Special credit facilities for women in the region are limited and only a small number of women farmers apply for loans. Very few institutional arrangements have been made by countries to establish credit lending facilities for rural women. In addition to poor infrastructure, the lack of experience and information, and illiteracy, act as obstacles to receiving agricultural loans from banks or saving associations. A major constraint in women's access to credit is the usual required collateral especially in the form of land ownership. Thus, lending institutions view women as high credit risks as they do not usually own land. Tradition and custom also limit women's control over money matters, especially with regard to the mobility and interaction necessary to access credit facilities. In many countries, women often resort to obtaining credit informally, generally from family members. Annex III provides a synopsis of credit facilities in selected countries offering credit services to women.
Information on land ownership is very scarce in the region. Indeed, official land ownership records often do not exist in many countries. Furthermore, when the data is available, it is rarely disaggregated by gender. Surveys to collect information directly from farmers should be carefully interpreted, since many tend to under-report for fear of taxation and government control. In spite of these methodological constraints, it appears that women rarely own land in the region, and when they do, the land is often controlled and/or managed by their male relatives until marriage, when the titles are transferred directly to their sons. From the scant data available, it also appears that the average landholding size owned by women is considerably smaller than that owned by men. Table 8 provides data regarding landownership patterns in selected countries of the region.
An analysis of the data available indicates that women seldom exercise their rights regarding landownership. Studies have shown that women often give up their inherited land to their brothers or fathers who, in return, offer them protection from their husbands and husband's family in times of conflict, as well as support in times of need. Often, when their land is being managed by their male relatives, women receive a portion of the land's remittances and/or presents during religious feasts (Taylor 1987; Dresch 1989; Sabir et al. 1989).
Table 8: Landownership Patterns by Gender
Country |
Land Ownership |
Cyprus |
Women own 51.4% of rural land. |
Egypt |
-A 1989 survey of 3 governorates (Gharbiya, Giza and Menia) showed that women constituted 24% of the total landowners in these regions. Of the newly reclaimed land distributed to agricultural graduates, only 7.4% of the land was allocated to women. |
Jordan |
Women own 28.6% of land. |
Lebanon |
A PRA survey in the village of Ersal showed that 1% of the land was registered in women's names. |
Morocco |
-A PRA study of 6% of Mulk land (surveyed land) in 5 regions showed that 14.3% of landholders were women and 37% of landholdings were owned jointly by men and women. |
Oman |
In 1980 and 1985, all registered land was owned by men. In 1993, 0.4% of registered land was owned by women. On average, men's landholdings were three times the size of women's. |
UAE |
Women own 4.9% of the total number of registered land properties in rural areas. |
Source: Compiled from Country Papers.
The large majority of extension officers in the region are male and most, if not all, of their target farmers are males. This is because the number of female-headed households is relatively small and because tradition limits interaction between male extension officers and female members of a farming household. Extension to women farmers is often limited to a few qualified and well-trained women extension workers providing training to women in traditional home-based activities such as health, hygiene, nutrition, home management and childcare, and rarely includes on-the-job-training, or information and acquisition of skills in crop and livestock production. Thus, women's access to extension services and information is limited in the region. Table 9 provides information on the percentage of women extension officers and their activities in selected countries. As indicated, the number of women extension officers is extremely small and the scope of their work is severely limited.
Table 9: Women and Extension
Country |
Extension Services |
Cyprus |
There are only 2 women extension officers out of a total of 78 (2.6%), in addition to 8 female home economics officers. l |
Egypt |
Women extension officers constitute 4.8% of total and 76% of home economics officers. The majority of women extension officers are not located in villages. Of the 7371 people participating in activities organized by the extension service such as field days, only 4 were women. |
Iran |
-Women extension officers constituted 1.9% of the total in 1993. -Training courses for women farmers include rice and vegetable growing courses and date packaging. -The Second Five-Year Plan (1994-95) includes provisions to increase the number of women extension officers. |
Iraq |
The General Federation for Iraqi Women (GFIW) has set up 134 rural activity units which provide extension services to women in 2976 villages in the areas of health, nutrition and home management. |
Lebanon |
Extension services at the Ministry of Agriculture ceased in 1975 due to the civil war. Currently, some extension is provided by NGOs but women are not targeted specifically in their projects. |
Morocco |
-Women constitute 11.7% of the total number of extension officers. Female extension officers have been trained in various subjects, usually within the scope of special development projects. -The number of women farmers participating in extension training increased by 277% between 1988-1992. |
Oman |
-The entire extension staff is male, with the exception of one female livestock extension officer. -No women farmers were targeted by extension, or participated in agricultural training during the 1980-92 period. |
Sudan |
Women extension officers constituted 12% of the total in 1988. |
Syria |
Female extension officers are heavily concentrated in the Dept. of Rural Home Economics, whose branches are headed by women. Between 1989 and 1993, male farmers received over 4 times as much training as female farmers. |
Tunisia |
Women constituted 4.2% of the total number of extension officers in 1993. Occasionally, information days are held for women farmers, but an extension strategy to target women farmers regularly has yet to be developed. |
Turkey |
Extension activities have been expanded from training in traditional activities to more income-generating functions. |
Yemen |
-Women extension officers constitute 19.6% of total and 3% of forestry extension officers. -Women extension supervisors constituted 11.1 % of the total in 1993. -The number of women farmers contacted by extension officers was 9.6% of the total number of farmers in 1993. -Women constituted 42% of participants in residential training and 21.2% of "night extension." Women do not participate in day training. |
Source: Compiled from Country Papers.
