ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK INSTITUTE

ADB INSTITUTE WORKING PAPER 16

Population Pressure,
Land Tenure, and Natural
Resource Management

Keijiro Otsuka
March 2001

Growing population has increased demand for land, trees, and water,
which, coupled with tenure insecurity or the absence of clear property
rights, has resulted in the over-exploitation of natural resources. The
critical question is whether the current trend will continue and result
in further degradation of natural resources and, ultimately, the
significant deterioration of human welfare.

Based on the recently completed project by the author concerning

land tenure and the management of land and trees in Asia and Africa,
this paper attempts to identify the process by which population
pressure leads to the individualization of land rights and its
consequences on the management of land and trees.

The paper clearly demonstrates that communal tenure institutions do

provide sufficient incentives to plant and manage trees, which
enhance efficiency of land use and reduce the incidence of poverty in
marginal areas. However, it is still not clear whether and how land
tenure institutions change in response to population pressure in high-
potential agricultural areas where continuous crop farming has a
comparative advantage.

ADB INSTITUTE
TOKYO
ADB Institute
Working Paper Series
No. 16

March 2001

Population Pressure,
Land Tenure, and
Natural Resource Management

Keijiro Otsuka
ADB I NSTITUTE WORKING PAPER 16

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Keijiro Otsuka is a Professorial Fellow at the Foundation for Advanced Studies on International
Development, Tokyo. His book from which this paper is drawn was cowritten with Frank Place and
will be published this year by John Hopkins University Press under the title “Land Tenure and
Natural Resource Management: A Comparative Study of Agrarian Communities in Asia and Africa.”

The author is indebted to Yujiro Hayami, Frank Place, Alain de Janvry, Elizabeth Sadoulet, Peter
Hazell, Agnes Quisumbing, Jonna Estudillo, M. G. Quibria, and Masaru Yoshitomi for their useful
comments on the earlier versions of the paper.

Additional copies of the paper are available free from the Asian Development Bank Institute, 8th Floor, Kasumigaseki
Building, 3-2-5 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-6008, Japan. Attention: Publications. Also online at [Link]
Copyright © 2001 Keijiro Otsuka. All rights reserved. Produced by ADBI Publishing.

The Working Paper Series primarily disseminates selected work in progress to facilitate an exchange of ideas
within the Institute's constituencies and the wider academic and policy communities. An objective of the
series is to circulate primary findings promptly, regardless of the degree of finish. The findings,
interpretations, and conclusions are the author's own and are not necessarily endorsed by the Asian
Development Bank Institute. They should not be attributed to the Asian Development Bank, its Boards, or any
of its member countries. They are published under the responsibility of the Dean of the ADB Institute . The
Institute does not guarantee the accuracy or reasonableness of the contents herein and accepts no
responsibility whatsoever for any consequences of its use. The term "country", as used in the context of the
ADB, refers to a member of the ADB and does not imply any view on the part of the Institute as to sovereignty
or independent status. Names of countries or economies mentioned in this series are chosen by the authors, in
the exercise of their academic freedom, and the Institute is in no way responsible for such usage.

II
PREFACE

The ADB Institute aims to explore the most appropriate development paradigms for Asia
composed of well-balanced combinations of the roles of markets, institutions, and governments in the
post-crisis period.

Under this broad research project on development paradigms, the ADB Institute Working
Paper Series will contribute to disseminating works-in-progress as a building block of the project and
will invite comments and questions.

I trust that this series will provoke constructive discussions among policymakers as well as
researchers about where Asian economies should go from the last crisis and current recovery.

Masaru Yoshitomi
Dean
ADB Institute

III
ABSTRACT

Growing population has increased demand for land, trees, and water, which, coupled with
tenure insecurity or the absence of clear property rights, has resulted in the over-exploitation of
natural resources. The critical question is whether the current trend will continue and result in further
degradation of natural resources and, ultimately, the significant deterioration of human welfare.
Based on the recently completed project concerning land tenure and the management of
land and trees in Asia and Africa (Otsuka and Place 2001), this paper attempts to identify the process
by which population pressure leads to the individualization of land rights and its consequences on the
management of land and trees.
It is worth emphasizing that the individualization of land rights is a prerequisite for
desirable changes in farming systems . If unexploited forest land is open access and strong individual
rights are granted on cleared land, excessive forest clearance takes place. This institutional rule is
consistent with the common rule of communal societies in which efforts to invest in land, including
forest clearance and tree planting, are rewarded by strong individual land rights. Interestingly,
although women tend to inherit paddy land in areas where primarily female s work for paddy
production, men now tend to inherit rubber agroforests, in which primarily male s work for rubber. If
men and women work equally, such as on cinnamon fields, egalitarian inheritance by daughters and
sons has become common. Thus, the inheritance system seems to have evolved in such a manner as to
provide appropriate work incentives for men and women.
No strong evidence was found to support the validity of popular arguments that customary
or communal land tenure systems hinder investment in Sumatra and the other African study sites:
commercial trees have been planted under communal ownership systems as widely and actively as
under more individualized ownership systems according to the results of the regression analyses of
tree planting. Communal systems evolve towards individualized systems and do not impede the
development of agroforestry.
Communal land tenure institutions in no way deter, irrespective of the levels of tenure
security in these systems, because of the expected increase in land rights after tree planting. In other
words, communal land tenure institutions have built-in rules to ensure the intensification of land use as
predicted by Boserup (1965) in areas where agroforestry has a comparative advantage. Unlike tree
planting, however, the adoption of new technology does not confer strong individual land rights and,
hence, those who are subject to tenure insecurity under the matrilineal inheritance system tend to
adopt the new crop less actively.
According to the accumulated empirical evidence from Sub-Sahara Africa, land tenure
institutions do not seem to affect the productivity of sedentary farming significantly. A plausible
hypothesis seems to be that like tree planting, investment in land improvement, such as terracing and
destumping, strengthens one’s land rights where such investments are highly profitable. This

