Land property rights and agricultural development in the highlands of Madagascar

About the book: There is a widespread belief that the low growth of agricultural production and the high depletion of natural resources base in Madagascar are partly due to lack of land tenure security. This book investigates the impacts of land property on the level of agricultural investment and on farmers’ level of productivity. The results show that these impacts vary across distinct sub-zone according to its institutional and socio-economic conditions. In regions where there is higher degree of agricultural commercialisation and where agricultural sector is better integrated into industrial sector, increased tenure security through land titling affects more positively farmers’ level of productivity. This occurs as the result of the increase in the use of tradable input and in the investment on equipment. In other regions, empirical results find evidence on lowland but not on upland. Therefore, degree of urgency for solution varies across different regions. It is rational to undertake a selective and progressive titling program, i. e. dealing first with the regions where land has high value, and then gradually extending the system.