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Cross posted from Span Magazine Author: Burton Bollag

Women play a central role in farming in West Bengal, but are often marginalized. Technical training and greater access to land have helped them improve yields, build skills, and promote gender equality in their communities.

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In many countries, women produce 60 to 80 percent of the food. Yet women farmers remain largely marginalized and are often not recognized as farmers within their communities. Women own very little of the land they work in and receive only a small part of agricultural loans and technical assistance provided to small farmers.

A pilot project in West Bengal is trying to change that. PepsiCo, a multinational American beverage and snack company, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are working to empower women potato farmers by helping them access land, providing them with training and support, and promoting acceptance of greater gender equality in the communities where they live.

Since its launch in 2019, the partnership has directly helped more than 1,000 women farmers. And although the partnership project is only slated to last four years—until 2023—several measures have been introduced to help ensure the changes produced by the project are long-lasting.

For instance, gender concerns have been added to the training given to PepsiCo’s network of field agronomists, who regularly visit villages to help farmers improve their yields and the quality of potatoes supplied to the company.

At the same time, the project is training a number of women as “community agronomists” who support other local potato growers and help shift harmful gender norms. “I have been able to prove that I can do this,” recounts Arati Besra, a potato farmer and new community agronomist trained under the program. “Initially, my husband doubted my ability to perform. Now I have acceptance and respect from other women and men farmers too. I am learning many new things and I am trying to apply those lessons at a personal level while also reaching out to other women like me.”

The project has also identified a number of men as community champions, such as aggregators and sub-vendors in the potato supply chain, who understand and value women’s empowerment. “I sincerely believe that women can do everything required for successful farming,” said Shyamal Pal, an aggregator and community champion for women’s empowerment. “With support from PepsiCo, the women’s group leased one acre of land to plant potatoes and overcame adverse weather to emerge successful with a financial return. This ‘never before seen’ phenomenon drew the attention of the entire community here and had a demonstrative effect on other women’s groups.” These men and community champions have increased their outreach to women farmers and have played a key role in convincing other men in the communities to support the women’s efforts and recognize them as farmers. They have also taken up women’s empowerment activities more broadly; for example, they have independently engaged women community agronomists in areas outside of the project’s 12 target communities.

USAID and PepsiCo both had good reasons to join forces. USAID has ambitious goals to economically empower millions of women around the globe. PepsiCo was interested in testing out a theory that helps women in their supply chain gain more knowledge and control over their farming, which could lead to increases in the amount and quality of the potatoes they produce.

PepsiCo needs a steady supply of high-quality potatoes to produce chips and other snacks for the Indian market, which it sells under various brands including Lay’s. The company also aims to improve the livelihoods of more than 250,000 people in its agricultural supply chain and sustainably source 100 percent of the company’s key ingredients by 2030.

USAID officials say the first thing they did when starting to work together with PepsiCo in West Bengal was to conduct a study of local supply challenges to gender considerations, like gender norms and access to training. The study was meant to identify social and structural problems faced uniquely by women farmers, such as discrimination in accessing agricultural extension trainings, landholding, and, services or bank loans, as well as crop cultivation issues, such as water scarcity or pests.

Training is tailored to address these issues. Measures are taken to make it easier for the women to attend. For example, sessions are scheduled at times when the women do not have to be home attending to tasks delegated to them by relatives, such as cooking family meals and when children can be cared for by other family members.

In addition to agricultural extension services for women farmers, the project has organized classes to teach them business skills and provides training in such areas as the proper use of personal protective equipment when applying pesticides. “Women staying around me are practicing what they have learned from the training quite enthusiastically. They know how to collect the potatoes properly after harvesting, spray pesticides and take care of the sprayer and much more,” said Dipika Kole, a potato farmer joining the project. “We work equally like all other male farmers out there. When we learn new things from the training, we share it with our family members. They practice it and support us in implementing those practices in our field.” And because women farmers traditionally face steep barriers to owning or even leasing the land they work, the partnership has helped associations of women farmers lease land in their own names.

The project has also focused on helping the potato farmers adapt to the climate crisis facing farmers around the world. By teaching sustainable farming methods like composting, reducing crop residue burning, soil testing, responsible pest control, and drip irrigation to conserve water, the project seeks to help farming communities mitigate some of the harmful impacts of global warming.

Officials say the partnership has been very successful. Evidence of women’s economic empowerment is emerging, as many of these farmers today have improved self-image, confidence, mobility, access to knowledge and resources, income, decision-making power, acceptance by family and community members, and collective agency.  “I manage the whole pursuit of potato farming independently and the decision on which land is to be farmed with which variety of potato is mine. That doesn’t deter me from consulting with my husband (on farming decisions) when I feel the need, but I’m left with the freedom to take final calls—which even involves hiring labor,” said Purnima Kora, a local potato farmer.

