Land tenure, land markets, and institutional transformation in Zambia

Abstract

This paper identifies current land market constraints as a basis for designing an action plan to assist the government with land policy reforms. Chapter 1 provides a general overview of the history of land policy in Zambia and critiques selected pieces of land legislation that define the legal framework governing land rights and land markets in the country. Legal and institutional impediments to the development of a market-oriented land policy are identified along with concrete recommendations for short- and long-term legal and institutional reforms. Chapter 2 presents a thorough review of land registration procedures starting with the roles and activities of the chiefs and rural councils` and ending with the issuance of the title certificate by the Commissioner of Lands. Chapter 3 focuses on the assimilation and analysis of data on official title issuances and transfers in State, Reserve and Trust Lands. Chapter 4 reviews alternative methods for administering government land policy in undeveloped areas, including options for land development, land distribution via allocation or auction, land price determination, valuation of leasehold rents, and property taxation. Chapter 5 is a synthesis of a land tenure study involving a survey of 200 agricultural producing households in Eastern and Southern provinces. The chapter briefly discusses the research methodology used, followed by empirical findings on land acquisition, land rights, and land conflicts. Chapter 6 reviews the nature and scale of past settlement schemes and assesses their performance based on archival research, and analysis of primary and secondary data. Chapter 7 uses available time series data to analyze national and regional changes in land use, productivity, and profitability of agriculture, both spatially and temporally, for the commercial and noncommercial farm sectors. This chapter was intended as a more forward-looking analysis of economic forces influencing the profitability of farming in Zambia, the rate of expansion in the agricultural frontier, and the resource issues that are likely to emerge in the context of agricultural extensification. Chapter 8 provides an overview of official time series published by various agencies in Zambia, including the state of their availability for analysis and the methodology used to collect the data. Data presented in this and previous chapters underscore the difficulty of making policy decisions given the very weak and tenuous base of empirical research on property rights, agrarian structure, resource management, land use, and market access in both the state and customary sectors.