Land tenure and food security: Exploring dynamic linkages

Land tenure and food security have each been the subject of extensive but g enerally separate - research in the past. Links between the two issues are now receiving increased attention, yet critical links between them remain u nexplored. After a brief review of the two concepts, this article combines both issues within a dynamic framework that recognizes not just the convent ional link between access to land and access to food in the short run, but also the recursive link between access to food and the ability to maintain sufficient resources to meet long-run needs. Such a framework makes explici t the trade-offs that poor households may face in bad years between consump tion and investment in non-labour assets. Perhaps less intuitively, it also suggests that the need for self-insurance may force poor households to cho ose less efficient crops or production strategies than wealthier households even in good years. The article concludes with a discussion of the implica tions of these results for equity, efficiency, research, and policy.