Women, Land and Agriculture

8/7/2019 Women, Land and Agriculture

1/95

Women, Landand Agriculture

Edited by Caroline Sweetman

Oxfam Focus on Gender


2/95

The books in Oxfam'sFocus on Gender series were originally published as single issuesofthe journal Gender and Development (formerly Focus on Gender). Gender and Development ispub lished by Oxfam three times a year. It is the only British journal to focus specificallyon gender and development issues internationally, to explore the links between genderand development initiatives, and to make the links between theoretical and practical

work in this field. For information about subscription rates, please apply to CarfaxPublishing Company, PO Box 25, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 3UE, UK; Fax: +44 (0)1235 401550. In North America, please apply to Carfax Publishing Company, 875-81Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139; Fax: (+1) 617 354 6875. In Australia,please apply to Carfax Publishing Company, PO Box 352, Cammeray, NSW 2062,Australia; Fax:+61 (0) 2 9958 2376.

All rights reserved. No par t of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmittedin any form orby any means withou t the written permission ofthe Publisher.

Front cover: Milking a cow in Bolivia Photo: SeanSprague

Oxfam GB1999Published by Oxfam GB, 274 Banbury Road, OxfordOX2 7DZ, UK.

Typeset by Oxfam PublishingOxfam is a registered charityNo . 202918

Oxfam GB is a member of Oxfam International

ISBN 08559 8 400 7

This book converted to digital file in 2010


3/95

Contents

Editorial 2Caroline Sweetman

Liberalisation, gende r, and the land ques tion in sub-Saharan Africa 9Kaori Izumi

Does land ownership make a difference?W om en's roles in agriculture in Kerala, India 19ShobaArun

Rural de velo pm en t in Brazil: Are w e practising fem inis m or gender? 28Cecilia Sardenberg, Ana Alice Costa, and ElizetePassos

W om en farmers and economic change in northern Ghana 39Rachel Naylor

'Lazy m en', tim e-use , and rural de velo pm en t in Zam bia 49Ann Whitehead

Integrating gend er ne ed s into drink ing-water projects in Nepa l 62Shibesh Chandra Regmi and Ben Fawcett

Structural adjustme nt, wo m en , and agriculture in Cameroon 73Charles Fonchingong

Interview w ith P enny Fowler and K oos Nee f jes of Oxfam GB:Are genetically mo dified food s a ne w developm ent? 80

Resources: 86compiled by Erin Murphy Graham

Books and papers 86Organisations 88W eb resources 89E-mail lists 90

Index to Volu m e 7 91


4/95

Editorial

A s we enter the new century, thereis an increasing trend towardsthe 'feminisation of agriculture'(FAO 1999i). The role of women in foodproduction is expanding: in south-east Asia,women currently provide up to 90 per centof labour for rice cultivation, while in sub-Saharan Africa, women produce up to 80per cent of basic foodstuffs for householdconsumption and sale (FAO 1999ii). Onekey element in this process is the fact thatrural livelihoods are changing, as a result ofeconomic crisis and growing pressure onscant natural resources. For example, malemigration has led to a 21.8 per cent dropin the rural male population in Malawibetween 1970 and 1990, while the femalepopulation declined by only 5.4 per cent(ibid.). The role of women is also expan-

ding to compensate for 'missing men',lost in armed conflict and through disease,including AIDS. In sub-Saharan Africa,AIDS is devastating agricultural pro-duction, and there is an increasingdependence on households headed byfemales, children, and the elderly. The 1999harvest in Zimbabwe saw a 61 per centdecrease in maize output (Mail andGuardian, 16 August 1999). Agribusiness isalso being 'feminised': in countries likeChile, where overall economic statisticsreflect the achievements of agribusiness inbringing about an economic 'miracle'

(Barrientos et al. 1999, 1), women workershave become central to the production offruit for export, providing 'flexible femalelabour ... with a clear pattern of gendersegregation' (ibid., 9).

Articles in this collection assert thatwomen's contribution to global agriculturalproduction for food and for profit continuesto be largely unacknowledged and under-valued, and that their ability to farm isconstrained, because the resources theyneed are often controlled by others.Women in many different contexts continueto have their rights denied to independentcontrol of land, agricultural inputs, credit,and other essential resources. Their accessto training, education, and extensionservices, and to gaining leadership of ruralorganisations are impeded by assumptions

on the part of national governments,community leaders, and developmentpolicy-makers that farmers are male,because 'men are the providers' . Newtechnologies which are available to malefarmers may not be available to women,while women's own knowledge of cropsand husbandry is either underestimated,or appropriated by private companieswhich can profit from it. New agriculturalpolicies are needed, founded on a genderanalysis of the process through whichagriculture is becoming feminised, and acommitment to gender equality.


5/95

Editorial

Agriculture, production,and gender relations

The high productivity and low visibility ofwomen in agriculture first receivedworldwide attention 30 years ago with thepublicat ion of Ester Boserup's bookWoman's Role in Economic Developmentin1970. The UN International DecadeforWomen (1976-85) subsequently focused onwom en's role in production.

The main focus of Boserup's book is theimpact on international developmentof afailure to recognise the extentof women's

responsibilities, and to support womeninthis. During International Women's Decade,feminist researchers shifted the emphasis togender equity, to focus on the waysinwhich changing conditionsof production,and shifts in the division of labour, arelinked to changes in women's status forbetter or worse.

These studies drew the attention ofpolicy-makers to the enormous workload of

women across the world, and contrastedthis to women's lack of control over theland and property they used in production,and their lack of a say in how the productsof their work were used. These analysesquestioned racist stereotypesof ruralsocieties as backward, by pointing outwomen's s imilar experiences in theindustrial, 'modern' settings of Europe andNorth America. Cross-cultural comparisonsshowed that women's role in productionwas under-valued everywhere:a shiftaway from farming to manufacturing andservice industries did not necessarily endinequality between the sexes. These studiesalso exposed the fact that women were and still are burd ened with almost allthe domestic work and child-rearingthroughout the world, and that thisisl inked to the lesser value ascribedtowomen's and men's work.

Rural development interventions focusprimarily on promoting efficiencyin theagricultural sector, rather than promoting

equality between the sexes. However, allthe articles in this issue assert thata focuson gender equityis essential, evenif theaim is only to increase efficiency. It is clearthat (in societies where agricultureis thesole or the major sourceof householdl ivel ihoods) modesof product ionarerelated to the divisionof labour within thehousehold, and in particular to marriageand family forms. The implications of thiswere clearly recognised by Ester Boserup:'Economic and social developmentunavoidably entails the disintegration of thedivision of labour among the two sexes

traditionally establishedin the village'(Boserup 1989, 5). Feminist analysis alsoconfirms the links between underlyingpower relations between the sexes, whichdefine, and are defined by, the genderdivision of labour. For example, norms offemale submission and fidelity withinmarriage are an economic,as well as asocial, issue: control of women's bodiesisessential if men are to be certainof thepaternity of the children who will inherittheir land and property. This control in turnshapes wom en's participation in production,since their mobility outside the householdmay be restricted and policed. Forms ofmarriage monogam y, polygamy, andpolyandry determine the size and natureof the household labour force, and theresources availableto the household aredetermined by different systemsof landand property inheritance, formsofmarriage, and norms of access and control.

Women's land righ ts: access,control, and ownership

Independent land rights, which enablewomen to decide on the useof land andkeep the proceeds from such use, are still adream for women in many countr ies ,despite their increasingly central roleinagriculture. Women's relationship withland is determined by customs and laws ofinheritance and marriage.If a woman does


6/95


7/95

Editorial

However, during the economic adjustmentdrives of the 1980s, with their politicalideologies of deregulation and individualcompetition, women and other margi-nalised groups have lost out. Debates onland and gender equity tend to be limitedto discussing the pros and consof civillaw and individual rights versus collectiveownership and customary law.In heraccessible discussionof land theories,Izumi shows how these reflect the histo-rical context and current political andeconomic ideologies.

Agriculture, livelihoods,and economic adjustment

Over the past decade, world trade hasexpanded, but while many countries haveincreased their agricultural exports, others(including mostin sub-Saharan Africa)have not been able to take advantage of theopportunities of global trade. The 48 leastdeveloped countries, home to 10 per cent of

the world's population, have seen theirshare of world exports decline to 0.4 percent over the past two decades. In contrast,the United States and the European Unioncontain roughly the same numberofpeople, yet account for 50 per cent of worldexports (World Bank 1998). Poor farmersnot only are unable to gain access to globalexport markets for cash crops, but also faceother threats to their livelihoods, health,and food security. The activitiesof multi-national corporations, promoting patentedtechnologies developed through geneticmodification, pose one such threat.

The impact of globalisation on farmersvaries according to their context and socialidentity. Two articlesin this collectiondiscuss how structural adjustment hasaffected African agriculture, and women'slives. Rachel Naylor discusses Ghana,where path-breaking feminist research onpatterns of agricultural production andhousehold budgeting was carried out byAnn Whitehead almost two decades ago.

Naylor points out that the language used indiscussions of women's vulnerability, of theimpact of economic reform, andof the'rural poor', renders rural dwellers passive,and obscures the fact that people adjust tomeet challenges posed to them. Yet whilemen and women are taking advantage ofnew opportunities, the evidence shows thatin Ghana, as elsewhere, women are alsoshouldering added burdens. In his article,Charles Fonchingong charts how membersof women's self-help groupsin Cameroonperceive life during the structural adjust-ment programmesof the past decade.In

this case study, women from rural areasdescribe how they see the formerly cleardivisions between male and female systemsof agriculture blurring intoone, ashousehold members struggle to overcomethe threat of poverty brought about bystructural adjustment.

Several articles in this issue discussagricultural production as one componentof increasingly diverse livelihoods in rural

and (to a lesser extent) urban areas.Migration alreadya key component ofrural livelihoods for many has becomeincreasingly significant in this era ofenvironmental degradation, pressure onscant resources, and structural adjustment.Many in rural areas have no sources ofcash, and subsistence cannot be guaranteed,so they have to maintain living standardsthrough cash employment. Migration isagender-specific issue: depending on thenature and conditions of the work available,either women or men will travel to findit.Age, and the stageof the family life-cycle,also determine who goes and who stays. Incentral and south America and east Asia,women are often the migrants;in southAsia, the picture is different. In their articlefocusing on an arid areaof Brazil, CeciliaSardenberg, Ana Alice Costa, and ElizetePassos focus on a major project which aimsto alleviate poverty among rural dwellers.They point out that 'loss of labour throughmigration can effectively double women's


8/95

workload: in certain communities, nearly80 per cent of the households and the careof the land are under women's respon-sibility for the greatest partof the year'(Sardenberg etal., this issue).

The second greenrevolution

From the mid-1960s onwards, rural develop-ment research and policy concentrated onthe need to 'modernise' the agriculturalsector, promoting the cultivationof cashcrops on large-scale land-holdings. Thefirst green revolution saw the advent ofhigh-tech 'solutions' to food insecurity inAsia and Africa, including chemicalfertil isers and pesticides, mechanisedirr igat ion, and new high-yield cropvarieties developed in the laboratories ofNorth America and Europe.

At present, consumers and environ-mental activists are challenging the right ofprivate companiesto shape the second

green revolution, with an eyeto profitrather than the goal of human developmentthrough global, sustainable, food security.While international development agenciesand national governments controlled thefirst green revolution, the second greenrevolution is being shaped by the will ofmulti-national corporations, and by specificgovernments which are pursuing the newtechnologies (the US is currently exporting

$50 billion of agricultural productsa yearand planting transgenic varieties for 25-45per cent of its major crops, accordingtoUNDP 1999 figures1). There is currently aninternational outcry, caused bya concernfor public health, for the rightof states toensure food security of their populations,and by the threat of environmental hazardand the appropr ia t ion of communalresources by private ownership.In aninterview with Koos Neefjes and PennyFowler here, these issues are explored, andthe connections between this debate andgender issues teased out.

Vandana Shiva, who is perhaps the best-known feminist environmental activisttoday, highlights the links between theideologies which determine the course ofglobal development, the damage whichdevelopment interventions have wreakedon the environment, and women's well-being and status.

For gender and developmentresearchers and workers, ecofeministapproaches which believein the closeconnection between women and nature(Agarwal 1992) may seem naivein theirfailure to analyse the way in which womenare divided asa group by other aspects oftheir identity, and in their conflation of'women's perspectives and actions' withother 'alternative' visionsof agricultureand world trade (Shiva 1996, 26). Data onthe impact of the first green revolution ofthe 1960s and 1970s show that 'the majorbeneficiaries are those who were alreadyrelatively welloff... but there is no simpleopposi t ion between men and women'

(White 1992, 46). Key elements of Shiva'srecent work on globalisation agree with theviews of activists from anti-poverty andenvironmental organisations: for example,that states should have the right to feedtheir people without competing with globalplayers in a so-called free, but unfair,market, and that consumers should 'thinkglobally, act locally'. While it is true that 'inthe North and the South, women have been

in the forefront [of the struggle ] againstindustrial farming methods which destroylivelihoods and ecosystems' (Shiva 1996,25), women involved in political protest onthese issues have morein common thantheir sex.

Analytical tools andwomen's workload

Two articles in this issue shed light onimportant methodological issuesfordevelopment policy-makers and practi-tioners. A numberof development orga-


9/95

Editorial

nisations and individuals have developedanalytical tools to assist the process ofintegrating gender issues into planning andimplementation. However, a major risk inusing such tools is that they can be appliedmechanistically, without commitment tochallenging injustice (Smyth 1999).

Another risk is that inaccurate data areproduced and development interventionsinformed by them. Studies of women's andmen's time-use formed a vital element ofthe pioneering research into the role ofwomen in agriculture of the 1970s and1980s. Data of this type has been used to

raise awareness among community groupsand development practitioners of theunequal workloads of women and men,and of women's multiple roles inproductive and reproductive work. In anarticle which reviews an influential paperon time-use in Zambia, Ann Whiteheadpoints out the need to understand the roleof agriculture in rural livelihoods, and thegendered nature of the external employ-

ment market, before making assumptionsabout women's and men's roles inproduction. Whitehead argues that in theabsence of such a detailed understandingof context, skewed figures can result in alack of understanding of rural livelihoodsand in inaccurate stereotypes of Africanmen as lazy.

Women's central role in contributing torural (and urban!) livelihoods through

domestic work is rarely shared by men. Theneed to alleviate the time-consumingdrudgery of water and fuel collection indeveloping countries is widely accepted asessential if welfare goals are to be met, andrural development initiatives to berendered sustainable. Shibesh Regmi andBen Fawcett's article, focusing on waterprovision in Nepal, criticises the limitedunderstanding of 'gender' or 'women's'issues on the part of development practi-tioners involved in technical aspects ofrural development. This article offersuseful insights for other technical

specialists involved in aspects of ruraldevelopment, who commonly consider'strategic'(M oser 1989) or feminist issues of gender power relations to beoutside their remit. The language of manyrural development initiatives speaks ofwomen's 'practical needs' and 'women'sparticipation' , but the links betweenpractical n eeds and strategic issu es including control over essential resources are lost. Regmi and Fawcett documenthow a water project can fail in the absenceof an understanding of how genderrelations affect a community's chances of

attaining sustainable development.To close, there is one final stereotype

persisting in rural development to bechallenged, which is extremely influentialin determining what kind of work withwomen in rural areas is appropriate forNGOs and government bodies to attempt.This stereotype is one of exhausted,victimised, and uneducated rural women,who are victims of back-ward, traditional

forces in their households and atcommunity level, and who are unaware ofthe obstacles they face. Issues includingdomestic violence may be tip-toed aroundby development workers who are anxiousto focus on meeting 'basic needs' and charyof broaching sensitive issues which theycannot address through tangible work.Staff promoting social development areoften located in urban areas, in the beliefthat gender inequality can be challengedbetter in this setting, and lack theunderstanding to challenge rural reality.

Articles in this collection makesuggestions on ways to 'work on gender' asan essential component of all developmentinitiatives, and highlight the impact on thefood security and wellbeing of women,men, and children in rural areas if w omen'sinterests are disregarded. There is com-pelling evidence here that economic, legal,and social aspects of women's poverty, andespecially their rights to land, must bechallenged simultaneously.


10/95

Note

1 UNDP Human Development Report1999, 72.

References

Agarwal B (1992) 'The Gender andEnvironment Debate: Lessons fromIndia', inFeminist Studies, 18:1.

Agarwal B (1994)A Field of One's Own:Gender and Land Rights in South Asia,Cambridge University Press.

Barrientos S, Bee A, Matear A and VogelI(1999) Women and Agribusiness: Workingmiracles in the Chilean fruit export sector,Macmillan, London.

Boserup E (1989)Women's Role in EconomicDevelopment, Earthscan, London.

FAO (1999i) http://www.fao.org/GenderI en I agrib2-e.htm

FAO (1999ii) http://www.fao.org/Gender/e n / agrib4-e.htm

Mail an d Guardian, South Africa,http :/ / www.mg.co.za

Moser C (1989) 'Gender planningin th eThird W orld: Meeting women's practicaland strategic gender needs',in WorldDevelopment 17(11).

Shiva V (1996) Caliber of Destruction:Globalisation, food security and wom en'slivelihoods, Isis International, Philippines.

Smyth I (1999) Introduction inA Guide toGender-Analysis Tools and Frameworks,Oxfam GB, Oxford.

UNDP (1999)Human Development Report,UN, New York.

White SC .(1992) Arguing with the Crocodile:Gender and class in Bangladesh, Zed Books,London.

World Bank (1998)World DevelopmentIndicators, World Bank, Washington DC.


11/95

Liberalisation, gender,and the land question insub-Saharan AfricaKaori Izumi

77ns paper focuses on land reform initiatives undertaken in a number of African countries since thelate 1980s. Current theories of land and debates on gender issues fail to explain the complex processesthrough which wo men's access and rights to land have been affected, contested, and negotiated duringsocio-economic and political restructuring. Drawing on the case studies of Tanzania and Zimbabw e,this paper is a call for policy-makers, researchers, and activists to return to these neglected issues.

