Does Land Tenure Benefit the Rural Poor of STP towards a Better Diet? Empirical Evaluation in the District of Caué

Abstract

Aims: This article aim is three-fold: (1) first, it intends to depict the profile of food consumption in the poorest district of STP, Caué, before and after distribution of land; (2) second, it aims to screen the evolution of food security in the district Caué facing the emergence of this new class of Small Family Farmer (SFF) in society of STP; (3) we plan to answer the following question: does land tenure benefit the rural poor of STP? The necessity of this research consists on trying to mitigate the gaps of solutions to contribute to improve welfare of the rural poor. Study Design: n = 385 SFFs were surveyed, using a cluster sampling plan. In the first stage were randomly selected 17 communities (clusters) of the 33 existing through simple random sampling; we gave up the community Rolas Island for two specific reasons: accessibility difficult and reduced population. In the second stage of sampling plan we selected random subsamples, by simple random sampling from the remaining 16 communities selected, corresponding to 48.5% of the 33 existing locations in this district. Place and Duration of Study: Sample: district Caué, STP between April 2013 and July 2013. Methodology: We proceeded to data analysis to meet the objectives outlined by using clustering via estimation of latent class models in the software LatentGOLD 3.0 in order to profile consumers before and after the land distribution and Wilcoxon test with SPSS 20 for comparing consumption before and after the distribution of land. We depicted the profile of food consumption in the poorest district of STP, before and after distribution of land, for the two cases of consumption: general and meats. Results: By comparison of before and after profiles, our results show a reversal in revenues because now 78% of respondents (cluster 1) have higher revenues and interestingly, they have increased revenues and decreasing costs. On the other hand, we can see that the population of Caué now uses a better diet. Conclusion: Combining this result with the previous (increasing revenues and decreasing expenses), we can conclude for a positive evolution of food security in the district Caué facing the emergence of this new class SFF in society of STP. Thus, we are able to conclude that the land tenure has benefited the poorest rural. Concerning policy recommendations based on the findings of this study, we recommend that government can encourage SFF in order to obtain greater production. Thus, we think that the increase in production will contribute to improve welfare of the rural poor.