient, but it masks the actual complexity of issues. Meanwhile, concern for ‘pro‐poor’ land policy has coincided with the mainstream promotion of efficient administration of land policies, leading to the concept of ‘land governance’. Such concepts have enriched discussion on land issues, but they also complicate further an already complex terrain. In response, this paper offers possible analytical signposts, rather than an actual in‐depth and elaborated analytical exploration of this terrain. It hopes to be a modest step forward and towards a better understanding of contemporary policy discourses and political contestations around land and land governance.     

Agricultural Land, Gender and Kinship in Rural China and Vietnam: A Comparison of Two Villages

This study examines the impact of current land policies in China and Vietnam on women's entitlement to land, women's wellbeing and gender power relations. The ethnographic study of one village in each of the two countries contextualizes women's lives in the kinship and marriage system in which power and gender relations are embedded. Current land policies, when implemented in the existing kinship and marriage system, make women's entitlement to land more vulnerable than men's, limit women's choices and weaken their power position. Variations in kinship rules in the two countries lead to different outcomes. In the Chinese village the dominance of patrilocal marriage and exogamous marriages limits women's access to land, whereas in the Vietnamese village the rigid concentration of inheritance to males puts women in a difficult position. The comparison between communities of rural China and Vietnam reveals the importance of considering gender and kinship when studying the implementation and impact of land policies.     

From Farm to Kitchen: How Gender Affects Production Diversity and the Dietary Intake of Farm Households in Ethiopia

Malnutrition in farm households remains a significant problem in many developing countries and is linked to a lack of diversity in diets. We explore how gender differences might affect household dietary diversity using the LSMS‐ISA Ethiopia panel dataset. Drawing on a farm household framework, nonlinear panel models are estimated allowing for unobserved heterogeneity and production endogeneity using a control function. We use decomposition techniques to identify the impact of different potential sources of gender difference in dietary diversity. Our results provide evidence of significant gender effects in production diversity and in dietary diversity using the food variety score (FVS). For other indicators of dietary diversity, the evidence of gender effects is weaker. The decomposition results suggest that, after controlling for differences in characteristics, female‐headed households are at a dietary diversity disadvantage. Gender differences in the relationship between production diversity, price and income and dietary diversity and the production diversity decisions appear to be the main drivers. The results also suggest that female preferences are more orientated towards ensuring greater dietary diversity in the household. Our evidence also suggests that a key driver of gender disadvantage in dietary diversity is related to whether food is sourced from the household’s own production or the market. This implies that part of the observed negative gender impact on dietary diversity may stem from differences in marketing and storage of own production through the year.     

Land and Social Change in a Tanzanian Village 1: Kinyanambo, 1920s–1990

This article (in two parts) traces the historical development of land tenure in Kinyanambo village, Mufindi District, Tanzania. It suggests a gradual commoditization of land and the evolution of a predominantly individualized land market, processes influenced by the long-term commoditization of agriculture and social reproduction more generally. Local land tenure practices evolved more or less independently of national land tenure policy until 1974, when villagization altered the evolutionary path of local land tenure, marking a fundamental turning point in people's understandings of their land rights. Together with the simultaneous establishment of Mafinga town, it created conditions for the rapid and more spatially concentrated growth of the local population, for urbanization, and for associated changes in livelihoods, land use, and relations between people and land. As a result, and following the economic reforms of the current period of structural adjustment and liberalization, by 2000 Kinyanambo had a deep-rooted, widespread and socially legitimate market in land.     

The Sexual Economy,Gender Relations and Narratives of Infant Death on a Tomato Farm in Northern South Africa

Based on an extended case study of a large‐scale tomato farm in northern Limpopo province, the paper examines how the restructuring of agriculture transforms the sexual economy through shifts in the composition of labour and management practices on farms in this area. The employment of Zimbabwean migrants, rather than relatively permanent Venda families, suggests a potentially greater variety of people participating in the sexual economy. While families as units of employment have declined, black supervisors increasingly serve as a primary locus of coercion on the farm and in the sexual economy. The monetization of erstwhile paternalistic services places pressure on women to earn income however they can, including transactional sex. Contested interpretations over the causes of infant deaths on the farm, in the form of hygiene, blood‐mixing and infanticide, provide an ethnographic framework for a deeper analysis of the sexual economy and its social effects. While the sexual economy presents opportunities for women to increase their income, it also exposes them to the risks of HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancies, resulting in contradictory implications for the status of women on farms.     