IV
hypothesis must be tested as carefully as possible, because unless and until this hypothesis is
supported empirically, I cannot fully accept the Boserupian hypothesis that population pressure by
itself directly leads to the intensification of farming systems.
It is widely believed, however, that because of weak individual land rights or tenure
insecurity, trees are not planted and well managed under communal ownership in which the extended
family has strong influence over use rights in cultivated land. If this is indeed the case, it will be
difficult to disseminate agroforestry in marginal areas, even though agroforestry has comparative
advantage over food production under shifting cultivation. This paper clearly demonstrates that the
communal tenure institutions do provide sufficient incentives to plant and manage trees, which
enhance efficiency of land use and reduce the incidence of poverty in marginal areas.
It is not clear whether and how land tenure institutions change in response to population
pressure in high-potential agricultural areas where continuous crop farming has a comparative
advantage. If land rights are strengthened by major investments in land improvement in such areas,
serious efforts should be made to disseminate new technologies, which will enhance the profitability
of such investments. This development strategy will bring about the intensification of land use, which
in turn will increase food production and contribute to the conservation of natural resources. On the
other hand, if land rights in areas where they are not sufficiently individualized are not strengthened by
investment in land, entirely different development strategies must be sought for the sake of efficient
management of land, trees, and other natural resources in the Third World.

V
VI
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface III
Abstract IV
Table of Contents VII

1. Introduction 1

2. Conceptual Framework 2
2.1. Communal Ownership 2
2.2. An Evolutionary View of Land Tenure Institutions 2
2.3. Possible Pathways 4

3. Empirical Analyses 4
3.1. Characterization of Study Sites 4
3.2. The Case of Trees 7
3.3. The Case of Cropland 7

4. Concluding Remarks 8

Figures 10
Figure 1. A Model of Induced Institutional Innovation 10
Figure 2. Evolutionary Changes in Stock of Natural Resources 11

Tables 12
Table 1. Characterization of Study Sites 12
Table 2. Average Annual Population Growth Rate, Population Density,
and Farm Size in Study Sites 12
Table 3. Changes in Land Use in Malawi and Uganda Sites 13
Table 4. Proportions of Commercial Tree Planted Area by Land Tenure Type
in Ghana, Sumatra, and Uganda Sites 13
Table 5. Gross Value of Output and Residual Profit of Lowland
Rice Production per Hectare by Land Tenure Type in Sumatra Site 14

