Access to agricultural resources and services
Land. While women have a legal right to own land, few women have land registered in their names. In general, land ownership in villages is often fragmented and not registered in the name of its present owner because of the expensive and difficult registration process.
Livestock. Data collection needed.
Forestry. Data collection needed.
Water. PRA surveys indicate that many villages suffer from a lack of potable water or do not get water through pipes. This creates additional work for women who are usually responsible for securing water.
Credit. Small farmers, especially women, have limited access to credit due to the lack of adequate collateral and the high risk involved in administering small agricultural loans. Since few women are cooperative members, they are less able than men to benefit from cooperative credit. Some NGOs have established credit programmes for small-scale rural enterprises, with women comprising about 20 to 35% of the beneficiaries.
Extension services and agricultural training. The Ministry of Agriculture ceased providing extension services at the beginning of the war.
While extension services have been practically nonexistent, private agricultural input companies have employed many trained agents in the field, whose work is based on commercial considerations. Some NGOs provide special extension and training programmes addressing farmers and agricultural cooperatives, or include extension activities in their rural development programmes. However, no extension work or field training is specifically addressed to women. There are few women extension agents.
In the area of professional education in university faculties of agriculture and veterinary science, women comprise a significant portion of the student body: in 1993, women were 59% of the graduates at the Master's level and 47% of the graduates at the Bachelor's level. Women are most frequently found in food technology, nutrition, agronomy and horticulture, while men predominate in soil and irrigation, animal science, fisheries and forestry.
