Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wg55d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-16T09:59:53.423Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Non-Commercial Systems of Land Allocation and their Economic Implications: Evidence from Burkina Faso

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Volker Stamm
Affiliation:
Associate Research Fellow, Centre d'études de documentation, de recherches économiques et sociales, Université de Ouagadougou

Extract

The preliminary results of on-going research in Burkina Faso, undertaken in collaboration with the University of Ouagadougou, suggest that the lack of titled land and land markets does not necessarily imply serious economic disadvantages, such as little investment or low productivity, and that the transaction costs of moving from a traditional to a modern system of land tenure would be far higher than if old arrangements continued to operate.

Type
Africana
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Saul, Mahir, ‘Money and Land Tenure as Factors in Farm Size Differentiation in Burkina Faso’, in Downs, R. E. and Reyna, S. P. (eds.), Land and Society in Contemporary Africa (Hanover, NH, and London, 1988), p. 262,Google Scholar and Dugué, Patrick, ‘Possibilités et limites de l'intensification des systèmes de culture vivriers en zone soudano-sahélienne’, Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développment, Montpellier, 1989.Google Scholar

2 For example, Hardin, Garrett, ‘The Tragedy of the Commons’, in Science (Washington, DC), 162, 1968, pp. 1243–8.Google Scholar

3 Bruce, John W., ‘A Perspective on Indigenous Land Tenure Systems and Land Concentration’, in Downs, and Reyna, (eds.), op. cit. p. 26.Google Scholar

4 Ancey, Gérard, Monnaie et structures d'exploitation en pays Mossi (Paris, 1983), p. 141, and many other case-studies.Google Scholar

5 Ouedraogo, Soulemane, ‘Influence des modes d'accès à la terre sur la productivité des exploitations agricoles: le cas de la zone Ouest du Burkina Faso’, Faculté des sciences économiques, Abidjan, 1991, p. 67, and N. G. O. Da, ‘Les Stratégies paysannes face aux contraintes foncières et à l'économie de marché’, Université de Ouagadougou, Faculté des langues, des lettres, des arts, des sciences humaines et sociales, 1993, pp. 60–70.Google Scholar

6 See Ancey, op. cit. p. 141; Saul, loc. cit. p. 263; Père, Madeleine, Les Lobi: tradition et changement, Vols. 1 and 2 (Paris, 1988), p. 183;Google Scholar Programme national de gestion des terroirs, Comité permanent interétats de lutte contre la sécheresse dans le Sahel, ‘Atelier national sur la problématique foncière et la décentralisation. Document de synthèse’, Bobo-Dioulasso, 8–10 February 1993, p. 8; and Sawadogo, Jean-Pierre, ‘Le Droit foncier traditionnel et ses conséquences économiques à l'exemple de trois villages du Bam’, Université de Ouagadougou, Faculté des sciences économiques et de gestion, 1993, Annex.Google Scholar

7 See Johnson, O. E. G., ‘Economic Analysis, the Legal Framework and Land Tenure Systems’, in Journal of Law and Economics (Chicago), 15, 1972, pp. 259–76;Google ScholarFeder, Gershon, ‘Land Ownership Security and Farm Productivity: evidence from Thailand’, in Journal of Development Studies (London), 24, 1, 1987, pp. 1630;CrossRefGoogle ScholarFeder, Gershon and Onchan, T., ‘Land Ownership Security and Farm Investment in Thailand’, in American Journal of Agricultural Economics (Urbana, IL), 69, 05 1987, pp. 311–20;Google Scholar and Feder, Gershon and Feeny, David, ‘Land Tenure and Property Rights: theory and implications for development policy’, in The World Bank Economic Review (Washington, DC), 5, 1, 01 1991, pp. 135–53.Google Scholar The same arguments had already been used by Boutillier, J. L., ‘Les Structures foncières en Haute-Volta. Études voltaïques’, Ouagadougou, 1964, Ménoire No. 5.Google Scholar

8 See Golan, E. H., ‘Land Tenure Reform in Senegal: an economic study from the Peanut Basin’, Land Tenure Center, Madison, Wisconsin, 1993, Research Paper No. 101, and Ouedraogo, op. cit. For cross-regional evaluations,Google Scholar see Barrows, Richard and Roth, Michael, ‘Land Tenure and Investment in African Agriculture: theory and evidence’, in The Journal of Modem African Studies (Cambridge), 28, 2, 06 1990, pp. 265–97,CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Migot-Adholla, S.et al., ‘Indigenous Land Rights Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa: a constraint on productivity?’, in The World Bank Economic Review, 5, 1, 01 1991, pp. 155–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 Pélissier, Paul, ‘L'Arbre en Afrique tropicale: la fonction et le signe’, in Cahiers ORSTOM (Paris), 17, 3–4, 1980, pp. 127–30,Google Scholar and Bruce, J. W. and Noronha, Raymond, ‘Land Tenure Issues in the Forestry and Agroforestry Project Context’, in Raintree, J. B. (ed.), Land, Trees and Tenure (Madison and Nairobi, 1987), pp. 143–5.Google Scholar

10 Brasser, M. B. and Vlaar, J. C. J., ‘Aménagement et conservation des eaux et des sols par digues filtrantes: aspects socio-économiques’, Comité interafricain d'études hydrauliques (CIEH), Ouagadougou, 1990, p. 28,Google Scholar and Birba, T. A., ‘Le Droit foncier traditionnel; évolution et impact sur les mesures C.E.S./AGF’, CIEH/Projet d'aménagement et de conservation des ressources naturelles, Ouagadougou, 1993, p. 63.Google Scholar

11 Saul, loc. cit. p. 269, confirmed by my own field studies during 1993–1994.

12 Savonnet, Georges, ‘Un Systéme de culture perfectionné pratiqué par les Bwaba-Bobo-Oulé – de la région de Houndé (Haute-Volta)’, in Bulletin d'IFAN (Dakar), 21, 3–4, 1959,Google Scholar and Manessy, Gabriel, ‘Tâches quotidiennes et travaux saisonniers en pays Bwa’, Université de Dakar, Section de langues et littératures, No. 5, 1960.Google Scholar

13 Belem, P. C., ‘Coton et systémes de production dans l'ouest du Burkina Faso’, Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier, 1985;Google ScholarTersiguel, Philippe, Boho-Kari: village Bwa (Paris, 1992);Google Scholar and Schwartz, Alfred, ‘Brève histoire de la culture du coton au Burkina Faso’, in Découvertes du Burkina, Vol. 1 (Paris and Ouagadougou, 1993).Google Scholar

14 Stamm, Volker, ‘Anbausysteme und Bodenrecht in Burkina Faso’, in Afrika-Spectrum (Hamburg), 3, 1994.Google Scholar

15 Faure, Armelle, ‘Niaogho versus Beghedo: un conflit foncier à la veille de la révolution burkinabé’, in Cahiers des sciences humaines (Paris), 29, 1, 1993, p. 118.Google Scholar

17 Eidam, Th., Das Senegalesische Gesetz über die Nationaldomäne und seine Anwendungen in den Zones des Terroirs (Marburg, 1993), p. 475.Google Scholar

17 See Boutillier, op. cit. p. 108, for Article 15 of Coutumier Mossi du Yatenga, 1956.Google Scholar

18 Wachter, Daniel, ‘Farmland Degradation in Developing Countries: the role of property rights and an assessment of land titling as a policy intervention’, Land Tenure Center, Madison, Wisconsin, 1992, p. 3.Google Scholar

19 Eggertsson, Thrainn, Economic Behaviour and Institutions: principles of neoinstitutional economics (Cambridge, 1990), p. 4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20 See North, D. C., ‘Markets and Other Allocation Systems in History: the challenge of Karl Polanyi’, in Journal of European Economic History (Rome), 6, 3, 1977, pp. 703–16.Google Scholar

21 More detailed information will be presented in the research project's working paper on ‘Structures foncières et gestion des terroirs au Burkina Faso’ by Volker Stamm and Jean-Pierre Sawadogo, Centre d'études de documentation, de recherches économiques et sociales, Université de Ouagadougou, 1995.Google Scholar