References 15
Endnotes 18

VII
Population Pressure, Land Tenure, and
Natural Resource Management

Keijiro Otsuka

1. Introduction

Massive degradation of natural resources, including forests, rangeland, and irrigation water,
has been taking place in the Third World. Its growing population has increased demand for
land, trees, and water, which, coupled with tenure insecurity or the absence of clear property
rights, has resulted in the over-exploitation of these natural resources (e.g., Deacon 1994). This
in turn has threatened the sustainable development of agriculture, forestry, and livestock
sectors. The critical question is whether the current trend will continue and result in further
degradation of natural resources and, ultimately, the significant deterioration of human
welfare.
Boserup (1965) argued that population pressure need not result in such disastrous
consequences. Rather, she argued that it leads to the evolution of farming systems from land-
using or natural resource-using systems, such as shifting cultivation, to land-saving and labor-
intensive farming systems, such as annual cropping.1 Her argument, however, is incomplete:
while she acknowledged that investment is required to establish intensive farming systems
(e.g., investment in the construction of irrigation facilities, terracing, and tree planting), she
paid insufficient attention to incentive systems which ensure that the appropriate investments
are made. It is widely recognized that investment incentives are governed by the land tenure or
property rights institution, as it affects the expected returns to investments accrued to those
who actually undertake them (Besley 1995). In sparsely populated areas of Sub-Saharan
Africa and islands in the South Pacific, land is often owned and controlled by the community
where individual land rights are severely restricted and benefits are shared widely among
members of extended families (Johnson 1972). If such communal ownership of land prevails
and persists, investment incentives are likely to be weak and thus investments necessary for the
intensification of farming systems may not be made (Besley 1995; Johnson 1972). Then, the
extensive and natural resource-using farming systems may continue to be practiced, contrary to
the Boserupian hypothesis.
Hayami and Ruttan (1985) argued that not only technologies but also institutions
change in order to save increasingly scarce resources. This would imply in our context that
land tenure institutions change toward individual ownership, so as to provide appropriate
investment incentives to conserve natural resources. Consistent with the induced innovation
thesis, a theory of property rights institution developed by Demsetz (1967) and Alchian and
Demsetz (1973) asserted, based on the historical experience of hunting communities in Canada,
that property rights institutions evolve from open access to private ownership when natural
resources become scarce. In many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, it is known that the system of
communal property rights on cultivated agricultural fields has been considerably
individualized (Bruce and Migot-Adholla 1993). Yet, no systematic research has been made as
to the effect of population pressure on land tenure or property rights institutions and the effect

1
of possible changes in land tenure institutions on the investment in land improvement towards
the intensification of farming systems and the preservation of natural resources.
Based on the recently completed project concerning land tenure and the management of
land and trees in Asia and Africa (Otsuka and Place 2001), this paper attempts to identify the
process by which population pressure leads to the individualization of land rights and its
consequences on the management of land and trees. Particular focus will be placed on the
development of agroforestry systems growing commercial trees, such as cocoa, coffee,
cinnamon, and rubber, which are becoming important farming systems in agriculturally
marginal areas, where people are particularly poor and natural forests have degraded rapidly
(Otsuka 2000).2
The conceptual framework is discussed in the next section, which is followed by the
examination of the results of case studies on the management of trees and cropland. Policy
implications of this study are discussed in the final section.

2. Conceptual Framework

2.1. Communal Ownership

This study focuses on communal ownership as it is practiced in southwestern Ghana, the north
and east of Uganda, all regions of Malawi, and western Sumatra.3 Under the communal
ownership regime, uncultivated forestland, woodland, and rangeland are owned communally
and controlled by an authority such as a village chief, whereas exclusive use rights of cultivated
land are assigned to individual households of the community and its ownership rights are held
traditionally by the extended family.
The uncultivated portion of communally owned land can be regarded as common
property, which is defined as the joint ownership and use of property by a group of people, e.g.,
for hunting and extraction of trees and minor forest products.4 It is generally characterized by
open-access for the community members almost without exception. Thus, uncultivated forests
and woodlands have been rapidly cleared for cultivation as the population grows.
While individual use rights on currently cultivated lands are established, the rights to
transfer, including inheritance, sales, and leasing, are often vested in the village community or
the extended family. The ownership of cultivated land, however, has evolved towards more
individualized ownership over time, e.g., through a shift from the ownership of extended
family to a single family (Ault and Rutman 1979; Bruce and Migot-Adholla 1993). This has
led to the development of agroforestry systems in hilly and mountainous areas, where annual
crop farming does not have a comparative advantage.5

2.2. An Evolutionary View of Land Tenure Institutions

Following Hayami and Ruttan (1985), a simplified version of our theoretical framework can be
illustrated by assuming that there are only two factors of production, i.e., land and labor. Land
represents natural resources and it could be cropland (with or without irrigation), rangeland,
woodland, or forested land. The central issue is how the stock of natural resources (both
quantity and quality) changes with the evolution of farming systems from extensive to
intensive systems–or from natural resource-using to natural resource-saving systems. As a
concrete example, I consider the evolution from shifting cultivation to sedentary farming.

