Women and Land in Chinena Village, Chibombo District, Central Zambia: Vices from the Grassroots

Abstract

The paper attempts to show that as per the literature, women farmers in Chinena village tend to obtain or have access to land through their husbands, parents or other male relatives. However, an effort is made by the headman to allocate land to female heads of households on their on merit. Although women farmers do not enjoy the same access to land and other productive assets and therefore suffer more from food insecurity than male farmers, what is remarkable is that they have devised creative ways of coping with this insecurity. Widows, divorcees and other women farmers do not enjoy full security in land, but would welcome the granting of title to the land which they cultivate as implied in the 1995 Lands Act. This requires that women are given more inforrnation about proceedures for land conversion, and the cooperation of traditional leaders such as headmen and chiefs is enlisted in order to make the process of land reform successfull, so as to empower female farmers with secure title.