Evaluation of Women Access and Rights to Land and its Implications on Rural Household Food Security in Selected Rural Communities, Abia State, Nigeria

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1 Discourse Journal of Agriculture and Food Sciences ISSN: Vol. 2(8): , August, 2014 Evaluation of Women Access and Rights to Land and its Implications on Rural Household Food Security in Selected Rural Communities, Abia State, Nigeria 1 Odoemelam, L. E., 2 Alamba, C. and 3 Lekan-Akomolafe, C. N 1 Department of Rural Sociology and Extension Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike 2 Department of Agribusiness and Management Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike 3 Centre for Continuous Education Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike for Correspondence: lovinasteve@gmail.com Abstract Land reform experts claim that the main obstacle to increase agricultural output is shortage of land and population pressure. However, it is not the shortage of land, which affects the output of agricultures; it is the structure of land tenure, the lack of proper land ownership and rights. The study area was Abia State. Abia State is made up of three Agricultural zones namely Aba, Umuahia and Ohafia respectively. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used in the selection of the sample size. In the first stage, one local government area was selected from each zone, from each LGAs, 2 blocks were selected and from each block, 2 cells were selected and from each cells were selected and from each cell, 10 rural women from male-headed households were selected bringing the total to 180 respondents. Data were generated through the use of Focus Group Discussion and participatory observation. Data generated were analyzed through the use of simple descriptive statistics like frequency distribution and means. Results showed that most of the women 34% were between years of age, while the least of them were between the ages of years of ages, 61% were married and living with their husband while 10% were separated. Educational level of respondents indicated that 32% of the respondents had no formal education, 41% had primary while 27% had secondary education only. Level of income indicated that majority of the respondents 34% earned between (N ,000) while 16% earned between (N ,000) per annum. Methods of land inheritance shows that women acquired land for cultivation through matrilineal ties 39%, purchased 34%, other farming ties 29% rented or borrowed 24% while inherited also had 8%. On access and use rights on lands, the result shows that about 30% of the respondents were allowed to cultivate only annual crops, 15% perennial crops, 11% were not allowed to harvest production from the trees, 13% were not allow not to retain land after long fallow and 8% complained about limited access to inputs. On effect of access and land use rights on food security the respondents 25% stated that due to the lack of access to land use right, their expertise on farming activities are under-utilized leading to food insecurity, 15% said they lack commitment, 26% complained about their inability to get credit facilities from bank because they can t use their cultivating land to get collateral, unfertile plots 13% leading to low yield and non-mechanized farms, 24% due to scattered plots. Ownership rights are critical to securing a sustainable livelihood and income, and the lack of rights is one of the main sources of economic insecurity. Adequate access to land use right is therefore directly relevant to the millennium development goal one which has to do with eradication of extreme poverty and hunger. Keywords: Women, land-use rights and access INTRODUCTION The role of women in agricultural production dates back in time and is receiving increasing emphasis in Nigeria and around the world. Gender, that is the socially constructed relations between men and women is an organizing elements of existing farming system world-wide and a determining factor of on-going agricultural market liberalization and in the

