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Do Land Reforms Promote Equity in Land Rental Market Participation? Evidence from Malawi

Sustainable Food Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa: Plant Derived Nutritious Foods—Volume 1 | 2026

Paper Details

Authors: Phiri H.H.; Munthali M.; Chitete M.; Malata M.; Chilora L.; Machira K.; Muyanga M.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-11288-0_26

Journal: Sustainable Food Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa: Plant Derived Nutritious Foods—Volume 1

Year: 2026

Publisher: Springer Nature

Document Type: Book chapter

Open Access: All Open Access; Gold Open Access

Cited by: 0

Abstract

There is renewed interest in understanding the links between land reforms, land markets and poverty reduction in sub–Saharan Africa. Applying a three-fold extended Kitagawa–Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition approach to a two-wave panel data from Malawi, this study investigated the inequities between male and female-headed households in land rental market participation in sub–Saharan Africa. Using the amount of land rented-in, overall results reaffirm that rental market participation is higher among male-headed households, but the gap is on the decline. However, the contribution of the reforms, particularly the transfer from communal ownership to individual property rights is yet to play a role in addressing the gap between the gender groups. Rather, gains in literacy levels among female household heads seem to have been responsible for the reduction in disparities. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2026.

Keywords

Gender equity; Land rental markets; Market participation; Soil; Sub-Saharan Africa