Land access, land rental and food security : evidence from Kenya
Muraoka, Rie et al.
In this paper, we use household and plot level data from rural Kenya to explore the linkage between land access and food security. We find operated land size is positively related to food security. A 10% increase in operated land size would increase total food consumption or total cereal consumption by 1.2% and 2.1%, respectively. We also find that land rental is the dominant mechanism that poor rural farmers use to access additional land for cultivation. However, the land rental markets do not seem to perform at their full potential. The level of productivity and long-term investment (measured by organic manure) is significantly lower for rented plots than for own plots even after household fixed-effect and plot level observed characteristics are controlled for. Furthermore, land rental markets do not allow farmers to fully adjust their operated land size to the optimal level.
Event: Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty 2013
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