1. INEQUALITIES IN LAND OWNERSHIP FOR YOUTH IN AGRICULTURE: A CASE STUDY OF BOLIVIA, BRAZIL AND LIBERIA Cheryl A. Williams & Gipsy Bocanegra Ochoa PhD Students Department of Agricultural Education & Communications Texas Tech University Lubbock, Texas

2. Outline of the Study  Scope of the study  Introduction  Core Study Objectives  Methodology Findings  Inequalities in Land ownership in Brazil, Bolivia and Liberia  Rural Urban Migration  Conclusions

3. ?  Bolivia – Population 10m, youth population 2.5m: only 28 percent of the youth live in rural areas; Exports soybeans, coffee, cotton and Sugar cane.  Brazil: Population 206.1m; 62 percent youth; well developed agriculture; largest exporter of coffee, 2 nd largest exporter of sugar cane.  Liberia: Population 4.1m, 29 percent youth; 70 percent of the population depend on agriculture; 9 th largest exporter of rubber; exports cocoa beans, coffee beans, palm oil.

4. Scope of the Study  The Study focuses on the inequalities of land ownership for youths in the rural areas of Bolivia, Brazil and Liberia, where agriculture is predominantly practiced.  The concentration on rural to urban migration is based on the fact that the agriculture sector is losing its youthful population to urbanization as older farmers age.

5. INTRODUCTION  Global hunger and food insecurity like world population are on the increase.  Agriculture innovations have improved worldwide however they are still not satisfactory in reducing food insecurity and extreme hunger.  Inequalities in land ownership in the three countries disfavor women and youth.  The importance of land access for the reduction of rural poverty has being discussed as one of the potentially most effective approaches.

6. CORE STUDY OBJECTIVE & Questions  Determine whether inequality in land contributes to rural- urban migration among youth in the three countries and  Confirm if equalities in land ownership can increase youth involvement in agriculture. QUESTIONS  What prompted your migration?  Do you experienced land inequality issues in your region? If yes how?  If land inequality issues are settled can you return to your region to farm in the future?

7. METHODOLOGY  Individual interviews and qualitative focus group discussions were held in Altimira in the State of Amazon, Brazil  In Liberia, Lofa, Grand Cape Mount, Grand Bassa and rural Montserrado.  72 participants in each country were selected using homogenous sampling to get present and past members of agriculture youth groups.  Semi-structured questionnaire was used for the discussions  Particularizing questions were asked during key informant interviews.

8. METHODOLOGY  The focus group discussions were audio recorded and transcribed by external researchers.  Notes were also compiled and themed from the discussions and the interviews.  Review of instruments for face and content validity by panel of experts.  Literature review of documents on land ownership and rural urban migration among youth in the three countries.

9. AGRICULTURE  In Bolivia two fifths of the population is engaged in agriculture, with 60 percent of farmers in the highlands and 20 percent in relatively fertile valleys, with agriculture.  Agriculture in Brazil is well developed and ensures livelihood sustainability of majority of the country’s rural people  In Liberia, agriculture is the main livelihood for nearly 70% of the economically active population.

10. INEQUALITIES IN LAND OWNERSHIP - BRAZIL  Brazil is reported to have the highest levels of inequality of land distribution in the world.  The Land management system was known as sesmarias, largely owned by a small number of landowners. This changed in 1800s to the current latifundia (system of large estates).  The country’s poor, especially those in rural areas experience huge inequalities in land access and insecure tenure security.  land degradation, destruction of forests, violence, human rights abuses, exploitation of rural workers contribute immensely to migration from rural areas to crime-ridden slums in urban areas (USAID, n.d.).

11. INEQUALITIES IN LAND OWNERSHIP - Bolivia  In August 1953, after the revolution, the MNR Government decreed the Agrarian Reform Law (Law Decree 3464) that eliminated forced peasantry labor, and established a program of expropriation and distribution of the rural property of the traditional landlords to the peasants.  Public land distribution and planned settlements on land had been some of the measures employed to solve inequalities in land distribution.  Nearly 30 percent of farmers are landless or near-landless and either lease land or work as agricultural laborers.

12. INEQUALITIES IN LAND OWNERSHIP - Liberia  Liberia’s population though smaller than the other two countries has experienced similar land inequalities struggles. This was one of the causes of the country’s 14- year long civil was from (1989-2003).  Women and youth suffer inequalities in land ownership as a result of customary laws (Not all are vulnerable to land ownership inequalities; a few, privileged from affluent families own their own land).  Poor rural families who depend on agriculture as their main livelihood in all three countries, had little land and cannot afford to share land to their off springs.

13. RURAL URBAN MIGRATION  In Bolivia, landlessness has encouraged internal and external migration of the poor to urban and more productive rural areas. Urban crime, militant squatting and land invasions have increased, and conflicts are commonplace (World Bank 2006b; EC 2007).  Brazil has experienced massive internal migration from rural to urban areas since the 1950s. Urban population grew from 36 percent to 81 percent of the total population.

14. RURAL URBAN MIGRATION cont  Ageing farmers in Liberia continue to work on their farms as youths leave to urban areas for education and ‘white collar’ jobs.  The uneducated youths leave farming communities to mining areas to look for jobs, or engage in motorbike transportation services, locally known as ‘penhpeh’ which has increased in the country quite recently.  Findings show that the exodus of rural youths from agricultural areas is as a result of not only land inequalities but rural poverty.

15. CONCLUSION  Land ownership in rural areas is not a wealth issue but a sense of belonging and status in community.  Inequalities in land ownership among youths has been linked to rural-urban migration.  Youths expressed willingness to return to the rural areas if they can own land to farm and after they have obtained some amount of money to invest in agriculture.  Studies conducted in Ghana, Kenya, Brazil and Bolivia have all linked rural urban migration to decrease in agricultural production. 

16.  FIN