1. Fighting Poverty by enhancing women’s Role in Agriculture and Food Security:
By Cynthia Sumaili (2014)
Ever since independence, Less Developed Countries in Africa have been struggling to
develop. There has been a number of theories suggesting how these counties can
develop. Some of them acting as a blue print for development (WW Rostows theory of
development). Africa has also been a beneficiary of foreign aid which is given in form of
concessional loans. But after 50 years of trying out development theories and receiving
huge amounts of aid, Africa still remains impoverished and without knowing exactly
what the problem is, it is possible that 50 years to come, Africa will still be
underdeveloped. Therefore, in order to fight underdevelopment in Africa, it is important
to tackle some of the problems that make Africa poor. Of the so many problems that
result from underdevelopment, Africa is faced with high levels of poverty. Poverty arises
from high incidences of food insecurity among many other reasons.
In Order to fight poverty in LDCs it is key to deal with issues of food insecurity at both
national and household levels. Food insecurity consequently leads to unproductive
individuals that cannot contribute positively to the economy of a country. Unfortunately
in Less Developed Countries, food insecurity levels are very high, of course in some
countries worse than in others. According to the African Development Bank (2012) the
food security situation on the continent in the first semester of 2012 was overshadowed
by a looming food and humanitarian crisis in the Sahel due to drought. This came on the
heels of the crisis in the Horn of Africa in the previous year, when 12 million people
required humanitarian assistance and famine was declared in Somalia. Even though
famine conditions no longer exist in Somalia, nearly one-third of the population was
reported to be in crisis during the first quarter of 2012, unable to fully meet essential
food and nonfood needs.
In relation to agriculture and food security, women play a key role. According to Seney
(2012), agriculture and food security are charactorised by gendered dimensions in that

2. women play a key role in agricultural production, food processing and marketing. As can
be seen, women are directly involved in in the actual production of food, marketing,
hence making it accessible and processing for utilisation. They are involved directly in
the three most important dimensions of food security which are physical availability of
food, accessibility and utilization. In addition to the above, women play a critical role in
deciding the dietary needs of each individual member of the family at household level.
From the above, we can note the importance of women in agriculture and food security
and development as a whole. Yet women compared to their male counterparts are
generally disadvantaged. The phrase “poverty has a woman’s face” has gained
popularity especially in the field of Development Studies and can be applied at various
levels in developing countries. For example, many households in LDCs are female
headed. But a close look at most women in these countries reveals that majority have
not acquired minimum standards of education and very few own productive assets like
land. The EFT Global Monitoring Report of 2003/4 observed that Sub-Saharan Africa
has low enrolments rates and strong gender disparities and inequalities. A third of the
countries have GPIs of under 0.76 – Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, Ethiopia, Guinea,
Guinea-Bissau, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, the Central African Republic, Mozambique and
Liberia.
Pertaining to land ownership, the USAID notes that disparities in land ownership
between men and women are actually present in all regions of the world, they state that
while many people in the developing world lack secure property rights and access to
adequate resources, women have less access to land than men do in all regions and in
many countries. Women across the developing world are consistently less likely to own
land, have fewer rights to land, and the land they own or have access to is of lower
quality in comparison to men
Yet, amidst all the difficulties that they face, women have this huge responsibility of
taking care of their households.

3. Women are also affected differently by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Philipose (2007)
mentions that, when it comes to HIV/AIDS, women face a double threat. To begin with,
women have less access to accurate information about AIDS and usually, even less
power to enforce prevention techniques such as the use of condoms. Secondly, women
bear the brunt of the epidemic because they are responsible for taking care of their sick
relatives. He goes on to state that girls drop out of school, lose jobs and face stigma
and discrimination when they care for HIV infected relatives and friends (Sopora: 1999)
Since women form the back born of the agriculture labor force in the sub-Saharan
region, their vulnerability to the disease is associated with a drop in agriculture
productivity and a deepening of food insecurity endemic to sub-Saharan Africa (FAO:
2005).
If women are this important in food security therefore, gender mainstreaming in the
agricultural sector is very key for two basic reasons. Firstly, it should be noted that
generally, women are the worst victims of poverty, yet most poverty elimination
strategies forget them. This is true also for most agricultural related policies. Secondly,
the World Bank (2009) states that empowering women and girls is not only critical for
agricultural development and food security but there is also a strong economic rationale
for this. To begin with, if women farmers were given the same access to resources,
such as finance, women’s agricultural yields could increase by 20 to 30 percent, while
national agriculture production could rise by 2.5 to 4 percent and a number of
malnourished people could be reduced by 12 to 17 percent (FAO: 2011). It has also
recently been observed that if African women were given equal access as men to
vocational training and technology, the continents economy would expand by at least 40
percent.
The problems of food insecurity and underdevelopment are being perpetrated by the
continued lack of attention on women and failure to realise that women are the key
actors in development. The saying, “Educate a woman and you educate a nation”,
applies to development as a whole as well. There is therefore need for more effort on

4. the part of LDCs’ governments to focus on empowering women. Land tenure and land
rights should be designed in such a way that women begin enjoy access to land.
Women also need credit as well as insurance facilities among many other things. This
will be a starting point in resolving the problems of poverty and underdevelopment in
Less Developed countries.

5. References
EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2003/4. Gender and Education for all, the leap to
Equality.
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). 2005. Assessment of
the world food security situation. Rome.
Philipose Anandita, 2007. HIV/AIDS, Gender and Food Security in Sab-Saharan Africa.
Cornell, New York.
Seney Habtenzion, 2012. Gender, Agriculture and Food Security. UNDP.
USAID. Land Tenure, Property Rights and Gender. www,usaid.gvt