Crop appropriation occurs when portions of a farmer's crops are taken by individuals to whom she has no contractual obligation. While it is a reality in rural areas across developing countries, its economics has barely received attention. This paper uses data from Nigerian women farmers whom local patriarchal norms have typically had as crop owners rather than landowners to explore the question of how crop appropriation might affect levels of engagement in agriculture. I find the phenomenon to induce less time farming, greater participation in off-farm employment, and lower demand for farm inputs.

As parts of rural transformation and consequent evolution of land tenure in sub-Saharan Africa, land markets now provide another channel through which women access land. Little remains known about women’s experiences in the markets however, and on the nature of their tenure security in particular. This article provides one of the first empirical examinations of women’s tenure security on market-accessed plots. I do this by analysing tenure security variations across both market and non-market tenure arrangements among a group of Nigerian women farmers. From seemingly unrelated regressions, I find tenure insecurity to be more likely if a woman is cultivating rented plots, less likely if she is cultivating purchased or husband-allocated plots while irrelevant if she is cultivating family-allocated plots. These results highlight the need for greater research and policy interest in rural land markets, and in improving women’s tenancy contracts in rental markets.