Factors Influencing Sale and Renting out Traditional Land where Customary Laws Normally have Regulated Land Transactions: Malawi Case Study

Abstract

"Poverty and scarcity of land, combined with mostly customary land available for agricultural activities, may present a dilemma when it comes to land transactions. This is becoming increasingly complicated by the fear of encroachment or losing of land (land safety) due to modernisation, technological development and rapid population growth. In principle, customary land cannot be used freely by the household allocated the land, but will be distributed and redistributed by the traditional authorities of the community. Hence, the individual household cannot freely use land as a commodity to dispose of in times of need, or to acquire more of, in times of plenty. Hence land transactions by households would be expected to be rare where customary land is involved. However, land transactions on the household level do occur, both in the form of sales, and less drastically, of renting out. This paper seeks to explore what factors can be used to explain such land transactions in Malawi, using data from the NACAL project and a logistic regression approach. It will explore whether the same, or different regression models, can explain the two forms of land transactions analysed. The paper will try to also see the link between determinants of land safety and land transactions in order to fully understand key determinants of the study question."