Water and Gender in Africa

The previous post identified the gender disparity of smallholder farmers, which highlighted constraints in the resources of land title, credits, inputs in technology and farmer education. This post will identify the impacts of sustainable irrigation schemes on women and how the gender bias for agriculture could be overcome.  Figure 1 Rural Mozambique, World Bank Funded Irrigation Systems (World Bank, 2010) The World Bank has supported the Sustainable Irrigation Development Project by the Mozambique government. The area in Vanduzi fields is irrigated by canal using gravity for water on the fields. This has helped with crop production all year round, especially in the drier seasons. Farmers are also able to grow new cash growing produce other than staple foods, such as vegetables and baby corn on the newly irrigated land. According to Zabeta Jone, a 51-year old female farmer who has benefitted from the irrigation scheme said that her