1 Gender related differences in land allocation and tenure and their implications Sariyev Orkhan Matrikel-Nr: 623775 Paper prepared within “Rural Development Policies and Institutions” module M4901- 430 Seminar Paper Supervisor: M.Sc. Alexander Nimo Wiredu 30.06.15 (updated in 09.08.15)
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Gender related differences in land allocation and tenure and their
implications
Sariyev Orkhan
Matrikel-Nr: 623775
Paper prepared within “Rural Development Policies and Institutions” module
M4901- 430 Seminar Paper
Supervisor: M.Sc. Alexander Nimo Wiredu
30.06.15 (updated in 09.08.15)
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Abstract
Women play an essential role in agriculture. They constitute substantial part of agricultural
labor. When it comes to gaining land rights they face many challenges. In most cases it is
society, religion and other factors that create challenges for them. In many countries there are
laws supporting rights of women, but implementations are always problematic. Customary
tenure system is another factor creating gender related differences in land tenure. There are
current and possible future implications of men favoring land allocation and tenure systems
which have direct effects on poverty, spread of HIV and AIDS, food insecurity, women’s
inability to access credits and etc...
Keywords: gender, land allocation, land tenure, rights
Introduction
“More than 3 billion people –almost half of the world’s population –live in rural areas”
(FAO, 2013, p.1). Agriculture is the main source of employment and income generation in
rural areas. Land is an essential asset in agriculture. Rural people need to have access to be
able to produce, supply food for their family and generate revenue for other expenses. In most
rural areas, people highly depend on agriculture and access to the land and its ownership
determines their economic and social status. There is a general notion that women do not own
land rights as much as men do, whereas, they constitute substantial share of agricultural
workers and are engaged in almost every levels of agricultural activities. The Food and
Agricultural Organization of United Nations (2013) notes that women make significant
contribution to rural economies, but they suffer from reliance on men in order to access
productive resources. Differences in allocation and tenure of land depend on location, society,
religion and some other factors. In many rural areas, women’s access to the land is through the
relationship they hold with men. They work and produce in the lands of their relatives and/or
husbands. In many societies, parents bequeath land inheritance to their son. Thus, FAO
(2011) states that there is documented gender related difference in access to productive
resources.
This paper reviews different literatures and statistics to analyze the level of gender
related difference in allocation and tenure of land. Moreover, we will look into its
implications. First part discusses the role of women and their importance in agriculture, their
share in agricultural labor and importance in many household activities. Secondly, general
information about land allocation and tenure is given and thirdly, the gender related
differences in land allocation and tenure is provided and examples are brought from many
different case studies to support the point. Lastly, current and possible future implications of
current land allocation and tenure systems are discussed. Main attention is given on poverty
reduction, spread of HIV and ADIS, food security, women’s access to credit and etc.
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Women in Agriculture
Women play an essential role in the development of agriculture and rural economies
from different perspectives that will be analyzed in this paper. According to FAO (2011), in
rural areas, women maintain praiseworthy share of labor force in farm level activities and they
are mostly asset-poor. In Sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern and Southeastern Asia, female labor
constitutes respectively around 48% and 46% of the total agricultural labor force. Female
workers comprise 43% of total agricultural workers in developing countries. The share of
female workers in total agricultural labor force has shown an increasing trend over the last
decade.
In Figure 1, we can observe the share of female employment in agriculture for
countries with highest values in 2010. As can be seen from Figure 1, share of female workers
in agricultural sector is pretty high in some countries and those countries like Pakistan and
India are important agricultural countries of the world. We need to consider that there are
some agricultural activities like weeding performed only by women and children in most of
the rural areas. Thus, importance of women in agriculture is emphasized once more.
Figure 1. Female employment by sectors (2010)
In general women, who want to work, face more obstacles than men because of
different societal and religious factors. For example, in Nigerian society women are accorded
a low status; in some parts of world it is believed that their physical capacity is not enough to
work (Uwakwe, 2004). However, women are engaged in same activities like men but, for
most, it is more difficult for women to access resources, services and markets than it has been
for men. From this point of view, we can assume that female farmers are more likely to be
poor. According to the analysis conducted by FAO (2011), it holds true for some countries but
it is other way around in others. Thus, there is no general consensus that female-headed
households are poorer than male-headed households.
In rural areas, women take care of children, prepare food and work in the farm.
Therefore, it can be seen that, women invest a lot of their time on household activities.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Pakistan India Bhutan Cameroon Cambodia Albania Liberia
Source: World Bank, 2015
*For Pakistan, statistics of 2011
Agriculture
Service and industry
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However, it can also be observed that there is a somewhat equal distribution of labor forces
between male and female workers in agricultural employment. Women invest as much (even
more in some regions) time into household activities as men which shall inform us about the
gender equality in this case. Nevertheless, there is documented gender gap in different aspects
of agriculture, to be precise, in access to productive resources (FAO, 2011).
Land allocation and tenure in agriculture
Land is an essential asset for every household and it is a scarce resource. The world is
facing a population growth which results in decreasing land area per capita. Agricultural land
accounts for 12 percent of total land area and it has a little horizon for expansion.
Considerable part of potential agricultural land is covered by forests (FAO, 2013). Land is a
factor of production which is permanent but limited. Land abundant countries with good soil
fertility, irrigation system and climate conditions can easily be productive from agricultural
point of view. Developed agriculture means having better living standards in both rural and
urban areas. Empowering rural people will eradicate poverty. Land is very important factor of
production for people in rural areas. Especially, agriculture is the only source of employment
and revenue generation in rural areas of many developing countries (United Nations, 2015).
Rural people with limited access to land are worse off. Importance of land in agriculture is
obvious; one basically cannot be agriculturally productive without access to land. If rural
people do not have an access to land, they will neither produce nor supply food for their
families.
Figure 2. Agricultural area as a share of total land area in the World
In Figure 2, trends in agricultural area as a share of total land area between years of 2001 and
2011 are shown. Until 2010, share of agricultural area is declining and there is 0.80% increase
in 2011. Land is becoming scarcer every other year and obviously, those who want to acquire
land face high level of competition along with other different problems like corruption, land
grab and etc. It is even more problematic issue for rural women. Gender disparities in land
allocation are present across regions. FAO (2013) notes that in North Africa and Western
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