In fact, in 2020 USAID and PepsiCo established a bigger five-year project, under USAID’s Global Development Alliance for Investing partnership model, to carry out similar work to empower women potato farmers supplying PepsiCo in Uttar Pradesh, as well as in three other countries: Pakistan, Vietnam and Colombia.

Burton Bollag is a freelance journalist living in Washington, D.C.

This post originally appeared on IUCN. 

“All our lives are a humiliation – they never allow us to go to school. When you get married, you are the thing that the husband brings home. He expects you to do A, B, C – and if you don’t do it, he will get another wife.”

In the South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), there are no female chiefs or heads of wards across the 40 villages in Walungu. The low level of representation in these leadership spaces means that women face an uphill battle when it comes to accessing land rights.

Across the globe, research indicates that gender-based violence (GBV) is used to control gender roles and norms while enforcing and protecting existing privileges around natural resources. In The Violence of Inequality, a study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) commissioned by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), research found that the deprivation of land rights can be employed as a form of economic gender-based violence, as it results in women depending on male relatives for land security and having limited means to leave or influence situations of violence.

“Women have no land, no country.”

This link between rights, decision making, resources, and safety is further strengthened by the fact that access to loans, credit, and agricultural productive assets and resources are often all connected to land titles as a form of equity.¹ And evidence indicates that improved land rights for women and men can increase sustainable and resilient agricultural productivity.

In Walungu and nearby Nyangezi, Women for Women International (WfWI) is partnering with Innovation and Training for Development and Peace (IFDP) to adapt existing GBV interventions to address land rights access for women made vulnerable by these interlinked issues. Funded by USAID, the work is a part of a global grant challenge on Resilient, Inclusive, and Sustainable Environments (RISE), inspired by IUCN’s research, to address GBV in environmental programs. As a part of the project, 138 women from local households have responded to surveys while a further 20 men and 36 women engaged in focus group discussions to shed light on how GBV and land rights impact women’s rights and identify ways forward.

An analysis of these engagements reveal that while 22% of women have access to land—mainly through vulnerable leases, only 11% have control over the land and just 14% have control over deciding which credit services and opportunities to use. In these households, respondents reported that men make 91% of all household decisions, from when household purchases are made, to land purchase, to schooling decisions for children, to expenditure of income from crop and livestock sales.

Hear from Aloys on how partners are responding to USAID’s RISE Challenge by addressing gender-based violence and land rights in the DRC.

“I would rather put my son’s name on the land title than my wife’s name.”

The DRC is a signatory of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and its Constitution affirms that women and men “are born free and equal in dignity and rights” and are “equal before the law and have the right to equal protection by the law”. The country has also amended family and land laws in order to strengthen gender equality. Yet, the data shows that practice has not yet caught up with these commitments.

In places such as Nyangezi, statutory law is ignored and, in practice, women and girls do not inherit land due to son preference. A respondent shared, “My father had a lot of property when he died. My brother, who inherited it all, sold everything. I received nothing. I wonder if all the girls had experienced my same situation.” 

As men control decision making in households, women having control over resources such as land titles is regarded as taboo. In addition, polygamous practices also present challenges to women’s decision-making roles and opportunities, as a woman’s status within her household can become a source of tension. One male respondent shared that, “a woman with land under her name is dangerous—I will never allow my wife to be friends with her.” In fact, communities reported that domestic violence can take place in front of family members and children as a means to enforce “discipline” over wives.

“In the community, they say that ‘women cannot buy or own land’, but I bought it and women see me as a strong woman.” – Furaha

Despite the challenges to land title rights and decision making, women in  South Kivu are defying expectations. Furaha joined the WfWI’s Change Agent program² and combined one year’s worth of savings from her village savings loan association (VSLA) with a loan from a friend and small business profits to buy land from a male neighbor. He agreed to the sale and provided a binding “acte de vente” that proves Furaha’s land ownership, which came in handy when another neighbor tried to steal the property from her.

Similarly, Gorette also used a loan through her VSLA and the WfWI Change Agent program to save funds and was able to buy land after one year, and land titling has enabled her to apply for loans to reinvest in agricultural outputs.

In Nyangezi, Naluhondo was a pioneer. Many years ago, as an unmarried woman, she focused on saving and investing in land. This decision proved to be important: after she married her husband, Naluhondo bought more land, which her husband sold without her consent. The land they live on today is that which she bought all those years ago before she married, and as the sole title holder, no one but Naluhondo can sell her home or land.

Yet, these success stories were not without additional challenges: in Furaha’s case, her husband wanted her to buy the land but to register it in his name. When Gorette made her plans to buy land, some family members wondered if it was because she was planning to leave her husband or if she planned to buy the land for her children from a previous marriage.

