Assessment of the impact of traditional land tenure systems on women's access to land in rural southwest Nigeria


Fanu Abimbola, Federal university Oye Ekiti, Nigeria

The pattern of land ownership in African and in southwest Nigeria in particular is either by inheritance or by purchase but of all these methods of land ownership, none has been favourably disposed to allowing women access to the land of their own (George et al . 2014). Chigbu et al., (2019) opined that patriarchal land system is still prevalent in southwest Nigeria and communal lands are still being allocated by community leaders. Under the traditional system, women typically have limited access to land, as land is often inherited through the male line and is controlled by the male family members. Women are often excluded from decision-making about land and are dependent on men for access to land this can lead to inequality, poverty, and food insecurity for women and their families (Aluko and Amidu, 2006). In some parts of Nigeria, customary and formal tenure systems generally deprive women of the right to the use of land. Whitehead and Tsikata (2003), stated that women are reduced to temporary land users who only embrace secondary land rights. As such, they are forced to derive livelihood by using land in accordance with the customary system of use, which is male-controlled and biased (Adedipe et al., 1997). The gender effects of land possession are complex and subject to modification over time (Quisumbing et al. , 2015). Despite the integral roles women play in food production, processing and marketing, women’s right to the occupation of land remains marginalized in the developing economies. It therefore, makes it tough for them to secure credit facilities from formal financial institutions that involve land as collateral for a loan (George et al., 2014). Moreover, it reduces the supportive roles that they perform in their individual families (Adeyemo et al ., 2015). Meinzen-Dick et al ., (2019) discussed the evidence on how women’s land rights are related to poverty reduction, drawing on a conceptual framework developed through the Gender, Agriculture and Assets Project. Budlender and Alma (2011) provided evidences from numerous tasks on the positive impacts of women’s tenure security. In recent years, the significance of women’s access to land has been increasingly acknowledged. Women’s land rights and tenure safety are increasingly seen as significant, for reasons of gender equity, to encourage economic progress and development, and to reduce poverty. Among the millennium goals are the gender base equality issues and this makes this research timely. This paper seeks to discuss the impact of traditional land tenure systems on women’s access to land in rural southwest, Nigeria. The specific objectives are to: identify the traditional land tenure systems existing in the study area, identify the barriers to women’s access to land, assess the impact of land access on women’s income and livelihood, examine the impact of land access on women’s food security and nutrition and lastly identify policy and programmatic interventions that can improve women’s access to land. The data for this study will be collected using interview schedule and purposive sampling will be used to select these rural women. This will lead to increase in productivity, competitive edge will increase and this will at the end translate to increase and improvement in agricultural outputs and thereby contributing to the gross domestic product of the country. The pattern of land ownership in African and in southwest Nigeria in particular is either by inheritance or by purchase but of all these methods of land ownership, none has been favourably disposed to allowing women access to the land of their own (George et al . 2014). Chigbu et al., (2019) opined that patriarchal land system is still prevalent in southwest Nigeria and communal lands are still being allocated by community leaders. Under the traditional system, women typically have limited access to land, as land is often inherited through the male line and is controlled by the male family members. Women are often excluded from decision-making about land and are dependent on men for access to land this can lead to inequality, poverty, and food insecurity for women and their families (Aluko and Amidu, 2006). In some parts of Nigeria, customary and formal tenure systems generally deprive women of the right to the use of land. Whitehead and Tsikata (2003), stated that women are reduced to temporary land users who only embrace secondary land rights. As such, they are forced to derive livelihood by using land in accordance with the customary system of use, which is male-controlled and biased (Adedipe et al., 1997). The gender effects of land possession are complex and subject to modification over time (Quisumbing et al. , 2015). Despite the integral roles women play in food production, processing and marketing, women’s right to the occupation of land remains marginalized in the developing economies. It therefore, makes it tough for them to secure credit facilities from formal financial institutions that involve land as collateral for a loan (George et al., 2014). Moreover, it reduces the supportive roles that they perform in their individual families (Adeyemo et al ., 2015). Meinzen-Dick et al ., (2019) discussed the evidence on how women’s land rights are related to poverty reduction, drawing on a conceptual framework developed through the Gender, Agriculture and Assets Project. Budlender and Alma (2011) provided evidences from numerous tasks on the positive impacts of women’s tenure security. In recent years, the significance of women’s access to land has been increasingly acknowledged. Women’s land rights and tenure safety are increasingly seen as significant, for reasons of gender equity, to encourage economic progress and development, and to reduce poverty. Among the millennium goals are the gender base equality issues and this makes this research timely. This paper seeks to discuss the impact of traditional land tenure systems on women’s access to land in rural southwest, Nigeria. The specific objectives are to: identify the traditional land tenure systems existing in the study area, identify the barriers to women’s access to land, assess the impact of land access on women’s income and livelihood, examine the impact of land access on women’s food security and nutrition and lastly identify policy and programmatic interventions that can improve women’s access to land. The data for this study will be collected using interview schedule and purposive sampling will be used to select these rural women. This will lead to increase in productivity, competitive edge will increase and this will at the end translate to increase and improvement in agricultural outputs and thereby contributing to the gross domestic product of the country.

Non-presenting author: Olatunji Olufunke Comfort, Federal university Oye Ekiti, Nigeria

This paper will be presented at the following session: