Land fragmentation, agricultural productivity and implications for agricultural investments in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) region, Tanzania
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Date
2017-02
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Abstract
There are polarized evidences of the impact of agricultural land fragmentation on land productivity. On
the one hand there viewpoints which consider land fragmentation to harm agricultural productivity. On
the other hand there are counter thoughts which view land fragmentation as a positive situation which
allows farmers to cultivate many environmental zones, minimise production risk and optimise the
schedule for cropping activities. We use the case of Ihemi cluster in the Southern Agricultural Growth
Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) to investigate the impact of land fragmentation on crop productivity.
We furthermore discuss the nature and causes of land fragmentation in the SAGCOT region and its
implication on the future structure of agricultural landholdings and welfare of smallholder farmers in
the region. The results showed that the nature and level of fragmentation in the study area were the
outcome of combined, rather than isolated influences of supply and demand driven factors. Overall, the
results did not support the claim that fragmentation reduces land productivity. This then implies that
land fragmentation should not always be considered as defective. There were evidences of increasing
chunks of land owned by rich farmers and investors which increased the possibility for increased
consolidation of agricultural land under large scale farming. However, the landholdings for smallholder
farmers might become increasingly more fragmented as poor smallholder farmers continue selling their
land holdings to rich farmers and investors. Releasing the SAGCOT region’s potential for agricultural
development will require that smallholder farmers are helped to secure adequate and suitable land for
farming, raise agricultural productivity, diversify their sources of income, and adopt good production
practices. This requires setting up a strong base of investor - farmer synergies for inclusive agricultural
growth.
Description
Journal of Development and Agricultural Economics 2017, Vol. 9(2): pp. 26-36,
Keywords
Ihemi cluster, Land fragmentation, Land consolidation, Agricultural productivity, Agricultural investment