In the process of social, economic, andpolitical restructuring that most Africancountries have undergone in the past twodecades, land has been one of the most con-

tested issues. Privatisation of land hasbecome the major objective of land reform ina number of African countries includingTanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia,Botswana and Namibia where economicadjustment policies imposed by the Inter-national Monetary Fund and World Bankaim to allow market forces to determine theefficient allocation and useof land. Thisshift in the direction of land policy has also

affected countries like Zimbabwe and SouthAfrica, where redistributionof land to theblack majority was the original rationale ofland reform.

Land policy formulation has becomeanarena of conflict for a number of interestgroups1: at the local level, land-relatedconflicts have arisen and intensifiedforreasons including pressure on land-use,and the investment potentialof particular

areas. Political parties have used thequestion of the direction, the pace, and theway in which land reform is instituted, as ameans of acquiring support in new multi-

party systems. Political conflict over land hasemerged between ethnic groups, as wellasbetween national and local state institutions.

In this article, through a review of thecases of Tanzania and Zimbabwe, andadiscussion of both mainstream theory2 andgender analysis of land issues, I will discusshow economic and political liberalisationhave affected women's access and rightstoland. Two concerns are of particular impor-tance: first, the question whether market-driven land reform can be compatible witha goal of equal distribution of land amongvulnerable groups, including poor people,

the landless, and women. Debates on landreform in the context of economic liberali-sation have tended to omit gender-relatedissues. This omission is also reflected in theprocess of actual land reforms in the 1990s:because the logic of the market is to promotemaximum efficiency through competition,it is indifferent to issues of equity. Genderissues have been largely sidelinedandcompromised, and control of land has beenretained by existing powerful social groups.

The other, related, concern is to trackwhy particular groups are vulnerableasregards land. During the periodof econo-


12/95

10

mic liberalisation, women's rights to landhave been affected by state policies, marketforces, and traditional social structures,indifferent ways and to different extents. It isnot only the kind of insti tutions whichaffect women's access and rights to land,but the power relations which existindifferent institutions national and localstate structures, the market, the communityor village, and the family and household(Agarwal 1994). These power relations aredetermined by cross-cutting factors such asgender, class, race and ethnicity.

Changes to land tenureduring liberalisation

A principle of African indigenous landtenure is to protect the access to land ofmembers of a family, and members of acommunity. In patrilineal societies (whereinheritance passes through the male line),women's rights to land are usually de-termined by their relationship to men.However, the forms of indigenous landtenure are highly diverse; in some com-munities, women have relatively secureaccess to land (Lastarria-Cornhiel 1997:1320). Indigenous land tenure has changedover time due to various factors (includingpopulation pressure, commercialisation ofagriculture, increasing land sales, openingof investment opportunities in land, urban-expansion, AIDS, and land-grabbing).In

areas of acute land shortage, where thevalue of land has increased, wom en tendedto lose their customary rights (ibid., 1325).

Economic liberalisation seems to havefurther accelerated such processes, both inpace and in scale. In many contexts, libera-lisation has opened new opportunities forinvestment in land, leading to increasedand intensified contests over land. As landgains value as a commodity for investment,

land-grabbing by political elites, appro-priation of village land by the state, andallocation of land to investors bothnation ally and locally have becom e

common phenomena (Moyo1998, Kanyinga1998). On the other hand, the poor areselling land as a desperate act for survivalas poverty deepens. Retrenchment, un-employment, and declining real wages dueto high inflation are forcing urban workersto search for rural land in order to producefood to supplement their low income.

Theories on land in Africa:A gender analysis

How, and to what extent, can existingtheoretical insights on land issues offerauseful analytical framework for under-standing gender issues relating to land? Inthis section, I will briefly examine thegender-bl ind 'mainstream' theoret icaldebates on land, and the gender-sensitivestudies of land issues.3

EvolutionThe desirability of individual land owner-ship, titling, and registration has for a longtime dominated the debate on land tenurein Africa. Efficient resource allocation byindividual agents is understood to requireboth t radable land property, and thedevelopment of a market for land.Conventional theories of individual landownership, titling, and registration anti-cipate the state playing an active roleinreplacing indigenous land tenure systemswith individualised land tenure (Falloux

1987). Recently, this has been challengedby the idea of the 'evolutionary position'of African land tenure. This idea seesAfrican land tenure systems as flexible andadaptable to changing conditions, and itsadvocates argue that they will evolvenatural ly towards individual ised landtenure. Thus, drastic state interventionisconsidered unnecessary (Bruce and Migot-Adholla 1994, Platteau 1996)4. The evo-

lutionary position has had increasinginfluence on World Bank land policyinAfrica since the late 1980s (World Bank1989,1992).


13/95

Liberalisation, gender, and the land question in sub-Saharan Africa 11

The evolutionary theory of African landtenure is built on a number of assumptions:that individualised tenure would leadtomore efficient use of land and highersecurity; that local communities in Africaare homogeneous; and that the socialinstitutions which administer indigenousland tenure systems are adaptable andflexible. But it fails, first, to recognise thatpower and social relationships betweencertain categories of people determine theirinterests in, and access to, land. Second,itignores the fact that change does not takeplace as a spontaneous evolutionary process

towards greater efficiency and security forall, but that such processes are in theinterests of powerful stakeholders. Forrural women, an 'evolutionary' process ofland tenure has often meant more in-security in access and rights to land, asaconsequence of commercial isat ionofagriculture and individual land titlingwhich discriminates against them(Lastarria-Cornhiel 1997).

NegotiationAnother theoretical position holds thatland rights and access depends on people'scapability to negotiate, manipulate rulesand norms, and to 'straddle' different insti-tutions (Berry 1993 and 1994, Moore 1999).Because multiple institutions determinepeople's relationship with land, they arepotentially able to find multiple opportuni-

ties for political manoeuvring, 'straddling'different institutions: informal and formal,political and legal, traditional and modern.

In the negotiation approach, access andrights to land are discussed in relationtoan individual 's capabili ty, neglectingstructural constraints on that individual.People's access to economic and politicalpower, and their capabilities for nego-tiation, differ by gender, class, race, andethnicity. Moreover, power relations shapethe terms in which negotiation takes place,and the forms how individuals actuallynegotiate in different arenas.

Dem ocra tisa tionDemocratisation theory asserts that theland question cannot be resolved either bydepending on indigenous land tenureto'evolve' by itself, or through individualnegotiation with institutions. Rather,ithighl ights the contradictory powerrelations between various actors and socialgroups, including the central and localstate, various types of private investors,small-holders, pastoralists, ethnic groups.Theorists analyse the way in which theland rights of small-holders have beenundermined through state interventions

and in the process of economic and poli-tical liberalisation (Amanor 1997i andii,Kanyinga 1997). In this position, thesolution is seen to be collective politicalaction by small-holders towards demo-cratisation and decentralisation.

Because of its primary concern aboutclass, the democratisation approach fails toconsider the role of patriarchal power ininfluencing women's participation and

representation in political activity. Otherquest ions which remain unansweredinclude how successful women have beenin influencing policies and decisions onland; what structural constraints they facein organising and lobbying for land accessand rights; how women's interests in landdiffer according to class, ethnicity, andrace; how their opinions and interests areintegrated in wider s t ruggles for

democratisation and decentralisation; andwhether democrat isat ion and decen-tralisation in different contexts revive andreinforce traditional authorities, or leadtonew democratic institutions, which addressgender issues.

Gender perspectives onland issues in Africa

The limited debates on wom en's land accessand rights in Africa have so far focused onthe implications for women of two systemsof land tenure: individual and indigenous


14/95

12

(or customary, or communal). In otherwords, one could characterise this debate asconcerned with the market versus tradition.Some see indigenous land tenure as placingconstraints on women; in contrast, theprocess of 'individualisation' is assumed toprovide women with equal opportunities inaccess to land (Mac Auslan 1996).

Others a r e sceptical about t h eopportunities offered by the free-marketsolution. Their argument is that the marketis not gender-neutral, and moreoverexcludes poor women by discriminatingagainst them because of their lesser powerand resources (Meisen-Dick et al. 1997,Lastarria-Cornhiel 1997). This view doesnot necessarily idealise indigenous landtenure, but it does point out that, in theprocess of privatisation, women are losingsome rights which they held underindigenous tenure.

The cases of Tanzania an d

Z i m b a b w e

Gender studies on land have focusedmainly on the opportunities and constraintsafforded to women of two forms of landtenure: individual ownership, a n dindigenous land tenure. In Tanzania,gender issues did not command sufficientattention from policy-makers in planningland reform. In contrast, in Zimbabwe,economic a n d political forces have

gradually sidelined gender issues of land,while the formal policies and laws relatingto gender equality are failing to enforcewomen's formal rights in practice.

TanzaniaBetween 1973 and 1976, under the policy ofujamaa ('villagisation') 13 million peoplewere forced to settle in8,000 villages. As aresponse to the changing condit ions

brought about by structural adjustment,which was adopted in 1986, institutionalreforms for land were initiated at the end ofthe 1980s5.

