La problématique de l’accès des femmes rurales aux fonciers dans le terroir de la commune rurale d’Allakaye au Niger.
Land plays a key role in the country’s development and supports human activities. Today, however, it is being fragmented as a result of population growth and the adverse effects of climate change. This article analyses the issue of rural women’s access to land in the rural commune of Allakaye in Niger, in a context marked by a land and environmental crisis. In this commune, we have to deal with a patriarchal environment on the one hand and, on the other, the existence of modern and traditional laws that marginalise or exclude women from access to land, thereby exacerbating their vulnerability. The land in this commune comprises 2 distinct physical areas, the dabagui and the Rah, with different land-use realities. To achieve the general objective assigned to this study and answer the research question, the methodology used is based on individual interviews with a few women from the 6 villages, the head of the communal land tenure commission, the village heads of the basic land tenure commissions, opinion leaders and religious leaders. All these interviews were supplemented by field observation supported by data from the documentary research. At the end of this study, the empirical results reveal that women are marginalised or excluded from land tenure as a result of the fragmentation of agricultural land and a customary system that puts them at a disadvantage. However, an endogenous mechanism created by certain family members enables this injustice to be resolved by granting them plots of land that they develop in order to be autonomous and provide for their needs.
Keys words: access to land, terroir, marginalisation, exclusion, customary system
