Access to agricultural resources and services
Land. Access to land is limited for both men and women, but especially so for women. Although data is limited, women traditionally have very little access to land in their own right. This situation also prevails in the agrarian reform sector which grants land to the "head of household", considered to be a man. Thus, usually only widows and daughters have direct access to land, while married women have indirect access through their husbands. When women do have land title, the size of their land is generally small.
Forestry. Although women play an active role in forestry activities at the household level, very few participate in communal nurseries or in the Forestry Committees, who are encharged with directing forestry activities. Moreover, according to data collected by the monitoring and evaluation system on women's participation in forestry training in 1994, approximately 30% of the participants were women.
Water. In general, women face several constraints in their access to irrigation, including: lack of decision-making ability within water user's groups; lack of access to training on technical matters and information; prohibitive time schedule of water provision, as access is usually open at night; and discriminatory attitudes which perceive women as "part-time" workers.
Credit. Women's access to credit is extremely limited. Data is scarce, but in general, women comprise no more than 15% of the beneficiaries of credit directed to small farmers. Until it was dissolved, the Agrarian Bank was the main provider of credit. In 1992, a law was passed to facilitate Rural Savings and Credit Associations. NGOs have also promoted revolving funds.
Extension and agricultural training. Training is directed mainly to those areas which are the responsibility of men, although some attention is now being directed to meeting the needs of women for labour-saving technology for both household and agricultural production tasks. Women have very little access to extension. Data on extensionists is limited and not gender-disaggregated, but an FAO survey in 1989 found that about 17% of extensionists were women. A larger number of women are graduates of university-level agricultural education (29.7% in 1990),
