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capital, and aligning this with existing consumer concerns

and demand. While organic certification is the not the only

way to protect ecosystem services, the family farmers’ experi-

ence in this project demonstrates that where conditions are

favourable, organic certification can serve as a significant

market-based mechanism to build confidence in farmer-

led ecosystem restoration. Through this approach, viable

farming communities can once again emerge in Zimbabwe,

and perhaps elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.

Gender and family farming in ESAFF

Agriculture is one of the most accessible activities for the

world’s poorest people. Eastern and Southern Africa are

no exceptions. Women constitute the majority of the poor,

unskilled, rural people. They are more dependent on agricul-

ture to meet their reproductive and productive responsibilities

of feeding the family and raising healthy children. In 2002, in

Eastern and Southern Africa (with the exception of Botswana,

Mauritius and South Africa), women were more concentrated

in agriculture than in any other sector. Women’s concen-

tration in this sector is strongest in Tanzania, Malawi and

Mozambique, Uganda and Kenya respectively. The way in

which labour is divided between men and women and the

apportionment of control over land, labour, technology and

access to finance in the domestic unit have a bearing on the

ways women and men can participate and benefit from the

products of the agricultural sector.

Most nations of Eastern and Southern Africa are former

colonies; the colonial regimes set up dualistic agriculture

systems, a legacy which has persisted to the present. The

system has fast-growing commercialized agriculture working

along a subsistence system which is characterized by family-

based farming in relatively small units in the rural areas. These

subsistence systems were established to allow indigenous

people to grow subsistence food to supplement their wages

from labour on the commercial farms. The system in which

males have more access to waged labour and women more or

less dominate subsistence agriculture on smallholder farms

highlight the need to be sensitive to women when making

polices that impact on subsistence agricultural systems.

Access to capital is an important precondition for deter-

mining agricultural productivity. Although various credit

schemes extend support to farmers in the ESA region,

women are marginalized by conditions set for accessing

credit. Women receive less than 10 per cent of the agricul-

tural credit. This is because of women’s lack of collateral,

education, numeracy and information. In some cases women

need consent from their spouses to qualify for credit. When

women control income, they prioritize expenditure on

school fees, food and clothing. In the commercial agri-

cultural sector which is characterized by capital intensive

production mainly for the market, women are marginalized

as farm owners as they lack access to the capital required

to secure and operate large concerns. As a result, women’s

enterprises are more likely to collapse because they are

forced to purchase inferior equipment or materials. In addi-

tion, microfinance can burden women with debt repayment

while male relatives use the credit and withdraw their contri-

butions to household budgets.

Women in the region remain disadvantaged economically

and socially, generally as a result of their subordinate legal

status. Discriminatory laws entrenching gender inequality

which were crafted during the colonial era still exist, espe-

cially in the field of family. Married women do not have

the same rights as their husbands over family property and

decision-making. Sons and daughters do not have the same

property and inheritance rights. Dual legal systems (statu-

tory and customary) remain in effect in all ESA countries.

Property rights in patriarchal customary land tenure areas

award primary land rights to men. These land rights are

acquired through marriage and inheritance. With the excep-

tion of matrilineal societies in parts of Zimbabwe, Zambia

and Mozambique, women farmers in customary land tenure

areas have derived land rights. These rights are derived on

the basis of their marriage to a male husband, brother or

father. The positioning of women in the customary tenure

areas makes their land rights precarious and vulnerable to

the death of the male intermediary through which they nego-

tiate access to land.

If we use a value chain approach to gender we can assess

how women and other marginalized groups are not currently

benefiting from their productive activities, and what can be

done to improve the success of this engagement. Gender

inequity in agricultural value chains is also a missed busi-

ness opportunity, as investing in gender equity can improve

the overall chain. Although women do most of the agricul-

tural work, their benefits are normally limited to the primary

production. This is in spite of the fact that agricultural

produce increases in value as it moves up the value chain

from the producer to the markets. There is evidence that once

women’s niche in the value chain becomes profitable, it will be

vulnerable to capture by men. There is an important role for

government policy to reduce poverty through reducing risk,

encouraging sustainable agriculture, education and skills, and

implementing measures to tighten rural labour markets and

improve access to land.

ESAFF has the following recommendations to make. There

is need to implement land tenure reforms which offer family

farmers and smallholder farmers a regulatory mechanism

so they use the land as an investment asset. Water sector

reforms need to be implemented by reallocating water rights

to ensure fair distribution between big business (industry

and large-scale commercial farmers), family farmers or

smallholder farmers. Investment in the construction of irri-

gation facilities is needed to counter the cyclical production

challenges facing rain-fed agriculture. There is also a need

for investment in appropriate technology development to

allow family farmers to improve on their varieties and tech-

nology, hence boosting productivity.

Efforts must be made to refrain from anti-competitive

behaviour which distorts the family marketing approaches,

and to create strategic partnerships with government to

improve family farmers’ access to productive assets, for

example microfinance products to fund family farms.

Organisation among farmers is a priority at primary (coop-

eratives), secondary (commodity associations) and tertiary

(farming unions) levels to coordinate and lobby their access

to productive assets.

eep

oots