meinzendick1_Eric LafforgueArt in All of UsCorbis via Getty Images_ethiopianwomancoffeebeans Eric Lafforgue/Art in All of Us/Corbis via Getty Images

Empowering Africa’s Women Farmers

When Africa’s women farmers thrive, everyone benefits: the women themselves, the children in whom they invest, the communities that they feed, and the economies to which they contribute. With the right investments and policies, Africa’s woman-run farms could produce a bumper crop of development.

WASHINGTON, DC – Over 60% of all employed women in Sub-Saharan Africa work in agriculture. Yet the region’s women farmers often reap a meager harvest, not because of inclement weather or poor soil quality, but because of their gender – or, more specifically, because of a dense web of laws, policies, programs, and customs that put them at a significant disadvantage.

Closing the gender gap in agriculture will require action on three fronts. The first is land rights. In most of Sub-Saharan Africa, women rarely own land. Instead, women farmers usually access land through a male relative, most commonly a husband, brother, or father. This arrangement leaves them highly vulnerable; a death, divorce, or simply a man’s change of mind can leave a woman farmer landless overnight.

The resulting insecurity affects the way women farm. At constant risk of displacement, long-term productivity-enhancing investments don’t make financial sense. Why build terraces to reduce erosion and improve soil health if someone else can claim the land and its improvements as soon as the work is finished? Why plant an orchard if it can simply be taken away once the final tree is in the ground?

https://prosyn.org/lTtnrpt