Access to agricultural resources and services
Land. Landlessness is more acute among women than men. Moreover, when women do have access to land, their holdings tend to be less productive and located at greater distances from the household. Women's landholdings are also generally smaller than those of men. Although recent data is not available, in 1976 the average size of men's holdings was 1.76 ha while that of women's was only 0.98 ha. Women's access to land is limited by discriminatory laws and inheritance rights.
Livestock. Data collection needed.
Forestry. Data collection needed.
Water. Data collection needed.
Credit. Women have little access to formal credit institutions. In recent years Local and Regional Funds for Agricultural Credit have increased the access of the rural population to credit. Women comprise approximately 25% of the members and 13% of the office holders of credit associations and receive 24.4% of loans. There has also been a resurgence of traditional savings and credit groups, the 'totines'. In addition, many international development institutions and NGOs include savings and credit components in their projects targeted toward women.
Extension services and agricultural training. While data is not available on the numbers of women farmers reached by extension, it can be assumed that the number is low, as extension concentrates on farmers who are organized into cooperatives. The small number of women extension agents also hampers women's access to extension, as custom makes it difficult for women to have contact with male extensionists.
Agricultural Extension Staff by Position and Gender, 1989
* Not all the data is gender-disaggregated; therefore, the total number for the category may be greater than the total of the male and female columns.
Source: Agricultural Extension and Farm Women in the 1980s, FAO, 1993
Women's participation in agricultural courses and programmes is also very low, although there has been a slight increase from 4% in 1986 to 8% in 1991 at the secondary level, and from 3.6% in 1986 to 4.6% at higher levels. There are very few women extensionists, and the majority of which work in the area of home economics.
