Population growth leads to growing land scarcity and landlessness in poor agrarian economies. Many of these also face severe climate risks that may increase in the future. Tenure security is important for food security in such countries and at the same time threatened by social instability that further accelerate rural-urban and international migration. Provision of secure property rights with low-cost methods that create investment incentives can lead to land use intensification and improved food security.

This chapter is written for the European Commission for a book to be published by Springer on The Role of Smallholder Farms in Food and Nutrition Security. The author takes full responsibility for the content.

The paper investigates the important role of fertilizer to enhance sustainable intensification and food security in Sub-Saharan Africa based on a multi-disciplinary literature review. The review starts with a macro-perspective taking population growth, economic development and climate change into account. This is complemented with a micro-perspective summarizing findings from comprehensive micro-data in selected African countries. Agronomic, environmental and economic profitability implications of fertilizer use are reviewed.

We study the link between Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) and short-run nutrition outcomes among children age 5 years and younger. We use 2006 and 2010 survey data from Northern Ethiopia to estimate parameters of an exogenous switching regression. This allows us to measure the differential impacts of household characteristics on weight-for-height Z-score of children in member and non-member households in PSNP. We find that the magnitude and significance of household covariates differ in samples of children from PSNP and non-PSNP households.

The paper provides a case study of the conversion of state land in the Commune of Limonade, from a community-controlled agricultural economy to a large-scale agro-export banana plantation called Agritrans. This study shows how repurposing state land may impact food security and social stability of peasant farmers. The Agritrans plantation, designed and implemented by Haitian businessman and current President Jovenel Moïse, is used as a blueprint for Haiti’s development future.

Rural women in India are rarely consulted in development projects that may increase men’s production and income, but add to their own workloads. Women’s on-farm household and productive labor is significant but underrecognized and under-valued. Women farmers have no rights to farmlands, though most farm production is carried out by them. This paper addresses women’s decision making regarding mango production.

Owing to the fact that women have different knowledge, access to, and control over resources, and different opportunities to participate in decisions regarding resource use and management from men, the study focuses on gendered differences in livelihood strategies, identifying factors that preclude women from benefitting in livelihood projects and accessing livelihood resources. Qualitative data for the study was collected through gender disaggregated group discussions in two districts, Mvomero and Kongwa in Tanzania.

Access to land is highly dependent on social status (ethnicity, social class) and family status (position in the household) of individuals. Women's access to land varies according to eco-geographical zones and as well, is dependent on their particular position and rank in the family household. Despite a formal recognition of the right of women to land in the Senegalese national Strategy for Gender Equality and Equity (SNEEG), social or cultural claims are always made to justify their limited access to resources.

Use of inorganic fertilizers could be fundamental in addressing low and declining soil fertility while improving food security in sub-Sahara Africa. Determination of key factors responsible for use of inorganic fertilizers in the central highlands of Ethiopia is increasingly important as continued land redistribution in already degraded and land-scarce highlands undermines sustainable farming and increases nutrient mining.

The study illustrates that small holders, particularly women, are increasingly losing farmland. It questions the social development impact of large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) in Cameroon in terms of better living standards and reduction of poverty. It also examines how and under what conditions women can be empowered to effectively engage with LSLAs to ensure that legal and policy frameworks foster better accountability and legitimacy in land governance. Most untitled land in Cameroon is now national land held under customary tenancy, without security.

Large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) have been a major concern for several developing countries, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa. To make land investment processes more accountable and equitable, as well as to prevent land-based social conflicts, the IDRC has supported projects in 10 countries to study conditions conducive to accountability and towards better access to justice in land investment processes. Differences between land grabbing and LSLA were clarified.