Land reform, trust, and customary land rights in the socio-economic transformation of Malawi

The National Statistical Office of Malawi (NSO) is in 2006-7 conducting their National Census of Agriculture and Livestock (NACAL) as a very large survey (30,000 households in 6000 villages). The NACAL comprises a module for collecting data on land tenure and trust based collective action designed by the project group. In connection with this the project seeks funding to *Undertake intensive studies of 8 villages in order to validate the interpretation of the NACAL questions and to do in depth comparison s of family, marriage and gender relations to land and land distribution. Study differences in land management among matrilineal-matrilocal, matrilineal-patrilocal, and patrilineal-patrilocal family systems in the 3 regions of Malawi. *Undertake standard ised experiments to determine levels of generalised trust in the different villages and analyse this in relation to agricultural economic activity as recorded in NACAL *Analyse the finalised NACAL data to determine the impact of land scarcity on land mana gement decision of village headmen and lineage elders. The following questions are of particular interest: o Land scarcity and transactions in land: Will land scarcity increase or decrease the volume of informal transactions in land (renting, letting, bo rrowing, lending, buying, selling) o Land scarcity and trust based cooperation: Will land scarcity increase or decrease the level of trust based cooperation? o Land scarcity and inequality: Will land scarcity increase inequality in access to land and land based resources? o Land scarcity and size of land holdings. Will a longer history of land scarcity affect the way land devolves on new generations by reducing the number of subdivisions?