In each story, the seeds of change are apparent. For Naluhondo, though rare, women landowners were frowned upon in the past, and she senses that other women have regretted not following in her steps. For Furaha, despite the challenges with him, her husband agreed that the arrangements she made were beneficial for their children and she remains the land title holder. And for Gorette, she did not consider any barrier presented by the community to be insurmountable as she had the full support and agreement of her husband.

There is also hope for the future. Furaha has three sons and two daughters, and, to date, she has already purchased land for her eldest child and plans to continue buying land for all her children to ensure they each “have a land to live for their own with their own name on the documents.” Due to land titling, Naluhondo has also been able to fend off attempts from neighbors to grab her property while Gorette has noted that women with land titles have grown their resilience and autonomy.

“Once a woman becomes economically empowered, you contribute to household revenue and you are more valuable.” – Gorette

Insights from women like Furaha, Naluhondo, and Gorette have helped WfWI and IFDP identify that engagement with community leaders and men will play a central role in their project to ensure that women and men—including community leaders and male allies—can address and transform attitudes and beliefs about land ownership. In the coming months, WfWI and IFDP will train male allies as a part of a men’s engagement program. In target communities, the training will encourage reflections and challenge men to change normative barriers to women owning and controlling land, while also working with women and men alike to better understand and address GBV and land rights linkages.

When asked what each woman would like other women, men, and community leaders to know about women’s land ownership, each woman had her own message to share:

“What I would advise other women is to make little savings so that they may be able to buy and own land. Because I believe if I bought land, other women can as well. For men: I would ask them to stop selling their family (household) land without consulting their wives but buy more land rather than trading for beer (selling land then finish the money drinking). For community leaders: I would ask them to protect women’s properties.” – Furaha

“I can tell other women to always save because this allows women to be economically independent, which makes you more valuable and respectable in front of men, with  households and communities. I will ask men to support their wives and women in the community since it contributes to the development of a household and family and also it gives respect to women. Community leaders should also support women initiative and collaborate with them.” – Naluhondo

“What I can tell other women in the community is to work hard and become economically empowered which will give them values and they can also buy their own land because if they still depend on men providing everything, they will remain discriminated against. For men I would advise them to allow their women to do their business freely and support their effort.” – Gorette

1. This story reviews the ways in which land titles are potentially important for addressing GBV vulnerabilities within the context of Southern Kivu, DRC. In other areas of the world, GBV and land titles take on varied and different dimensions, which are reviewed in Section I, Chapter 2.1 of Gender-Based Violence and Environment Linkages: The Violence of Inequality, which is accessible at www.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.CH.2020.03.en.
2. WfWI’s Change Agent program supports women in advancing their leadership and advocacy skills. You can learn more about the approach at https://womenforwomen.org.uk/work-we-do/our-programmes/change-agents

This story was developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with inputs from Women for Women International (WfWI). Quotes were shared by household participants engaged in the project who have provided consent for publishing and were collected by WfWI. All photo credits in this story belong to WfWI.

Learn more about RISE and AGENT.  

This post originally appeared on IUCN. 

In eastern Uganda, where the land is governed by a customary land tenure system, up to 80 percent of unmarried or divorced women who reported land conflicts had experienced violence when claiming their land rights.¹

This problem is not unique to Uganda. Across the globe, research indicates that unequal land tenure “affects women’s ability to access, use, control, and benefit from land,” thereby limiting women’s economic empowerment and financial security.² In many cases, women may be unaware of their rights to land, lack the documentation necessary to exercise those rights, or live in societies where social norms inhibit women’s access to land.

Studies have shown that a woman who holds land may be perceived as a threat to the existing gender norms and power structures within the community. Men who feel that their power is being threatened can target women to keep them in a place of fear and dependence. As a result, women experience gender-based violence (GBV) to dissuade them from exercising their land rights or threaten their existing property rights.

Decision-making in customary land tenure systems are often made by men and in favor of men,  creating a dangerous cocktail of inequality that ensures unmarried women,  women who have separated from their husbands, and widows face challenges in owning and maintaining control over land. 

When women lack a male head of the household and face land conflicts, they are at risk of experiencing GBV. Land conflicts in Uganda often arise when widows try to exercise their land rights. Widows face verbal harassment and physical violence, including having their hands bound or being beaten, forcing them to choose between their own safety or their land.

Hear from Lillian on how a RISE project in Uganda will address land rights to address gender-based violence.

“My life was threatened by my nephew, [who] promised to physically harm me and emotionally abused me over a land boundary.”

However, linkages between increased women’s land rights and other development outcomes are context specific.  Land tenure and property rights interventions shift long-standing social and power dynamics at the community and family level. A woman who holds land may also experience increased status and bargaining power within a community or household, which can lead to increased economic empowerment and less violent outcomes.

