In drought-stricken Mali, women manoeuvre for land - and a future
- Zoe Tabary
- Jul 5, 2017
- 1 min read
Anthio Mounkoro has been farming land in Bogossoni for as long as she can remember – but none of it was ever hers.
"The land I've been cultivating my whole life is my father's," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation while meticulously watering a batch of shallots, careful not to waste one drop from the hose.
"No woman in my village owns land – that's for men, it's just the way it is."
In Malian society, men control access to land and decide which parts, if any, women are allowed to farm.
That has become especially problematic for women as increasingly erratic weather, including longer droughts, has increased competition for land and harvests, experts say.
In some cases, crop losses on their own land have led men to encroach on land traditionally farmed by women and even steal women's crops, according to development workers in the area.
Curt Carnemark / World Bank