Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 16
Paragraph- Paragraph text
- It has been argued that improving security of tenure encourages smallholders to invest in the land, and in principle it could lower the cost of credit by increasing the use of land as collateral. It could also encourage more sustainable farming, particularly through the planting of trees and through more responsible use of the soil and water resources. The real question, however, is not whether security of tenure should be improved, but how. The classical approach has consisted of individual titling, combined with the establishment of cadastres, or land registries, to facilitate and secure transactions related to land. That approach is linked to the idea that security of tenure is primarily a means to promote integration into the market: once property has been legally recognized, it can be alienated or mortgaged so that the beneficiaries can leave agriculture or obtain cash to make the necessary investments in the land. In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s - and more recently, under the influence of the writings of Hernando de Soto, international financial institutions promoted land registration and titling as part of their structural adjustment programmes, in the hope that successful land markets would ensure efficient land allocation and spur economic growth, which in turn was seen as the key to addressing rural poverty and food insecurity.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Paragraph type
- Other
- Reference
- SR Food, Report to the UNGA (2010), A/65/281, para. 16.
- Paragraph number
- 16
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