abundant literature reports that regardless of how access to
land is gained, women tend to have smaller landholdings
than men. In addition, women’s landholdings may be less
fertile and more distant from the homestead (Barnes 1983;
Jackson 1985; Keller et al. 1990; Alwang and Siegel 1994).
Security of Land
The long-term security of land tenure will often affect the
adoption of technology. To the extent that a new
technology involves long-term investments or is
complementary with other long-term investments, farmers
may be reluctant to adopt the technology if they lack
secure tenure. In making investment decisions, farmers are
concerned with their future benefits. The expected future
benefits shrink if there is a high probability that a farmer
will lose the land where the investment has been made.
Generally, the poorest farmers and those with the most
insecure tenure are less likely to adopt new technologies
(Kershaw 1976). Similarly, a woman who obtains land
through marriage may hesitate to invest in it when she
perceives her marriage as precarious (Kranz and
Fiege 1983).
Furthermore, access to land does not ensure tenure over
it. In many instances, the lineage maintains control over
the land. The differential effects on men and women,
however, will vary. In Zambia, most land belongs to the
lineage. In both matrilineal and patrilineal societies of the
Eastern Province, women only have access to land through
male relatives. When a marriage dissolves, the land reverts
to the lineage and the woman has only limited claim on
any land (Milimo 1991). Among the Haya of Tanzania,
women farm grassland plots, but do not have permanent
rights to the land (Koopman Henn 1983). Similarly, of
176 women farmers in Kenya interviewed by Davison
(1988) in 1983-84, only one woman, a widow, held land
registered in her own name.
There are situations in Africa, however, where women
have secure tenure to the land. Hirschmann and Vaughan
(1984) suggest that in Malawi, women possess family
matrilineal land, and land rights are retained by women,
even upon the death or divorce of their spouse. Eighty
percent of the women surveyed claimed that the land they
farmed was theirs and that they would not lose it upon a
divorce. Similarly, among the Luo in Kenya, women
acquire land through marriage, but they are able to keep
the land and bequeath it (Potash 1981).
One important reason why farmers want secure rights of
tenure or formal ownership of the land is to enable them
to obtain credit. In Zambia, the lack of formal titles to
land has been considered an impediment to smallholders’
access to credit. This problem is usually more severe for
women.
Although we might venture that women are better off
when they have the rights to land, other factors may
undercut this advantage. For example, in matrilineal areas
of Kenya, a man generally will not want to contribute
labor to land that belongs to his wife and that will remain
in her lineage (Davison 1987). Women, however,
frequently contribute their labor to land owned and
controlled by men.
Changing Access to Land
Access to land is not static, nor is tenure over land. As
circumstances change, farmers’ access and secure tenure to
landmay also change. These circumstances may include
legal revisions, such as the formal registering of land, or
economic changes, such as increased agricultural
productivity or population pressure on the land. Many
such changes have been occurring in Africa.
Formal land titling programs may affect women’s access
to land. Although, in theory, many places will register land
in either women’s or men’s names, in practice, most of the
land is registered in the names of men. For example,
among the Joluo of Kenya, 97% of the women reported in
1983 that their land was already registered; however, 91%
of the land was registered in the names of men, who have
exclusive rights to allocate or sell it (Pala 1983). Land
allocated by the Kenyan government has been inequitably
distributed between men and women, while land
allocation by villages has been more equitable (Saito 1994).
In a detailed analysis of the historical processes of land
registration in Kenya, Davison (1988) notes that land was
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