Impact Of Agricultural Market Reforms On Smallholder Farmers In ...

Farmers were also asked how they obtained each plot of land. In the vast majority of the land (81
percent of the area), the land was inherited by or donated to the household. Just 9 percent of the
area was purchased. It is very rare for households to report being allocated land by the village
chief or by the government. Purchased land is most common in the south and becomes
progressively less common as one moves north. In Ouémé, 36 percent of the land was purchased
by the household, compared to 8 percent in Zou and close to 0 percent in Atacora and Borgou (see
Table 4.1.32). This follows the same pattern observed for rented land, further confirming the idea
that land markets are more active in the densely populated south.
Value of land
In the case of rented and sharecropped land, farmers were asked how much they paid the
owners of the land. In the case of land rental, the average rate was FCFA 23 thousand per hectare
per year. However, the rental rates varied widely across departments. The highest rental rates were
found in the south: 33 thousand FCFA in Atlantique, 22 thousand in Mono, and 16 thousand in
Ouémé. Rental rates in the center and north were much lower, between 6 and 10 thousand FCFA.
These averages should be interpreted with some caution, however, given the small number of plots
that were rented in these departments.
Regarding sharecropping, there were just 19 cases among the 899 households surveyed. Most of
these farmers paid 30-35 percent of the harvest as payment for the land.
Source of water
Almost all agricultural production in Bénin is rain-fed. In the IFPRI-LARES Small Farmer
Survey, 96 percent of the farmland was rainfed. Irrigation accounted for just 1 percent of the area,
and this was concentrated in the department of Mono. The remaining 3 percent of the area was
bottom-lands (bas fond), in which groundwater is an important source of moisture for plant growth.
Most of the bottom-land was found in the department of Ouémé (see Table 4.1.33).
The use of irrigation and bas-fond land varies by the type of household:
It is more common among male-headed households (5 percent) than among female-headed
households (1 percent).
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