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108 | Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) Report
cultural researchers in a 27-country sample were female (Beintema and Stads, 2006). The gap between the importance of women in agricultural production and processing and their weak representation in and access to agricultural services suggests that there is scope for enhancing their contribution to the agricultural sector. Improving women’s general education has been shown to have a positive impact on agricultural yields. In countries where modern agricultural technologies have been introduced, returns on an additional year of women’s education range from 2% to 15%, more than the returns for the same educational investment in men. Further, policy experiments in Kenya have suggested that primary schooling for women agricultural workers raises their agricultural yields by as much as 24% (Table 5-1). Though it has not been proven, increasing the proportion
of women extension agents is likely to increase the
number of women attending extension meetings and talking
with extension agents and increase the relevance of AKST
for women. Extension officials are typically men (only 17% In much of SSA women have “secondary” rights to land, obtained through their husbands or other male kinsfolk (Toulmin and Quan, 2000). They often have access to their own plots of land, which may be of a lower quality than those available to men, on which they may cultivate different crops than their husbands. The extent to which women are less likely than their husbands or other male farmers to invest in their plots differs from country to country. For example, women’s level of inputs in Burkina Faso has been found to be similar to men’s, but in Uganda women are less likely to plant trees and make other long-term investments in productive assets because they are not confident of being able to control any ensuing profits (Toulmin and Quan, 2000). Hence the likely impact on agricultural production, particularly long-term investments, of more for- Table 5-1. Contribution of African women to family livelihoods. Table 5-1. Contribution of African woment to family livelihoods.
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malized access to land for women will vary from country to country. Women’s access to land and their degree of land tenure security on private and communal lands can be improved through the implementation of land policies and laws oriented towards equal rights for men and women. Although many countries are at an advanced stage in the formulation of gender sensitive policies, laws, and other instruments, implementation is slow (e.g., women received only 20% of land under the recent Zimbabwe land reforms). To catalyze implementation, reforms can be accompanied by mechanisms such as the harmonization of laws related to inheritance, marriage and property rights. In addition, political will and clear guidelines and benchmarks for monitoring implementation to allow appropriate authorities, including citizens, to hold governments accountable in this regard are more likely to lead to successful implementation of land reforms (see Box 5-2). Women farmers access only 10% of credit allocated to smallholders and only 1% of available agricultural credit. These data could reflect either a lack of supply of credit to women or a lack of demand. For example, women who feel insecure about their land are less likely to choose to invest in that land and so less likely to demand credit. Although the following options have not been proven to increase the likelihood of achieving the assessment goals, they can increase the profile of women in agriculture. Quantifying the role and value of women’s knowledge and contribution to agriculture and natural resource management, particularly with respect to local and traditional knowledge, can emphasize the importance of women in agriculture and subsequently the cost of not fully mainstreaming them in all aspects of agricultural development. Protocols that ensure that women are involved in the design and enumeration of any questionnaires and surveys that are undertaken and that women are fully represented in any sample that is taken can be introduced relatively easily and at low cost. Data collection that deals particularly with
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