Measures for the improvement of women's land holding and land rights

Abstract

The problem of low productivity is fundamental to the long-term deteriorating trend in agricultural and per capita food production that has characterized African agriculture during the past decades. Widespread desertification and degradation of African farmlands and the present heavy dependence on natural rainfall which are some of the causes of low productivity, reflect the inability of African member States to sufficiently invest in and develop technologies and farming systems suitable for adoption by small farmers. Inadequate land tenure systems and lack of economic incentives to small farmers have been other major contributory factors to low productivity which over the years has slowly led to the current food crisis in Africa.