Land tenure reforms, tenure security and food security in poor agrarian economies: Causal linkages and research gaps
This paper (PDF) by the Global Food Security Journal reviews the literature to identify the relationship between tenure security and food security. The literature on tenure issues and food security issues are not well connected and the scientific evidence on the causal links between tenure security and food security is very limited. The paper explores the conceptual linkages between land tenure reforms, tenure security and food security and illustrates how these vary across diverse contexts. The paper then reviews the limited number of high quality studies that contribute to a causal chain analysis between tenure security and food security and identifies important research gaps. According to the authors, tenure security and food security should be put into the broader perspective of livelihood security to facilitate comprehensive research that takes on board the new challenges of a rapidly changing world. Also a mixed methods approach is needed that can utilize natural experiments as well as randomization where feasible in combination with increasing flows of spatial and time-series data from diverse sources. Household-farm panel data collected over longer periods of time, combined with simulations can also provide valuable insights about the linkages between tenure security and food security.