Labour Migration and Gendered Agricultural Relations: The Feminization of Agriculture in the Ejidal Sector of Calakmul,Mexico

We examine the nature of the ‘feminization of agriculture’ in the semi‐subsistence, peasant production sector of southeastern Mexico, as associated with male labour out‐migration. Presenting findings from empirical work with smallholder producers, we discuss the impact of men's migration to the United States on women's participation in agriculture and gendered relations of agricultural production. In 2007, we conducted a survey of 155 semi‐subsistence, smallholder households in six ejidos. This survey was supplemented by ethnographic research in a single ejido. Our findings demonstrate the need to distinguish between farm labour and management in this sector, and the potentially significant (but focused) changes in the local relations of agricultural production wrought by gendered patterns of labour migration – specifically in tenure, land‐use decision‐making and the management of hired labour.     

建设项目用地预审制度变迁的理论逻辑、演化特征与路径选择

研究目的:从央地关系视角,揭示建设项目用地预审制度历次调整背后的逻辑,并提出现行法律框架下进一步改进用地预审的建议。研究方法:文献研究法和对比研究法。研究结果:在"政治集权和经济分权"的体制结构下,中国土地利用和管理同样呈现出一种"土地分权经营和行政集权约束"的特征。国家发展目标的变化直接影响中央对地方土地利用管理行为的要求,同时地方土地利用需求也影响中央政策的调整,央地关系的微妙变化推动了用地预审制度的三次调整。从2001年建设项目用地审批制度建立到2008年进行第二次调整,预审内容呈增加趋势,用地约束逐渐增强。在2016年最新一次修正中,预审内容减少,预审范围缩小,预审阶段行政约束减弱。研究结论:用地预审制度应当顺应中央要求和地方需求作进一步改进完善,适度调整用地预审权限,进一步提高用地预审的标准化和信息化水平。     

2013年土地科学研究重点进展评述及2014年展望 ——土地市场分报告

研究目的：呈现2013年国内外土地市场的研究进展,展望2014年的研究热点。研究方法：文献法。研究结果：2013年,国内外学者重点研究了土地市场的有效运行、土地市场的影响因素、地价波动、土地供应、土地市场与宏观经济关系、农地市场建设6个方面。研究结论：城乡一体化建设用地市场构建、农村土地流转市场的建立和完善、土地供应长效机制及其在宏观调控中的作用、政策因素对土地市场价格影响的定量研究,以及土地资源配置中市场“决定性”作用的制度保障等,将是2014年及未来土地市场领域的重点研究方向。     

土地市场供给侧结构性改革研究—— 基于“如何推进土地市场领域的供给侧结构性改革研讨会”的思考

研究目的:研究土地市场供给侧结构性改革存在问题及原因,提出土地市场供给侧结构性改革政策建议。研究方法:从供给侧结构性改革的内涵出发,明确土地市场供给侧结构性改革的内涵和分类,通过总结浙江、深圳和上海土地市场供给侧结构性改革的经验,分析当前土地市场供给侧结构性改革存在的问题及原因,从而提出土地市场供给侧结构性改革的对策建议。研究结果:(1)政策供给的不足;(2)土地供应的政府垄断地位;(3)城乡二元发展体制限制农村土地作为资产和资本的属性;(4)土地市场供给机制的不完善。研究结论:(1)加大土地市场供给侧结构性改革的政策供给力度;(2)打破政府垄断供应局面,实现土地供应主体多元化;(3)建立健全完整统一的土地市场;(4)多角度完善土地市场供给机制。     

城市化进程中土地征用改革与集体土地产权制度变迁

随着我国经济的高速发展和城市化进程的加快，农地非农化已是一个不可扭转的趋势，尤其是在城乡结合部。在农用地转征用过程中，如何保护农民的利益不受侵犯也成为了当今学术界的一个热门话题。本文从土地征用制度的改革方向以及集体土地产权制度变迁的趋势来讨论如何进一步保护和完善失地农民原有土地承包权的问题。试图通过对土地征用制度改革的反映而进一步完善集体土地产权制度提出一些政策建议。     

