Contractual Practice and Land Conflicts: The "Plant & Share' Arrangement in Cote d'Ivoire

This paper tackles the broad issue of agrarian contracts, property rights and conflicts in the context of rural Cote d'Ivoire. Since the beginning of the 2000s, a new type of contractual arrangement has been developing rapidly: the Plant & Share' contract. Through such a contract, a landowner provides the land to a farmer who develops a perennial tree crop plantation; when production starts, the plantation, the plantation and the land, or the product is shared. The aim of the paper is to discuss the conflictive features of the arrangement. I argue that this contract, in spite of its potential for tensions and conflicts, constitutes an alternative to the much more conflictive land sales that currently dominate extra-familial land transfers in the country.