As land becomes less productive and people are forced to migrate to cities or abroad, there is greater likelihood of conflict over dwindling resources

ROME, Sept 12 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - More than 1.3 billion people live on agricultural land that is deteriorating, putting them at risk of worsening hunger, water shortages and poverty, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) said on Tuesday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s central government has approved a plan to extend a rural land reform pilot program by another year to the end of 2018, the Economic Information Daily reported on Tuesday citing sources at the Ministry of Land and Resources.

The land ministry’s pilot started in 2015 and is meant to develop mechanisms for rural land use rights to be transferred on markets, allowing rural residents to receive more of the benefits from their rights to land.

Former President John Dramani Mahama has encouraged women in Africa to fully take up agriculture as a means to enrich themselves, their families and achieve sustainable development for their countries.

Mr Mahama noted that women’s participation in agriculture is more critical as women in agricultural production in Africa are between 40 and 60 per cent.

Barbudans will get the opportunity to own the lands they previously occupied as the island seeks to rebuild following the devastation caused by the passage of Hurricane Irma last week.

Prime Minister Gaston Browne made the disclosure yesterday during a special sitting of Parliament.

He said Barbudans would be given a crown grant of one dollar to obtain legal ownership of the lands on the 62-square mile island.

Currently, land ownership is prohibited on the island of Barbuda; all lands in Barbuda are vested in the crown on behalf of the people on the sister island.

The Centre will soon set a cut off date for the states to grant tribals and other traditional forest dwellers legal title of the land they have traditionally used.

The sluggish pace at which land titles are being granted to tribals in some states, including the poll-bound Himachal Pradesh, has prompted the Prime Minister’s office to nudge the tribal affairs ministry to set the deadline.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Local officials in Brazil said on Friday they asked the government to offer property deeds to thousands of people living without formal titles in the Amazon rainforest who advocates say are at risk of losing their rights to live on the land.

The request by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Para state would affect an area of 2,500 square kilometers (965 square miles), part of a region called Marajó Archipelago that is owned by the federal government.

“We need peace. We are tired of conflicts. So many innocent people have died and we have to stop the violence. That is why I contribute to peace-making”, says Hadiza Adam, a 38-year-old woman from Angwan Rogo community in Jos North, located in the northern Nigerian state of Plateau.

The proposed Comprehensive Land Survey (CLS) in Telangana   appears to have stirred the hornet’s nest within the context of tribal land rights. Since Nizam ruling till date, various land policy forms introduced by the successive governments have resulted in large-scale tribal land alienation and created unrest among the tribals. 

JOHANNESBURG — Land reform is a hot political tool in Southern Africa and the likes of the ANC and EFF are well aware of this.