The Geography of Customary Land in Zambia

Customary land is the foundation of smallholder agriculture in Zambia. In recent decades much of this land has under gone significant change as the result of population pressures, land alienation, infrastructure investments, and climate change. Despite these changes, knowledge about both the quantity of customary land and the quality of this land for agricultural commercialization purposes is scant. Using available spatial data on Zambian land, coupled with geographically explicit rural household survey data, this paper seeks fill the persistent knowledge gaps around Zambia’s customary land resources. More specifically, the paper has three primary objectives:

1) To update the facts on the magnitude and location of land under customary tenure in

Zambia;

2) To identify and describe factors which may constrain smallholder access and/or

utilization of land resources within remaining customary areas;

3) To document recent evidence for institutional dynamism within customary areas,

particularly incipient patterns of land commodification and associated institutional

changes.