Gender and intra-household agricultural land allocation: plot-level evidence from Nigeria

Context and background  Agriculture is central to the welfare of many people. The agricultural sector is a major source of wealth creation and employment. It fuels growing food demand, where it is essential for food security. Increasing agricultural productivity would improve living conditions, reduce rural poverty, and curb migration to cities. However, the country continues to struggle with significant food insecurity, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, due largely to low agricultural productivity. Gender differences in agricultural productivity are generally cited as one of the main barriers to this goal. Recent evidence show that one of the most important constraints to increasing agricultural productivity is that women farmers have relatively limited rights to farmland, which results in less access to extension services and credit and, more generally, to yield-enhancing factors of agricultural production. Goal and Objectives: This paper is related to the recently emerging literature that aims to explore the role of gender in defining agricultural land rights among members of extended households. The primary focus of this paper is to examine the extent to which gender affects access to secure agricultural land tenure in Nigeria. The paper will address the following research questions: To what extent are women more likely to be allocated plots with greater tenure insecurity? To what extent are women's plots less valued in the local land market? Methodology: The empirical investigation uses plot-level panel data from four waves of the Nigeria General Household Survey Panel (GHS Panel), with data collected in 2010/2011, 2012/2013, 2015/2016 and 2018/2019, and uses two-way fixed effects OLS and entropy balancing to identify the effect of gender. Results: Our findings reveal systematic disadvantages faced by female plot managers. Women are significantly more likely to farm plots over which they lack key land rights. Specifically, we estimate a gender gap of approximately 19% in the likelihood of having the right to personally sell the land and a 9% gap in the right to use land as collateral. Furthermore, plots managed by women are, on average, about 14% less valuable than those managed by men, even after controlling for plot characteristics, market conditions, and unobserved heterogeneity. These disparities suggest that gender