IRRIGATION

IFPRI researchers Elizabeth Bryan and Hagar ElDidi discuss the differences in how the costs and benefits of small-scale irrigation technologies are distributed among men and women within the same households, how this is linked to women's empowerment, and what should be done to ensure that women participate in and benefit from irrigation.

Researchers have sought to understand what keeps women’s observed rates of agricultural technology adoption low. But what happens after a new technology is adopted by a household? Do women’s lives really become better? Are they more empowered? A new paper explores these questions using the example of adopting small-scale irrigation technologies in Ethiopia, Ghana, and Tanzania.