2 236 re-organization of farms, as well as the rise of environmental and sustainable concerns are redefining the links between gender and development. The proportion of women in agricultural production and post harvest activities ranges from 20 to 70%. According to Iheke and Nwaru (2009), women provide a substantial proportion of both family and hired labour accounting for percent of agricultural labour force in Nigeria. Time allocation studies revealed that rural women worked on an average of 12 to 18 hours per day compared to 8 12 hours for men (Unamma, 2001). Women also play major roles in farm level decision making either as farm managers or because of their special skills or as a household-heads in the absence or death of their husbands. In some countries like Thailand, Nigeria and Syria, women are the principle labour force on small scale farms and perform the major share of hoeing, processing and marketing (FAO, 2006). However, Nigerian women do not enjoy equal right in labour market due to heavy burden of domestic work and educational attainment (Ekumankama and Orji-Ojio, 2006). According to FAO (2010), empirical evidence from many different countries shows that female farmers are just as efficient as their male counterparts, but they have less land use rights and inputs, so they produce less. Ashiro (2010) in his findings reported that land tenure designates the rights individuals and communities have with regard to land, namely the right to occupy, to use, to develop, to inherit, and to transfer. Land tenure remains at least, one part of complicated combination of the structural factors contributing to poverty and violence in contemporary Africa (Egeni, 2006). The traditional land holding system in this country for example has given room for a diminutive proportion of land made available for cultivation of food. It is characterized by a situation where several interests, subsist on a small parcel of land. The land use act of 1978 which was introduced to salvage the situation has also be found wanting in ensuring that land is made available to users. Hence access to land in Nigeria is a major treat to food security in the country. According to IPFRI (2008), research has shown that Nigerian women play major roles in key farming operations such as planting, weeding and harvesting, to the extent that certain crops are designated as female crops in some areas. For instance, in Southeastern Nigeria, yam is the traditional male prestige crop while cassava and other crops like melon, cocoyam are female crops. Inspite of their numerous contribution to food production, their access to needed farm resources has been very low, due to marital and religious factors. Women particularly lack direct access to land and are bound to a large extent by the decision of land owners IFAD (2009). In Igbo customary law, all areas of land holding, women are excluded as land passes from the father to the male children. An unmarried daughter has a right to live in her father s house, but she is not allowed to cultivate the land as her own. The multiplicity of the laws on inheritance leaves a gaps that permits the count and self styled traditionalists who include the unscrupulous relatives to choice the laws that are beneficial to their self interest and to the advantage of the woman. In Abia State which is part of Igbo ethnic group in Nigeria, the customary law provides that woman cannot inherit land from her husband estate. The relatives of the deceased usually regard such property as family property and a birth right, acquisition of property with a spouse are not recognized under the custom to give the women any right to estate or land through her male, child, if only the male child consent to giving some of the estate to her. This means that a childless woman under this, practice is a loser and cannot inherit anything. By this practices women are deprived of holding land, a resource which could increase agricultural production in the study area, inheritance which is seen as the prerogative of the masculine gender constitute a great factor and determinant in land ownership. The risk of poverty, food insecurity and the physical well being of women and children depend on whether she has control over land and productive resources, not just access mediated through male family members. The understanding of food security and well being outcomes is particularly crucial as in most rural population and growing pressure on land. Until recently, the issue of food security was exclusively linked with food production, but starvation can result from a fall in endowments such as land alienation among other factors (Rao, 2006). Three fundamental ingredient of food security are adequate food production, economic access to available food and nutritional security, but economic access and nutritional security very much depend or food production. In Nigeria, because women are the central actors involved in providing most of the work in agricultural production. This huge input of women to food production not withstanding they are constrained by a number of factors among which is the question of their right to land. Therefore the study try to investigation women access and right to land and its implications or household food security, with the following specific objectives to; 1) ascertain the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents 2) identify respondents sources of agricultural land for cultivation 3) examine their level of access and rights to those lands. 4) analyze the relationship between level of access and rights to land and household food security. METHODOLOGY The study was carried out in Abia State, Abia State is situated between latitude , and north and longitude 07 0 and east. It is bordered by Imo, Anambra, Rivers in the west, northwest and south west respectively. To the

