CHALLENGES ASSOCIATED WITH THEVALUATION OF DAMAGED FARMLAND FOR COMPENSATION

ABSTRACT:Valuation is the estimation and determination of the worth or value of an interest in real propertyand therefore requires some level of technical and professional expertise and skills to execute. One of the keyconcepts of valuation is that it is based on physical observation of such property whether land, farmland, orbuildings. There are however challenges associated with valuing an interest in real properties where the object tobe valued (economic crops, trees, plant and other farm structures etc.) are damaged or no longer in existenceparticularly if it might have been damaged or destroyed. The study investigated the challenges associated withthe valuation of damaged farmland for compensation. It adopted the pragmatic philosophical research stance andused the qualitative research methods in data collection and analysis. Simple random sampling method was usedto select participants to answer the research questions of the study. The findings reveal that the challenges ofvaluation of damaged farmland are largely the absence of reliable data on which to value in retrospect. Itrecommends that this challenge can be overcome with adequate farmland baseline data which includes access toinformation onspacing requirements of the cultivated economic crops and trees, proper record of farm yields. Italso recognizes other contributory issues such as land ownership tussles, corruption and illegal practices,outdated compensation rates, and youth restiveness.It concludes that valuers should be conversant with farmsize, economic crops and trees spacing requirement, maturity/harvesting period of economic crops and trees.The study recommends the use of modern technological tools in assessment of damaged farmland forcompensation.

Keywords: valuation, farmland, damage and compensation