Analysis of Land Tenure System Among Rice Farmers in Awe Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, Nigeria

The research analyzed the land tenure system among ricefarmers in Awe Local Government Area of Nasarawa State,Nigeria. Two hundred and forty (240) farmers were sampled bya multi stage sampling procedure and used as respondents forthe study. Well structured questionnaires were used for data collection.The main means of data analysis were percentages andcorrelation. Findings revealed that 46.7 percent of the respondentswere within the age range of 31-40 years. Majority (77.9%) ofthe respondents were married and full time farmers. The predominantsystem of land ownership among the respondents wasby inheritance. Land fragmentation was perceived to be themajor constraints to land ownership in the study area. Theresults further showed that farm size correlated positively andsignificantly with annual income (r=0.519, p<0.001) and theyield significantly and positively correlated with marital status(r=0.243, p<0.001), annual income (r=0.604, p<0.001) and farmsize (r=0.727, p<0.001). The problems of land tenure systemthat affects rice production as revealed by the study were Landfragmentation, Excessive land ownership, Land litigation andExpropriation. The study recommended that legislation givenrice farmers title to land should be enforced by government inconsideration of the fact that rice production need to improve tomeet the demand of the teaming populace in the study area.