Photo courtesy of Voices of Nigeria.
*This article wills soon be published on the Rapoport Center website.
In Nigeria, women account for up to 60-80 percent of famers, working in areas ranging from small-scale farmers to farm managers and suppliers of labor. Although women make up the majority of workers in the agricultural sector and play a key role in food security for Nigeria, women farmers experience discrimination and generally lack access to the basic means of production, when compared to their male counter-parts. In large part, this issue stems from Nigeria’s lack of gender-specific laws, which leaves women farmers, particularly those in rural areas, vulnerable to traditional Nigerian land customs and gendered colonialist legacies that typically discriminate against women.
Discrimination against women farmers dates back to colonial days, when the British made assumptions about gender relations in Nigeria and imported western ideals about patriarchy into the country. Prior to British colonization, farming in Nigeria was a task that involved both men and women, with each gender complimenting the other’s work. In pre-colonial Igbo societies, for example, there was a dual-sex political system in which women had spheres of authority similar to those of men. While women and men were more or less equals when it came to farming, many women in pre-colonial Nigeria could not own land, and land ownership rights for women varied from tribe to tribe. Some tribes, like the Yoruba, allowed women to own land, while others like the Igbo and the Hausa only allowed women to gain land titles through marriage.
When the British reorganized local political structures via indirect rule, and asserted their preference for male labor in the agricultural sector. Although the British kept traditional Nigerian land ownership rules in place and never passed any exclusionary gender-specific laws, their patriarchal assumptions prioritized men over women in multiple ways. For example, when the British began establishing agricultural training schools in Nigeria, men were the primary beneficiaries. These schools—which aimed to introduce new methods of farming, production, and soil management techniques—almost exclusively focused on training male farmers and their sons, while ignoring the importance of women farmers. Furthermore, men were given more access to farming technology and agricultural loans.
In modern day Nigeria, there are still no gender-specific laws to protect women farmers—one study even called Nigeria’s laws “gender blind.”[1] One of the key laws that relates to farming is Nigeria’s Land Use Act (LUA). The LUA makes no reference to gender, but it does invoke customary law on land acquisition. This means that for a woman farmer to own land legally, she must gain permission from the local government and abide by the customs in that locality. This complicates things for women farmers because most customary laws in Nigeria, similar to pre-colonial times, do not allow women to own, inherit, or buy land. As a result, though women make up the majority of farmers, only 14 percent of women own the land they cultivate. It is particularly difficult for unmarried women to own land. In areas with customs that allow women to own land, studies have shown that males still had access to more fertile lands than women.
This issue of land ownership also restricts women’s ability to access credit facilities because one of the common prerequisites for access to loans is land ownership. As a result, women have more difficulty than men in gaining access to credit and bank services. This further limits the technology that a woman can afford, or else renders her economic advancement dependent on the males in her life. Women are less likely to have access to modern farming inputs such as improved seeds and fertilizers and agricultural policies are not geared toward providing women with equipment. Furthermore, similar to what the British established, agricultural schools and extension programs are still predominantly male-dominated, due to an outdated yet pervasive misconception that focusing on men in the agricultural sector will cause the wealth and information to trickle down and benefit women. Similarly, since men already have access to the means of production, they are more likely to be preferred by schools and banks. Of course, all of these restrictions are further compounded by a lack of education. Only 50 percent of Nigerian women are literate. This severely limits their active participation in understanding how to use new technology and written materials provided by agricultural schools, programs, and credit facilities. Education plays a key role in improving the lives of women farmers. A study showed that educated Nigerian women farmers are more likely to adopt new farm technology than their less educated counter-parts. [2]
The need for Nigeria to enact gender-specific laws is more apparent as the country continues to be impacted by climate change. Rural women farmers will (and are already beginning to) disproportionately bear the harsh effects of the changing climate. Nigerian women contribute 80 percent of the total food production, so if they are not protected, food security in Nigeria could be threatened. For example, two main areas of agriculture that are heavily dominated by women are yam/cassava processing and palm oil processing. Harvesting seasons for yams are usually in May. In 2015, however, irregular rainfall delayed the harvest until July. Furthermore, heat also destroyed yams still growing within the soil. Palm oil processing has also been affected by the drought. Extracting oil from palm kernels requires large amounts of water, and irregular rainfall makes it harder for women to access water from sources near their homes. Nigeria is the world’s fifth largest producer of palm oil, so climate change could affect the livelihood of several women farmers.
It is clear that women who make up the greater percentage of the farming population cannot be left in obscurity if production in the farming sector has to develop at the rate needed to ensure food security in Nigeria in the near future. The need for gender-specific laws to protect its women farmers as means of ensuring their livelihood, the livelihood of their families, and the country’s food security cannot be overemphasized. Only a conscientious policy to reverse the entrenchment of discrimination against women, and to recognize that they can be equal partners to men in reaching development and food security goals, will bring about the justice, equity and security for the country as a whole.
[1] http://www.aacoalition.org/national_policy_women.htm
[2]A.O. Ani, O. Ogunnika AND S.S. Ifah. Relationship Between Socio-Economic Characteristics of Rural Women Farmers and Their Adoption of Farm Technologies in Southern Ebonyi State, Nigeria. International Journal of Agriculture and Biology.(2004)
Ogunlela, Yemisi I., and Aisha A. Muhktar. Gender Issues in Agriculture and Rural Development in Nigeria: The Role of Women. Humanity and Social Sciences Journal (2009)
Korieh, Chima J. The Invisible Farmer? Women, Gender, and Colonial Agricultural Policy in the Igbo Region of Nigeria, c. 1913-1954. African Economic History, No. 29 (2001)
Idisi, P.D. and Yemisi Grace Mtsor. Gender Inequality and Women Participation in Agricultural Development in Nigeria. Merit Research Journal of Education and Review, Vol. 2 (2014)
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ni.html
http://www.indexmundi.com/agriculture/?commodity=palm-oil