2
Under shifting cultivation, food crops are grown usually for a couple of years after
clearing forest and a fallow period of varying length follows until next cultivation. As Boserup
(1965) emphasizes, fallow land is not "unused" land; fallowing is a labor saving method for
restoring soil fertility. If population is scarce and land is abundant with vast areas of virgin
forests, people have little incentive to claim individual property rights in land and, hence, the
use of forest areas is unrestricted except to exclude outsiders.
When land is abundant, it is cost effective to practice shifting cultivation with long
fallow periods, to ensure the complete restoration of soil fertility. Curve I0 I0 in Figure 1
portrays the unit isoquant for an individual farmer to produce $1.00 worth of food crops by
using land and labor under shifting cultivation in period 0. Here I measure land input in terms
of area "used" for cultivation including fallow land, some of which may be secondary forest or
woodlands, but excluding land which has never been cultivated. It is assumed for simplicity
that the production function is subject to constant returns to scale, so that each technology or
farming system is characterized by a single unit isoquant. The relative factor scarcity may be
indicated by relative factor price line, P0 .6 Then the optimum production point is given by E0 ,
where the production is sustainable.
As population increases, however, land becomes scarce relative to labor. The growing
population requires increasing areas for agricultural production and, hence, large tracts of
forested land are opened up. Eventually, however, the rate of area expansion falls short of the
growth rate of population. As a result, the scarcity value of land increases relative to labor,
which is reflected in changes in relative factor price ratio from P0 to P1 in period 1.
Accordingly, the optimum production point changes to E0 ', so long as shifting cultivation
continues to be practiced. Fallow period at E0 ' tends to be shorter than at E0 . Due to the shorter
fallow cycle, soil fertility declines and farming becomes unsustainable at E0 ', resulting in the
shift of unit isoquant from I0 I0 to I1 I1 . Thus, the equilibrium point moves to E1 .
An alternative to unsustainable farming under shifting cultivation and continued
deforestation is to improve land quality by investing in land and trees. To maintain soil fertility
under continuous cultivation of annual crops, new farming systems may be adopted involving
the application of compost made from grasses and leaf litter collected from the forest and
woodland, as well as other materials, such as animal manure.7 Compared to pure cropping
systems, the productivity of tree farming systems can be sustainable for longer periods of time
with lower application of organic or inorganic fertilizer primarily due to their deeper and
denser rooting systems and perennial ground cover which make them less vulnerable to soil
loss and nutrient leaching. Because of the increasing use of labor and continuous cropping,
new farming systems are labor-using and land-saving. Thus, the unit isoquant corresponding
to this farming system is depicted by curve I2 I2 in Figure 1.8
Given a relative factor price of P1 , the optimum is attained at E2 in Figure 1 under the
new farming system, at which production is assumed to be more profitable than at E1 , possibly
E0 as well. The shift from E1 to E2 , however, is not costless. As was mentioned earlier, physical
investment, such as terracing and tree planting, is required to adopt the new farming system.
Thus, it does not pay to adopt the new farming system unless the difference in the short-run
profitability between the old and new systems warrants the cost of long-term investment.
It must be emphasized that land tenure institutions must change in order to encourage
investments. Since land use rights are not totally secure and transfer rights are restricted under
traditional land tenure institutions, the expected returns to investment may be depressed: for
instance, those who plant trees may not be able to reap the benefits due to an inability to
bequeath the property to desired heirs or to sell the land freely if the need arises (Fortmann and

3
Bruce 1988, Besley 1995). This incentive issue is not considered in the Boserupian model. I
hypothesize that land rights institutions are induced to change towards greater
individualization in order to provide greater incentives to invest in land and trees.

2.3. Possible Pathways

Resource degradation may continue without accompanying intensification of farming systems,

even if population pressure on increasingly limited land resources increases. Prohibitively
high costs of investments in land improvements, poor returns from the investments, difficulties
in reaching agreement on the communal rules of private ownership systems, and legal
restrictions on the choice of property rights institutions may all inhibit innovative institutional
responses, resulting in the delay of rehabilitation efforts and continued resource degradation.
Otherwise, in flat, non-arid areas where crop farming has a comparative advantage over
agroforestry, privatization of property rights may occur, which would accompany investment
in the improvement of land quality for continuous crop farming. In sloping areas where
agroforestry has a comparative advantage, privatization of property rights may take place,
which will induce investment in commercial trees. It is worth emphasizing that the
individualization of land rights is a prerequisite for desirable changes in farming systems.
The implication of these arguments for changes in the stock of natural resources can be
explained by using Figure 2. Forest resources will be depleted over time with population
growth following path I, so long as community members have free access to the forest areas.
But increases in population may induce successful changes in land tenure institutions at period
T*, after which the stock of tree resources may increase following path II if agroforestry is
developed. The timing of the turning point will depend not only on the cost of implementing
the institutional innovation but also on the nature of the existing land tenure institutions.
As Anderson and Hill (1990) demonstrate, if unexploited forest land is open access and
strong individual rights are granted on cleared land, excessive forest clearance takes place.
This pattern actually prevails across the study sites from Asia and Africa (Place and Otsuka
2000, 2001a; Otsuka et al. 2001; Quisumbing et al. 2001; Suyanto and Otsuka 2001).
If intensive annual crop farming systems are used, tree resources may continue to
deplete along path III. In the meantime, fallow lands under shifting cultivation disappear. Yet,
investment in land improvement is conducive not only to the conservation of soil fertility of the
cultivated land but also to the preservation of remaining uncultivated forest areas located
elsewhere because increased food production from the same unit of land will increase the
supply of food to the market and reduce food prices, thereby reducing incentives to clear
uncultivated forest land for the production of food crops. In this way, the intensification of
farming system will contribute to the improvement of the natural resource base.

