Access to agricultural resources and services
Land. Although women have equal access to land use, very few have land ownership rights, and thus lack the collateral needed for credit and for membership in cooperatives and access to extension and production technology.
The majority of subsistence farmers operate under the system of customary land tenure, which assures equal usufruct rights to both men and women. While government-owned land is rented or leased to farmers irrespective of gender, few women have the economic resource base required to access this land. Privately-owned lands are usually registered in the name of the head of household, and in those cases in which women do own land they usually transfer the title to male members of the household, due to custom and tradition.
Livestock. The livestock sector plays an important role in Sudan. While data on livestock ownership is not available, men are responsible for managing cattle and sheep, while women and men share responsibility for goats and poultry.
Forestry. A PRA indicates that women and men are responsible for different types of trees and that while both men and women share the tasks involved in forestry, women handle seedling preparation.
Water. Although women are responsible for water supply to their families, data is unavailable on their access to this resource. Fewer women than men work in the irrigated agricultural sector.
Credit. Women, who are primarily subsistence farmers with land use rights, are unable to access major credit, due to their lack of collateral and their limited productive capacity. In recent years a number of credit schemes have been directed to small farmers and/or women. In 1993, women constituted approximately 70% of the membership of 50 agricultural cooperatives set up by the Agricultural Bank of Sudan to provide seasonal credit for crop production. Other development projects also provide loans to small farmers for inputs and technology. While women have received a large percentage of the loans for crop production, their share of loans in the livestock and fishery sector is low. In 1993, women comprised only 4.5% of the members of dairy production societies and 5.9% of members of poultry production societies, established for credit purposes, and received only about 10% of the loans.
Extension services and agricultural training. Agricultural extension services are oriented to cash crop production in the modern sector. Extension messages are targeted to male farmers and women are expected to receive information second-hand. About 22% of extension agents are women.
Gender-disaggregated data is not available on enrollment in agricultural training institutes. However, in 1990 female gross enrollment in secondary education was 20% and in tertiary education, 2.3%. At the highest levels, only a small number of men and women are enrolled in agricultural and veterinary science degree programmes. In 1993, 2 of the 7 enrolled in the agricultural PhD programme were women, and 19 of the 57 M.Sc candidates were women. In veterinary medicine, 20 of the 48 M.Sc candidates were women, while there were no women at the PhD level.
