The Economics of Farm Fragmentation: Evidence from Ghana and Rwanda

Farm fragmentation, in which a household operates more thanone separate parcel of land, is a common phenomenon in Sub-SaharanAfrica. Concerned by the perceived costs of fragmented as opposedto consolidated holdings, several countries have implementedland consolidation programs. But these interventions overlookthe benefits that land fragmentation can offer farmers in managingrisk, in overcoming seasonal labor bottlenecks, and in bettermatching soil types with necessary food crops. This articleuses household data from Ghana and Rwanda to discuss the incidenceand causes of fragmentation. It then formally tests the relationbetween fragmentation and land productivity and risk reduction.The conclusion is that consolidation programs are unlikely tolead to significant increases in land productivity and may actuallymake farmers worse off. Policymakers should focus instead onreducing the root causes of fragmentation: inefficiencies inland, labor, credit, and food markets.     

Indigenous Land Rights Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Constraint on Productivity?

This article uses cross-sectional evidence from Ghana, Kenya,and Rwanda in 1987–88 to examine the question, Are indigenousland rights systems in Sub-Saharan Africa a constraint on productivity?The evidence supports the hypothesis suggested by historicalstudies, that African indigenous land rights systems have spontaneouslyevolved from systems of communal control towards individualizedrights in response to increases in commercialization and populationpressure. Cross-sectional data on the incidence of land improvementsand on land yields provide little support for the view thatlimitations under indigenous law on the right to transfer landare a constraint on productivity.