Insecure
LAND TENURE reduces people's incentives to make long-term investments in
land rehabilitation and maintain soil quality because they have no long-term or
permanent rights to the land. Women usually have even less access to land (and
control) than men. Customary practices and laws that limit women's right to land
may prevail over legislation that guarantees their right to land.
Providing
CREDIT is one of the best ways of encouraging rural women and men to take
an interest in environmentally sound activities. Smallholders, particularly
women, often face difficulties in obtaining credit due to lack of collateral.
There is a need to develop informal sector enterprises and alternative
livelihood possibilities through making credit available to small farmers,
especially to women.
Women's
access to AGRICULTURAL SUPPORT SERVICES (extension services, inputs,
etc.) is often restricted despite their multiple roles in dryland management.
Women's groups have, however, proven capable of tackling extreme livelihood
conditions deriving from dryland degradation, including through reforestation
and irrigation activities.
AWARENESS RAISING
AND EDUCATION concerning desertification can lead to changes in attitudes
and longer term social change. In fact, understanding the value of protecting
one resource (tree species, water source, fodder crop or skill), encourages men
and women to see the value of sustaining and protecting the environment in
general. In the meantime, however, specifically targeted strategies to empower
women are necessary.
Smallholders
in drylands face the difficulty of turning surplus products into cash income
because of their lack of transport and access to MARKETS, access to
market information such as consumption patterns and price fluctuations, and to
marketing opportunities and techniques. Women face particular constraints as
marketing infrastructure and organizations are rarely geared towards small-scale
production or to crops grown by women farmers.
Projects that
provide women with management and organizational skills help them to participate
in DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES and project activities.
FAO/I. Balderi
FAO/P. Cenini