3 237 north northwest, east and southeast is bordered by Enugu, Ebonyi, Cross River, and Akwa-Ibom State respectively. Abia State belong to the south-east agro ecological zone of Nigeria, and is located within the forest-bell-with temperature ranging between 20 0 C 36 0 C. There are two major season in Abia State, the dry season which starts from October to march and the rainy season which starts from April to September, even though there has been a lot of fluctuation or vacations because of climate change. The major occupation of the people is agriculture especially in the rural areas. This is supported by predominant rich soil and the tropical rain forest. According to the national Population commission (006), Abia State has a population of 2,833,999 people and a land mass cover of 5, sp.km. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used in the selection of the sample size. Abia State is made of three Agricultural zones namely, Ohafia, Umuahia and Aba Zone respectively. In the first stage one Local Government Area was selected from each of the zones. In the second stage, 3 blocks were selected from each LGA and from each block, 2 cells will be selected from each, 10 women in male-headed household bringing the total to 180 respondent respectively. Data were collected through the use of semi-structured questionnaires, Focus Group Discussion and Participatory observation by the research. The data generated were analyzed with the use of simple descriptive and statistics like frequency distribution. Objective 1 4 were analyzed using descriptive statistics RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS Data in Table 1 shows that a greater proportion 34% of the women were between the ages of years of age while the least 4% were between the ages of years of age. The implication of the result is that both young and old women were involved in farming activities to secure food for their families. The table also revealed that 61% of the women were married and living with their husbands, 29% were divorced and 10% were separated, but both of them had male presences in their households. The table further revealed the educational level of the respondents in the study area about 40% of the respondents had primary education, 32% had no formal education while 28% had secondary education. The results shows that the women were fairly literate. Education and literacy help people to improve productivity and facilitates their access to information and higher wages. Therefore economic independence for women is crucial to break their barrier of their financial situations and give room to purchase or hire land for their farming activities. The table further reveals level of income of the respondents. Majority of the women 34% earned between N ,000 Naira, while 16% earned between N ,000 Naira per annum. Thus, if productive resources are made available to women, it write could alleviate their poverty and improve on household food security. The implication of the result is that they lack the capital required to purchase inputs even when they are offered at a subsidized rates. On household size, majority of the respondents had 6 8 members living under the same roof. According to FAO (2001), poor families especially the rural ones, have large family size to gain extra helping hands in the farm, to engage some in labour for extra income, to ensure the survive of a few as old age security. The desire for a least one son in the community to enable the women to acquire a land for cultivation is driving force for large family also. On farm size of the respondents about 49% of the women had their cultivating lands less than 1 hectare while the least 6% had a least 3 hectares of land for cultivation. Women are responsible for carrying out 70% of agricultural labour, despite the integral role that women play in the agricultural sector, their access to land is limited and a serious impediment to their maximizing agricultural production. Table 2 shows that women acquired land for cultivation mostly through matrilineal ties 39%, purchased 34%, other family ties 29%, rented or borrowed 24% while inheritance/gift had 8%. According to Palmer (2004) and Elliss (2000) stated that women gain access to land only through their husbands or senior male relatives, while women from matrilineal and axorilocal societies may have direct access to land through their lineage membership. In many communities, the lineage authorities allocate land to the male household head. Women on the other hand have secondary cultivation rights that they obtain through make family members (Sarpong, 2006; Borteinboley, 2002). Generally therefore, the hierarchical nature of rights and responsibilities over land that emerge as a result of gender differentiated rights and roes are skewed against women and girls in favour of boys. Access to land through ownership or secure tenure is a sine qua non for improving agricultural productivity. Without secure land use rights, the women have little or no access to credit or assurance of access to it, they may have less incentive to engage in sustainable agricultural practices that can lead to food security (Saka et al., 2011). Table 3 shows the land use rights of women for cultivation. From the results about 30% of the women have right to cultivate annual crops only 15% of the women were allowed to cultivate perennial crops, the results also indicated women were not allowed to plant trees as trees were seen as cash crops that generates money for the males. Because of limited access to land, planting dates and type of crops to plant were also determinant by the male households. About

4 238 Table 1.Socio-economic characteristics of the respondents Variable Frequently Percentage Age Marital status Married Divorced Separated Educational level Non formal secondary Primary Secondary Tertiary Level of income (N 000) Household size Membership of an organization Belonging to Not belonging to Farm size in hectares Variables Total plots put together Less than 1 ha ha / 2 ha ha ha Total Source: Field Data, % of the respondents complained that they were not allowed to harvest produce from the trees on the cultivating lands. According to NAP (2006) observed that gender biased differences also exists in relation to the use of forest resources. It further stated that tend to utilize forest resources for the generation of immediate income. Some of the women 13% complained that they were not allow to retain land after long fallow and 8% complained limited access to use of inputs to increase her productivity.

