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Gender Inequalities in Irrigation

In today's post, I want to discuss the inequalities faced by women in terms of their agricultural water needs. Despite the fact that women make up half of Sub-Saharan Africa's agricultural workforce, their agricultural productivity is 20-30% lower than that of men (FAO, 2018); in turn, an agricultural productivity gap has been created between women and men. This post will explore how women across SSA have less access to irrigated agriculture than men due to mismatches in irrigation technologies and land restrictions. 


The Mismatch of Irrigation Technologies

Many development programmes and people have assumed certain irrigation technologies are most suitable for women across SSA. For example, the suggestion of drip irrigation as an 'appropriate' technology to expand production for women (Upadhyay, 2003; Upadhyay and Bhamoriya, 2004). However, I argue that this approach to finding universal irrigation technologies for women does not work; as women's preferences and needs are primarily context-specific, the appropriate irrigation technologies will vary across the region. In the Mwanza region of Tanzania for example, some women disliked the use of drip irrigation because of the heavy manual labour that it still requires with buckets (Theis et al, 2018). This study found that women in Ghana and Tanzania actually had a preference for motorised pumps instead (Theis et al, 2018). Thus, it is integral that development projects consider the specific needs and preferences of women in relation to irrigation technologies, so that these technologies can be adopted in the long-term. 

Women's Land Restrictions

Women have less access to irrigated agriculture than men largely due to restrictions which limit women's agricultural land ownership. According to the FAO (2018) study on 27 SSA countries, only 13% of women have sole ownership on all or part of the land they own, compared to 40% of men. Due to socio-cultural norms, it can be difficult for women to gain equal property rights to men in parts of SSA countries (Cleaver and Hamada, 2010; Kinkingninhoun-mêdagbé et al, 2010); for example, in the Upper East Region of Ghana, inheritance of land is patrilineal, meaning women can only access land indirectly through a male family member (CGIAR, 2013). Even when women can own land, it is often of a lower quality and is further from water sources which means less yields are made compared to their male counterparts (CGIAR, 2013). 

Towards Improving Women's Use of Irrigation

In order to improve women's irrigated agriculture, many development projects have developed improved irrigation technologies as a solution to this issue. KickStart is an example of an NGO that sells mechanised irrigation pumps across SSA with an aim of increasing decision-making by women in agriculture (Njuki et al, 2014). This irrigation technology has had several positive outcomes for women including (Njuki et al, 2014):

  • Increasing the incomes of women and reducing the dependence on their husband's income
  • Reduced water collection times for women 
  • Increased independence, confidence and respect from others in the community 
Therefore, improving women's use of developed irrigation technologies can help to increase women's agricultural productivity. However, it is important to also consider how wider socio-cultural norms can be overcome (e.g. through gender sensitivity training, as discussed in last week's post) to encourage women to continue using improved irrigation technologies in the future.  


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