Plateforme de connaissances sur l'agriculture familiale

Smallholder income and land distribution in Africa

Implications for poverty reduction strategies

This paper provides a micro-level foundation for discussions of land allocation and its relation to income poverty within the smallholder sectors of Eastern and Southern Africa. Results are drawn from nationally-representative household surveys between 1990 and 2000 in five countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Mozambique, and Zambia. The paper shows that farm sizes are declining over time; that roughly a quarter of the agricultural households in each country are virtually landless, controlling less than 0.10 hectares per capita, including rented land; that non-farm income shares are below 40% even for the households in the bottom land quartile; and that because of this, there is a strong relationship between access to land and household income, particularly for farm sizes below 1.0 hectares per capita. Land distribution within these small-farm sectors appears to be becoming more concentrated over time, and their Gini coefficients are comparable to those of many Asian countries at the time of their green revolutions. Lastly, the largest part of the variation in per capita farm sizes within the small-farm sectors is, in every country, predominantly within-village rather than between village. Realistic discussions of poverty alleviation strategies in Africa need to be grounded in the context of these land distribution patterns and trends. 

Title of publication: Food Policy
Volume: 28
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Auteur: T.S. Jayne
Autres autheurs: Takashi Yamano, Michael T. Weber, David Tschirley, Rui Benfica, Antony Chapoto , Ballard Zulu
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Année: 2003
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Pays: Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Zambia
Couverture géographique: Afrique
Type: Article de revue spécialisée
Texte intégral disponible à l'adresse: https://www.msu.edu/~chapotoa/Land%20Paper.pdf
Langue: English
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