Gender sensitive issues in irrigation

Chancellor, Felicity (1998)
In: Aqua News, no. 47, p. ix-x

Irrigation schemes operated by women sometimes fail because they have been designed to be operated by men. The importance of women's participation, holistic approaches and gender sensitivity in the planning and design of irrigation projects cannot be overstated. Two projects, the Minor Irrigation Design Project and the Women in Irrigation Project, which reveal the key role women play in smallholder irrigation and the lack of support services and training from which they suffer, have led to the current Gender-Sensitive Design for African Smallholder Irrigation Project. Phase I of this project identified and prioritized design issues which have important gender implications. Surveys and focus groups were used to investigate gender roles in a representative sample of smallholder irrigation projects where water was delivered by gravity flow and by pump, and where application methods included flood, sprinkler and bucket. The findings revealed the complexity of gender disparities in irrigated agriculture, and the impacts of these disparities on production and on the levels of poverty experienced by men and women. Gender disparities were evident in such aspects as: the value men and women place on irrigated agriculture, the importance of land preparation and transport, the ability to use heavy or cumbersome agricultural tools, the lack of knowledge about hardware, women's restricted access to resources and support services, women's limited involvement in decision making, the importance of time scheduling and how irrigation planning influences the work load of women. In a subsequent workshop, more issues, some with a negative impact on women, were revealed; namely, the inappropriate design of equipment, women's access to and ability to attend training, access to information in local languages, men's and women's different crop preferences, the success of women's clubs and their efficient use of money and the fact that improved irrigation can lead to the marginalization of women farmers. It was concluded that gender is relevant to every activity proposed in an irrigation project and is not an issue in its own right.

Phase II of the project plans to focus on marketing, access to resources and equipment, and land preparation. Marketing proves difficult for women who have to carry produce on foot or use infrequent buses while men have access to available vehicles. Women also have problems sourcing markets for their smaller quantities of vegetables and encounter social difficulties in travelling away from the homestead. Land tenure arrangements tend to favour men, but for many irrigators (especially women) land ownership is not an option. Access to user rights is the central issue. Access to water is closely linked to land rights, but rights to land do not necessarily confer access to water which is influenced by the geographical position of plots, social and cultural pressures, and operational requirements in terms of timing and duration. Women have restricted access where there are social and economic constraints to their reaching distribution points. As well, since credit availability is linked to land tenure, banks are unsympathetic to women borrowers. Many social, technical, political and legal issues, identified by Phase II of the project, must be addressed to overcome gender differences in the successful design and operation of irrigation schemes. It is hoped that this research will guide developers and designers in effective ways of participation with users, especially women, in determining design parameters.