How does gender inequality in access to land ownership affect household agricultural production in Burkina Faso through the adoption of short- and long-term agricultural practices?

This article uses panel data from 2014 to 2019 for a sample of 2,263 households in Burkina Faso. It aims to identify the impact of gender inequality in access to land ownership on agricultural production through agricultural practices. The three-stage least squares estimator, combined with the bootstrap method, has been used for this purpose. The results indicate that this inequality negatively affects agricultural production by discouraging the use of short-term agricultural practices such as chemical fertilizers. Moreover, high levels of inequality seem to encourage households to adopt long-term agricultural practices, especially agroforestry tree planting, to secure their land and improve production, while inequality levels below 0.10 encourage the use of chemical fertilizers. These findings suggest that policies aimed at promoting gender equality in access to land ownership should be accompanied by targeted measures, including facilitating access to credit and supporting agroforestry tree planting for women, in order to enhance household agricultural production. This research analyzes the effect of gender inequality in access to land ownership on agricultural production through the channel of agricultural investment. It mobilizes bundles of rights and angular deviation theories to measure inequality of access to land ownership within Burkinabe households. The results suggest the promotion of agroforestry tree plantations for marginalized groups in order to boost household agricultural production.