Three different documents have beenproduced in the process of land reform inTanzania: a 'Report of the PresidentialCommission of Inquiry into Land Matters'(1994), a National Land Policy (1995), anda Draft Bill for the Land Act (1999). Inthe first of these, the Land Commission(appointed in 1991) inv est iga ted landmatters and made policy recommendations.The primary concerns of the Commissionwere security of land rights amongvillagers, and democratic management ofvillage land by village assemblies. In termsof gender concerns over land, however, theLand Commission was reluctant to makeany radical change except a provision ofjoint ownership of land between spouses(URT 1994).

The National Land Policy of 1995completely sidelined the Commission'srecommendations. Instead of democratisingand decentralising land management, theNational Land Policy is seen by many ascentralising and strengthening the power ofthe state to control land (URT 1995). Theprinciple of joint ownership betweenspouses, which was agreed upon duringanational workshop on land in 1995, wasdeleted from the final policy.

In 1996, a Bill for the Land Act wasdrafted by a British consultant, sponsoredby the Overseas Development Administra-tion (ODA) of the British government. Ina speech given in November 1996,6 hestressed the need for an 'efficient andequitable land market' (Mac Auslan 1996,4), for the 'involvement of private sector inlegal reforms for land' (ibid., 7), and forpeople to have 'freedom to enter andundertake transaction in the land market'(ibid., 15). Here, the private sector w as usedas a synonym for civil society (ibid., 6-8).The Draft Bill stressed that the Billisconcerned with equality of opportunity;thus it was not designed to provide womenwith preferential treatment, but to preventwomen being given less favourable treat-ment than men (ibid., 10). Women's organi-


15/95


sations and female lawyers supported theprinciple of the Bill as a step towards equalopportunity for women (Rwanbangira1997,1; TAWLA 1997).

However, these supporters have beencriticised for failing to argue that themarket discriminates against individualsand social groups according to theirresources and capabilities. The women'sorganisations supporting the Draft Billwere predominantly urban-based, edu-cated, and middle-class, so the principles ofindividual land ownership and thedevelopment of a market-based systemwere in line with their interests, as distinctfrom those of rural women (Manji 1998).

Only minor ad-hoc amendments to theBill were requested, and the chance wasmissed to address the fundamental short-comings of the Bill from the perspective ofwomen living in poverty (TAWLA 1997). Acoalition of NGOs against the Bill lobbiedagainst the Bill going through Parliamentwithout public debates, but the Bill was

finally passed in February 19997In Tanzania, a period of economic and

political change over the past decade hascontributed to intensifying demand andconflicts over land. At the local level,demands and conflicts over land haveintensified, not only between the privateand state sectors on one hand and peasantson the other, but also within localcommunities, families, and households.

Conflicts over land rights have been mostheated in areas which offer potential forinvestment, including peri-urban areas,commercial agricultural areas, coastalareas, and mining areas.

Although systematic data is notavailable, my own research during 1996 inone village in Morogoro showed that avillage leader expropriated collective landbelonging to women 's groups and sold it to

outsiders (Izumi 1998i). In Turiani,Morogoro region, where sugar-caneproduction has expanded because ofmeasures introduced to promote the

cultivation of cash-crops under structuraladjustment, cases where husbands areselling land without their wives' consentare increasing (ibid.)8.

In the areas where conflicts over landare intensifying, and where the marketdiscriminates against women and menliving in poverty, women are finding thatcustomary land tenure, which formerlyoffered women some means of protection,is eroding rapidly. Widows, who werepreviously allowed to stay on the land afterthe death of their husbands, are nowsubject to dispossession. In Kagera regionand in other areas where the HIV/AIDSepidemic is widespread, the male relativesof deceased husbands systematicallydispossessed AIDS widows9 . In caseswhere widows are not infected by AIDSthemselves, they may be blamed for thedeath of their husband, and this blame isused against them as an excuse fordispossessing them. Divorced women, whowere previously provided with a piece of

land by their father, are losing such accessto land in their natal community.

While it is clear that the indigenous landtenure systems now offer women noprotection, the market is unlikely to offer abetter alternative means of ensuring landrights for women living in poverty, whoare unable to compete on an equal footingdue to class- and gender-based discri-mination.

ZimbabweDuring the colonial era in Zimbabwe, aracially-based skewed distribution of landexcluded black Africans from access toland, so the struggle for independencefrom colonial rule focused on recoveringthe land that had been taken from the blackpopulation.10 However, in the LancasterHouse Constitution of 1979 it was stated

that the state should purchase land forredistribution based on 'willing buyer -willing seller' principles. This principleinformed the land-reform initiatives of the


16/95

14

1980s; it was a compromise, attempting tobalance the interests of white large-scalecommercial farmers, black Zimbabweans,and the demands of the new democracy.

During the 1980s, a number of new lawswere passed promoting gender equality.The Legal Age of Majority Act of 1982declared women (previously legal minors)to achieve legal majority at the age of 18(GOZ 1982). In 1985, the Constitution ofZimbabwe was amended: Clause 4 statedthat questions of citizenship were universal,regardless of gender and marital status(GOZ 1985). A State Party Report 1995 onimplementation of the International Con-vention on Economic, Social and CulturalRights confirmed that the governmentwould ensure the equal rights of men andwomen (UNHCHR1995).

Actual redistribution was only con-ducted on a limited scale during the firstdecade after independence. Zimbabweadopted its Economic Structural Adjust-ment Programme (ESAP) in 1990, and theinitial land-reform policy was graduallyreplaced by market-oriented land-reform.Land has gained in value as an investmentasset; in 1992, the Land Acquisition Actprovided compulsory acquisition of land ata government-controlled price for redistri-bution. The Act was first applied on a bigscale in 1997, when 1,471 farms 30 percent of the total large-scale commercialfarms were desig nated.11 Instead ofwaiting for the government to designatetheir land, large-scale commercial farmershave started to sell land privately.

ESAP has led to a focus on new, export-oriented land-uses such as wildlifemanagement , hort icul tural cropping,livestock exports such as ostrichproduction, and tourism (Moyo 1998). Thepoor and landless have been largelyexcluded from the beneficiaries of landreform, and there has been a shift indebates on the direction and rationale forland redistribution from discussions ofgiving land to the black poor and landless

on grounds of equity, to a focus onallocating of land to 'capable black farmers'(O'Flaherty 1998,552; Moyo 1995i).

In resettlement areas, households pre-dominantly consist of nuclear families whohave relocated from their original villages.Resettlement land has been allocated toindividual households as a unit, ostensiblybecause areas of land for redistribution arelimited, but also because of male biasamong land administrators (Jacobs 1996).Land was usually registered under thehusband's name (Gaidzanwa 1995). Singlewomen have been mostly excluded fromland allocation, and women lose access toresettlement land upon divorce (Jacobs1998, 279). 1997 data shows that about 75per cent of the registered land owners aremale, about 20 per cent of the farms werejointly owned, less than 5 per cent wereowned by women, and below 4 per cent ofland were owned by black women (Moyo1997/8:31). However, in some respects,resettlement appears to have had a bene-ficial impact on women: in one study ofresettlement areas in 1984, many wivesreported an increase in the amount of landhusbands allocated to them to cultivate,and a rise both in family and personalincomes (Jacobs 1998). Many womenconsidered the fact that resettlement meantmoving away from the husband's extendedfamily to be positive, as it loosens the holdof their in-laws over them.

Frustrated by the slow pace of landreform, in some areas communities havestarted to occupy state-controlled land andresettlement areas illegally. Such actionshave often been supported by local poli-ticians and traditional leaders (Alexander1994, Moyo 1998:18). In these processes,traditional leaders have been regainingtheir political power and legitimacy incommunities.

As yet there is little documentation intohow the current revival of traditionalpower has inf luenced Zimbabweanwom en's access to and rights to land within


17/95


their community or village and the family/household, but some see this as having ledthe state to compromise on upholdingwom en's land rights, in order to acquire thepolitical support of local leaders (Moyo1995ii; Gaidzanwa 1995, 8). In early 1999,the Supreme Court decided against theclaim of Venia Magaya, the eldest child ofher father's senior wife, who had beenappointed heir to her father's estate inHarare by a community court. The courtargued that under Zimbabwean customarylaw, which has coexisted with civil lawsince the colonial period, women are

juveniles, and only men can inherit from afather (Supreme Court of Zimbabwe 1999).This ruling potentially undermines theprinciple of equality enshrined in the civillaw, with grave consequences for all futurerulings on women's rights.

A gender analysis of the land question inZimbabwe shows the inability of formallaw to ensure women's rights to land whensuch laws are not socially legitimate and

enforceable. Empirical evidence fromcommunal and resettlement areas showsthat the relationship between traditionaland modern forms of insti tution andwomen's access and right to land iscomplex and ambivalent in nature.

Conclusion

Many African societies have experienced

substantial changes in their formal andinformal land tenure systems, as part ofa wider process of socio-economic andpolitical changes. Land policy has becomeincreasingly concerned with accommo-dating the free market, leading to a shift infocus from issues of poverty-alleviation,equity, and livelihoods to economicefficiency and investment. In this context,gender analysis of debates over land is oneof the most neglected issues in researchand policy debates. The mainstreamtheories regarding land issues in Africa aregender-blind, and this is reflected in the

formulation of land policy and land law,which ignore the particular interests andneeds of women.

