MSc. Dissertation
This study was conducted to assess the effect of land titling on tenure security and
subsequent investment on land improvement among smallholder farmers in Mbozi
District, Tanzania. Specific objectives were; to determine the proportion of farmers who
have formal land titles as well as the proportion of formalized land in Mbozi District, to
identify how land tenure security is defined according to local criteria among farmers and
determine indicators that express tenure security by land owners in the study area, to
compare the level of investment on land improvement that is undertaken by farmers under
each land tenure system; and to determine factors that influence smallholder farmers
investment decisions under each land tenure systems. Secondary and primary data were
collected from the district. The sample size of 140 respondents in which 53.6% out of the
total sampled population had land titles and the remaining 46.4% had no land titles.
Descriptive statistics and logistic regression model were used in the study. The study
results reveal that out of interviewed respondents who had titles, 91.12% had Customary
Certificate Right of Occupancies (CCROs) and 8.88% had Granted Right Occupancies
(GROs). However, only 5.98% of the land was under formalized ownership. The Mean
land improving investment level on titled farms was with a mean difference of 250 809
Tanzanian shillings. Factors which influence investment included farm size, distance of
form from the road, respondent political status, titled plot (tenure security) and were
significant at α<0.01, access to credits was significant at (α< 0.05) while household size
and sex were significant at (α< 0.1). The study general recommends that Government and Development partners should allocate more resources on land formalization to stimulate more land improving investment, since small holder farmers holding titled land invests more on formalized land as a result of improved tenure security.