MICH: The connection between right to food and land rights

Tinsaye Tamerat Delelgne (Bernheim Fellow)

Most of our food is grown on land and there has always been a close link between discussions of right to food and of land ownership. Land right is necessary in securing access to food of those who are engaged in the production of food as means of subsistence. I argue that securing land rights is a necessary condition for realizing the right to food under three conditions: (i) if access to land is the main way to guarantee food availability and accessibility to a household; (ii) if there are limited off farm livelihood opportunities; (iii) if markets and institutions face constraints in ensuring food availability and preventing price volatility. But, provided the conditions that make land rights necessary to secure the right to food are met, having access to food through secure land rights will still not be sufficient to secure the right to food. Land rights can only ensure one dimension of the right to food, because of the effects of consumption and investment decisions. In the case of Ethiopia, where agriculture is dominant and largely rural and the industrial sector not well developed, land right stands as a precondition for securing the right to food for those involved in agricultural production, but it is not always a condition.