more frequent on freehold land and less prevalent under customary tenure. Although a much higher share of plots under conflict (31% as compared to 13%) is cultivated with perennials, the fact that output per acre is less than half of what is obtained on plots without conflict, points to significant contemporaneous losses, something that is confirmed by direct testimony from the households affected by conflict.

# **3.1 Sample and methodological considerations**

The scope for standard household surveys to provide information on land conflicts is limited for a number of reasons. First, in view of the fact that land is a key element in households’ asset portfolio (about 60% in Uganda), information on land-related conflicts is very sensitive and therefore unlikely to be divulged immediately to enumerators unfamiliar with the community. In fact, it is widely believed that the incidence of land conflict that is obtained in traditional surveys suffers from serious under-reporting precisely because of the fact that households fear that doing so may negatively affect the outcome. Second, to the extent that land conflict is a comparatively rare event, over-sampling will be required to increase the effective sample size. Third, as plots that have been lost or abandoned due to conflict will not be mentioned unless specifically asked for, both the survey instrument and sample will need to be adapted for this. At the same time, because households remember conflicts for a long time, obtaining retrospective information and probing for institutional issues related to occurrence and resolution of land conflicts, will be possible.

To deal with these issues and explore the incidence and economic impact of land conflicts, a specialized survey was undertaken by the Economic Policy and Research Council (EPRC), jointly with the World Bank, in the second half of 2001. The survey covered 430 households (126 peri-urban and 304 rural ones) in five districts of Uganda, Lira, Mbale, Kibale, Mbarara, and Luwero, to represent the country’s main regions. To increase representation of land-related conflicts, information on households’ past and current involvement in land conflicts was obtained from key informants at the village level and from official court registers. In each district, half of the sample was then drawn from a list of households who had been affected by land conflicts in the past while the other half was randomly selected from the remainder. Comparing the number of households affected by land-related conflict reveals that, at the time the survey was undertaken, between 2.5% and 5% of households in Uganda had a land conflict pending while about the same share had been affected by a conflict during the past 8 years.

The survey elicited information on standard household characteristics such as sources of income, household composition, education, assets, access to credit, and knowledge of the new land law. At the plot level, this was complemented with information on a subjective assessment of soil quality, tenure status, details on any land conflicts in the present or past, land market participation, and agricultural output, in addition to the gender of the owner, the main decision-maker, and the residual claimant on profits from the plot. Information on households’ asset endowments was obtained retrospectively for several points in time, specifically at the point of household formation, and in different years starting from 1993, provided that the household had been in existence then. For each conflict, information was obtained on the start date and the 10