Landed property and economic change in Tripolitania

Abstract

One of the many problems facing the planners who are for mula ting the second Libyan national development plan is the  improvement of agricultural productivity. It has been suggested  by Libyan economists that a major obstacle to development of  the agricultural sector is the confused state of land holding. (1)  This paper will discuss the present situation regarding land hol ding and the nature of fragmentation against the background of  economic change.  

There are three zones of land holding in Tripolitania, corres ponding roughly with the three natural regions into . which the  country is divided according to the incidence of rainfall. The  littoral gardens, a series of discontinuous oases running close to  the coast, constitute the first and most important region. Here  rainfall is greater than 250 millimetres in .an average year and  water is available for irrigation from a shallow water table. South  of the oases, the littoral steppe lands run between the foothills of  the interior and the coastal .oases, or, in places to the sea -itself.  Thirdly, there is the open steppe of the arid interior.