ABSTRACT Secure land rights are critical for agricultural investment and productivity, yet in many developing countries, land use rights remain informal and fragmented, creating uncertainty and discouraging long‐term agricultural planning. This paper examines the relationship between formal land ownership (tenure security) and both household agricultural productivity and the agricultural participation of rural youth in Ghana. Using data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey 7 (GLSS 7) and employing Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Instrumental Variable (IV) regression models with household‐ and village‐level controls, we find that formal land ownership is not significantly associated with higher productivity. However, it increases the likelihood that rural youth choose agriculture as their main occupation. Youths in households with formal land titles are nearly twice as likely to engage in farming compared to those without. These findings suggest that transparency and affordability in land registration may encourage greater youth participation in agriculture in developing countries.
Quaye et al. (2026) studied this question.