Land security can mean food security. Dividing large farms into smaller units often means that more food is produced per hectare. This is happening in a number of countries. In India, the states where poverty has fallen the fastest are those that have implemented land reforms. Ethiopia has transformed a feudal land system into family farming.
Land reform can increase both employment and income.
Small farms employ more people per hectare than the larger units, often to the benefit of the landless and unemployed. And owning land means that family farmers often secure the bank credit that was previously denied them. The Rural Poverty Report 2001 points out that while land reform has achieved much, in some areas it has been unduly statist and top-down. In Latin America, which has the world's most unequal land tenure system, severe inequality persists even after land reform, partly because of the collectivist nature of some of the reforms. Nonetheless, land reform is achieving much, especially when it is community-driven and tailored to local conditions and when it puts the poor at the forefront of the process.