Modes of Access to Land, and Gender-Related Productivity Gap in Burkina Faso

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 living standards in Burkina Faso with respect to integrated agricultural surveys carried out in 2013- 2014 in Burkina Faso. Like most countries in the Sub-Saharan region, Burkina Faso is essentially an agricultural economy. As such, knowing the causes of the productivity gap between genders is crucial for the formulation of policies designed to empower women. The econometric approach used in this work is based on the estimation of the Oaxaca-Blinder 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 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.