Leveraging Land for Sustainable Development

Real estate or land ownership is a determining factor for both individual and collective economic development. Likewise, the way in which land is owned (or rented) plays a role in how it will be exploited, developed, and passed on to future generations. In many developing countries, most small and medium-sized agricultural workers and producers are not the legal owners of the land that they exploit. Rather, these farmers tend to be renters or short-term occupants of the land that they cultivate. Nevertheless, sustainable and responsible agricultural development is probably one of the preferred uses for unoccupied lands given that the alternatives tend to be more harmful to the environment. For example, irregular or unofficial occupants of a rural terrain could exploit its natural resources through unregulated mining, could engage in irreparable deforestation, could harvest illicit crops, or could build permanent structures.

Leveraging Land for Sustainable Development

Thus, the issue of legal ownership and long-term land grants is one that national governments should regulate in order to maximize the output of their agricultural industries. Furthermore, land ownership and land security is demonstrated to have a positive impact on the lives of those who live close to it and work it. In this regard, studies demonstrate that nutrition, gender parity, and even education levels are better amongst families of landowners (even owners of small plots), when compared against communities where there is proprietary insecurity over the land.

Simultaneously, in zones of conflicts and rural areas with weak state institutions, farmers and workers of the land have no incentive to preserve the environment or invest in long-term infrastructure for agricultural production. Conversely, families that legally own the land that they work have a higher level of agricultural productivity, have long-term plans and goals, practice agroforestry, invest much more in their property, and seek to foster a peaceful community. Similarly, the children, including girls, of landowning families are much more likely to be educated than their other rural peers. Moreover, land ownership affords families in developing regions an unequaled level of financial security. Nevertheless, one of the major obstacles to implementing a transparent and efficient land rights regime, in any country, is that such a system requires a large bureaucratic structure as well as an effective state presence in rural and remote areas. Additionally, corruption is another major obstacle to the maintenance of a clear and useful property record, particularly in marginal and peripheral regions of the developing world. In fact, in many developing regions, such as South Asia and Africa, the vast majority of landownership and usage is not formally or properly documented.

This is why, through Farmfolio’s initiatives in Panama and Colombia, our CEO Dax Cooke wants international investors to boost and the region’s formal agricultural sector as a unique development resource. Farmfolio’s Farmshare offerings contribute socially and economically to the Latin American communities where they are settled by empowering them to grow and upscale their entrepreneurial vision, while yielding high returns for our clients and investors.

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