Land access, land rental and food security: Evidence from Kenya

Land scarcity is increasingly recognized as a problem impeding rural household welfare in densely populated areas of Africa. This study utilizes household- and parcel-level data from rural Kenya to explore the linkage between land access and food security. Renting land is found to be the main approach used by rural households in a given year to access additional land for cultivation. However, our econometric results show that land rental markets do not allow farmers to fully adjust their operated land size to desired levels. Furthermore, parcel-level analysis shows that indicators of land productivity and investment are lower on rented parcels than on own parcels. These findings indicate that land rental markets in Kenya do not enable land to be reallocated in ways that would fully contribute to national food security and poverty reduction goals. A 100% increase in rented land − which amounts to 1.04 acres for the median renter − would increase household food consumption per adult equivalent by 9%, cereal consumption per adult equivalent by 14%, and home-produced food consumption per adult equivalent by 11%. Even with imperfections in land rental markets, renting-in land still contributes to food security among rural households in Kenya.