Project title: Land Rights and Rural Livelihood Improvement in Tanzania: Opportunities or Constraints?
In Tanzania, about 80% of the population depends on land, by engaging in agricultural activities to earn their living. Over the past decade, there has been an increased demand for land suitable for agriculture by both local and foreign investors. This demand is due to increased population and investment in biofuels. As a result this demand has increased land conflicts on land in rural areas, thus threatening livelihoods of the rural poor. Since 2004 the Tanzanian government has been implementing land reforms. An importance component of these reforms are called land certificates of customary right of occupancy (CCRO), effected under the property and business formalization programme. The aims of the reforms are to improve land tenure security and to facilitate credit access, by using land titles as collateral to increase agricultural production and improve rural livelihoods. Despite the efforts made to certify land and to enhance security of tenure, the impact of CCRO in improving the livelihoods of land owners is as yet unknown. Several issues however, remain unclear; and therefore we intent to answer the following research questions;
v . Who benefits from land titles, and why? ( investigate the heterogeneous treatment effects of land title on agricultural investment and productivity)
v Can land title solve the problem of credit demand to smallholder farmers?
v How do land rights affect intra-household and extra-household women bargaining power?