Impact of land tenure system and environmental features on farmland in selectedcommunities in Delta State, Nigeria

The paper investigates the influence of land tenure systems and environmental features on land availability forfarming in Delta state. Primary and secondary data collection methods were employed. 13 persons; including10farmers, a Drilling Engineer and 2 community leaders were interviewed focusing on questions as farmlandavailability and accessibility, culture of the community and people and how it af ect farming practices andlandtenure systems. Sixty well-structured questionnaire were administered to the farmers to gather information onthesocio-economic characteristics of farmers, land tenure, land use and management practices, cultural characteristicsof farmers in the study area etc. Two groups of farmer and community members were organized for a focused groupdiscussion. Logistic regression was carried out to assess the significant ef ect of environmental features onlandavailability. Three land tenure arrangements were identified by the respondents; hired farm land (48%), family farmlands (38%) and owned/inherited lands (14%). The findings revealed the environmental features that af ect landavailability include oil spillage and gas flaring (18%), acid rains (45%), flooding (43%) and excessive rains (73%). Flooding was found to have the most significant ef ect on land availability for farming at values =0.01 <0.05. There was no observed ef ect of acid rain, excessive rainfalls and oil spillage on farm land accessibility (p >0.05). The paper recommends formulating and implementing a sustainable and economically viable land reformpolicy forimproving land tenure security in addition to reviewing and Updating government legislations, license conditionsfor crude oil exploration activities