3. Empirical Analyses

3.1. Characterization of Study Sites

There are similarities and dissimilarities among our four study sites (see Table 1). Both the
Ghana and Sumatra sites have a comparative advantage in agroforestry over pure food
production under shifting cultivation, due to hilly or mountainous topography on which annual
crops cannot be grown sustainably under increasing population pressure. Usually, food crops
are intercropped with young trees on agroforestry plots for a few years after tree planting. In
Western Sumatra, large areas of primary forest still exist in the national park, even though some

4
portions have been converted to irrigated paddy fields, crop fields under shifting cultivation
system, and fields of commercial trees such as rubber, coffee, and cinnamon (Otsuka et al.
2001). In Western Ghana, primary forests have largely disappeared and been replaced either by
crop fields under shifting cultivation or by cocoa fields (Quisumbing et al. 2001).
While Malawi is also characterized by communal ownership, agroforestry systems are
less profitable as compared to food cropping systems than in Ghana or Sumatra, as many areas
are characterized by flat topography and dry climate. There are also communally owned
forests on hilly portions of Malawi, but they are largely open access (Place and Otsuka 2001a).
Most community woodlands have been converted to crop fields in this country (with the
exception of the sparsely populated north). The Uganda sites consist of communal and
privately owned areas, in which coffee is grown in hilly and humid areas nearer to Lake
Victoria and charcoal is a major product of woodland in the rest of the areas, which are
generally flat and dry. Like Malawi, woodlands have been degraded and converted to crop
fields in most areas (Place and Otsuka 2000).
In Ghana, the so-called uterine matrilineal inheritance system is practiced, in which
land is bequeathed from a deceased man to his brother or, ultimately, to his nephew. The
cultivated land is traditionally owned by the extended family, in which an individual household
possesses no more than use rights. In this system, it is obvious that a wife and children have
little incentive to help manage cocoa trees, even though weeding labor provided by the wife or
children is critically important to grow trees successfully. According to Otsuka and
Quisumbing (2001), the profitability of cocoa agroforestry is much higher than that of shifting
cultivation. In order to provide incentives to establish cocoa agroforestry, the new system
called “gift” has emerged, in which land is “given” to wife and children while the man is still
alive, provided that they have helped the establishment of cocoa fields. Although the transfer
of land through gift must be approved by members of the extended family, once it is approved
strong individual rights are given to such land. In fact, there are cases in which even the right to
sell land, which is the strongest right, is granted to gifted land (Otsuka and Quisumbing 2001).
This institutional rule is consistent with the common rule of communal societies in which
efforts to invest in land, including forest clearance and tree planting, are rewarded by strong
individual land rights (see, e.g., Shepherd 1991).
In Sumatra, the lineage ownership system, consisting typically of three generations, has
been traditionally practiced in which land use rights are transferred from a woman to her sisters,
daughters, and nieces (Otsuka et al. 2001). Exactly who receives land rights through
inheritance is determined by the extended family in consideration of equity among family
members. Therefore, incentive problems akin to those in Ghana arise; there is no guarantee
that those who invest in trees, or their desired heirs, will be able to reap returns to investment in
the future. Gradually over time, however, the lineage ownership system has been replaced by a
joint family ownership system, in which two successive generations of family members jointly
own the same piece of land, and further by single family ownership system. In the case of
single-family ownership, rights to rent and pawn without the permission of any extended
family members are given to land owners and even the right to sell may be granted depending
on the results of negotiation. As a matter of fact, private land transactions are relatively active
in Sumatra. Such changes have been accompanied by efforts in plant ing and growing trees. As
in Ghana, tree planting strengthens individual land rights (Suyanto et al. 2001). Interestingly
enough, although women tend to inherit paddy land in areas where primarily female s work for
paddy production, men now tend to inherit rubber agroforests, in which primarily males work
for rubber. If men and women work equally, such as on cinnamon fields, egalitarian
inheritance by daughters and sons has become common (Quisumbing and Otsuka 2001). Thus,

