The Economics of Farm Fragmentation: Evidence from Ghana and Rwanda

Abstract

Farm fragmentation, in which a household operates more than one separate parcel of land, is a common phenomenon in Sub-Saharan Africa. Concerned by the perceived costs of fragmented as opposed to consolidated holdings, several countries have implemented land consolidation programs. But these intewventions overlook the benefits that land fragmentation can offer farmers in managing risk, in overcoming seasonal labor bottlenecks, and in better matching soil types with necessary food crops. This article uses household data from Ghana and Rwanda to discuss the incidence and causes of fragmentation. It then formally tests the relation between fragmentation and land productivity and risk reduction. The conclusion is that consolidation programs are unlikely to lead to significant increases in land productivity and may actually make farmers worse off. Policymakers should focus instead on reducing the root causes of fragmentation: inefficiencies in land, labor, credit, and food markets. The existence of fragmented landholdings is an important feature in lessdeveloped agricultural systems. The costs of fragmentation include increased traveling time between fields (hence lower labor productivity and higher transport costs for inputs and outputs), negative externalities (such as reduced scope for irrigation and soil conserving investments as well as the loss of land for boundaries and access routes), and greater potential for disputes between neighbors. In light of these costs numerous land reform policies have been aimed at enforcing, or at least subsidizing, the consolidation of holdings. These policies are premised on the assumption that fragmentation is necessarily inefficient and that agricultural production and social welfare can be increased through land consolidation. Such policies have already been tried in some African countries (for example, Kenya and Tanzania) and are now being considered by others (for example, Rwanda). Yet little is really known about the incidence of farm fragmentation in Sub-Saharan Africa by region and farm type and about its origins, causes, and

Economics of Fragmented Land for Vegetable Growers in Skopje and the Southeastern Region of the Republic of Macedonia

“…Reduces efficiency in rice Wadud and White (2000) production in Pakistan and Bangladesh Blarel et al (1992) Parcel size in Ghana and Rwanda either had an insignificant effect on yield or was negatively related to yield Jabarin and Epplin (1994) Increase in average plot size has a small but noteworthy negative effect in northern Jordan to borders and greater possibilities for causing disputes between neighbouring farmers. According to Wan and Cheng (2001), land fragmentation causes resource disutility and underutilization in which it is difficult to apply new technologies of agricultural modernization and reap economies of scale when farms are small and fragmented.…”

“…Small fragmented farms may also prevent farmers from cultivating more profitable crops (fruit crops). Finally, Blarel et al (1992) report that land fragmentation tends to constrain the efficient delivery of support services because the costs of extension and land improvement services rise with the increasing number of land parcels. Agricultural land in the Republic of Macedonia amounts to 1,275,000 ha (1999-2004 average), or approximately 50% of Macedonia's total territory, whereas vegetable production amounts to around 23% of the total value in its agricultural crops (MAFWE, 2007).…”

“…The second category reflects varying degrees of fragmentation chosen positively by farmers in order to reduce risk from natural disasters (such as floods, droughts, fires and other risks), to promote crop diversification, as well as to ease the allocation of labour over cropping seasons (Fenoaltea, 1976;Ilbery, 1984;Tan, 2005). Blarel et al (1992) argue that land fragmentation has also had negative effects, including higher costs (labour, transportation, etc), increasing negative externalities (such as reduced opportunities for irrigation and soilconservation investments, access routes), loss of land due Economics of fragmented land for vegetable growers in Macedonia Table 1. Research on the effects of land fragmentation on productivity.…”

Land fragmentation and efforts to prevent it in Slovak legislation

“…Most experts argue that land fragmentation is a result of institutional, political, historical and sociological factors, e.g., inheritance, collectivisation, transaction costs, urban development policies or personal valuation of land ownership (Blarel et al 1992;Bizimana et al 2004 andLatruffe andPiet 2013); other factors include population growth, cultural perspectives and land markets (Demetriou 2014).…”

The role of informal institutions for the sustaineble use of fragmented farmland in Bulgaria

“…Blarel et al (1992) discuss the incidence and causes of fragmentation in Ghana and Rwanda and also relation between fragmentation and land productivity. Their conclusion is that consolidation programs are unlikely to lead to significant increases in land productivity and may actually make farmers worse off.…”