IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v113y2022ics0264837721006311.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A study of scarcity: assessing the availability and value of surplus land in Nigeria

Author

Listed:
  • Littleboy, Chris

Abstract

Estimates of available cropland help us to understand the ability of societies’ food production systems to meet food demand. This is an important topic in the study of sustainable agriculture due to rising populations and the increasing recognition of the impact of agriculture on the environment. This study proposes a new indicator for modelling land scarcity based on the value of potentially available cropland, building on previous area-based measures. The new indicator incorporates differences in the quality of land but is only possible to measure in contexts with georeferenced household survey data covering agricultural yields, prices, and production costs. I find that value-based measures and area-based measures of scarcity are only weakly correlated: some states have abundant land with low potential value, and other states have little available land of much higher value. I also find overall that land is very scarce in Nigeria: surplus land has an economic value of just $50 per hectare per year.

Suggested Citation

  • Littleboy, Chris, 2022. "A study of scarcity: assessing the availability and value of surplus land in Nigeria," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:113:y:2022:i:c:s0264837721006311
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105908
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837721006311
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105908?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gareth Austin, 2008. "Resources, techniques, and strategies south of the Sahara: revising the factor endowments perspective on African economic development, 1500–20001," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 61(3), pages 587-624, August.
    2. Austin, Gareth, 2008. "Resources, techniques and strategies south of the Sahara: revising the factor endowments perspective on African economic development, 1500-2000," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 23209, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Martin Ravallion, 1986. "Testing Market Integration," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 68(1), pages 102-109.
    4. Marc Edelman & Carlos Oya & Saturnino M Borras, 2013. "Global Land Grabs: historical processes, theoretical and methodological implications and current trajectories," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(9), pages 1517-1531, October.
    5. E. Mafimisebi, Taiwo, 2012. "Spatial equilibrium, market integration and price exogeneity in dry fish marketingin Nigeria: A vector auto-regressive (VAR) approach," Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Science, Universidad ESAN, vol. 17(33), pages 31-37.
    6. Burke, William J. & Hichaambwa, Munguzwe & Banda, Dingiswayo & Jayne, Thomas S., 2011. "The Cost of Maize Production by Smallholder Farmers in Zambia," Food Security Collaborative Working Papers 148682, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    7. Chamberlin, Jordan & Jayne, T.S. & Headey, D., 2014. "Scarcity amidst abundance? Reassessing the potential for cropland expansion in Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 51-65.
    8. Paul L. Fackler & Hüseyin Tastan, 2008. "Estimating the Degree of Market Integration," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 90(1), pages 69-85.
    9. Catherine Linard & Marius Gilbert & Robert W Snow & Abdisalan M Noor & Andrew J Tatem, 2012. "Population Distribution, Settlement Patterns and Accessibility across Africa in 2010," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(2), pages 1-8, February.
    10. Anthony Young, 1999. "Is there Really Spare Land? A Critique of Estimates of Available Cultivable Land in Developing Countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 3-18, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jayne, T.S. & Chamberlin, Jordan & Headey, Derek D., 2014. "Land pressures, the evolution of farming systems, and development strategies in Africa: A synthesis," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 1-17.
    2. Emilio Depetris-Chauvin & Ömer Özak, 2023. "(De facto) Historical Ethnic Borders and Contemporary Conflict in Africa," Departmental Working Papers 2303, Southern Methodist University, Department of Economics.
    3. Pritchard, Rose & Ryan, Casey M. & Grundy, Isla & van der Horst, Dan, 2018. "Human Appropriation of Net Primary Productivity and Rural Livelihoods: Findings From Six Villages in Zimbabwe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 115-124.
    4. Whatley, Warren, 2012. "The transatlantic slave trade and the evolution of political authority in West Africa," MPRA Paper 44932, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Gareth Austin & Stephen Broadberry, 2014. "Introduction: The renaissance of African economic history," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(4), pages 893-906, November.
    6. Madhusudan Ghosh, 2010. "Spatial Price Linkages in Regional Food Grain Markets in India," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 4(4), pages 495-516, November.
    7. Timothy R. Silberg & Robert B. Richardson & Maria Claudia Lopez, 2020. "Maize farmer preferences for intercropping systems to reduce Striga in Malawi," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(2), pages 269-283, April.
    8. Martina Cioni & Giovanni Federico & Michelangelo Vasta, 2021. "The State of the Art of Economic History: The Uneasy Relation with Economics," Working Papers 20210067, New York University Abu Dhabi, Department of Social Science, revised Jun 2021.
    9. Bezemer, Dirk & Bolt, Jutta & Lensink, Robert, 2014. "Slavery, Statehood, and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 148-163.
    10. Headey, Derek D. & Jayne, T.S., 2014. "Adaptation to land constraints: Is Africa different?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 18-33.
    11. Leoné Walters & Carolyn Chisadza & Matthew Clance, 2024. "Slave trades, kinship structures and women's political participation in Africa," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(3), pages 734-758, August.
    12. James Fenske, 2014. "Ecology, Trade, And States In Pre-Colonial Africa," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 12(3), pages 612-640, June.
    13. Gareth Austin, 2014. "Vent for surplus or productivity breakthrough? The Ghanaian cocoa take-off, c. 1890–1936," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(4), pages 1035-1064, November.
    14. Ewout Frankema & Marlous van Waijenburg, 2023. "What about the race between education and technology in the Global South? Comparing skill premiums in colonial Africa and Asia," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 76(3), pages 941-978, August.
    15. Federico, Giovanni & Cioni, Martina & Vasta, Michelangelo, 2019. "Three different tribes: how the relationship between economics and economic history has evolved in the 21st century," CEPR Discussion Papers 14192, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Michiel de Haas & Kostadis J. Papaioannou, 2017. "Resource endowments and agricultural commercialization in colonial Africa: Did labour seasonality and food security drive Uganda’s cotton revolution?," Working Papers 0111, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    17. Depetris-Chauvin, Emilio & Özak, Ömer, 2019. "Borderline Disorder: (De facto) Historical Ethnic Borders and Contemporary Conflict in Africa," MPRA Paper 110197, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Sep 2021.
    18. Laura Panza, 2024. "From a common empire to colonial rule: Commodity market disintegration in the Near East," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 77(2), pages 584-611, May.
    19. Vibeke Bjornlund & Henning Bjornlund & André Rooyen, 2022. "Why food insecurity persists in sub-Saharan Africa: A review of existing evidence," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(4), pages 845-864, August.
    20. Michiel de Haas, 2022. "Reconstructing income inequality in a colonial cash crop economy: five social tables for Uganda, 1925–1965 [Long-term trends in income inequality: winners and losers of economic change in Ghana, 18," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 26(2), pages 255-283.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:113:y:2022:i:c:s0264837721006311. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.