5
the inheritance system seems to have evolved in such a manner as to provide appropriate work
incentives for men and women.
Traditionally in southern and central Malawi, a matrilineal inheritance cum matrilocal
residence system, in which land is transferred from a mother to her daughters and the husband
resides in his wife’s village, has been practiced. Even under such a system, it is primarily men
who make major farm management decisions, including decisions to invest in land
improvement. If the wife dies or the couple gets divorced, the husband has to leave his wife’s
village, which means that he may no t be able to receive benefits from his past investments.
Because of this tenure insecurity, it is thought that men do not have enough investment
incentives (Place and Otsuka 2001a). In this country, the matrilineal/matrilocal system has
given way to a patrilineal/patrilocal system, in which the wife moves to her husband’s village.
Since the agroforestry system does not have a comparative advantage in the flat areas of
Malawi, the incidence of commercial tree planting did not play a major role in the transition
from matrilineal to patrilineal inheritance systems.
A patrilineal inheritance system is practiced in Uganda, in which land is transferred
from father to his sons. As in Malawi, men are the primary decision makers of farm
management as well as being the primary beneficiaries of inheritance. Thus, a relatively small
number of family members, usually a father and his sons, are involved in the inheritance
decisions. Under this condition, the individualization of land rights seems to have taken place
more rapidly than in a matrilineal society, where both men and women have interests in the
same property. Another interesting feature of the land tenure system in Uganda is the
coexistence of communal land and private ownership (mailo) created during colonial periods.
Thus, it is possible to make a comparison of management practice and efficiency of natural
resource management under communal and private ownership systems. In relatively humid
areas where coffee production is common, particularly strong land rights are conferred to those
who establish coffee agroforest (Place and Otsuka 2001c).
Table 2 shows the average annual population growth rate and population density, using
community-level population census data and other secondary data, as well as data on average
farm size obtained from our own surveys. Neither population data nor data on village area
were available in the Ghana site. Population growth rate is relatively low in Sumatra, because
our sites are net out-migration areas, where a lot of native people migrate to urban areas to seek
permanent non-farm employment opportunities. This has been possible because of the
relatively rapid growth of non-farm sectors in Indonesia, at least until the financial crisis broke
out in 1997. Although population density is relatively low in the Sumatra site, this reflects
largely the mountainous topography. In contrast to Sumatra, the other two sites are net in-
migration areas and, hence, population growth rates are much higher. This must be also true in
the Ghana site, even though the relevant data are unavailable. Thus, aside from the Sumatra
site, population pressure on land and other natural resources have rapidly been increasing in
our study sites.
Table 3 confirms that substantial deforestation has taken place in the Malawi and
Uganda sites, where aerial photographs taken 30 to 40 years ago and in recent years are
available. It is clear that agricultural areas have expanded at the sacrifice of forestland and
woodland.9 Regression analyses reveal that the population growth rate and the population
density in the initial periods are the most significant variables explaining the expansion of
agricultural land (Place and Otsuka 2000, 2001a).

6
3.2. The Case of Trees

No strong evidence was found to support the validity of popular arguments that customary or
communal land tenure systems hinder investment in Uganda, Ghana, and Sumatra: commercial
trees have been planted under communal ownership systems as widely and actively as under
more individualized ownership systems according to the results of the regression analyses of
tree planting (Otsuka et al. 2001; Place and Otsuka 2001c; Quisumbing et al. 2001; Suyanto et
al. 2001). The relevant descriptive data are shown in Table 4. It is clear that despite the large
differences in current land rights on different types of land, the incidence of tree planted areas
are not appreciably different. I observed this in part because land rights have become highly
individualized due to investment in trees and continuous tree cultivation by farmers driven by
high population pressure. Furthermore, given the positive and significant effect of tree
planting on individual land rights, sufficiently strong incentives to plant commercial trees seem
to exist under the communal ownership system. Indeed, once trees are planted, the land
ownership system is often converted to de facto private ownership within a community. Thus,
as verified by the estimation results of profit functions, the management efficiency of
commercial tree fields under the communal system is generally comparable to other ownership
systems (Place and Otsuka 2001c; Quisumbing et al. 2001; Suyanto et al. 2001).10 In other
words, communal systems evolve towards individualized systems and do not impede the
development of agroforestry.
It is important to point out that the institutional rule to grant strong individual land
rights on fields planted with trees has been established in communities where agroforestry is
more profitable than other cropping systems. Since most areas of Malawi are characterized by
flat topography, agroforestry has no inherent profit advantage compared to maize and tobacco
production. In such a production environment, it is observed that no institutional rule has
emerged that grants strong individual land rights in return for tree planting (Place and Otsuka
2001b). It is likely that the costs to reach new communal agreements on property rights
institutions and to enforce new community rules exceed the expected benefits. As a result, land
tenure institutions affect the decision to plant trees in crop fields in Malawi, in which greater
tenure security leads to more active planting of trees for poles, firewood, and fruits. 11
In sum, communal land tenure institutions in no way deter the development of
agroforestry, irrespective of the levels of tenure security in these systems, because of the
expected increase in land rights after tree planting. In other words, communal land tenure
institutions have built-in rules to ensure the intensification of land use as predicted by Boserup
(1965) in areas where agroforestry has a comparative advantage.

