Modes of Access to Land, and Gender Related Productivity Gap in Burkina Faso
Date
2021-07-12
Authors
Gniza, Innocent Daniel
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
African Economic Research Consortium
Abstract
This study analyses the sources of gender-related productivity gap and measures
the impact of land access patterns on the productivity gap in Burkina Faso.
The data used in this research are drawn from the latest available study on
the measurement of living standards with respect to integrated agricultural
surveys carried out in 2013-2014 in Burkina Faso. Burkina Faso, like most
countries in the sub-Saharan region, is essentially an agricultural economy.
As such, knowing the causes of productivity gap between genders appears to
be crucial for the formulation of policies designed to empower women. Theeconometric approach used in this work is based on the estimation of the OaxacaBlinder model, which explains the agricultural productivity gap by three (3) clusters
of effects: the endowment effect, the structural effect, and the interaction effect. The
results indicate that women farm managers are 26% less productive compared to
men. Breaking down the sources of productivity gap reveals that the mode of access
to land accounts for -300% of the endowment effect and 211.54% of the structural
effect, with land purchase and land renting being the statistically significant modes
of access to land. This implies that policy makers need to reform the customary laws
that exclude women from land ownership.