Since the 1980s, both Tanzania andZimbabwe have undergone a radicaltransition in terms of institutional landreforms. Their original objectives for landreform contrasted clearly, but this contrasthas become less evident. Traditionalinstitutions governing land tenure and usehave been affected and transformed indifferent ways in these two countries,according to their past and present politicaland economic context.

Women's access and rights to land isshaped by gender-determined powerrelations, which exist across a range ofinstitutions. The state, market forces, andtradition may interact, contradict, and co-operate in order to protect and strengthenexisting power structures, which constrainwomen's secure access and rights to land.In Tanzania, traditional institutions havebeen transformed and undermined to a

large extent in the areas affected byvillagisation between 1973 and 1976. InZimbabwe, a relatively strong and legi-timate system of local government hascoexisted with the central state, and hasrecently regained power as an alternativefocus of political power.

Analyses of gender and land needs,therefore, need to go beyond the currentcommon focus of weighing up the pros

and cons of individual or indigenous landtenure. Further research is urgentlyrequired into the ways in which land accessand rights among women have beenaffected, negotiated , and contested by and within the institutions of the state,the market, and the social institutionsof the community, the family, and thehousehold.

Several levels of analysis are necessary:

two particular areas for attention are thegaps between s tatutory inst i tut ionalreforms at national level, informal insti-tutional changes, and actual practice at


18/95

16

local level. This is because formal and legalrights to land do not necessarily providewomen secure rights in reality, if suchrights are not made socially legitimate andenforceable. At present , women inZimbabwe have legal rights to land, but inmany context they are without secureaccess. Institutions that govern women'srelationship with land cannot be seensimply as a set ofrules, norm s, policies, andlaws: it is the social legitimacy of thesewhich constitutes institution. Because ofthis, women's access and rights to landisindeed a question of social change.

Kaori Izumi is a Visiting AssistantProfessor atthe Department of International DevelopmentStudies, Rosk ilde University, P.O. Box 260DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark.E-mail: [email protected]; tel: +45 (46) 742 322;fax: +45 (46) 743 033

Notes

1 Such interest groups included inter-national investors, the state elite,indigenous African and immigrantbusiness society, and white and blacklarge-scale commercial farmers.

2 I use the term 'mainstream ' to distinguishthese theories from gender-sensitivestudies of land, as distinct from usingitto denote the economic theory of Africanland tenure, which is also termed as themainstream.

3 For more detailed discussion on thesetheoretical positions, see Kjell Havnevik(1997) and Kaori Izumi (1998i and ii).

4 This argum ent emphasises the flexibilityand adaptabili ty of indigenous landtenure to changing conditions, whichisassumed to lead to spontaneous develop-ment and to more efficient and secureland tenure.

5 Tanzania initiated its own structuraladjustment in 1982 after a failure ofnegotiations with the IMF /World Bank.A final agreement with the IMF/World

Bank on structural adjustment wasreached in 1986.

6 Given at the Ministry of Lands, Housingand Urban Development workshop onaDraft Bill.

7 Issa Shivji, who was the chairman of theLand Commission, has init iated alobbying against the Bill.

8 There are a number of measures intro-duced under the structural adjustmentprogramme, which contr ibuted toincreased interests among urban peopleand civil servants in sugarcane culti-vation in Turiani in Morogoro region.These included, for instance, increasedproducer price of sugarcane, availabilityof inputs and spare parts, increaseddonor supports and new opportunitiesfor private investment, and retrench-ment of civil servants.

9 The case in Kagera region was presentedby Ambreena Manji at a seminarorganised by Women's Front in Oslo,Norw ay, M arch 1999.

10 Black population here includes those ofIndian descent and of mixed race.

11 Land tenure in Zimbabwe is categorisedas urban land; commercial and industrialland; resettlement land; communal land;large-scale commercial agricultural land;and small-scale commercial agriculturalland (Gaidzanwa 1995).

References

Agarwal, Bina (1994) A Field of One's Own:Gender and Lan d Rights in South Asia,Cambridge University Press.

Alexander, Jocelyn (1991) 'The unsettledLand: The Politics of Land Distributionin Matabeleland, 1980-1990',Journal ofSouthern African Studies,Vol.17, No .4.

Amanor, Kojo Sebastian (1997a)'Restructuring Land Relations in Ghana:

Adjustment, Capitalism and thePeasantry', preliminary report, Instituteof African Studies, University of Ghana.

Amanor, Kojo Sebastian (1997b) 'Colla-


19/95


borative Forest Management, ForestResource Tenure and the DomesticEconomy in Ghana' , IRD Currents,Department of Rural DevelopmentStudies, Swedish University ofAgricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.

Berry, Sara (1993) No Condition is Permanent:The Social Dynamics ofAgrarian Change inSub-Saharan Africa, Maddison, Universityof Wisconsin Press.

Berry, Sara (1994) 'Resource Access andManagement as Historical Processes', inChristian Lund and Henrik SecherMarcussen (ed.) Access, Control andManagement of Natural Resource in Sub-Saharan Africa: MethodologicalConsiderations, Occasional Paper No.13,Internat ional Development Studies ,Roskilde University, Denmark

Bruce, John W and Migot-Adholla, Shem E(eds.) (1994) Searching for Land Tenure:Security in Africa, The World Bank,Kendall/Hun t Publishing Company.

Falloux, F (1997) 'Land Management,

Titling and Tenancy, in TJ Davis and IShirmer, 'The Seventh AgriculturalSector Symposium', The World Bank,Washington DC.

Gaidzanwa, Rudo (1995) 'Land and theEconomic Empowerment of Women: AGendered Analysis',SAFERE Vol. 1 No.lJanuary 1995.

Government of Zimbabwe (GOZ) (1982)'The Legal Age of Majority Act', printed

by the Government of Zimbabwe,Harare, in Anne Helium (ed.) (1999)Compendium of Legal Texts, Cases andReports, Women's Law and Human Rights,Institute of W omen's Law.

GOZ (1985) 'Constitution of Zimbabwe, Asamended at the 1st August, 1985',printed by the Government Printer,Harare, in Anne Helium (ed.) (1999)Compendium of Legal Texts, Cases andReports, Women's Law and Human Rights,Institute of Women's Law.

Havnevik, Kjell (1997) 'The Land Questionin Sub-Saharan Africa', IRD Currents,

Department of Rural DevelopmentStudies, Swedish University ofAgricultural Sciences, Uppsala.

Izumi, Kaori (1998i) 'Economic liberalisa-tion and the land question in Tanzania',Ph.D. dissertation, International Devel-opment Studies, Roskilde University.

Izumi, Kaori (1998ii) 'Process and Structureon the Land Question in Africa: SomeTheoretical Issues' , working paper,Centre for Development andEnvironment, University of Oslo.

Jacobs, Susie (1996) 'Structure andProcesses: Land, Families, and GenderRelations', in Gender and DevelopmentVol.14, No.2.

Jacobs, Susie (1998): 'A Share of the Earth?Feminisms and Land Reforms inZimbabwe and South Africa', proceedingsof the international conference on landtenure in the developing world with afocus on Southern Africa, University ofCape Town, 27-29 January 1998.

Johnson, Ootunde E G (1972) 'Economic

Analysis, the Legal Framework andLand Tenure Systems', in ]ournal of Lawand Economics, Vol. 15, No . 1.

Kanyinga, Karuti (1997) 'The land questionand politics of tenure reform in Kenya,the land question in sub-Saharan Africa',IRD Currents, Swedish University ofAgricultural Sciences.

Kanyinga, Karuti (1998) 'The land questionin Kanya: Struggles, accumulation and

changing polities', Ph.D. dissertation,Internat ional Development Studies ,Roskilde University.

Lastarria-Cornhiel, Susana (1997) 'Impactofprivatisation on gender and propertyrights in Africa', in World Development,Vol. 25. No. 8.

Mac Auslan, Patrick (1996) from a presen-tation at a workshop on a draft Bill for aLand Act held in Arusha organised by

the Ministry of Lands, Housing andUrban Development, November 1998,Arusha.

Manji, Ambreena (1998) 'Gender and the


20/95

18

politics of the land tenure reformprocess in Tanzania', Journal of ModernAfrican Studies.

Manji, Ambreena (1999) 'The AIDSepidemic and women's land rights inTanzania' in Recht in A frica.

Me inzen-Dick, Ruth S (1997) 'Gen der,property rights, and natural resources',in World Development, Vol.25, N o. 8.

Moore, Sally (1998) 'Changing African landtenure: Reflections on the incapacities ofthe state ' , in Christian Lund (ed.),'Development and Rights: NegotiatingJustice in Changing Societies ' ,TheJournal of European Developmen t Research,Vol. 10, No. 2.

Moyo, Sam (1995i) The Land Question inZimbabwe, SAPES Books, Harare.

Moyo, Sam (1995ii) 'A genderedperspective of the land question' ,SAFERE, Vol. 1. No. 1.

Moyo, Sam (1997/8) 'The Land Acquisitionprocess in Zimbabwe (1997/8) ' ,SAFERE, SAPES Trust, Harare.

Moyo, Sam (1998) 'The Impact of StructuralAdjustment on Land Uses inZimbabwe' , paper presented at thesynthesis conference on StructuralAdjustment and Social and PoliticalContexts in Sub-Saharan Africa,Copenhagen, 3-5 December 1998.