5 239 Table 2. Distribution of responses based on methods of inheritance of land in the states Variables Frequency Percentages ** Methods Inheritance/gift Patrilineal ties Matrilineal ties Other family ties Purchased Rented or borrowed ** Multiple response Source: Field data, 2013 Table 3.Distribution of respondents over land access and use rights in the study area *** Multiple response Source: Field data, 2013 **Variables Frequency Percentages Use rights Cultivate annual Crops Cultivate perennial Crop *Plant trees Determine date of planting Cut trees *Harvest produce from trees Retain land after long fallow Use inputs Onyemuwa (2012) confirmed this findings by stating that women face numerous challenges within the agricultural sector, including lack of control over land, access to improved seeds fertilizer and pesticides limited. According to them even where it is available, the owner of the land may not allow us to use fertilizer. The land use act of 1978 which was introduced to salvage the situation has also be found wanting in ensuring that land is available to the end users, hence this limited land right use can become a major threat to food security. Agwu et al. (2010) stated that the nature of land rights in the country is gender biased. Mgbada (2002) and Rahman (20040 reported that women provide about 60 80% of agricultural labour and contribute about 80% of food production in Nigeria. This contribution could be diminished by cultural practices and polices restricting women on the use of land that is considered a basic agricultural input and the implication is less food on the table. Closing the gender gap in agricultural inputs alone, the Food and Agricultural organization of the United Nations has estimated that it would life million people out of hunger (FAO, 2011). Results on table 4 shows effect of access and land use rights on food security in the study area. About 23% of the women complained that they rarely own land inherited from spouse or relatives despites their heavy involvement in agricultural production. This lack of title to land, prevents them from exercising or improving their expertise in crop production and animal husbandry because of tenure security. The implication of this action is low yield leading to food security. Also about 26% of the respondents stated that they lack agricultural credit facilities. Agricultural credit is also necessary in increasing the capital base of the women farmers according to the women, they do not have enough funds for farming. The problem is compounded because they do not have easy access to agricultural credit because they lack security over land, which can be used as a collateral to obtain loan. These have a lot of impediment on the agricultural productive strength of women. World Bank (2009) stipulated that empowering women and girls is critical for agricultural development and non-adoption of mechanized farming due to land tenure structures. The customary land tenure system practiced in the study area exclude women from the right of inheriting land which has a lot of psychological and economic effect on the use and adoption of improved methods of farm practice. Some of the women 12% complained about infertile plots usually allocated to them which results into low yield without fertilizer, primitive and labour intensive

6 240 Table 4.Effects of access and land use rights on food security Variables Frequency Percentages Underutilized expertise Lack of total commitment Lack of credit facilities Unfertile Plots Non-mechanized farming practices *Multiple response Source: Field data, 2014 farm implements, traditional farming practices have adversely affected agricultural production. This can be attributed to their low level of income. The reason for poverty among the women are numerous, unfavourable and tenure system in our rural communities which has rendered women landless (Ode Ojowu et al.2007). Quisumbing et al. (1995) agree rightfully that because women cannot generally owned land in their own right, they tend to have small farm plot allocated or be allocated poor-quality land which easily deteriorates with interfered cultivation. This partly explains why many studies have shown that women farm plots have lower yield than those controlled by men. As key players in food production therefore, strengthening women land right is vital in all efforts toward food security. CONCLUSION Ownership rights are critical to securing a sustainable livelihood and income, and the lack of rights is one of the main sources of economic insecurity. When men and women have equal access to land use rights, they have effective decision-making power in the household and food production will be enhanced to its full capacity to support the welfare of all family members and to promote food security in the society. Discrimatory attitudes and practices regarding the role of women and men in the study area such as the limited inheritance rights accounted to the women were significant barriers to their attaining food security. RECOMMENDATIONS Adequate access to land use right is therefore directly relevant to the millennium development goal one which has to do with eradication of extreme poverty and hunger. Legal reforms can only be translate into greater food security and reduce poverty if they are enforced. By harmonizing statutory and customary laws and helping women make land claims, women role as an important economic actor in an agricultural community can be enhanced thereby promoting food security within and outside the community can be enhanced thereby promoting food security within and outside the community. The issue of women access and right to land is not an end itself but hinges on community and national survival. Land is important for agricultural product and particularly for food production. It is therefore a vital resources in Nigeria whose economy apart from oil account for about 75% of employment. Increasing agricultural innovation or subsidizing the agricultural sector is not enough in the absence of veritable land distribution policy that takes into concern the real actions involved in food production of biodiversity and assisting the negative effects and risks of farming practices and technology, including pesticides on women health, and taking measures to reduce use and exposure. Finally goring women s association offer credit, savings and representation. Support of award fellowship to fund female scientists in agricultural research is also necessary. REFERENCES Agwu, KA., Oluchi, G., Onuoha, O. U. (2012). Land Right Characteristic and Access to Land: Implication on Food Security in Nigeria. Aspen, K. (2009). Women in Agricultural Research and Development, Africa Press. Balakrishnan, R. (2004). Widening gaps in technology development and technology transfer to support rural women. Hills leasehold forestry and forage development project, Napel (GCP/NED 052 NET). Boetei-Doku, E. A. (2002). Behind the Norms: Women s Access to Land in Ghana in the Dynamics of Resource Tenure in West Africa. London: IIED. Conway, E. and Lambrow, Y. (1995). Gender and Development Equity for all in the International Research Centre.

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