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The case of grazing animals appears to be an exception. Farmers were asked whether others
had unquestioned rights to graze in their fields. In Southern province, 76 percent of farmers claimed
that herders would have to ask their permission before grazing on their lands. This high percentage
might be explained by the Tonga custom of permitting one's own animals to graze one's stover before
allowing other animals on the property. In contrast, only 28 percent of Eastern province farmers
believed that their permission was required before others grazed their land.
F. Tenure security
Tenure security is a difficult concept to measure precisely. It is related to the number of rights
held, the duration of rights, and the respect of those rights by others (chapter 2). As indicated above,
farmers feel quite secure in their ability to cultivate crops on their land. The high percentage of
privatized rights to fence and plant trees also conveys the notion that cultivation rights are long term
in nature. Farmers were also asked specifically about the length of time they could continue to farm
their plots. With the exception of eight 14-year state leaseholds, virtually all households claimed they
could farm the land as long as they wished. Informal interviews corroborated this finding; respondents
mentioned that land would only be taken away in the case of "unseemly" behavior on their part.
In addition to long-term rights, the assurance that these rights will be respected by others is
also important for creating proper investment incentives. Again, the evidence above suggests that
farmers are largely left alone to develop their farms as they wish. One area of concern is open grazing
in the off-season coupled with poor supervision of animals. In such systems, the obligation is on the
landowner to make additional investments in the form of fencing or guards, thereby raising the cost
of land investments.
In summary, security of tenure seems high insofar as long-term rights to land are concerned.
There are examples to the contrary, however. Families do not enjoy the right to keep land idle or in
fallow for long periods. Women-headed households do not always concur that their tenure is
indefinite; during informal interviews, more than one woman reported fear of losing her land to male
relatives. One respondent on State Land had rented out land without a written contract for fear that
a written document could be used by the tenant to illegally obtain that parcel from the state. Hence,
statutory law and the presence of registration themselves can create some insecurity. One farmer on
State Land mentioned problems of claims to his land by his extended family who resided on traditional
land; the relatives argued that the land was rightfully theirs since the money used to purchase the farm
on State Land was earned from output in traditional land. Lastly, there was also a slight fear of
government expropriation should a farmer plant enough trees to appear to convert the crop land into
forest.
In terms of security for credit access it appears that title deeds are not necessary to obtain
loans (see below), and it is questionable as to how much they can help. From a lender's perspective,
a title deed is only valuable if the underlying asset (land) can be used to recover loan arrears. This
condition is not generally satisfied in the land-abundant Reserves of Zambia where land sales are rare.
As is discussed below (table 5.7) more than half of households had obtained credit and only a few