Rural women in the region spend long hours every day performing tedious and mostly unpaid labour-intensive and time-consuming agricultural and domestic work. Consequently, there is a real need to develop appropriate technologies for women to reduce their workload in unpaid activities, as well as to increase and improve the quality of their income-generating work.
According to PRA studies and other information generated by the country papers for the region, the use of labour-saving technology (agricultural machinery and tools, transportation facilities, running water, electricity, sewage facilities, kitchens, ovens and fridges, etc.) appears to be gender specific, and has been beneficial to women in some cases but detrimental in others.
In technologies developed for agricultural production, such as mechanized land preparation, sowing, fertilizing, herbicide use, harvesting and post-harvesting activities, men have taken control over these functions, leaving the non-mechanized and more labour-intensive tasks to be performed by women, such as hand-weeding, and vegetable and fruit picking. While mechanization has freed women from performing many tedious operations, it has also replaced an important source of paid labour for a large number of women who depended on these tasks to generate additional income for their families. In addition to mechanization, modern irrigation tools and transportation facilities also appear to be used predominantly by men, as documented in the country papers of Lebanon, Yemen and Egypt.
On the other hand, the increase in the use of home-based technologies such as electricity, piped water, sewage disposal, cooking stoves and cold storage devices, have reduced women's workload by reducing or eliminating the number of trips to collect water and fuel from the outside. These technical advances have also improved household hygiene. In many rural areas, however, these technologies are still not available. In Tunisia, in 1991, 30% of rural households did not have running water and depended on women to carry water to the household. In Morocco, only 3.6% of households have a refrigerator and 10.7% have an electrical or gas oven, and in Syria, only 27% of rural dwellings have indoor sanitary facilities.
To date, labour-saving technologies specifically developed to make women's work more effective in crop and livestock production have not been adequately introduced.
The number of women seeking higher education in agriculture is on the rise in all countries of the region, although female enrolment rates remain considerably lower than males. Women students tend to major in subjects such as food technology and nutrition, agricultural economics and horticulture, while others such as agricultural engineering, animal science and husbandry, fisheries and soil science, remain male-dominated fields. Table 10 gives the percentage of women in agricultural institutions in selected countries.
Table 10: Women in Higher Agricultural Education
Country |
Institution |
% Women |
Cyprus |
|
25.0 (1991) |
Egypt |
Faculties of Agriculture Faculty of Veterinary Medicine |
31.4 (1990-91) 24.2 (1990-91) |
Iran |
Faculty of Agriculture |
20.0 (1980) 4.2 (1992) |
Iraq |
Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine |
28.6 (1992) |
Jordan |
Faculty of Agriculture Faculty of Veterinary Medicine |
45.1 (1992) 32.5 (1991) |
Lebanon |
35.0 (1993) | |
Morocco |
Ecole Nationale d'Agriculture Ecole National des Ingénieurs Institut Agronomique Vétérinaire, Hassan II |
37.0 (1989-1990) (total % in all) |
Oman |
Faculty of Agriculture |
12.0 (1992) |
Tunisia |
Faculty of Agronomy IAA % of women agricultural graduates |
24.5 (1991-92) 35.9 (1991-92) 16.0 (1991-92) |
Turkey |
Faculties of Agriculture Veterinary Medicine Forestry |
36.5 (1991-92) 20.8 (1991-92) 17.9 (1991-92) |
Yemen |
College of Agriculture |
199 women have graduated from this college to date. |
Source: Compiled From Country Papers.
