It’s a real no-brainer to say that farmers need land to grow crops. But it’s a sad fact that millions of farmers don’t have any secure rights to the land. And it’s not just about land. It’s about everything that comes with it: the water, the trees, the wildlife, all the things rural people need to grow food, earn a living and survive.

In many countries, especially in Asia and Latin America, a relatively small number of wealthy people own a lot of land, while millions of landless farmers struggle to make a living and feed their families. Lacking secure land rights, they are often denied their right to food.

Find out more about the right to food.

What’s more, without property, poor farmers are often denied basic public services like sanitation and electricity. They are treated as second-class citizens.

This isn’t just bad for people; it’s bad for the planet. When farmers have no secure rights to their land, they have little reason to care whether their farming methods are ”sustainable”. Working to protect the land for future generations makes little sense. After all, they won’t be able to pass the land on to their children. If the fertility of their fields becomes degraded, they move on and clear more of someone else’s land.

We’re not Robin Hood

Some people might like for FAO to play Robin Hood and force governments to take the land from the rich and give it to the poor. To these people, we can only repeat that FAO wasn’t established by its Members so that it could boss them around. What FAO does is help countries, once they have decided to undertake land reforms, find the solutions that are right for their particular situation. FAO works to makes sure that land reforms bring real benefits and security to poor and hungry farmers and boost the country’s overall agricultural production. A central part of this work involves setting up procedures for the peaceful resolution of conflicts over land rights.

But there’s a whole lot more to the issue of land rights than dealing with unequal land ownership. What about places where no one owns the land? Get this: in Africa more than 90 percent of land remains outside the formal legal system. Fields, forests and pastures are often communally held, and rights to who can use them are determined by local customs.

But times and traditions are changing. African countries, looking to reduce hunger and poverty, are encouraging rural people, many of whom only grow food for their own families, to become commercial farmers. But commercial farming requires a more formal system for land rights. Also, under traditional systems, women often don’t have the same rights to land as men. This inequality is not just a violation of women’s rights; it also contributes to hunger and poverty. FAO helps governments and local communities find acceptable ways of modifying traditional land rights so that they don’t hinder local economic development and don’t discriminate against women.

And hey, let’s not forget about the former communist countries of eastern Europe and central Asia. Under communism, much of the farmland was owned by huge state-controlled agricultural collectives. When the communist system collapsed, so did the collectives. These countries are now in the process of privatizing the land. But it’s not an easy job. FAO is helping these countries set up agricultural real estate markets that are fair to local farmers and good for agriculture and the environment.

Strength in numbers

So you see, the issue of land rights is extremely complex. But there are some principles that are constant. Here’s one: successful reforms of land rights are not imposed; they are negotiated.

The people who depend directly on land, water and forests for their livelihoods need to participate in the land reform process. The participation of women farmers is especially important. Women produce about half of the world’s food but they own only about two percent of all land. Land reforms can do a lot to redress this imbalance. But if rural women are not included in the reform process, there is a risk that the changes can end up doing them more harm than good.

Find out more about women and agriculture.

FAO has a team of experts specifically dedicated to helping countries increase the participation of rural men and women in all aspects of rural development, including the reform of land rights.

One way the poor have pushed for their rights and made their voices heard is by organizing themselves. FAO helps rural communities, especially those that are poor and vulnerable, to set up self-help groups, including rural women’s associations, youth clubs and farmers cooperatives.