Practical innovations to help women agri-preneurs access land and markets M. Mercedes Stickler Sr. Land Administration Specialist, World Bank Land policy reform for agricultural transformation in India • Study analyzed how land rights affect farmers’ access to agricultural services • Key outputs • National background report • 7 case studies of pilots to increase farmers’ access to land/entitlements • 3 state level reports • 2 project level analyses • Legal analysis of the Model Agricultural Land Leasing Act • 4 discussion notes Photo Credit: Landesa Women agri-preneurs have lower access to land, services • Gender productivity gap of 7% nationally in India1 • Women = • 65% of agricultural workers • Only 14% of formal landholders • Caveat: Most states’ land records do not record gender • Problem Most government agriculture schemes use land (ownership) records to identify eligible farmers • Women (and tenant) farmers are thus often ineligible for these entitlements bc they lack formal land records 1 Mahajan 2018 based on national data (IHDS) Photo Credit: Rohit Jain, World Bank 1. Kudumbashree initiative to lease land to women’s self-help groups (Kerala, KE) 2. Indira Kranti Pratham (IKP)-Bhoomi program under Society Promising for Elimination of Rural Poverty to enhance access to land by poor households (Andhra Pradesh, AP) state 3. Landesa and Odisha Tribal Empowerment and Livelihoods initiatives to Program Partnership to help landless families legally access homestead/agricultural land (Odisha, OD) increase poor 4. Landesa and West Bengal State Rural Livelihoods Mission Partnership to provide legal training and assistance to help farmers’ women register land in their names (West Bengal, WB) access to land 5. Working Group of Women for Land Ownership (WGWLO) program to provide legal training and assistance to help and women claim inheritance (Gujarat, GU) agricultural 6. Rongmei Naga Baptist Association (RNBA) and NRMC Center for Land Governance pilot to assist traditional leaders to services record farmers’ land rights (Manipur, MN) 7. Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN) program to help women’s self-help groups access and cultivate leased-in land (Odisha, OD) Four key strategies to empower women agri-entrepreneurs 1. Increase land access for land-poor women farmers 2. Help vulnerable farmers access formal land records 3. Informally register tribal farmers’ customary land rights 4. Build farmers’ land rights awareness and legal aid access Photo Credit: Ritayan Mukherjee, World Bank 1. Increase land access • Subsidize land purchases by poor women farmers (AP) • WB project provided financing and technical assistance to help landless poor women purchase land • Increased: # of landowners, avg. landholding size, incomes (30-75%), food security, women’s status • Shifted primary income source from wages to cultivation • Decreased seasonal migration • Support women’s SHGs lease land for collective farming (AP, KE, OD, WB) • CBOs/NGOs helped SHGs identify available fallow land, negotiate leases with owners/village, and register eligible (landowning) member farmers to access agricultural entitlements and extension • Increased: productivity, farm income (up to 4x national average in Odisha), high value crop adoption 2. Help vulnerable farmers access formal land records • Support landless families to formalize their informal rights and claim available government land, including through joint titles (OD) • State government project and NGO provided technical facilitation to identify eligible landless families and help them access titles through existing government land allocation programs • Increased: Access to agricultural and homestead land, govt. agriculture schemes, productivity (by 140% on average), income (18x), high value crop adoption, women’s confidence (through joint titling) 3. Informally register tribal farmers’ customary land rights • Issue customary land tenure certificates in customary areas (MN) • CBOs and NGOs worked with customary authorities to use low-cost digital technologies to map customary lands and issue informal land tenure certificates, including jointly for husbands and wives • Increased: access to government agriculture schemes, extension, and compensation for loss of land • Created farmer demand for certificates to strengthen individual tenure security 4. Build farmers’ land rights awareness and legal aid access • Build women’s awareness and help them claim lawful inheritance (GU, WB) • NGOs trained women on land laws, trained women paralegals to help women file inheritance claims, hosted legal clinics, and linked women farmers with agricultural entitlements/services • Increased: legal awareness, access to agricultural entitlements, credit, extension, markets • Reduced time and cost of securing land (by 10-15x to USD 14/person on average) (GJ) • Help women resolve disputes and access public land development (AP, OD) • NGOs trained local paralegals and community surveyors to inventory poor families’ land rights, help them resolve land disputes, and support them to access public land development funding and credit • Increased: access to land and credit, HH farm production (140%–OD); • Positive benefit cost ratio (9.24–AP) Key takeaways • Women agri-preneurs struggle to access land & agricultural entitlements constrains their potential • Tested strategies for empowering women agri-preneurs can be scaled up • Helping women agri-preneurs access land/entitlements has positive impacts Photo Credit: Arshia Gupta, World Bank Thank you Questions? mstickler@worldbank.org pranabrc@nrmc.co Download the case studies: Centerforland.org Photo Credit: Tyler Roush, Landesa