Why Tenure Reform Is Key to Curbing Land Degradation

Women farmers clearing farmland in Northern Bangladesh. Credit: Naimul Haq/IPS

By Máximo Torero
ROME, Feb 25 2026 (IPS)

Farmland has long been one of the most important sources of security across generations. Writing about China nearly a century ago, Pearl S. Buck noted in The Good Earth, “If you will hold your land, you can live.” That holds true today. When farmers own land, they invest in it. When they don’t, they extract what they can today without thinking of tomorrow.