As women in scores of countries across the world are still being denied access to land, this is affecting food production as well as efforts to tackle poverty, Rwanda’s former agriculture minister has said according to Reuters.
The former minister was addressing Thompson Reuters Foundation on the eve of International Women’s Day in Toronto, Canada.
She said unless women are given access to land, world would remain deprived of development.
According to her, about 30 percent of women have land access in eastern and southern Africa, compared to less than 10 percent in northern and central Africa.
Without formal land titles, women have a harder time feeding and educating their children, she noted.
She urged governments especially in developing countries to invest in education, so rural women could be aware of their right to own valuable land assets.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization reports women control less than a quarter of agricultural land holdings in developing countries.