PhD student Ibrahim H. Kobe, Prof Sheryl L. Hendriks, and Prof Hettie Schonfeldt recently published “The effect of smallholder land tenure on child malnutrition in Nigeria” in Land Use Policy. The article reports on a study to investigate the impact of land rights on children in smallholder households in Nigeria. Currently, there is a lack of evidence of the effect that land tenure has on child nutrition. The paper investigates the relationship between smallholders' mode of land acquisition and tenure documentation on child malnutrition. This was done using three three-round nationally representative panel data of Nigerian smallholder farming households with small children.

Malnutrition expresses as undernutrition (inadequate energy intake), micronutrient deficiencies and overweight and obesity. The study used a flexible panel difference-in-difference (flexpaneldid) model and fixed effect (FE) logistic regression for the analysis. Smallholder land tenure had a small but relevant effect on reducing child malnutrition with community-level land distribution and informal land documents in Nigeria. Households on family-inherited land were more likely to have stunted, underweight and overweight children.  Households that held community-distributed land were less likely to have stunted, overweight and underweight children. Formal land certificate holder households were less likely to have stunted children while informal land document holder households were less likely to have wasted and underweight children.

Formal recognition of community-level land distribution and informal land documents have policy implications for improving individual nutrition in farming households. Strengthening land rights and entitlements of smallholder farmers can facilitate land dispute resolution, access to formal loans and investment in inputs to support socioeconomic security and nutrition-sensitive agriculture that improves child nutrition.

You can read the full paper here: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2022.106214