Blog Opening doors to land access for women in Eastern DRC through bean farming
In Eastern DRC, the B4WE Project is helping women secure land for bean farming through community engagement, improved seed and training, boosting food security, incomes and livelihoods.
Globally, women constitute approximately 43 percent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries, yet they own less than 20 percent of the world’s agricultural land. This imbalance goes beyond inequality, as it also a major constraint to agricultural productivity, food security, and rural development. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where agriculture remains the backbone of rural livelihoods, women’s limited access to land continues to undermine both household welfare and national agricultural development. Although the country possesses nearly 80 million hectares of arable land, only about 10 percent is currently cultivated. Unlocking the productive potential of this land requires addressing one of agriculture’s most persistent challenges: ensuring that women have equitable access to productive resources.
Why women’s access to land matters
In Eastern DRC, long-standing customary practices and social norms continue to restrict women’s access to and control over land. Conflict and displacement have further deepened these inequalities, limiting women’s ability to invest in agriculture, access finance, and strengthen their livelihoods. Therefore, improving women’s land rights is not only a matter of gender equality but also an investment in food security, nutrition, economic resilience, and sustainable rural development. Evidence shows that closing the gender gap in access to productive resources could increase women’s farm yields by 20–30 percent, raise agricultural production in developing countries by 2.5–4 percent, and reduce hunger by 12–17 percent.
Through the B4WE Project, beans are helping women ease the financial burden on their households.
A transformative approach under the B4WE Project
The Beans for Women Empowerment (B4WE) Project is addressing these challenges through an innovative and community-driven approach under its Gender Equality and Land Access component. Rather than confronting customary systems, the project works alongside them. Traditional chiefs, village leaders, community members, and women themselves are engaged in dialogue to remove customary barriers that limit women's access to productive land. Through this participatory process, village authorities allocate land where groups of women can establish community bean production gardens.
Once access to land is secured, the project supports the women's groups by providing improved biofortified bean seed of different varieties, training on good agricultural practices, demonstration plots for practical learning, and continuous technical support throughout the production cycle. Working collectively allows women to share labour, exchange knowledge, strengthen social cohesion, and improve their collective bargaining power while increasing agricultural productivity.