O'Flaherty (1998) 'Communal tenure inZimbabwe: Divergent models ofcollective land holding in the communalareas', Africa Vol. 68, No. 4.

Platteau, Jean-Philippe (1996) 'Theevolutionary theory of land rights asapplied to sub-Saharan Africa: A criticalassessment', in Development and Change,Vol.27, No.l.

Rwangira, Magdalene K (1997) 'A criticalreview of the draft Bill of the land actfrom women's perspectives', a paperpresented at the consultative women'sworkshop on the draft Bill for the Basic

Land Act held at the Russian Centre,Dar es Salaam, 3-5 March 1997.

Supreme Court of Zimbabwe (1999)'Judgement No. S.C. 210/98, CivilAppeal No. 635/92' , by Cubbay CJ,McNallyja, Ebrahimja Muchechetereja &Saduraja, Harare, November 2, 1998 andFebruary 16, 1999, in Anne Helium (ed.)Compendium of Legal Texts, Cases andReports, Wom en's Law and Human Rights,Institute of W omen's Law.

Tanzania Women Lawyers Association(TAWLA) (1997), report of proceedingsand recommendations, the consultativewomen's workshop on the draft Bill forthe Basic Land Act held at the RussianCentre, Dar es Salaam, 3-5 March 1997.

United Nations High Commissioner forHuman Rights (1995) 'Initial Report:Zimbabwe. 25/09/95. E/1990/5/Add.28(State Party Report), Implementation ofthe internat ional Convention onEconomic, Social and Cultural Rights', inAnne Helium (ed.) Compendium ofLegalTexts, Cases and Reports, Wom en's Law andHuman Rights, Institute of Women's Law.

United Republic of Tanzania (URT) (1994)'Report of the Presidential Commissionof Inquiry into Land Matters, Vol. I:Land Policy and Land Tenure Structure',The Ministry of Lands, Housing andUrban Development, in co-operationwith the Scandinavian Institute ofAfrican Studies.

URT (1995) 'A National Land Policy', TheMinistry of Lands, Housing and UrbanDevelopment.

URT (1996) 'A Draft of a Bill for the LandAct'.

World Bank (1989) Sub-Saharan Africa: FromCrisis to Sustainable Growth, The WorldBank.

W orld Bank (1992) 'Em pow erin g villages tomanage the i r na tura l resources : Rura l

land policy in Tanzania', World Bank.


21/95

19

Does land ownership makea difference? Women's rolesin agriculture in Kerala, IndiaShoba Arun

Women who own land may still lack control over it. Despite claims that women enjoy high statusinKerala, economic, social, and cultural factors interact to reinforce gender differences in ownership,control over, and access to critical agricultural resources, including land.

Since the 1980s, Kerala has receivedattention because of its combination oflow economic growth with high social

development, compared to the restof India

and to other developing countries. Genderand development researchers are well-acquainted with its impressive statistics onwomen: for example, Kerala's female-maleratio is 1,036 females for every 1,000 males,compared to a sex ratio for India as a wholeof only 927 females for every 1,000 males(GOK 1997). Life expectancyat birth is 69years for men and 72 years for women,compared to 60.6 for men and 61.7 for

women in India as a whole. Accordingtothe 1991 census, Kerala's literacy rate was89.81 per cent, whereas India's average rateis 52.21 per cent; female literacy was 86.17per cent in Kerala, compared to the nationalaverage of 39.29 per cent (GOK 1997).

Kerala's achievements relating to qualityof life, high life expectancy, high literacy,and low infant mortality are due to varioussocial, historical, and political reasons,but

three key factors can be identified (Sen 1993).The first is the relative autonomy of thegovernment in two of Kerala's three sub-regions during the colonial period, which

enabled it to spend more on health and edu-cation, creating public awareness as well asinfrastructure. Second, women have beenable to get equal access to these services, due

to the matrilineal system of descent inKerala, which has had a great influence onsocial and cultural development in Kerala.Ithas contributed to changing social attitudesand created conditions in which womenmade real progress in health and education.1

Third, a surge of social and religious reformmovements in the 19th and 20th centuriesallowed social benefits to spread down thecaste hierarchy, and a high level of demo-

cratisation. Since 1956, successive govern-ments in Kerala have been instrumentalinimproving health and education, and havealso introduced radical land reforms,relatively high minimum wages, and a widenetwork of social security schemes (Panikarand Soman 1984). Improving 'woman'sagency', for example by promoting femaleliteracy, is seen as contributing muchtoKerala's exemplary social development(Panikar and Soman 1984).

However, Kerala currently faces a numberof crises, including low economic growth,high unemployment, anda mounting fiscal


22/95

20

crisis. Economic liberalisation policiesintroduced in 1991 have led to fluctuatingprices of cash and food crops, andth eagricultural sector is in decline. This articleexamines the impact of the economicchanges brought about by liberalisation onKerala's farmers, who are mostly small-holders, and links this to the questions ofwomen's par t ic ipat ion in agricul turalproduction and gender equity in Kerala.The invisibility of women in Kerala's publicdomain has drawn considerable attentionduring recent years.

Indian wom en's need for land rights2 hasbeen argued for on grounds of familywelfare, efficient national development,gender equity, and women's empowerment,and the argument that female inheritance ofland would lead to land fragmentation hasbeen refuted (Ag arw al 1994). Fromawelfare perspective, women's land rightsare promoted in the belief that they willenable women to have direct accesstoproductive resources, so enabling themtomeet their households' basic needs. ButIhave found that lack of direct access toproductive resources is common eveninhouseholds where women own land asignificant factor in perpetuating not onlyhousehold poverty and economicinequality between women and men, butalso social and cultural inequalities, bothinside and outside the household.

The research

The article draws on a 12-month period ofresearch into women's role in agricultureand how this is determined by their socio-economic and cultural context, lookingatboth matrilineal and patrilineal3 households.

The matrilineal households (35 per centof the total households included in th eresearch) were nairs (upper Hindu castes).

Nair women may inherit and own land andproperty. The nair system of marriage,residence, land holding, and inheritance hashad tremendous implications for the status

of women. Yet nair women have had littlecontrol over managing property, becausemen are the official heads of households(Gough 1972, Agarwal 1994). In addition, in1960, the Kerala Agrarian Relations Actconferred ownership rights to tenants ofland, and limited the extent of surplus landheld by large landowners, which ledtomuch land being taken away frommatrilineal households (Saradamoni 1983).

The patrilineal households were SyrianChristian (30 per cent of households in theresearch) ezhava (lower Hindu caste) andMuslim (10 per cent each), and scheduledcastes4 and other Christian communities (15per cent). The scheduled castes mostlyowned only dwelling plots, although somehouseholds leased small plotsof land,usually less than half an acre. In patrilinealhouseholds, women do not own or inheritland; instead, they are provided withadowry upon marriage, which may take theform of land given to the bridegroom, gold,or cash, according to the preferenceof thegroom's family. The daughter's family maypay for the non-land portionof the dowryby selling land or property; thisis clearlynegotiated, usually before the marriage. Inmost cases, women do not actually haveaclaim to household property, such as land.This has implications for their access tocritical farm inputs and services, andagricultural practices.

Umm anoor and Moorkanad

The research took place in two locations,Ummanoor and M oorkanad. The first has alarge nair community, while the latter has alarge proportion of Muslim households.Communities of Christians, ezhavas andpulayas are found in both regions.

The panchayat 5 of Ummanoor is in themidlands , where the soil and water

resources enable farmers to growa varietyof crops, including rubber and rice (GOK1996a)6. Agriculture is the main source ofincome in this panchayat; however, I found


23/95

Does land ownership m ake a difference? Women's roles in agriculture in Kerala, India 2 1

many m en from farm householdsemployed in teaching and clerical jobs.In spite of the high literacy rates of bothwomen and men, it is not usual for womento take up paid employment, and parti-cularly rare after marriage, when thehusband's family may take such decisions.In a small proportion (7per cent) of cases, Ifound women had taken up teaching, if theschool was located nearby; most of themwere getting support from their natalfamilies to meet their household responsi-bilities. More than three-quartersof landholdings in Ummanoor are below half an

acre7

in size, while 19per cent are between0.5-2 acres of land (GOK 1996a). Only 4.4per cent of the holdings are larger than this.In addi t ion to agricul ture and formalemployment, cashew nut processing is amajor source of income (other activitiesoflesser importance include brick-making8).Owing to the general stagnation of thecashew industry, most factories havemoved to other states, thus leadingto

large-scale displacementof labour.The panchayat of Moorkanad is in

northern Kerala, in Malappuram district.The topography of the region is veryvaried, and crops include cashew, rubber,banana, tapioca, vegetables, coconut,andarecanut. Here, it can be seen that themuch-acclaimed Kerala modelof develop-ment has not fully distributed benefitstothe lesser-developed regions in the state.

Malappuram district hasthe lowest incomeper capita in Kerala: 24 per cent of house-holds are without houses or farmland,though some may own their dwelling plots(GOK 1996b).Out of a total of 3,081 land-holders, 82 per cent own less than half anacre, 13 per cent have between half andtwoacres, and five per cent own more than 2acres of land (GOK 1996b). Moorkanadisan industrially under-developed area,andthere are also inadequate educat ionfacilities for higher education. The majormedical centre in the area providesprimary health care9; it is in poor physical

condition, lacking a proper water supply,an adequate supply of medicines, andtransport facilities (GOK 1996b).