3.3. The Case of Cropland

Land tenure rules affect expected future benefits accruing to those who invest in land
improvement, including tree planting. Therefore, these rules affect long-term but not short-
term management incentives. In support of this, I found that land tenure institutions did not
have any impacts on production efficiency of food crop fields in Ghana and paddy fields in
Sumatra, neither of which require much long-term investment (Otsuka and Quisumbing 2001).
The same point applies to farming of maize in Malawi, for which I did not observe any
difference in management efficiency between patrilineal and matrilineal inheritance systems,
despite greater security of tenure under the former (Place and Otsuka 2001b).
Table 5 illustrates this tendency by using the data from the Sumatra site. It is clear that
there is no noticeable difference in gross value of output and the residual profit (i.e., gross value

7
of output minus both actual and imputed costs of non-land inputs) per hectare across paddy
fields under joint family ownership, single family ownership, private ownership acquired by
purchase, and fixed-rent tenancy.
I observed, however, some differences in management efficiency of annual crop
production under different land tenure institutions. In Malawi, farmers subject to patrilineal
inheritance have introduced more profitable burley tobacco farming more quickly and more
widely than those subject to matrilineal inheritance, after abolishment of the policy to prohibit
burley tobacco production by small landholders in Malawi (Place and Otsuka 2001b). Being a
new crop, investment in the acquisition of relevant new farming knowledge (e.g. on crop
rotations), purchased inputs, such as chemical fertilizer, and in marketing relationships was
required for tobacco production. Unlike tree planting, however, the adoption of new
technology does not confer strong individual land rights and, hence, those who are subject to
tenure insecurity under the matrilineal inheritance tend to adopt the new crop less actively.
Because of the increasing population pressure, farmers in Malawi invested in terracing
and water management to improve the quality of cropland, which require substantive work
efforts. According to the analysis of the determinants of such investments by Place and Otsuka
(2001b), there is no significant tenure effect. Although the authors’ field research did not
confirm it, it is possible that like commercial tree planting in Ghana, Uganda, and Sumatra,
such results might well have been obtained because of the changing tenure rules which confer
strong individual rights on terraced land and land with better water management facilities.
According to the accumulated empirical evidence from Sub-Sahara Africa, land tenure
institutions do not seem to affect the productivity of sedentary farming significantly (Place and
Hazell 1993). A plausible hypothesis seems to be that like tree planting, investment in land
improve ment, such as terracing and destumping, strengthens one’s land rights where such
investments are highly profitable. This hypothesis must be tested as carefully as possible,
because unless and until this hypothesis is supported empirically, I cannot fully accept the
Boserupian hypothesis that population pressure by itself directly leads to the intensification of
farming systems.

4. Concluding Remarks

Farmers engaged in shifting cultivation and management of agroforests generally belong to the
poor segment of society, if not the poorest as in arid areas. Land is mostly sloping and, hence,
often marginal for agriculture. Unless decent work opportunities are made available, it is
practically impossible to relocate them to restore forest conditions. Like forest, agroforestry
provides positive environmental externalities such as carbon sequestration, increased flora
biodiversity, and the prevention of soil erosion (Gockowski et al. 2001; Tomich et al. 2001).
Moreover, it is more sustainable and profitable than shifting cultivation in marginal areas
because of the low yields of pure food crop enterprises on these lands. Therefore, it will be
socially desirable to promote agroforestry systems.
It is widely believed, however, that because of weak individual land rights or tenure
insecurity, trees are not planted and well managed under communal ownership in which the
extended family has strong influence over use rights in cultivated land (e.g., Johnson 1972;
Besley 1995). If this is indeed the case, it will be difficult to disseminate agroforestry in
marginal areas, even though agroforestry has comparative advantage over food production
under shifting cultivation. This paper clearly demonstrates that the communal tenure
institutions do provide sufficient incentives to plant and manage trees, which enhance
efficiency of land use and reduce the incidence of poverty in marginal areas.

8
Thus, there are good economic and social reasons to support the development of
agroforestry systems by means of public-sector research and development, and publicly
supported extension programs, as well as the promotion of efficient marketing systems.
Nonetheless, to date, only a few isolated efforts have been made to develop agroforestry
systems growing commercial trees.
While it is highly likely that increasing population pressure on land in marginal, sloping
areas will induce the development of agroforestry systems in a manner consistent with the
Boserupian hypothesis, it is not clear whether and how land tenure institutions change in
response to population pressure in high-potential agricultural areas where continuous crop
farming has a comparative advantage. If land rights are strengthened by major investments in
land improvement in such areas, serious efforts should be made to disseminate new
technologies, which will enhance the profitability of such investments. This development
strategy will bring about the intensification of land use, which in turn will increase food
production and contribute to the conservation of natural resources. On the other hand, if land
rights in areas where they are not sufficiently individualized are not strengthened by
investment in land, entirely different development strategies must be sought for the sake of
efficient management of land, trees, and other natural resources in the Third World.

