The Economic Impact Of Land Subdivision On The Agricultural Production In A Mountain Area

Download or read book The Economic Impact of Land-subdivision on the Agricultural Production in a Mountain Area written by Aboubacar Diaby and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moroccan agriculture suffers from bottleneck problems affecting its productivity. Among them are: climate irregularity, marked by production loss due to droughts; land tenure, particularly the high level of land parceling in the agricultural sector, which is seen by public policy makers as a major obstacle to investment and modernization. This study is taking place in the mountain area (Middle Atlas) of the Khénifra region in Morocco where agriculture in that area is traditional, suject to droughts, and has less market input and commodities. For these reasons, this study has two goals: first, to determine the social, cultural, and economic factors explaining land parceling in this area and second, to find out if parceling is inefficient and reduces productivity in study setting. We have used econometric models, linking agricultural land productivity in terms of revenue and land parceling. Results show that parceling is not a constraint on productivity and that it can be beneficial to farmers dealing with ecological diversity, labor shortage, and risk management. These market imperfections might actually imply increased demand for fragmentation. Farmers even use land parceling and distribution as a way to diversify production, alleviate total crop failure, and assure nutritional self-sufficiency. Policy interventions should therefore alleviate the constraints and potential market failures to which farmers adjust through land parceling. Also, policies will facilitate access to inputs such as seeds and chemicals, allow farmers into the commodity market, and develop medium and short-term credit for farmers.