体制秩序与地权结构——百年土地制度变迁的政治经济学解释

研究目的：从土地权利与社会秩序的关系视角为中国共产党成立以来的土地制度变革提供政治经济学解释。研究方法：基于文献和政策梳理的制度变迁研究。研究结果：（1）中国共产党以土地革命发动农民群体,打破以精英结盟维稳为主导逻辑的社会秩序,使中国社会进入国家与社会一体化的整体体制秩序;（2）在整体体制秩序中,国家构建自上而下渗透与统合社会的政治经济体制,控制土地权利,为国家工业化进行资本积累;（3）当整体体制的推行对整体秩序的维系产生威胁,国家以农村土地制度改革为起点,调整体制安排,进行朝向权利开放的改革来平衡国家与社会的利益;（4）讨论了中国朝向现代土地制度与现代化国家建设的可能路径。研究结论：土地制度变迁与社会秩序转型息息相关,土地问题始终是社会稳定与发展的重大问题。     

Tenants’ land access in the rental market: evidence from northern Ethiopia

The purpose of this study is to investigate the allocation efficiency in the tenancy market, and thereby the potential of the market to facilitate operational farm size adjustment that can help land‐poor tenant households to transform into smallholder commercial farms. We analyzed three rounds of balanced panel data for the production seasons 2005–2006, 2009–2010, and 2014–2015 collected from 320 smallholder farms in Tigrai region in northern Ethiopia. Random effects dynamic probit and tobit models are used to assess how land‐poor tenants’ access and extent of access to land are affected by state dependency (earlier participation in the market), kinship ties, climate shocks, and legal restrictions. The results indicate that state dependency and kinship ties with the landholder had strong positive effects on participation and intensity of participation. Climate shocks significantly affected the intensity of participation of tenants already in the rental market. Tenants’ overall access to rented land had not improved from 2005–2006 to 2014–2015. The amount of land accessed by those already in the market was insufficient for them to become commercial farmers. The important policy implication is that orchestrated interventions at community level are needed to reduce transaction costs and thereby improve land access of entrepreneurial tenants.     

基于社会燃烧理论的中国土地储备制度产生与发展研究

研究目的 :确定土地储备制度在城市土地使用制度历史演进中的地位 ,对其产生的必然依据和发展趋势进行研究。研究方法 :社会物理学的社会燃烧理论。研究结果 :土地储备制度是城市土地使用制度的第二次革命。研究结论 :社会燃烧理论可引入到制度变迁领域 ,是研究土地储备制度的产生与发展的一个有效的理论工具。     

中国耕地产权与价值研究——兼论征地补偿

研究目的:规范并界定中国耕地的产权体系及各权利内涵,探讨各耕地权利的价值构成,分析征收耕地的补偿标准。研究方法:逻辑分析法,比较借鉴法,实证法。研究结果:耕地产权体系包含耕地的生产收益权、生存保障权、农地发展权、粮食安全权和生态安全权,各权利价值在不同的社会经济条件下有不同体现;征地补偿应逐步体现耕地各产权价值。     

城镇住宅用地基准地价的地质灾害影响及修正系数研究 ——以兰州市为例

研究目的:研究地质灾害对城镇住宅地价的影响及城镇住宅基准地价的地质灾害因素修正系数编制。研究方法:探索性空间数据分析、网格地价模型和地理加权回归模型。研究结果:基于兰州市1621个住宅地价调查样点数据的分析显示,地质灾害隐患可导致土地价值的降低,但作用程度在不同土地级别、不同空间位置存在差异,地质灾害对地价产生负作用的极值易出现在各类洪道、沟坡地带;运用兰州市公开出让住宅用地数据进行验算,将网格地价模型和GWR模型法得出的修正系数应用于兰州市基准地价修正法评估,验算结果基本符合兰州市地价实际情况,网格地价模型的验算结果较GWR模型更为平稳。研究结论:地质灾害因素修正系数的空间量化,有助于提高地价评估的准确和客观性;网格地价模型法较GWR模型法更适合当前基准地价修正系数编制。     

Unravelling the dynamics of access to farmland in Tigray,Ethiopia: The ‘emerging land market’ revisited

This article uses ethnographic evidence from Tigray to revisit the debate on informal rural land markets in present-day Ethiopia. It explores informal farmland rental from a historico-anthropological, micro-analytical perspective in relation to the formal allocation of land use rights and to other informal land transfer practices. It shows how different rationales for land rental give rise to different socially embedded tenancy configurations. On the basis of this empirical evidence, the paper questions the appropriateness of the common idea that in Ethiopia ‘the land rental market is expanding’. It argues that research and policy thinking on land in Ethiopia could gain analytical power and relevance by adopting a less monolithic and abstract view on people's informal land transfer practices.     

