TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF RESEARCH ON WOMEN FARMERS IN AFRICA: LESSONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS; WITH AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Chipande, G.H.R. 1987. Innovation adoption among
female-headed households: The case of Malawi.

Development 18: 315-27.

This study highlights the constraints facing female-headed
households in Malawi and underscores many of the reasons
that new technologies have not been adopted. Many female-
headed households have small plots of land and low levels of
income. Thus, credit may not be available to them, and if it
is offered, they may choose not to borrow because they
would not expect to be able to repay the loans. Low levels of
income exacerbate labor shortages for their farms, since they
often hire out labor during the peak labor season to provide
food for themselves and their families.

Ciparisse, G. 1987. An anthropological approach to
socioeconomic factors of development: The case of Zaire.
Current Anthropology 19(1): 37-41.

For any development project to be effective, it must take
into account the specific socioeconomic structures and
values of the community it seeks to help. By explaining how
the clan structure of the Congo (formerly Zaire) shapes the
incentives for the adoption of modern agricultural
technology, this paper illustrates the conflicts between
traditional social institutions and the implementation and
success of projects aimed to increase individual surplus
production.

Clark, B.A. 1975. The work done by rural women in
Malawi. Eastern Africa Journal of Rural Development 8:
80-91.

Using 1970/71 survey data, this paper analyzes the amount
of time spent by women in different tasks. The proportion
of work done by men and women in maize production in
two villages is also presented. Women provided more hours
of work than men in planting, weeding, harvesting, and
shelling, but not in marketing.

Davison, J. 1987. “Without land we are nothing”: The
effect of land tenure policies and practices upon rural
women in Kenya. Rural Africana 27: 19-33.

In Kenya, women produce over 80% of food crops and
contribute to cash crop production but own only 5% of the
land. Increasing scarcity of land due to a larger population
and to a post-independence land boom has eroded women’s
access to land. During the precolonial period, use rights
derived from patrilineages. Plots were allotted to male heads
of households according to their needs. In turn, male heads
were obligated to provide plots for each of their wives. In
1954, all potential agricultural land was consolidated into
private holdings. Title deeds were given to male household
heads who were encouraged to produce cash crops. This
capitalization of land and agriculture has made women
more dependent on men who control agricultural inputs,
land, and the distribution of goods and services. While
women still acquire access to land through marriage, they
are granted fewer plots than women in precolonial times.
Single and widowed women face additional constraints. An
unmarried woman without children must either find urban
employment or return to her father’s homestead. A woman
may lose her access to land when her husband dies.

National development policies are needed that give women
the right to inherit land, extend legal protection to widows,
and make capital available to women regardless of marital
status.

Davison, J. (ed.). 1988. Agriculture, Women and Land: The
African Experience. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.

This collection of articles provides an excellent framework
for understanding the relationships of agriculture, gender,
and land issues. The introductory chapter provides a clear
analysis of the issues. The case studies cover countries
throughout Africa and include analyses of both staple and
cash crop production. Many of the case studies provide
detailed descriptions of women’s access to land and how it
affects agricultural production. Many of the papers focus on
the changes that have been occurring with respect to
women’s access and tenure of land.

Davison, J. 1992. Changing relations of production in
Southern Malawi’s households: Implication for
involving rural women in development. Journal of
Contemporary African Studies 11(1): 72-84.

Development projects that require women’s cooperative
production have met with varied success in Africa. While
projects in nations of Africa with long histories of female
cooperation, such as Kenya, have proved successful, similar
projects in matrilineal societies, such as Malawi, have not.
This article stresses the importance of taking socio-cultural
considerations into account in planning any development
project. In Malawi, land has traditionally been passed
through a matrilineage system to individual banja
households consisting of a wife, her husband, the wife’s
children, and in some cases her elderly female relatives.
Since women maintain complete control of their land and
labor, they have little incentive to join together with other
women whom they often view as competitors. Rather,
women concentrate their efforts on their own land. A recent
trend has been for many men to migrate in search of wage
employment. Women tend to compensate for this loss by
hiring labor rather than cooperating with female relatives.
This can be seen as a continuation of the traditional value
on autonomy and banja profitability and productivity.
Women draw most of their labor for maize production
from within their family and from hired labor and have
little interest in engaging in cooperative activities.

Development projects in Malawi should hence be aimed at
individual banjas rather than cooperative efforts.

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