GENDER DIFFERENTIAL AND THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN IRRIGATED AGRICULTURE

BY DR. ISAH MOHAMMED ABBASS

BEING A PAPER PRESENTED AT THE 12TH NATIONAL IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE SEMINAR HELD AT NAERLS CONFERENCE HALL, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA FROM 14TH TO 16TH APRIL, 1998

GENDER DIFFERENTIAL AND THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN IRRIGATED AGRICULTURE*

BY ISAH MOHAMMED ABBASS

ABSTRACT Agitations for gender balance, in all aspects of human endeavor, have come to be inspired, championed and clamored for since the first World Conference on Women in Mexico in 1975 and that of Beijing in 1995. Since then however, there has been a remarkable improvement in the reduction of the gulf of gender imbalance. Notwithstanding, the role of the state in agricultural policies and the dearth of data on the role of women in most human activities, particularly irrigated agriculture, still pose serious problems of an equitable gender equation. Women are a neglected theme or non-recognized group in most policies and strategies of agricultural development. The neglect of womens role in agriculture, resulting in their prevalent marginalization, has its historical perspectives. Within the historically determined conjunctures of events and time, women socio-economic milieu have been tempered with and impaired. Though women are historically the chief or primary commodity producers, particularly in the sector of subsistence agricultural production, they are not, over time, accorded any meaningful place within the strategies to improve agricultural productivity. They have however lost control over the means of production and even the products they produced to male households. The effective use of irrigation makes agriculture sustainable. Irrigation is thus an indispensable resort in agriculture whenever population growth rate increases due to increase in the food requirements. As heavy irrigation investments predominantly concentrate on technical and physical components, they inevitably exclude the participation of the women gender. This paper argues, among others, that the weak operation, maintenance and performance of these components are not essentially technical in nature but rested more on the faulty social organization of the irrigators which particularly limits the participatory role of women. The need for human network to organize irrigation system in gender specific or task oriented and related activities are essential for the sustenance of irrigated agriculture. INTRODUCTION Women do 60 percent of the Worlds work but receive only one-tenth of its income. They own less than one percent of the land, have limited access to education and financial resources and have less than men in decisions affecting their future. Compounding these inequities is the fact that most of the household community work done by women worldwide is unpaid and therefore ignored by household surveys and national censuses(UNDP,1977:10).

The prevailing condition in Africa and indeed the under-developed regions of the World tends to be generally characterized with gender blindness, gender deafness and gender dumbness in the formulation and implementation of most development policies and strategies. Thus, the deaf-mute gender

consciousness in planning and in the policy making machinery has therefore failed to capture and appreciate the concrete reality of the different though symbiotic roles both women and men must play in any meaningful and sustainable activity for human development. It must however be noted that even though men and women have different roles, needs and constraints in strategies for development, they are nonetheless complementary in their relationships.

But the gender dumb-silence within the decision making and planing organs has equally failed to address the prevalent socially structured subordination of women by men in its entirety. On the unequal division of labor and other numerous abuses, marginalization and subordination of women, the policy making body has consistently turned blind eye albeit with insensitive and oblivious behavior on such gendering issues. Thus, the obvious gender responsiveness on issues bordering on such imbalance has not been given due consideration and recognition. In other words, since there is no recognition of gender imbalances, the State and policymaking organs have not accorded the required emphasis of differentials in gender roles. Gender-neutrality is never a reality in any human design of social, economic and political change, particularly in the new world where the phenomenon of gender consciousness and gender awareness has become a volatile political issues as well as the political vocabulary. As men and women have different responsibilities, needs and interests, they however differ in the roles they play in agricultural activity. These differences are not however static but have continued to change over time and space through dynamic internal changes or external influences. It must be stressed that whenever any development plan neglects or overlooks these stark realities of gender roles and relations, it means that a proper understanding and reflections of the more than half of human agitation are ignored. This is thus tantamount to further consolidation and reinforcement of the existing gender inequalities. In many gender focus performing

activities, the traditional performing gender specific tasks on specific agricultural endeavor, i.e. irrigated agriculture, womens role can be exploited to pressurize the State public policy to be gender sensitive and to meet the basic needs of the women folk. PATRIACHALISM AND THE PERSISTENT WOMEN LANDLESSNESS The women gender has, over time and space, and within the historical conjunctures of the modes of production suffered untold subordination and discrimination. In an ideal setting, the state is supposed to guarantee the protection of women and accord them equal rights and opportunities with their men counterparts. Such an ideal condition, which rarely exists in human societies, is expected to enable the women-folk play crucial and sustainable roles in the societal development through active and direct participation in policy making and strategic plan implementation. The role women play in the diverse human activities is complete and total. As farmers and household managers are saddled with the responsibilities of bearing and rearing children, womens multiple roles are therefore central in the complete cycle of human activity. Within the historically determined conjunctures of events and time, womens position in the society, particularly in agricultural labor and productive system, has been withered away by a systematic neglect, marginalization and subordination. Thus, the assault of womens conditions in different modes of production in the pre-capitalist systems of production forcefully rendered women as mere land tillers. In such historical conjunctures, therefore, wives were allocated plots of land to cultivate and to compete amongst themselves in the sustenance of the household. As women were directly engaged in the primary commodity production for subsistence living, the parcels of land they cultivated were not theirs but controlled and owned by their spouses. In essence, the non-control and non-ownership of land meant that women were strategically dispossessed of the means of production and the products they produced.

The patriarchal pre-capitalist society imposed the pre-eminent position of men over women, which however brought about the exploitation of women labor on the farms and elsewhere. Hence, the gradual patrilineal division of human society was sequel to the

exploitation of women and appropriation of surplus produced by them and the overall domination of women in agriculture and other womens socio-economic milieu. Womens role in the entire agricultural productivity, within such historical conjunctures, was immense and fundamental. For example, during the historical phase of the primitive communal mode of production, when the production systems were undeveloped and at their lowest ebb, it was women, as the primary commodity producers, that put the rudimentary invented implements of production into effective use and perfection for the subsistence living. It should be recalled that during the communal historical era, the production processes, from the beginning to the end, were owned communally intrinsic with equitable distribution of productive forces, materials and benefits. Since labor was collective, the society was clearly demonstrated by statelessness and classlessness, which was however characterized with no any form of open and direct exploitation and appropriation of surplus. At the tail end of this historic epoch of human or societal development, the productive forces began to brew the emergence of division of labor, creation of surplus, the struggles for appropriation and exploitation. This was the epoch where men went for hunting while women were left to take care of the domestic chores which included, among many others, farming, gathering of fruits, nuts etc. Private accumulation was sequel to a further development of productive forces, which produced more surplus and therefore new avenues for appropriation. This was however due to the relative and sharp division of labor and class stratification of the society a society further developed from the communal mode. Since the slave mode of production was rooted out of intense antagonism in the human society, open confrontations and wars ensured and facilitated more avenues for the acquisition of more labor in form of slaves. Thus, production in the slave mode institutions was essentially for

exchange rather than subsistence as obtained in the communal mode. The slave mode was characteristically a patriarchal society. Women were reduced to domestic labor and deprived of the means of production and inheritance. Even though women constituted the bulk of the labor force, they were only reduced to land tillers. As men had put more and more women into captivity due to the characteristic nature of the slave mode, they were thus drastically curtailed and further assaulted. It must be stressed that the feudal and capitalist modes impinged further assaults on the position of women. Even though colonialism and imperialism destroyed the pre-capitalist modes of production, they facilitated rather than impeded assaults on women. Thus, within the design to produce the preferred cash crops, the colonized were forcefully off-rooted, reoriented and regimented within the philosophical objective of colonialism and imperialism. As the parcels of land hitherto allocated to women for subsistence production were withdrawn by the colonial policy, (Muro: 1985:63) the colonial system of production was

accompanied with monetisation albeit with the introduction and intensification of taxation, forced labor and perpetuation of individualism in land ownership which also accorded men the sole title ownership. In most societies therefore, women have been denied land ownership and reduced to land users, which inevitably transformed them into landlessness. Women are nonetheless blocked from having access to land titled deed. As women are not exposed to agricultural credit facilities, new agricultural innovations, extension, training and other services, the process of proletarianization, started since colonial era, usurped womens position as the primary commodity producers.

WOMENS ROLE AND GENDER DIFFERENTIA IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION In many parts of Africa, women have played and continued to play crucial roles in agricultural production in addition to other traditional responsibilities and obligation in vital labor

related works, particularly in pre- and post-harvest processing activities. Given such multiple roles bordering on child bearing, child rearing, family and household maintenance, coupled with the production and income-earning struggles, the intensification of the pressure on womens time is, of course ,enormous. The enormity of the pressures of womens time, particularly in the ecological zones of the sub-Saharan Africa, where increasing deforestation coupled with growing population; which required more mouths to be fed and more energy to be expended in the collection of fuel wood, water etc, particularly though the primary means of human porterage, is even more diverse, complex and challenging. It should be noted that sequel to the paucity of transportation network system and the inadequate transport infrastructure, women spend substantial time trekking and headloading not only fuel wood and water but also essentially farm products and other commodities for the sustenance of the household. Since the number and quality of male labor on farms in most African societies have continued to fall and dwindle sequel to the relative rural-urban migration, where men have predominantly left farms to work in the towns as proletarians, women have significantly taken over such onerous and primary tasks of feeding the families. It should however be noted that this diminishing recourse for the adult male labor has also been supplemented by and therefore depended virtually on child and female labor. In many communities, women ease their peak labor constraints by participating in various forms of kinship or community-based male group arrangement of labor exchanges. Even though women, in most social settings, meet their production obligations primarily on their own labor combined with that of their children, the specific though limited tasks men perfor 7

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17B968A488888888888888888SYSTEM88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 !se, women have continued to face, more than ever before, the direct responsibilities to handle the traditional irrigated rice cultivation in the salt water swamps. Thus, the lack of sufficient adult male labor to maintain the complexities of the dike and canal systems of the irrigated rice production is a very difficult task for the women, particularly on soil conservation, increasing productivity and vulnerability to resource degradation (Dey: 1984 (a) Furthermore as female labor has continued to be drawn and demanded, about 70 percent of Congos farms are managed by women while in Ghana, more farmers are women than men resulting particularly in the expansion of the higher production of cash crops. In Zambia,

however, women contribute more hours daily than men on farm activities 8.5 hours against 7.4 hours.(Duci, 1988: 331-334) While land and capital accessibility has continued to militate

against women, traditional restrictions in most African societies have, however, impinged upon their fundamental human rights as differentiated sex; too costly to be ignored. These traditional restrictions confronted by African women have persisted unabated and have therefore reflected on traditional attitudes being accorded them which consequently result, among other things, to limited access to extension advice, to productive land, to institutional credits, to improved production, processing and transport technology (Cleaver & Schreilber: 1994 : 7). In Botswana for instance, it is discovered that women contribute 70% of the value of the crop production but yet receive benefit of less than 15 percent of the national agricultural outlay (Cleaver and Schreilber, 1994). While confronted with these constraints in addition to other pressure, women face unlimited and severe impediments towards enhancing their position. These impediments further facilitate the spate of women increasing poverty and therefore of mortality and morbidity.

As women are directly responsible for a substantial share of agricultural food production and other non-agricultural activities, their overall responsibilities have helped tremendously which in essence subject them to face increasing pressures on their roles in the unlimited household chores. As men are traditionally the targets of cash crop production mechanized agriculture, extension services, financial credit facilities, they are notwithstanding and with increasing assiduity, turned to non-farming employments leading women to practically manage family farms. In many areas in the sub-Saharan African, for instance, over 50 percent of the family farms are managed by women but still with traditional and legal impediments on the land title holdings (Cleaver and Schreilber, 1994:93) With women taking over a substantial part of agricultural productivity in most parts of Africa, the female-headed household syndrome has become common features particularly in societies that practice polygyny and spousal separation of residences, or in which divorce has been easy and frequent (Cleaver and Schreilber, 1994; 94) This syndrome of female-headed

households accounts for 50 percent of the total households where long term or seasonal migration by the male is particularly prevalent. Thus, the fundamental difference between the male-headed households (MHHs) and female-headed households (FHHs) centers on accessibility and lack of adult male labor. However, the female-headed households are under endowed in land, capital, farm equipment, transport aids, extension, institutional credits, co-operative services and other key resources and markets. The female-headed households in Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia as exhibited in Table 1 receive fewer extension services compared to the maleheaded households. VISITS BY AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AGENTS (Percentage of household visited) .. Country & Year MHHs FHHs . Kenya 1989999999999 TABLE 1:

1010101010102'na 1989 Tanzania 1984 40 Zambia 1982 57 1986 60 SOURCE::Quisumbing,A 1994 Since extension service is an

37 20 29 19

22

important requirement to agricultural modernization and

given the crucial role which womens labor plays in agriculture, extending agricultural services to women is not only essential but also a necessity for the needed expanded productivity and sustainability of the sector. The current practice of services however demonstrates a

disproportionate resource allocation as extension agents visit more male farmers than female farmers. In Lusaka, for example, the male-headed households could possess oxen much easier and frequent than the female-headed households and thus could obtain support services. They could however obtain other cash earning opportunities which have essentially been limited to men which has inevitably increased the wide gulf differences and poverty levels between them. The 1979 census of Kenya for example shows that 33 percent of all the rural small-holder households were headed by women while 55 percent of farms were actually managed by them (Cleaver and Schreilber 1994: 75. However, a World Bank Report shows that an estimated 96 percent of In addition, women provide three-fifths of the labor on

rural women work on the farms.

smallholdings and actually managed about two-fifths of these small holdings.(World Bank: 1989(b)) Due to this general phenomenon in Africa, Boserup conclusively describes sub-Saharan Africa as the region of female farming par excellence(Boserup: 1988) purely because of the

fact that women are estimated to provide between 50 and 80 percent of all agricultural and agroprocessing labor in most countries of the region. In Malawi, as in sub-Saharan Africa,

agricultural tasks are assigned by gender which varies seasonally. Between 1970 and 1977, the ILO had made some statistical computation of agricultural labor force of women as follows: 1970-40 percent, 1972 -12 percent, 1977 51 percent(Doorembosd and Jiggins 1988: 101-112).

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It should be noted that the gender differential in agricultural labor is largely determined by the characteristics of the household, the individual, the farming system, the local natural resources base, the community and the national economic and political system.(Cleaver and Schreilber 1994) Thus, gender differential in agricultural labor and the tasks performed are

crucial for the strategies of poverty alleviation. This gender-differentiated labor in agricultural productivity has large degree variations among societies and cultures. Gender segregated though complementary responsibilities in a agricultural tasks have continued to undergo changes purely as indirect response to cultural, technological, political, ecological, demographic and other factors. However, these dynamic changes are also partly due to farm production requirements and seasons, particularly the seasonal male-out migrations to cities and towns in search of other sources of employment (Muller, 1986). Even though there exist serious implications for the gender division of agricultural labor, the job for women, particularly the role they play in selling crops, it is a rarity (if not non existent) to find men involved in tasks of fetching of water and fuel wood or preparing meals or other domestic chores as these and related tasks are all directed at women (Mtoi, 1988: 345-349). Whereas the organization of agricultural labor and other tasks in many regions of Africa are highly gender-specific, men and women, notwithstanding, greatly cultivate agricultural farms usually in gender-pattern sequence. But in other regions, a substantial portion of

agricultural activities is gender-segregated, even though not on a watertight compartment as women are nevertheless required to participate in mens farms. In addition, gender based parties jointly carry out specific tasks, in gender specific lines. But the introduction of cash crop agricultural production in Africa led to the changes in gender 1111 111111111111r1111111111111111i11111111111111 11 11 11 11 11 Service Pack

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organization, development and operation of irrigated agriculture, either large or small, must depend on the availability of sustainable water in the first place. Secondly, the human

organization must be intrinsic in the transportation of water by distributing it into usable channels, enforce rules for its distribution within the overall public policy issues. In sub-Saharan Africa, food security has become the persisted and growing concern with the corresponding public policies to avert its devastating consequences. It has been projected that worsening condition in food security and cereals in the region is expected to triple between 1990 and 2020 in which food importation can no longer be afforded.(FAO: 1997:1) Apart from the sub-continent of Australia, Africa is the driest with frequent draughts and less or unstable rainfalls. With water resources relatively less developed than in other continents, agricultural productivity in the sub-Saharan is not commensurate with the expanding rate of population and therefore in a worse nutritional position three decades ago FAO, 1997:1) Public policy in this

regard, is therefore influenced by the high potential intensification of irrigated agricultures as: Global estimates indicate that irrigated agriculture produce nearly 40 percent of food and agriculture commodities on 17 percent agricultural land. At present in Africa about 12.2 million hectares benefit from irrigation, which is equal to about 8.5% the cultivated land. In sub-Saharan Africa, only about 10 percent of the agricultural production comes from irrigated land. Trends in irrigated land expansion over the last 30 years show that, on average, irrigation in Africa increased at a rate of 1.2% per year. However this rate began to fall the mid 1980s and is now below 1 percent per year, but varies widely from country to country FAO, 1997:1 Since irrigation is the process whereby water is strategically diverted from a river or pumped from a well to flow onto the designated areas and used purposely for agricultural production, it must be noted that this too costly a process, which involves major capital intensive water engineering schemes, is an indispensable and surest way of ensuring productivity throughout t 13 13

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141414141414141414141414141414141414e14d security. But as water grows scarcer in Africa where the greatest need for irrigation is dearest, the need for expanded irrigated agriculture is thus considerable. Public policy believes that irrigated agriculture contributes immensely in the State strategy to alleviate poverty, ensure food security and thereby improve the quality of rural condition. On many angles and grounds, the sustainability of irrigated agriculture, based on the theory and practice of the State policy as well as the nature of the economy and polity, has been seriously questioned, particularly on economic and environmental degradation and thereby causing. increased erosion, pollution of surface water and ground water from agricultural biocides, deterioration of water quality, increased nutrient levels in the irrigation and drainage water resulting in blooms, proliferation of acquantic weeds and europhication in the irrigation canals and downstream waterways. Poor water quality below the irrigation project may render the water unfit for other users, harm aquatic species and, because of high nutrient content, result in aquatic weed growth that obstruct water ways and has health, navigation and ecological consequences. Elimination of dry season die-back and the creation of a more humid microclimate may result in an increase of agricultural pest and plant diseases.(FAO, 1997:127) It should be stressed that irrigated agricultural programmes require farmers to change their farming habits and approach. This invariably means a complete reorientation towards growing crops not primarily for subsistence but essentially for the market. However, as farming is no longer restricted or confined to six or so months, purely within the rain-fed period of six months, farmers engaged in irrigated agriculture are therefore required to physically, mentally and financially (or commercially) adjust themselves to grow or cultivate the land for the whole year round where a variety of crops and vegetable could be grown during the dry season. While it is suggested that problems bordering on agricultural development, particularly irrigated agriculture, require a gender approach to public policy, it is argued that attention should strategically be focused on women participation and needs. In addition, the place and role

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of women gender should not only be recognized but also at the same time institutionalized. In theory and practice, policy statement should ensure that equal opportunities are provided so as to remove all restrictions which severely incapacitates women from fully participating and benefiting from the programmes. It is disheartening to note that the important goal of public policy has become a global phenomenon not being translated into a concrete reality as Asseny Muro succinctly states. Women have historically been the chief producers, particularly in the sector of subsistence agriculture. Yet little or no consideration has been given to them when measures of improved agriculture are enforced. The introduction of industrial crops drew women labor, but their involvement has been underestimated, women are denied co-operative membership as well as credit facilities. In the formal employment sector, women involvement has been minimal and very gradual in growth. The extent and level that women have been involved in the proleratanization process, has received little or no concern from policy makers and planners (Muro, 1985:61). While Ruth Meena concurs with Asseny Muro, she makes it crystal clear that: Women are therefore constrained in participating effectively in the development process because their subordinate position in society is ignored in development planning and policy making while their concrete needs are equally ignored. This is reflected in the manner in which resources are allocated and utilized (Meena, 1994: 39). The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa critically attacks and condemns public policy on agriculture as relates the inherent inconsistencies as follows: There is a profound contradiction between the womens condition as the chief agricultural producers and the rudimentary nature, sometimes the non-existence of technical and co-operative means designated more specifically for them. The agricultural extension service e is almost totally directly to export crops and to men. Rural activities programmes for women are oriented more towards their functions as mothers and wives than agricultural producers. In these conditions, it perfectly obvious why there are growing frustrations on the part of women about their status and participation.(UNECA, 1970:34)

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Such a grandiose

agricultural policy is therefore very limited in many forms and

dimensions. Since much of the current irrigated agricultural development programmes are directly geared towards improving the already disproportionate system that has been in existence, particularly in lending policy and rehabilitation of the public irrigation works etc, such policy issues are completely oblivious of the social operational dynamics in organizing such fundamental tasks and the corresponding tools used in the distributing water, weeding and up to the crop processing etc. Thus, irrigated agriculture has, as a matter of fact, marginalized women. Their condition continues to worsen as the tools of labor like the hoes used by them have not been improved. IRRIGATION PROJECTS IN NIGERIA AND THE PERSISTENT GENDER DISPROPORTIONATE ROLES: In the social science literature, a long tradition of functional position of differentiated sex roles in the entire human activity has been well known and established. Thus, gender

differentiated role is therefore a functional necessity for the societal dynamic interdependence, equity, stability and viability. This differentiated activity has, over time, developed an in-built mechanism for preventing some disruptive tendencies between the two sexes. Notwithstanding, such an apocalyptic view of the results of womens changing economic roles has a major integrative function which has been championed and clamored for quite sometimes (World Bank, 1995). Irrigation is an age-old which many old-aged civilizations have historically tracked the development of irrigation. As a matter of history, Nigeria has no tradition of irrigated agriculture as it is very new in the country. Even the wheat cultivation is an alien practice for the traditional farmers, too costly to handle. However, when irrigated agriculture was introduced into the country, the lusty nature of its application and the expertise needed to plan it as dictated by the local traditional norms were virtually lacking.

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Prior to the early 1970s, agriculture was the dominant activity of the Nigerian economy. The advent of the oil, since the early 1970s which has held the principal position in the economy relegated the agricultural sector to the background and made it to continue to receive less attention by the State. The neglect of agriculture was accompanied with adverse consequences. It should however be recalled that even during the late 1960s, stagnation had already set in Nigerias agriculture, particularly during the civil war period which coincided, particularly after the wars, with the hey days of oil. The irony was that with oil power, agriculture could have had the golden opportunity to be transformed and expanded but alas, retrogression had set in more than any time before. Nigerias three major ecological zones the Savannah North, the Middle Belt and the forest South fit firmly well for a sustainable agriculture. In the Savannah landscape, for example, rainfall ranges from 500-800mm and confined largely from June to September. While in the moist Guinea Savannah of the Middle Belt, rainfall and the period are higher and prolonged than the upper north. Moving further South, the vegetation is completely different, higher and prolonged in rainfall, dense and humid. The collapse of agriculture in Nigeria has caused very serious strains and stresses for the economy. The graphic demonstration of the State of affairs of the agricultural sector shows that between 1970 and 1974, essentially during the early epochs of the bubbling oil economy, it grew to an average rate of 7.8 percent, but by 1976, the growth had gone down to about 1 percent. However, due to the short-lived government interests in agriculture, the growth of the agricultural sector continued to decline. From 1981 to 1985, the growth in the sector had devastatingly gone down to less than 1 percent (Dankelman & David, 1988). This has consequently transformed the country from a food exporter of the 1940s and 1950s to an importer of food which the economy could not be able to pay for any longer. Table 2 shows the tragic food importation in Nigeria,1970-1989 with the value and percentage share of total imports. In the Table, it can further be observed that the total imports are higher than the

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total revenue of oil exports while as years passed by, food imports continued to embarrassingly increase with increased import bills sequel to increases in oil exports. TABLE2: FOOD IMPORTATION IN NIGERIA, 1970-1989 (Value and percentage share of total imports) Revenue from Petroleum Total Imports Food Imports Percentage share of total export (N million) (N million) food imports (N million) 510.0 756.4 57.7 7.6 953.0 1,078.9 87.9 8.1 1,176.2 990.1 95.1 9.6 1,893.5 1,224.8 126.3 10.3 5,365.7 1,737.3 155.7 8.9 4,563.1 3,721.5 277.9 8.0 6,321.7 5,148.5 438.7 8.5 7,072.3 7,093.7 702.0 10.4 5,401.6 8,211.5 1,108.7 12.4 10,166.8 7,472.5 1,105.9 14.8 13,525.0 9,658.1 1,091.0 11.3 14,186.7 11,000.0 14,000.0 2,115.0 15.1 10,000.0 11,400.00 896.0 7.9 8,792.1 7,502.5 5,591.04 9,088.0 4,484.5 945.0 21.07 11,720.8 5,536.9 996.3 17.99 8,919.2 5,973.6 9d26.8 15.51 30,360.6 15,696.3 1,704.2 10.85 31,192.8 57,971.2 25,177.7 1,777.558 7.06

