Land tenure, land markets, and institutional transformation in Zambia

This comprehensive review of land ownership and land markets in Zambia was commissioned to identify constraints to land policy reform. Chapter 1 presents an overview of land policy in Zambia, identifies legal and institutional impediments to a market-oriented land policy (recommending reforms), and identifies the institutions involved in developing land policy. Chapter 2 presents a thorough review of land registration procedures (with emphasis on issuance of leaseholds in previously undemarcated State, Reserve, and Trust Lands), examines delays in the leasehold process, and explores ways to streamline registration. Chapter 3 focuses on the assimilation and analysis of data on official title issuances and transfers in State, Reserve, and Trust Lands, and evaluates changes in Zambia"s agrarian structure in reference to net growth in the number of farming units by land tenure category, trends in farm size, and growth of demand for leasehold property. Chapter 4 deals with the emergence of an urban and agricultural land market in Zambia, alternative methods of administering policy in undeveloped areas, arrangements for managing proceeds from land sales and rental fees, and issues concerning the land development fund proposed by the Ministry of Lands. Chapter 5 discusses a recent survey of 200 agricultural households in Eastern and Southern provinces, one of the few studies in recent years that details customary land tenure arrangements. Chapter 6 reviews the nature and scale of past settlement schemes and assesses their performance. Chapter 7 uses time series data to analyze national and regional changes in land use, productivity, and profitability; difficulties with using aggregate time series data for such analyses are highlighted. An overview of official time series published by various Zambian agencies is provided in chapter 8, which underscores the difficulty of making policy decisions given the 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. Includes references.