Land tenure systems and agricultural innovations : the case of alley farming in Nigeria

However, alley farming requires access to land and the rights to plant, own, and utilize trees. This paper considers the implications of land tenure systems in southwest and southeast Nigeria for the acceptability and viability of alley farming. Considerable variation in the rules governing the use and control of land is seen to exist within and between the two regions, and any one tenure system may include a number of categories of land to which different patterns of use and tenure apply. Broadly speaking, tenants in the southwest may be disadvantaged as their rights over hired land do not necessarily include the right to plant trees. In the southeast, the existence of communal systems of land ownership and management on some categories of land undermines the ability to plant trees and the incentive to invest labor in the maintenance of soil fertility. (Author abstract, modified)