2 research outputs found
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The effect of land tenure across food security outcomes among smallholder farmers using a flexible conditional difference-in-difference approach
The paucity of literature on the influence of land tenure across a range of food insecurity outcomes may impede a complete analysis in developing countries. This paper examines the association between land tenure and food security among 1434 sampled smallholders from the Nigeria Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) three-round panel dataset. The data were analyzed by a flexible conditional difference-in-difference model and a generalized ordered logit regression. The regression results showed that smallholders who owned land and acquired plots for free were less likely to have high Household Dietary Diversity Scores (HDDS). On the other hand, owners of family-inherited plots were more likely to consume diverse diets and hold more assets. Holders of informal land documents were more likely to be food secure by having a low food expenditure share, high HDDS and Livelihood Coping Strategy (LCS). Meanwhile, perceived rights to mortgage land for a loan may be enhanced with having formal land certificates than informal land documents. The study concluded that formal land governance should recognize land ownership via family inheritance and holding informal land documents to support smallholder food security by increasing their dietary diversity and lowering their food expenditure shares
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The effects of smallholder land tenure on child malnutrition in Nigeria
Most farmers in Nigeria are food-insecure smallholders without secure land tenure. Children growing up in these households may be at higher risk of malnutrition. However, there is a paucity of evidence of the effect of land tenure on child nutrition. The present paper examines whether smallholders’ mode of land acquisition and tenure documentation could influence child malnutrition in Nigeria. The paper relied on the three-round Nigerian nationally representative panel data of smallholder farming households with small children. The World Health Organisation’s standards were used to determine child anthropometric deficits such as stunting, wasting, underweight, overweight and stunted-overweight. The study analysed the effect of smallholders’ mode of land acquisition and tenure documentation on child malnutrition using the flexible panel difference-in-difference (flexpaneldid) model and fixed effect (FE) logistic regression. Households on family-inherited land were more likely to have stunted, underweight and overweight children. However, households that held community-distributed land were less likely to have stunted, overweight and underweight children. While the formal land certificate holders had a 13% chance of having stunted children, the informal land document holders were seven percent and five percent less likely to have wasted and underweight children. Smallholder land tenure had a small but relevant effect on reducing child malnutrition with community-level land distribution and informal land documents in Nigeria