Small‐scale–irrigated agriculture empowered women‐headed households in Tigray, Ethiopia*

Abstract

Agricultural production in Ethiopia is primarily rainfed, which is characterized by its erratic and often inadequate nature. Women‐headed households are more susceptible to the resulting poor agricultural production. Hence, small‐scale irrigation has been considered as a solution in the country. However, research on its social and economic contribution for these households is limited. Thus, this study aimed at closing this research gap taking Kilte‐Awulaelo District as a case study. The study covered a total of 205 respondents (187 individuals and one group discussion with 18 participants) from three villages. Data were obtained using semi‐structured questionnaires taking changes in household income, housing improvement, resource control, access to social services, and level of community participation as major indicators. The survey indicated that there was an improvement in women‐headed households' overall social and economic benefits after introducing small‐scale irrigation. Small‐scale irrigation significantly increased women‐headed households' income from livestock and crop production by 24.3% and 68.8%, respectively. This led women‐headed households to have access to control of household resources, financial independency, profit, employment opportunities, psychological well‐being, and community participation. It can be concluded that small‐scale irrigation agriculture played a significant role in empowering women‐headed households.

Intra‐household health effects of irrigation in Southern Ghana*

“…Similarly, van Koppen & Hussain (2007) argued for gendered irrigation development in the agricultural sector of developing countries. In addition, Smur, Teka, & Teklehaimanot (2021) found that irrigation empowered female-headed households in Ethiopia, with substantial improvement in wellbeing/welfare and community participation. The results suggest that studies treating households as homogeneous in the estimations of the health impacts of social interventions or agricultural technologies may be missing key policy issues on differential impacts of these interventions.…”

Patriarchal Challenges for Women Empowerment in Neoliberal Agricultural Development: A Study in Northwestern Bangladesh

“…Although women initially invented agriculture, it has recently emerged as a mechanism for the empowerment of women in the modern world. On the one hand, women's empowerment has the ability to enhance agricultural productivity (Diiro et al 2018;Akter et al 2017); on the other hand, the agricultural sector has actual potential for empowering women (Smur et al 2021;Sutton 2021;Farnworth and Hutchings 2009).…”