*4.1. Socio-Economic Characteristics of Respondents*

As can be seen in Table 1, the majority of the respondents (76%) were from 30–60 years of age. Due to the small number of female-headed households, there were fewer female interviewees than male, and most of the female interviewees living in peri-urban areas were engaged in low income earning activities besides agriculture. While most of the interviewees were married in both study locations, more divorced and widowed interviewees lived in the peri-urban areas (19%) compared to the rural ones (14%). This is because peri-urban areas have locational advantages for widowed or divorced females, especially for poor rural women, who can find non-agricultural income generating activities, such as daily labor work and retail. Women's labor force participation is higher in urban areas [18].

There are high land tenure transformation and agricultural land losses in peri-urban areas due to urban expansion [15]. In the rural areas, the landholdings of almost all the study participants were registered. In the peri-urban areas, about 13% of the interviewees had unregistered landholdings and 23% were without any landholding certificate. Unregistered landholdings usually have a higher potential for land tenure disputes.


**Table 1.** Respondents' characteristics and landholding.

#### *4.2. The Extent of Land Tenure Disputes*

As documented in Table 2, a higher frequency of land tenure disputes was investigated in the peri-urban areas (65%) compared to the rural areas (47%). The test of the hypothesis, analyzed by cross tabs, also indicates the existence of a significant difference in land disputes in these two locations (*p*-value < 0.05). Participants in the focus group discussions also reported that the land tenure disputes from peri-urban areas are higher in number compared to rural ones, which reinforces the findings analyzed in the interview.


Note: The bases are those farmers interviewed for land tenure disputes: peri-urban, *N* = 200; rural, *N* = 200. Statistical significance: Fischer's exact test *p* < 0.05. (χ<sup>2</sup> = 13.149, df = 1, *p* < 0.001).

#### *4.3. Types of Land Disputes*

The study respondents revealed that there are disputes in relation to boundary trespassing, landholding, land rental, divorce, land inheritance, parcel exchange, and land use (Table 3). Generally, these can be classified as interpersonal level (micro-social dimension) or societal level (meso/macro-social dimension) disputes [47]. The data show that most of the conflicts identified are at interpersonal levels, involving one-time incidents, and most of these are resolved.

From the total number of respondents involved in different types of land tenure disputes, boundary disputes were the most common type of dispute (about 49% in both study areas). In this study, landholding disputes, also known as land rival disputes, describe a situation "when several people claim the same parcel" [10]. In situations where property rights are ill-defined or where land adjudication is not carried out, the claims of different parties on the same parcel of land increases. Landholding disputes have decreased substantially (by 15%) after land registration in both locations, though peri-urban areas accounted for a high share (21%) next to boundary disputes. In rural areas, the landholding disputes have been reduced after land registration. Instead, in these areas, inheritance disputes constitute the next most frequent type of dispute. Land inheritance disputes, also


known as land bequeath disputes, involve intra-family disputes relating to the inheritance of land by children when their parents die [10].


Note: The bases are those farmers involved in land tenure disputes: peri-urban, *N* = 130; rural, *N* = 94.

About 11% of the respondents described land use-related disputes as the main challenges in their locality. Though land use-related disputes are complex [45], three specific topics were identified by the respondents as the primary sources for land use-related disputes in the peri-urban and rural study areas: inappropriate waste disposal, misuse of land, and communal land encroachments. Communal land encroachment is a problem both in peri-urban and rural areas, whereas inappropriate waste disposal and misuse of land are challenges peculiar to peri-urban areas.