The region has high levels of unem-ployment, and there has been a significantlevel of male out-migration10 for manyyears, as a large population of this districtworks in the Gulf. In 1992-3, an estimated119, 200 migrants left Kerala for variousdestinations around the world: 53 per centof these migrated to the Gulf (GOK 1997).

Many women and men in both locationsreported that farming is seen as lessprofitable than it used to be. Over the pasttwo decades, the cultivation of labour-intensive crops like ricehas declined inKerala, and tree crops like coconutorrubber are cultivated instead, since theycommand a higher market priceandrequire less labour. However,my respon-dents reported a steady increase in pricesof inputs like fertilisers,and declining andunstable crop prices. Withinsix months in1996/7, the price of one coconut varied

between ten and two rupees, and the pricesof rubber fell from 48 rupees per kg to 25rupees per kg, resulting in extreme incomeinstability (GOK 1997). For many house-holds, income from agricultureis now seenas a source of additional income ratherthan a livelihood in itself. An increasingpreference for men to find employmentoutside the household has impor tan timplicat ions for farming and genderrelations in both matrilineal and patrilinealhouseholds.

Social norms and thegender division of labour

Overall, 45 per cent of households in theresearch had a man in paid employmentinthe formal sector, while 30 per cent had aman engaging in informal sector work,for

example as an artisan or driver, and 15 percent had a man in paid farm labour. Almost48 per cent of women were managing thefamily farm, because their husbandshad


24/95

22

paid employment, were migrants, or absentfor another reason. About 35 per cent ofwomen were involved in paid work, and 7per cent of women were engaged in paidemployment in the formal sector liketeaching, but also undertook someof thefarm supervision. In households wheremen migrate to the Gulf (47 per centinMoorkanad), women shoulder a particularlyheavy workload. It is amazing to see womensingle-handedly taking on all the responsi-bilities of the financial and social orga-nisation of the farm household, combiningproductive and reproductive tasks.

In both locations, and in matrilineal aswell as patrilineal households, women'slimited role in many agricultural activitiesand traditional, narrow understandings ofwomen's work led to constraints on whatwomen were able to do on the farms11, andto a lack of recognition of women's contri-bution to the household: for example, manywomen who manage the farm consideredthemselves to be housewives. This lack ofrecognition affects women's control overhow income is spent, and their authority toparticipate in decisions regarding the saleof land or transfer of control or ownershipof land to other family members.

Changing relationships:Women and land

Nair women's control of landBina Agarwal argues that, in South Asia,women's land rights can, over time, helpwomen negotiate less restrictive norms andbetter treatment from husbands (Agarwal1997). Although, in nair households, matri-lineal inheritance laws enable womentoinherit property such as land or houses,ownersh ip of land does not seem totranslate into control over it, or the income

from it, and improved power relationshipsin the household. In many of my sample ofnair households, women stand to inheritamajority of the family property, including

farmland and other resources, but theirabili ty to continue farming is largelydetermined by factors such as post-maritalresidence and paid employment. In severalnair households, I found that the husbandhad taken charge of the household andfarm responsibilities after marrying andmoving to his wife's hom e.

Nair households used to be matrilocal12

as well as m atrilineal, butI found that thishas changed for many households. Womenwho live with their husbands away fromtheir natal homes, may see their share ofproperty sold if it proves inconvenient orunprofi table . In the current economicclimate, selling land is an attractive optionfor many, and the income accrued is usedto buy property or build elsewhere. Thisprocess is given legitimacy by ideas aboutmale control of dowry: a woman mayinherit some of the assets of her natalfamily l ike property or gold, but thehusband may use it as capital for setting upbusiness, buying more land, or buildingahouse. Revathi, aged 36, who describedherself as a housewife (in the sense that shehad no formal paid employm ent) told me:

'Sthridhanam (dowry) is given to our husbands,not to us, so that he can look after us. He andhis family have all the right over it, whether it iscash, gold or land.'

Another woman considered farming as notso lucrative as other business. She told me:

'Women are brought up to support decisionswhich are best for the family ...for instance, Ifeel sad to sell my family property, but for thesake of a better future for my children, I have todo it.' (personal conversations, 1996/7)

In other cases, nair women have movedaway from their land to accommodate a

husband 's paid employment either to hishome or a third location and the wife'snatal family is controlling her share ofproperty, although the husband also has


25/95

Does land ownership make a difference? Women's roles in agriculture in Kerala, India 23

customary rights in matters over his wife'sproperty. In many cases, the husband orthe natal family seem to have more controlover the woman's share of property thanthe woman herself. These findings inKerala echo a study from north-west India,where many women who inherited landhad only minimal control over the landthey officially owned (Sharma 1980).

Nevertheless, in the Kerala study, somenair women were able to retain control overland and property which they inherit. Forexample, in some households, wherehusbands fail to do their share in main-taining the household, or do not save forthe future, women often with the help oftheir natal families or close friends savethe income accrued from cultivation ontheir share of the property, including thatfrom cash crops such as rubber.

Changes to ag ricultural practicesSocial norms regarding w omen's work, andwomen's need to combine caring work

with agriculture have led to changes inagricultural practices. The fact that labour-intensive crops such as rice and tapioca arebeing replaced by tree crops which needless attention is positive. However, as onewoman stated, 'often social norms restrictmy time and labour as I cannot engage incultivation like a man'. Many women inmy study were supervising the farm, butavoiding tasks that are considered 'men's

work', such as harvesting rubber and coco-nut, and purchasing agricultural inputs.Men were hired to take on these tasks.

When men are engaged in paid employ-ment locally, both men and women canmake decisions about the farm, althoughmen are the primary decision-makers inmost households. In contrast, in householdswhere husbands are absent, women are leftto make decisions themselves. Some told methey were unhappy with this big responsi-bility, especially with tasks like organisinglabour. Some women had decided to reducethe extent of farming and concentrate on

growing most crops in the homesteadgarden. Another solution is to seek theassistance of close male relatives for labour,but depending on them leads to theirinvolvement in household responsibilitiesand decision-making.

Wives do not retain income from themain crops this usually goes to theirhusbands. However, women do usuallykeep the income from secondary crops,such as cashew and tamarind, and fromgarden crops. In some households, I foundthat income derived from garden crops wasbeing used by women to buy household

appliances, to save in chittyn

(informalsavings) as a contingency fund, or forpurchasing gold for their daughters.

Accessing extension services

In this context, women's ability to functionas independent farmers needs to beenhanced by policies which support themin gaining direct access to credit, pro-duction inputs, information about agri-

cultural practices, and which rectify themale-biased farming system.

In both locations, the Kerala stategovernment has developed agriculturalprogrammes, administered by local farmoffices in order to distribute improvedseeds and plants, pest management systems,and assist in small-farm mechanisation. Butboth male and female respondents in myresearch reported that they do not receive

adequate and timely information that iscritical for farm productivity.In my conversations w ith women, it was

clear that women have a great deal of indi-genous knowledge about farm activitiesand crop cultivation, and, in the absence ofexposure to technical knowledge whichcould potentially be gained from extensionservices, they resort to traditional methodsof farming. However, women feel that theyare less able than men to access technicaladvice. For example, Ummanoor womentold me that farm extension services intheir area tend not to approach women,


26/95

24

because it is assumed that 'farmers' aremen. During my field work in early 1996,the incidence of root wilt for coconut waswidespread, because farm extensionofficers failed to approach the households'women to discuss the scientific manage-ment of the problem. Similarly, most of theMoorkanad women who are left alone tohead households while their husbands areaway told me that they never approachedthe local farm offices (Krishi bhavan)directly, owing to a combination of socialinhibitions and their increased involvementin other household activities.

From my own observation, the extensionofficers who are after all assigned todisseminate knowledge only visited thefields, rather than searching out women intheir homes. Although the social impro-priety of visiting women at home might becited as a reason, it is often assumed thatwomen have no significant role in farmactivities. Many women listen to agriculturalprogrammes on the radio and television,and read daily newspapers, in an effort toimprove their agricultural practices. Thisnot only proves women's awareness of theneed to improve agricultural methods andinputs, but is also a telling example of theinstrumental value of women's literacy as apotential tool to increase farm efficiencyand to ensure women's participation in thedevelopment process.

An example of how women who farmare marginalised from essential infor-mation is the wilting disease which, in1995, afflicted a new high-yield pep per,Panniyur-I. In Moorkanad, the diseasedestroyed almost all pepper cultivation.Women, who had little land, labour, ormoney to hire labour, suffered most, sincethey had concentrated on growing gardencrops which do not need much labour andattention. Most women I spoke to hadattributed the disease to natural causes, anddid not receive timely information aboutthe disease or alternative varieties; to alarge extent, they had to rely on secondary

information on agriculture gained throughfamily networks, and other local farmers.They had also not known at the time thatthey could have claimed for compensation(personal communication, 1996/7). Thistype of exclusion affects farm productivityand income: the prices of pepper hadincreased over99 per cent between 1991-97,especially after the introduction ofeconomic reforms (GOK 1997).