In the Bukedea and Katakwi districts in Eastern Uganda, Trócaire, a faith-based agency, is partnering with Land Equity Movement of Uganda (LEMU) and Soroti Catholic Diocese Integrated Development Organization (SOCADIDO) to implement the Securing Land Rights and Ending Gender Exclusion (SLEDGE) Project. The project aims to improve women’s land tenure and property rights, address power imbalances between men and women, and respond to GBV. This work is funded by USAID’s Resilient, Inclusive, and Sustainable Environments (RISE) challenge, inspired by IUCN’s research to address GBV in environmental programs.³

In the Katakwi District of Uganda, a 70-year-old unmarried woman by the name of Sarah⁴ shares a piece of land with her two sons, one adopted and one biological, as well as their wives and children. While Sarah was given this land decades ago from her father’s family, like many women, she lacked formal land boundaries and documentation of the exact size and location of her property.

In 2017, one of Sarah’s nephews encroached onto her land by three meters and claimed that the boundary between the two properties goes through one of the huts of Sarah’s adopted son’s home. Sarah’s nephew responded to this boundary conflict by verbally and emotionally abusing her, insulting her, and threatening physical harm to her. He used GBV as a method of control to try and prevent her from exercising her rights over her own property, property that she had owned since “before he was even born.”

In a first attempt to address the issue with her nephew, Sarah went to a Local Council Court where the court and clan leaders used a mediation method to try and settle the dispute. While Sarah was able to share her opinion and call some witnesses, the process ultimately failed to resolve the problem and the threats and verbal abuse continued. It wasn’t until September 2020 when Sarah attended an awareness-raising meeting by the SLEDGE Project that she finally found a lasting solution to the problem that had been “emotionally torturing” her for three years.  

The meeting was intended to popularize the concept of land documentation and demarcation by highlighting its advantages, explaining the steps, and teaching people how to access the service.  The Project adopted a new approach to marking land that utilizes the Global Positioning System (GPS) in the MYGPS application to define coordinates around demarcation areas. This helps prevent boundary conflicts by reducing inaccuracies and creating permanent coordinates for land that cannot be manipulated or otherwise altered once local parties have agreed on them.

For Sarah, this improved land demarcation process was an opportunity to not only provide a lasting solution to her conflict with her nephew, but also protect the land for her children and grandchildren for decades to come. “The boundary marks would provide [me] security,” Sarah explained, and would “prevent conflicts that would arise in the future.”

Sarah shared her interest in land demarcation with a clan leader and the Project team, and she was asked to invite her neighbors and children to participate in the demarcation. When that day arrived, she shared her family’s information and they conducted a walk-through of the land and pointed out the boundaries of her property.

When Sarah’s nephew brought up his conflict, the clan, community activists, and Project team conducted an on-the-spot resolution. After hearing from both parties and the neighbors, they determined that the three meters of land were rightfully Sarah’s, and the nephew eventually agreed to the resolution. The Project team used MYGPS to capture coordinates and planted trees as boundary markers. When the process concluded, Sarah was given a map showing the boundaries of her land, which included her neighbors’ signatures in agreement. She stores the map with another document that shows she, her sons, and her grandchildren have rights over the land.

“[As a result of the land demarcation process,] I feel my land is secure and free from potential encroachers. It will [ensure that] my children live in harmony with our neighbors even after the lord calls me.”

Sarah is not alone in her story of owning land and still facing land insecurity and threats of GBV from family members or neighbors. One GBV-ENV survey found that 45 percent of respondents reported that while men and women in their countries have equal rights to own land and property, customary laws and norms are unequal.⁵ It is these inequalities that create an atmosphere in which men feel threatened by women exercising rights over their land and use GBV as a method of control. The SLEDGE project and other organizations doing similar work in countries across the globe are finding ways to create enabling environments that support women’s increased land tenure security, while not jeopardizing their safety. 

1. LEMU-IDRC 2017
2.  United States Agency for International Development (USAID) (2016). United States Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence Globally.
3.  Castañeda Camey, I., Sabater, L., Owren, C. and Boyer, A.E. (2020). Gender-based violence and environment linkages: The violence of inequality. Wen, J. (ed.). Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. 272pp. At: https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.CH.2020.03.en
4.  Name has been changed.
5.  Castañeda Camey, I., Sabater, L., Owren, C. and Boyer, A.E. (2020). Gender-based violence and environment linkages: The violence of inequality. Wen, J. (ed.). Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. 272pp. At: https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.CH.2020.03.en

This story was developed by Resonance with inputs from Trocaire. Quotes were shared by participants engaged in the project who have provided consent for publishing and were collected by Trocaire. All photo credits in this story belong to Trocaire.

Learn more about RISE and AGENT.