Ndiouck Mbaye (photo), chairwoman of Senegal’s National Federation of Rural Women, wants the government to hold national meetings on agricultural issues and women's access to land, as soon as possible.  

Speaking during an interview with Le Soleil, the woman said that Senegalese rural women were facing socio-cultural pressures that hinder their efforts to ensure their economic empowerment. “Sometimes in rural areas, we are told that women cannot access land. When I asked why, they told me that if a woman leaves her father's home and he dies, she doesn’t inherit the land. Also, once at her husband's, when he dies, she does not inherit the land. Such a reason results in women’s exclusion from cultivable land. It's a bad idea,” she said. 

Therefore, she calls for an inclusive approach to cope with the issue. “I suggested the president of the Republic, via the agriculture ministry, to organize meetings on agriculture and land issues. We cannot discuss agriculture without mentioning land. If we meet, it will help us, once and for all, address the problem of agriculture and land. If we invite the reluctant farmers, the territorial administration and rural women, I think that this problem will be settled definitively”, she explained adding that “In rural areas, land is rented at CFA50, 000 per hectare. It's difficult, it's very hard”.