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Land statistics

Key facts

• The majority of the world’s poor people are rural. But women and indigenous groups are often in a disadvantaged position in terms of access to land, inheritance practices and norms and procedures for formalizing land rights.
• Strengthening women’s rights to land ownership contributes to gender equality
  and poverty reduction since women are responsible for most food production.
• A quarter of the world’s 1.1 billion poor people are landless. Almost 200 million do not have sufficient land to provide a decent standard of living.
• A significant portion of the income of the rural poor comes from farming. As a result, democratizing access to and control over land and water resources is crucial for ending poverty.
• Rural livelihoods are diverse and do not just involve agriculture. As such, land reform must be accompanied by additional employment and livelihood opportunities for poor people.

Source: IFAD Fact Sheet for ICARRD: Empowering the rural poor through access to land

 

Examples

Bangladesh

In 1994, the bottom 40% of households owned less than 2% of total land and the top 5% almost 35%. Preliminary data from the 1996-97 agricultural census indicate that landlessness increased by more than 40% from the last census in 1983-84.

Source: IFAD-Report and recommendation of the President to the Executive Board on a proposed loan to the People’s Republic of Bangladesh for the Sunamganj Community-Based resource Management Project

Bolivia

In 1989, landholdings larger than 2 500 ha (0.6% of all landholdings) occupied 66.4% of the land, while landholdings smaller than 3 ha (52.5% of all landholdings) occupied only 0.8% of the land.

Source: IFAD Rural Poverty Report – The challenge of ending rural poverty

Chile

In the early 1990s, commercial farmers cultivated 61% of the farm area, while the poorest farmers (minifundistas), who were three times more numerous, cultivated only 2% of farm area.

Source: IFAD Rural Poverty Report – The challenge of ending rural poverty

Egypt

In Egypt, the average farm size is 1.7 hectares, but 50% of small farmers cultivate less than 1.0 hectare. About 10% of farm households have more than four hectares.

Source: IFAD – Assessment of Rural Poverty – Near East and North Africa

Guatemala

Land ownership has a markedly skewed distribution: 2.5% of the country’s farms control 65% of agricultural land, while 88% of all farms, with an average size of 1.5 ha, occupy 16% of the land. Approximately 40% of the economically active rural population does not own land.

Source: IFAD - Report and Recommendation of the President to the Executive Board on a proposed loan to the Republic of Guatemala for the National Rural Development Programme: Central and Eastern Regions

India

In 1961-2, 60.6% of rural households were marginal farmers (farming an area less than 2.5 acres) who owned 7.3% of the land, while large farmers (owning more than 25 acres), who represented 3.1% of households, owned 30.3% of the land. By 1991-2, these disparities had eased, with marginal farmers and large farmers controlling roughly equal areas of land (around 15% each).

Source: IFAD Rural Poverty Report – The challenge of ending rural poverty

Malawi

In Malawi, over 40% of smallholders cultivate less than 0.5 ha, with an average farm size of 0.28 ha.

Source: IFAD – Assessment of Rural Poverty – Eastern and Southern Africa

Pakistan

In 1960 landholdings of less than five acres were held by 19% of farms and covered 3% of farm area, while landholdings greater than 150 acres (representing 0.5% of farms) controlled 11.5% of farm area. By 1991, 47.5% of farms controlled less than five acres and covered 11.3% of farm area, but 0.3% of farms with more than 150 acres of land controlled 10.1% of farm area.

Source: IFAD Rural Poverty Report – The challenge of ending rural poverty

Tunisia

In Tunisia 8% of the farmers own more than 50% of the land area, whereas 62% of landowners are smallholders with less than 10 ha each. 25% of the rural population is landless.

Source: Report and Recommendation of the President to the Executive Board on a proposed loan to the republic of Tunisia for the Integrated Agricultural Development Project in the Governorate of Siliana – Phase II

Turkey

In Turkey, fragmentation due to inheritance laws has resulted in land holdings consisting of an average of five parcels. Some 60% of farm households cultivate an area smaller than five hectares.

Source: IFAD – Assessment of Rural Roverty – Near East and North Africa

Uganda

In the Southwest Region of Uganda the average household size is seven persons, and family groups operate smallholdings of 1-2.5 ha. There is an increasing problem of land scarcity with the result that farming methods are becoming more intensive and steeper land areas are being pressed into production.

Source: IFAD – Uganda: Southwest Region Agricultural Rehabilitation Project

Source: IFAD