Accessing banking and marketsIn Moorkanad, women also complained oflack of access to banking and creditfacilities. In several households, womenwanted to expand the farm or installpum ps for irrigation, but said that they hadbeen refused a loan because they could notprovide any collateral security. There areonly two banks in this region, and informallending for high interest, or pawning ofgold and other assets, are the main ways inwhich women borrow money; because theylack collateral in the form of land orproduction equipment, most are unable toborrow from formal institutions like banks,which could give them better rates ofinterest. Lack of access to credit also meansthat women have little flexibility inchoosing income-earning activities toembark on without the help of malehousehold members, who own the assetsthat could be used for collateral security.

Moorkanad's marketing facilities arealso inadequate (GOK 1996b): for instance,despite increased production of coconutover the past 20 years, the oil mills in theregion can only extract coconut oil forhousehold purposes, lacking the capacityto meet the demands of commercialproduction. Farmers who cannot afford totransport unprocessed coconuts to marketsout of the area, or who are unable to travelin order to do so, must sell them to local

agents for a lower price, which creates acrisis for producers due to the decline inprices mentioned above. In this, as in othersituations, women have to face the reality


27/95

Does land ownership m ake a difference? Women's roles in agriculture in Kerala, India 25

of the market's discrimination against them(Harriss-White 1995). In the words of onewoman farmer in my study: ' I cannotbargain with men in the market; I have tooblige with the social norms in our society'.

Decreasing opportunities in agriculturallabourIn my sample, there were eight householdsacross the two locations who were LatinChristians and belonged to the scheduledcastes. Being engaged mostly in agriculturalwork, they were largely landless, althoughsome owned their house plot. As notedearlier, women from Christian families donot inherit land, but bring a dowry in theform of land endowed on their husbands,cash, or gold. In this category of household,women are disadvantaged at several levels.

Agricultural wages have increasednearly nine times for men, and over eighttimes for women respectively over the past16 years in Kerala (GOK 1997), yetopportunities for paid work have decreased

due to the transition from labour-intensiverice cultivation to less labour-intensivecrops including rubber and coconut.Agricultural workers, especially from thelower castes like thepulayas and 'backward'Christian communities, usually cultivatescrops like rice, tapioca, and vegetableswhich fetch lower prices compared torubber and coconut. Since they work onvery small land-holdings ( whether of theirown or leased), typically of about 0.2 acresin size, it is not practical for them tocultivate rubber which takes a long time(about seven years) to grow. They thuscontinue to cultivate other, minor, crops,although they do not make a profit. Manymale former agricultural workers havemoved to take up artisanal jobs likecarpentry, which provide more income andhave a higher status than farm labour. Onewoman agricultural worker told me: 'I haveto plead for higher wages to earn more sothat I can feed my children'; this womanwas also cultivating a small family farm.

Conclusion

As illustrated in the above examples,women may gain access to land innum erous w ays through inheritance,marriage, or informal networks. However,none of these options guarantees effectivecommand over it. Women's traditionalrights to land have not been adequatelyrecognised in Kerala: the gender gap in theownership and control of property is thesingle most important contributor to thegender gap in women's economic well-being, social status, and empowerment

(Agarwal 1994).It is disquieting to note thatthe current socio-economic changes andcrisis of confidence in agriculture as a mainsource of livelihood is leading to nairwomen's share of land being sold, with theproceeds going to men thus reducingwom en's ownership of land to the status ofmale-controlled dowry.

Although legal provisions such as equalaccess to employment or land are importantin recognising women's rights to land, legalrulings alone can have limited impact onchanging gendered power structures withinsocieties, families, or communities. The caseof the Christian succession laws in Keralais a case in point. In 1986, a group ofpioneering women questioned the validityof the Travancore Succession Act of 1926,which gave property rights to sons ratherthan daughters. Although a favourable

verdict was obtained from the IndianSupreme Court, this was strongly opposedby the church, state, and other institutions,and led to the ostracism of these women(George 1994).

Land is the most basic resource ofagricultural production. The recognition ofwomen's differential access to property andtheir lack of command over its use evenif they own it should be the starting

point of a gender-sensitive agriculturalpolicy. Since 1996, Kerala's governmentservices have been undergoing a process ofdecentralisation, with the aim of enabling


28/95

26

more participation at the local level.However, wom en in agriculture have yet tobe incorporated effectively at local level.

Women involved in farming are hamperedfrom gaining access to credit, extension,and marketing, in addition to the purchaseor lease of land. Women's role in farmingin Kerala needs to be recognised, andinstitutional support must be increased, toenable women to gain access to agriculturalinputs and technology, which would leadto better agricultural practices and a higherincome from farming.

Increasing male migration for work anddiversification into paid employmentmeans a growing number of de factofemale-headed households, where womenare wrongly perceived as dependent onmen, despite their primary and growing responsibility for the daily financial andmanagement and organisation of thehousehold and the farm. It is importantthat women have direct access to criticalfarm inputs, to enable them to maximiseoutputs , chal lenge ideas of 'women'swork', and thence to gain control over theother factors of production and changesocial norms. Most importantly, thereshould be a concerted effort to enablewomen to function as independent farmerswho control their own land.

Shoba Arun has recently completed her PhD ,on gender and agricultural households inKerala, India, at the University ofManchester.Contact details: Department of Sociology,Williamson Building, University of Manchester,Manchester, M 13 9LW, UK, Tel: +44 (0)161273 4612; e-mail: [email protected]

Notes

1 The matrilineal system of inheritanceand family organisation (practised bythe nairs, the ambalavasis and by sectionsof the ezhava caste) involves propertybeing inherited by and through women;a typical household consists of a male

head, his sisters, and their children andgrandchildren, while husbands have'visiting rights'. Matrilineal, however,

does not mean matriarchal: women donot dominate in household decision-making power. As this article will show,matril iny may have given womenimportance, but this has stopped farshort of equality w ith men (Jeffrey 1993).

2 Agarwal defines land rights as 'rightsthat are formally untied to maleownership or control, in other words,excluding joint titles with men. Byeffective rights in land I mean not justrights in law, but also their effectiverealisation in practice' (Agarwal 1994, 3).

3 Patrilineal household: where inheritanceis passed down the male line.

4 Ezhavas are the lower caste Hindus whoalong with Christians and Muslimpopulation used to be largely involvedin trading occupations, while thepulayasand the cherumas are the scheduledcastes who are largely the deprivedclasses as they were regarded as the'untouchables' in the society until theearly twentieth century.

5 Kerala is divided into 14 districts and1,000 panchayats, which is the smallestunit of local administration.

6 Accord ing to the Agro-clim aticCommittee of 1974, Kerala has beenconceptually divided into fiveagricultural zones based on thecharacteristics of rainfall, climate, soil,topography and elevation (NARP 1982).

7 One acre is equal to 0.25 hectares.8 Brick-making is a highly seasonal job,

and dependent on weather conditions.9 A primary health-care centre serves a

about 30,000 people and caters for thehealth needs of the local population,especially in family planning and immu-nisation services. It is further supportedby a community health centre whichcovers a population of 100,000, and asub-centre covering four to five villages.

10 Kerala contributes to nearly 50-60 per


29/95

Does land ownership make a difference? Women's roles in agriculture in Kerala, India 27

cent of Indian workers in the MiddleEast (GOK 1997). This outflow hasincreased since the beginning of the1970s on account on the hike in oil pricesand large-scale investment in all the oilexporting Arab countries. Although alarge number of skilled and educatedpersons regularly migrate to countrieslike the USA and the UK for work andeducation purposes, the pattern ofmigration to the Gulf is quite different.First, it is mostly temporary, as well ascirculatory and repetitive. In addition,most of the migrants are unskilled and

uneducated, and work as manualworkers. There is a large predominanceof males among these out-migrants, asmost families cannot take their familieson account of inadequate income andalso owing to the constraints placed onwomen's migration by the EmigrationActs of India.

11 Each household organises and managesagricultural activities and household

responsibilities differently, dependingon various factors, including normsabout the division of labour betweenwomen and men. These norms mayrestrict women who manage the familyfarm from engaging in certainagric ultura l tasks for exam ple,women do not operate machinery suchas tractors, tap the rubber trees, or climbtrees to harvest coconut and arecanut.

12 Matrilocal implies that on marriage, thehusband moves to his wife's family home.13 Chitty is a form of popular informal

savings among households in southernIndia. On the initiative of one person, agroup of individuals say, five persons pool equal sums of m oney say, Rs200 per month. On one day of everymonth, there will be a raffle where oneperson's name is drawn who receives thewhole amount of money i.e. Rs1,000. Inthis way, every month one person isentitled to the total money.

References

Agarwal, B (1994) In One's Own Field,Cambridge University Press.

Arun, S (1999) 'Gender, agriculture anddevelopment: The case of Kerala, South-West India ' , unpublished Ph.D.Dissertation, University of Manchester.

George, Ajitha (1994) 'Kerala SyrianChristian women and subordination',AKG Centre, Trivandrum.

Gough, K (1973) 'Kinship and marriage insouth-west India', in Contributions toIndian Sociology, No . 7.

GOK (1996a)

Documents

Women, Land and Agriculture