Understanding women’s participation in irrigated agriculture: a case study from Senegal

As climate change in West Africa poses profound limitations on rainfed agriculture, policymakers and practitioners may again turn to irrigated agriculture to provide food for a growing population. Gendered analyses of irrigation projects reveal that in many cases women’s participation in irrigated agriculture has been limited due to a lack of access to land and water. Past research in the Upper Valley of the Senegal River suggests that variables other than access to land and water condition women’s participation in irrigated agriculture. Fully understanding women’s participation in irrigated agriculture demands examination of intra-household dynamics and livelihood strategies as well as the impacts of agricultural commodification.