Resumen de Impact of land tenure on livelihoods of women livestock-keepers in Burkina Faso
Marthe Montcho, Elie A. Padonou, Marlise Montcho, Meshack N. Mutua, Phillip Bayen
Land is an essential asset for women livestock-keepers that help to increase their livelihoods. The main objective of this study was to assess the impact of land tenure on production systems and the income of women livestock-keeper in Burkina Faso. A face to face survey was conducted on women’s livestock-keeping practices, their access to land and production using semi structured questionnaires. Hierarchical Cluster Analysis was used to assess the women’s livestock production systems. Conditional inference tree–based classification models allowed us to identify factors that mostly determine women’s access to livestock grazing land. A generalized linear model was used to assess the effects of land access parameters on the monthly income. A total of five production systems were identified comprising of two young, two adult and one older women’s systems. Furthermore, the determinants of women’s access to land varied across regions. Overall, the monthly income, animal species kept, herd size, land use rights (e.g., land rental and monthly payment, free use of the land, inheritance, purchase) determined women access to land in Burkina Faso. Only older women widow (7.78%) own land inherited from their husbands while married women had mainly free use of the land previously used by their husbands or their own acquired land. The assessment of the impact of land parameters on monthly income highlighted that in Central-Western Region, the land size and whether women were the landowners or not, had a very high significant and positive influence on the monthly income (p = 0.000444). An increase of one square meter (m2) of land size increased income by USD $3.45 per month. The same trend was observed in Eastern Region where an increase of one m2 increased income by USD $ 8.38 per month. In South-Western region, parameters such as the land size, formal education, training and better knowledge of women's right to land access led to increased income. Based on the findings of this research, it is clear that education as well as access to land are important factors that can improve women’s income from livestock production.
