Agriculture, food and water - FAO.org

AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND WATER
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have tended to be only half-hearted when enacting complementary policies and institutional
reforms that are necessary to provide the appropriate environment for effective operation of
the new irrigation management entities. The process of empowering marginalized stakeholders,
including smallholders, and evicting political influence from irrigation management, is as yet not
completed. Irrigation management transfer is complicated because of a number of factors. Firstly
there is a need to promote poor stakeholders into equity with non-poor stakeholders and reconcile
conflict between upstream and downstream users. Secondly, the transaction costs of water-user
associations may be higher than under properly working ‘command and control’ management
establishments. Finally, the apportionment of financial and operation risk and liability is difficult
to make when a large-scale infrastructure is transferred to user associations or service companies
not prepared for such responsibilities.
Equity in the roles of men and women in irrigation
Gender equity is a case in point. Women are among the main stakeholders in poverty alleviation,
in food production in irrigated and non-irrigated agriculture, and in ensuring and dispensing
nutrition at the household level. A majority of the poor, estimated at 70 percent, are rural
people, and rural poverty has become feminized as men of productive age migrate away from
impoverished rural areas to the more promising urban environment, or are forcibly recruited by
warring factions, leaving behind the women, the elderly, the sick and the children. In rural areas
endemically stricken by conflicts, whatever little infrastructure there was collapses or is wantonly
destroyed and insecurity prevails, increasing the burden on women. Households headed by
women are recognized among the poorest of the poor. Against a biased view that ‘women do not
irrigate’, women are now recognized as actively involved in irrigation, often demonstrating high
levels of skill (see Box 8).
BOX 6 LAND OWNERSHIP AND ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE
A recent study in Dakiri, Burkina Faso, shows that allocating smaller plots to men and women
separately instead of allocating larger plots to household heads has produced both higher yields
and social benefits. When both men and women have irrigated plots, the productivity of irrigated
land and labour is higher than in households where only men have plots. Women are equally
good or even better irrigation farmers than men, and those who have obtained irrigated plots are
proud of their increased ability to contribute to the needs of their households. Women prefer to
contribute to their households by working on their own plots rather than providing additional
labour to their spouse’s or to the collective plots. As they become economically less dependent
upon their husbands, they can help support their relatives and increase their own opportunities for
individual accumulation of wealth in the form of livestock. The effects of having an individual plot
significantly improve the bargaining position of a woman within a household and are a source of
pride in the household and the community.
Source: OECD/DAC, 1998.