The “land hunters”: Food security and land ownership among Aizo women in Benin

The women of Sékou in Benin strive to feed their families by cultivating plots of land ceded to them by their husbands. But the commodification of land and price inflation in the context of COVID-19 limit their activities. In the context of agnatic transmission, the meager plots also pose the problem of daughters’ inheritance and the “marital preference” for cultivating a plot of land. Adapting to circumstances, the women of Sékou have formed groups to cultivate third-party land using various methods, revealing their capacity for innovation.