A recent study published in Food policy finds that farmers in Malawi can produce similar yields when they have equal access to inputs. But according to research, grain yields from farms managed by women are consistently lower than those from farms managed by men. Part of this is due to unequal access to high quality land.
In Malawi, inheritance of land is traditionally matrilineal and marriages are uxorial, which means that the husband moves to the wife’s village. Men, however, continue to dominate Malawian agriculture and society. While women tend to have land rights, this study assumes that they are given rights to inferior agricultural land.
To better understand this gap, the study examines the effects of access to agricultural resources on maize yields for Malawian farmers. Researchers compared yields between farms managed by men and women to determine whether lower yields are compounded by limited access to resources.
The researchers analyzed the differences in fertilizer use and seed quality between the plots managed by men and women, as well as the respective soil quality of each farm. After comparing 884 sites, the researchers concluded that the difference in access to resources and quality agricultural plots were the only gender-related factors that impacted maize yields.
There is nothing “about being a man or a woman that makes you naturally better at farming,” study lead author Dr. William Burke told Food Tank.
This unequal ownership of quality farmland has implications for the country’s hunger and malnutrition rates.
Malawi suffers from persistent food insecurity and ranks 78e out of 117e on the 2019 World Hunger Index list of food insecure countries. In addition, the United Nations Human Development Report reveals that 39 percent of Malawian children under the age of five suffer from stunted growth due to malnutrition.
Women play a critical role in agricultural consumption decisions and are primarily responsible for making food decisions for their families, according to a study from the University of Manchester. To address the country’s high rate of food insecurity, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations argues that women should be at the heart of agricultural institutions and decision-making.
The study recommends interventions to address the gender disparity in agriculture. While equalization of legal land rights is important, researchers argue that this alone is unlikely to solve the problem. “Women’s land rights are necessary but not sufficient to level the playing field,” Burke told Food Tank. He explains that Malawi’s cultural landscape demonstrates that inequalities can persist even when countries recognize women’s land rights.
The authors believe that it is essential to prioritize policies that target improving soil quality. Improving soil health means improving the sustainability of the availability of nutrients in the soil that help farmers produce higher yields. Not only would soil improvement help increase yields for all farmers, it would benefit the inferior soils owned by the most disadvantaged farmers.
Burke told Food Tank: “Targeting soil improvement programs by default will disproportionately benefit women. “