Access to Land for Agricultural Entrepreneurial Activities in the Context of Sustainable Food Production in Borgou, according to Land Law in Benin

Abstract

Access to land is crucial for food systems to address the challenges caused by habitat and biodiversity loss, land and water degradation, and greenhouse gas emissions. Sustainable food production requires land security upstream for agricultural production. Land security emanates from the land law implemented in-country by government policy. In the span of a decade (2007–2017), three different land reforms have been adopted in Benin. This paper aims to investigate the land rights and land tenure security for sustainable food production according to land law and the factors that influence agricultural entrepreneurial activities in North Benin. The study was carried out in the Borgou department, mainly in five communes that are beneficiaries of the Responsible Land Policy Project of GIZ (Promotion d’une Politique Foncière Responsible: ProPFR/GIZ). A multistage sampling procedure was used to select the agricultural entrepreneur respondents. A total of 102 agriculture entrepreneurs were interviewed in 25 villages. According to land law in Benin, the results highlight the different levels of land tenure security and land rights represented by types of land documents: type contract (use right), certificates of customary ownership (ADC), and land title. The research reveals that 44.3% of the land of agriculture entrepreneurs’ respondents possessed the certificates of customary ownership and 18% possessed the land title. The facilitation of access to legal land documents such as certificates of customary ownership and land titles can protect agricultural entrepreneurship for sustainable food production.