Land tenure, access to land, and agricultural development in Uganda.

Abstract

Africanist scholars and African governments are caught in a land policy dilemma. Both neoclassical economic theory and Marxist theory assert that increased concentration of landholding is a precondition to development (Berry, 1988). Neoclassical economic theory demonstrates that, in a market economy, individuals who can use land more productively will bid land away from those whose uses are less valuable. Increased production results from both increased productivity per acre from the change to users with higher managerial skill, and from possible economies of scale in production processes. Likewise, Marxist theory asserts that increased concentration of landholding is central to the formation of the capitalist class, through exploitation of displaced labor and increased use of capital in production (Berry, 1988).