Continuity and Change: Some Observations on the Landscape of Agricultural Labourers in North Bihar, India

This paper is an attempt to catalogue and analyse the changes over two decades in the world of agricultural labourers in a backward region in India. It is primarily based on a series of field visits to two villages in Purnia district, located in the north-eastern part of Bihar. Changes in the living conditions of labourers are obviously connected to developments in the rural economy of the region and there are important linkages with developments elsewhere, including changes in the overall macro-economic policy regime. An attempt is made to trace these. Agricultural wage workers in the surveyed region are extremely poor by any reckoning, although a few of them have made some progress through state-sponsored programmes and migration. These developments have also contributed significantly to altering the relations of dominance and subordination, thus creating greater elbow-room for labourers. However, it is important not to overstate these small gains and there are serious doubts as to whether they can be sustained. It appears that some of the material correlates of labourers' well-being in the surveyed region are being affected adversely by the currently ascendant neoliberal policy regime. There are no signs of the emergence of mechanisms that might imply sustained significant improvements in the very fragile life and work conditions of these labourers.     

Land tenure and management reforms in East and Southern Africa – the case of Botswana

Since attainment of independence, almost every country in East and Southern Africa has introduced some kind of land reform aimed at reconciling indigenous land tenure practices and those introduced by colonial regimes. The reforms have centred on modification of tenurial rules on access, ownership, administration and transfer of land rights coupled with land redistribution and/or restitution in some countries. With the exception of a few countries, such as Botswana, land reforms have largely remained on statute books with little to show on the ground. The paper gives an overview of land reforms in East and Southern Africa, taking Botswana as a case study. It notes that although Botswana has largely been successful in implementing land reforms, it is currently experiencing land tenure problems, especially in peri-urban settlements and inner city low-income areas, despite government's enhanced control over local land administrative structures. The paper ends with suggestions on how to contain the current problems.     

承包地确权、地块规模对农户土地投资的影响：基于决策模式差异视角

研究目的：基于江苏省18县地块和地片层面调研数据,通过对比分析有机肥投资和改变用途投资,揭示承包地确权的投资效应因决策模式不同而存在的差异,并讨论地块规模在其中的调节作用。研究方法：多期双重差分法和三重差分法。研究结果：（1）不同于独立决策的有机肥投资,改变用途投资决策模式有集体决策和独立决策之分;（2）承包地确权对农户有机肥投资有激励效应,对改变用途投资则表现出抑制效应;（3）对于承包经营地块,随着地块面积的扩大,确权对改变用途投资的抑制效应随之明显减弱;（4）确权通过增加土地流转和信贷可得性来影响投资的实际效果并不明显。研究结论：承包地确权通过降低土地产权风险有利于促进独立决策的投资,但也会增加集体行动失败风险和协商成本妨碍集体决策的投资,从而导致投资效应的差异。削减承包地细碎化将有助于减弱确权对集体投资的负面影响。在三权分置思想指导下,保护农户承包权益的同时,也应明确村集体在组织农户集体决策中的职责与行为规范,并积极探索有利于削减分配细碎化的土地调整新规则。     

State‐contingent analysis of farmers’ response to weather variability: irrigated dairy farming in the Murray Valley,Australia

The agricultural sector is commonly regarded as one of the most vulnerable to climate change. Current understanding of the impact of climate change on this sector relies on the underlying assumptions about farmers’ possible responses to weather variability, including changes in crop choice, input combinations and land management practices. Many previous analyses rely on the implicit (and restrictive) assumption that farmers operate under a fixed technology set across different states of nature. This assumption, represented through stochastic production or profit functions, is commonly made but seldom tested and may understate farmers’ responses to climate change if state‐contingent production technologies are, in reality, more flexible. The potential for farmers to adapt production technologies in response to unforeseen events is at the core of the state‐contingent approach. Advanced in Chambers and Quiggin (2000), the theory contends that producers can manage uncertainty through the allocation of productive inputs to different states of nature. In this article, we test the assumption that farmers’ observed behaviour is consistent with the state‐contingent production theory using farm‐level data from Australia. More precisely, we estimate the milk production technology for a sample of irrigated dairy farms from the southern Murray–Darling Basin over the period from 2006–2007 to 2009–2010.