Crisis, adjustment and transformation in land tenure: recent trends in the commercialization of agricultural land in south-central Nigeria
Abutudu, M.I.M.
Journal of Rural Development and Administration 26(4): 1-16
1994
Document Number: 376093
This paper locates recent changes in the land tenure system in some communities in Etsako, Nigeria, in the context of the economic crisis, the specific impact of state policies and the particular features of the area. The study focuses on the nature and sources of pressure on agricultural land, the impact of such pressures on existing tenure forms, especially the process of commercialization of agricultural land and the diverse forms assumed by this process. A rapid transformation of land tenure was found to have taken place in rural areas of south central Nigeria. The pressures on land emanating from these conjectural forces gave rise to the phenomenon of itinerant farming, which in turn served as a catalyst for the process of monetization of agricultural land. This process and the appropriation of proceeds takes three basic forms, within which there are variations. Some communities have succeeded in stemming off individualization by embarking on commercialization and communal appropriation of the proceeds from land deals. The issues become more complex at the village level. This complexity is expressed predominantly in the conflict between the communal form and the individual form, which is played out in the attempt to make the former, the exclusive form, while the advocates of the latter insist on their rights to sell land and appropriate its proceeds on individual basis. The possibilities in the resolution of these conflicts seem to be embedded in the varieties which are indicated in the Etsako communities. The structural adjustment programme and its accent on privatization may well help to resolve these conflicts in favour of individualization of land.