Nasfam urges govt to enact land acquisition laws

The National Smallholder Farmers Association of Malawi (Nasfam) on Wednesday urged government to speed up the enactment of land tenure laws to empower women and facilitate smooth land inheritance.

Nasfam chief executive officer (CEO) Dyborn Chiponda made the appeal during the organisation’s Gender, HIV and Aids conference held at Natural Resources College in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe.

“We appreciate that there is progress in the formulation of land acquisition policies, but the pace is slow. The bills are ready, but they are taking time to be enacted into law. So, let me use this opportunity to ask government to speed up the enactment,” said Chiponda.

He said women are oppressed due to some cultural beliefs which marginalise them on land ownership and puts them at risk of losing land when their spouses die.

He also called for the integration of women in agricultural activities to enable them to participate in national development.

Director of gender in the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare Peter Msefula said government will look into the concerns and that it will come up with a policy to ensure that women are involved in national development.

Msefula said women constitute a bigger proportion of smallholder farmers and contribute over half of the global food, but are often sidelined when they want to access credit facilities.

“Women are hard-working people and they contribute a lot to production of food globally. However, the main challenge they face is lack of empowerment, especially when it comes to access to credit facilities, but this will change soon,” said Msefula.