9
Figures

Figure 1. A Model of Induced Institutional Innovation

I1
E0

E1
I1
E'0 I
Land 0
or
natural I2
resource
requirement

E2
I2
P0 P1 P1
0
Labor requirement

10
Figure 2. Evolutionary Changes in Stock of Natural Resources

Stock of Path II
natural Path I
resources

Path III

Population density
T*

11
Tables

Table 1. Characterization of Study Sites

Major products of
Sites Topography Changes in land tenure
agroforest/forest
Ghana Hilly Cocoa Emergence of gift under uterine
matrilineal system
Sumatra Mountainous Rubber, cinnamon, & Transition to single family
coffee ownership under matrilineal system
Malawi Flat/Hilly None/minor forest Transition from matrilineal to
products patrilineal inheritance system
Uganda Hilly/Flat Coffee/charcoal Individualization of communal land
(coexisted with private land)

Table 2. Average Annual Population Growth Rate, Population Density, and Farm Size
in Study Sites

Population Population Farm

growth rate density size
(%) (persons/km2 ) (ha)

Ghana n.a. n.a. 11.0

(1996)
Sumatra 1.0 30.0 5.1
(1983-93) (1993) (1997)
Malawi 4.1 171.0 5.0
(1991-95) (1995) (1997)
Uganda 4.5 368.7 3.7
(1960-95) (1995) (1997)

Notes: “n.a.” refers to “not available.” Population data are taken from population census at the
community level. Farm size data are based on our survey data. Numbers in parentheses show the
relevant periods or years.

12
Table 3. Changes in Land Use in Malawi and Uganda Sites (%)

Malawi Uganda
1971 1995 1960 1995

Agriculture 52 68 57 70

Forest /Woodland 34 19 32 20

Others 14 14 11 10

Note: Based on data generated from aerial photographs.

Table 4. Proportions of Commercial Tree Planted Area by Land Tenure Type in Ghana,
Sumatra, and Uganda Sites

Ghana (cocoa):
Temporarily allocated family land 45
Inherited land 53
Cleared forest land 60
Gift 63

Sumatra (coffee, cinnamon, and rubber):

Single-family land 79
Private land acquired through purchase 65
Private land acquired through clearance 81

Uganda (coffee):
Customary land 15
Private land 15
___________________________________________________________________________

13
Table 5. Gross Value of Output and Residual Profit of Lowland Rice Production per
Hectare by Land Tenure Type in Sumatra Site (1,000 Rupiah)

Joint family Single family Private Fixed-rent tenancy

___________________________________________________________________________

Gross value 2,151 2,130 2,074 1,940

of output

Residual profit 779 835 839 786

14
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17
Endnotes

1. See Pingali et al. (1987) for the evidence on the intensification of farming systems
associated with population pressure in Sub-Saharan Africa.

2. Note that such commercial tree crop systems in Africa are not found in what people would
describe as the most marginal areas – they are in humid climate areas and higher elevations.

3. Other important land rights institutions include private ownership, state ownership, and
common property. For the issues of common-property forest management, see Kijima et al.
(2000), Otsuka and Tachibana (2000), and Sakurai et al. (2000), as well as Tachibana et al.
(2001).

4. There are a lot of confusions on the terminology of land rights institutions in the land tenure
literature. The distinction between the communal ownership and common property is not
made in many studies (e.g., Johnson 1972). Demsetz (1967) and Alchian and Demsetz
(1973) identify the communal ownership with open-access. Open-access is considered to
be a category of land tenure institutions by some researchers (e.g., Feder and Feeny 1993).
I consider it more appropriate to regard open-access as an extreme outcome of land
management rules, which can theoretically occur under any land tenure regime.

5. I believe that the basis of comparative advantage of trees and tree crops on sloping land is
the perennial cover that reduces soil erosion.

6. While straight factor price line indicates the existence of perfect factor markets, such an
assumption is unnecessary for our arguments. A critical assumption is that the slope of
factor price curve becomes flatter as population pressure increases.

7. I can also consider application of commercial fertilizer. To do so, however, requires an

extension of our model to the case with more than two inputs, which is straightforward but
cumbersome.

8. Crops grown under the new farming system are likely to be different from crops grown
under shifting cultivation. I directly compare the efficiency of producing different crops in
Figure 1, because I define the unit isoquant in terms of the combination of inputs necessary
to produce $1.00 worth of output regardless of which crops are grown.

9. Other areas are mostly marshy and rocky areas.

10. We were unable to show descriptive statistics of profit per hectare or other efficiency
indicators across different land tenure institutions in table of the manageable size, simply
because the profitability of tree crop farming per production period depends critically on
ages of trees. Thus, given already complicated land tenure categories, such a table becomes
excessively large.

11. Note that tobacco production relies on trees for drying and constructing drying sheds. Thus,
as woodlands disappear, prices and profits of pole production should increase.

18
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