WOMEN’S LAND RIGHTS IN NIGERIA
Women in the Niger Delta play a prominent cultural role in agriculture in the region including their contribution to household food security – this despite their limited rights to land and rising seasonal flood levels.
Conservatively, women consist of 60% of agricultural labour in Nigeria. Despite this, women are generally considered as farm help, not farmers. This limits their role in decision-making processes and exposure to economic opportunities that should grow to active participation in the planning processes.
Dr Tonye Odubo’s FAR-LeaF research will investigate Women’s land rights and agricultural development in Bayelsa State.
She says cultural norms in sub-Saharan Africa have long encouraged women to engage in various agricultural activities to provide food for their households. This has never been truer than in Bayelsa State, Nigeria, where farming and providing food for the household is considered the duty of a woman.
Faced with limited access to land, credits, extension services and inputs as well as rising levels of annual floods, environmental degradation, and pests – and in addition to constraints to their reproductive role – most women do not produce enough food for their households and many of these households lack food security.
She aims to study women’s rights to land and agricultural development. Her objectives include ascertaining the role of women in agriculture, examining women’s land rights, assessing access to land and analyzing household food security.
Primary data will be sourced through administration interview schedules for women farmers in seven local government areas in Bayelsa State.
Recommendations of the study are expected to enable women to be truly heard and considered in development, not just for political correctness but with conscious effort and commitment to the development of agriculture.