Agricultural Policies and Tenure Rights in Ethiopia: Implications for Gendered Rural Food Security

This study explores agricultural policies, tenure rights, and their implications for the food security of female-headed households in Tigray, northeastern Ethiopia. Despite progress in improving agricultural policies over the past few decades, achieving rural food security remains a major challenge in Ethiopia. Although different factors affect rural food security, the impact of land tenure rights on the food security of female-headed households remains unexplored. Most of the Ethiopian population lives in rural areas and depends on small-scale agriculture for their livelihoods. This is particularly true for female-headed households, who have largely been ignored in the policy and tenure spheres despite numerous revisions and decades of international advocacy for women's rights. We present ethnographic evidence from eastern Tigray regarding female-headed households and their contributions to agricultural production and to food security. The results showed that female-headed households are neglected in agricultural extension services, placing additional pressure on their precarious livelihoods. Formal and informal land distribution systems have not protected land access rights, which are overtly discriminatory. The study findings contribute to our understanding of the intersectional nature of tenure rights and food security of female-headed households, advance our understanding of the existing barriers, and offer insights into integrated interventions.