This research investigates the effectiveness of land reform in Kenya in relation to its stated policy aims of improving farm productivity through case studies of three districts where land reform has been implemented. One was an area with dense population and predominant customary form of land tenure (Kakamega); another one had the most recent land reform programme - group-ranching system (Kajiado); and the third had an early land reform acclaimed as a success within the former 'white highlands (Trans Nzoia). Although many studies on land reform suggest that collateral is one of the common ways of funding agricultural development, this was found to be defective as it does not test the borrower's ability to repay the loan, encourages excessive borrowing, and repayment schedules are often not realistic. For many farmers, the use of land as collateral depended on their ability to process title deeds; financial institutions to lend money; no market distortions/information asymmetry; and absence of cultural restrictions. We have also demonstrated that how land rights are assigned and the land tenure security determines households ability to generate income, their social and economic status, incentives to make investments, and a farmer's ability to access financial markets. Creation of land board committees in Kenya composed of local elders for resolving land disputes was aimed at increasing their (elders) involvement leading to decisions that reflected community wishes. Our findings were that on average, about 70 per cent of such decisions on land disputes were upheld by courts of appeal on technicalities because land boards lack a sufficient basis in law and there was no training programme for the members. Group ownership of land with shared possession and communal decision making on its administration hardly existed in the case study areas but was used to foster unity, address social needs, and provided a mechanism for disbursing inequalities in ability, knowledge and wealth. On gender issues and land tenure, the need for increased tenure security to women was found not be enough for their participation in the land market without access to credit, information, and appropriate technologies. This research has proposed an improved system of managing land reforms based upon an analysis of existing land record system, and formulated an alternative address referencing system.

Land ist eine entscheidende Ressource in der landwirtschaftlichen Produktion, aber seine ungleiche Verteilung verzögert das Wohlergehen der Entwicklungsländer. Diese Studie wurde hauptsächlich entwickelt, um die Verteilung von land und die damit verbundenen Problemen der landwirtschaftlichen Produktivität in den zugehörigen Ländern zu erforschen. Darüber hinaus wurde die unterschiedliche Ebene der Verteilung von land auf die Beziehungen zu anderen betriebs und sozio-ökonomischen Indikatoren analysiert. Ebenso wurde die vollständige oder teilweise Faktor-produktivität, Bruttoergebnisse, Ernteintensität, Ernte-Vielfalt, die Unterschiede der Einkommensverteilung und die institutionelle Kredit Verfügbarkeit untersucht. Alle der genannten Indikatoren wurden für kleine, mittlere und große Kategorien der Betriebsgrößen bewertet. Drei verschiedene Standorte wurden differenziert nach ihrem zugang zu bewässerung aus gesucht z.B. ständig bewässerte. Flächen m0it ganzjährigen Dauerkulturen, nicht dauerhaft bewässerten Flächen mit sechsmonatiger Bewässerbarkeit durch die öffentliche Infrastruktur und Flächen mit dene bewässerungs-infrastrukture (vor allem durch Brunnen bewässert). Verschiedene statistische (zB. Gini-Koeffizient, Lorenz-Kurve, Herfindahl-Index etc.) und ökonometrische Maßnahmen (log-log-Funktion) wurden zu messung verschiedener Indikatoren zur Erreichung der Ziele der Studie verwendet. Der Ergebnisse belegen eine gleichmäßige Landverteilung in nicht dauerhaft bewässerten Gebieten, während die Landverteilung in regenbewässerten Gebieten zersplittert ist. Die Leistung der meisten der Indikatoren, d.h. die Rendite, Bruttoergebnisse, die landwirtschaftlichen Einkommen, Arbeitsproduktivität, Einkommensverteilung, Anbauintensität und Anbaudiversität war im Vergleich zu anderen Gebieten höher. Während die Faktorproduktivität, Bewässerungsproduktivität und die institutionelle Kreditverfügbarkeit in dauerhaft bewässerten Gebieten höher war. Allerdings wiesen regenbewässerung-gebiete immer die geringste Effizienz in Bezug auf alle der genannten Indikatoren auf. Die genannten Indikatoren waren bei kleinen Betrieben stärker ausgeprägt als bei größeren betrieben. Darüber hinaus bestätigten regressive Ergebnisse der Studie die Existenz der inversen Beziehung zwischen Betriebsgröße und Produktivität an allen Standorten der Studie. Daher wird der Schluss gezogen, dass eine bessere Verteilung von Land und kleine Betriebsstrukturen der Landwirtschaft dazu beitragen können, mehr zu produzieren. Es wird dringend empfohlen, dass die Umverteilungen der Land reformen notwendig sind, in Entwicklungs ländern mit Landknappheit und reichlichen Arbeitskräften wie Pakistan. Es kann auch zur Linderung von Armut beitragen und als Hilfe zür Ernährungssicherung in den benachteiligten Regionen dienen. / Land is a pivotal resource in agriculture production but its uneven distribution retards the welfare of developing nations. This study was, mainly, devised to address land distribution problems and consequent farm productivity in the study area. Furthermore, level of land distribution disparities was focused on to observe its relationship with different on-farm and socio-economic indicators including total and partial factor productivities, gross margins, cropping intensity, crop diversity, income distribution disparities and institutional credit availability etc. All of the aforesaid indicators were also assessed for small, medium and large farm size categories. Three distinct locations were chosen on the basis of varying irrigation endowments i.e. irrigated perennial area with year round, irrigated non-perennial area with six months irrigation availability through public infrastructure and rainfed area was mainly tubewell irrigated (without public irrigation infrastructure). Various statistical (i.e. Gini coefficient, Lorenz curve, Herfindahl Index etc) and econometric measures (i.e. log-log function) were employed to quantify different indicators to achieve objectives of the study. Land was observed evenly distributed in irrigated non-perennial area as compared to other areas while land distribution was found most skewed in rainfed area. The performance of most of the indicators i.e. yield, gross margins, farm income, labour productivity, income distribution, cropping intensity and crop diversity was found better as compared to other areas. While total factor productivity, irrigation productivity and rate of institutional credit availability was higher in irrigated perennial area. However, rainfed area was always least efficient with respect to all of the quantified indicators. The aforesaid indicators were observed better at small farms than larger ones. Moreover, regression results of the study also confirmed the existence of inverse relationship between farm size and productivity in all of the study locations. Therefore, it is concluded that better land distribution and small farms agriculture can help to produce more. So, it is strongly suggested that redistributive land reforms are necessary in land scarce and labour abundant developing countries like Pakistan. It can also alleviate poverty and help to bring food security in the deprived regions.