Year of Import 970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

Sources: (1) CBN 1981 Bullion News 6(2) FOS 1983, (3) CBN 1984 Bullion Vol.6 (4) CBN 1990 Economic and Finance Review, Vol.28 No. 2 June 1990.

In the 1970s, particularly during the third five-year development plan1975-80 agriculture was fairly given a seeming face-lift and it was during that period that large-scale irrigation programmes were introduced in Nigeria. It should be recalled however that small scale irrigation was earlier introduced into the country since the 1950s but by 1968, the rice irrigation project, mainly in the Niger region and wheat in the lake Chad region where only a few hundreds of thousand hectares, essentially as pilot programmes. The role of women in these projects was

18

secondary or even rudimentary because these irrigation projects were predominantly male dominated and male concentrated activities. Thus, rather than develop small irrigation projects for sustained growth and development, thereby problems associated therein could be overcome locally, Nigeria hurriedly and enthusiastically set up large scale irrigation projects with the influence of international finance agencies. Accordingly, Nigerias potential for rice and wheat production was considered and rated very high. Consequently, these high tempting ratings provoked the Nigerian State to curve out thousands of hectares of land in the southern lake Chad, in the Kano River Valley and in the Sokoto-Rima Valley and established irrigation schemes. By 1980, eleven River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs) were established and involved in irrigated agriculture with numerous problems. By 1982, every state in the Federation had a RBDA as the whole exercise was turned into a political enterprise. It should be noted that people in the affected RBDAs had resisted vehemently and violently against such schemes while the cost involved did not correspond with the anticipated benefit. The Bakolori episode of resentment by the local people due to changes imposed is still fresh in the mind. Furthermore, the impact of physical disruptions, social displacement of people, particularly women and children, ecological dangers of desertification which large-scale irrigation creates are far reaching. In Nigeria, irrigation sector may be categorized into three components the public irrigation schemes which are government owned and executed, the farmer-owned and operated projects essentially on improved fadamas and thirdly, the residual fadamas or flood plains.(Kathleen & Baker: 1984:38) Irrigation potential in Nigeria as identified in the national water resources master plan (NWRMP) is in Table 3. TABLE 3:IRRIGATION POTENTIAL IN THE NIGER RIVER BASIN IN NIGERIA

Region in Niger
River Basin

Niger North Niger Central Upper Benue

Potential of Pub. Sche. (ha) 146590 183140 435430

Potential of Fadama Dev. (ha) 299000 34000 320000

Total Irrigation Potential (ha) 445590 217140 755430

19

Lower Benue Niger South Source: FAO Land &Water @ 1997

61230 59120

140000 0

201230 59120

A cursory look at such irrigation potential on the region of Niger river basin in terms of both public scheme and fadama development as well as the overall potential as exhibited in Table 2 can tempt any government to embark on such costly projects. It must be stressed that project interventions by the State in agriculture have more often than not exacerbated the problems of women in many forms, dimensions and intensity. Thus as men are privileged to be in control and possession of land, the water, seeds and training they receive to preserve irrigated commodities, the women counterparts are on the other hand only expected to carry out such traditional chores in the irrigated fields and in exceptional circumstances cultivates some subsistence crops for the overall family sustenance.(FAO, op:cit: 51) The plan and actual investment costs of the large scale irrigation projects introduced and established in the drier and draught prone north can be observed in Table 4.

TABLE4: PLAN AND ACTUAL INVESTMENT COSTS OF LARGE SCALE IRRIGATION PROJECTS Investment Costs N/hg)* Project App./Actual Plan estimate Sokoto phase 1 6400 13,500 Kano phase 1 South Chad phase 1 4200 4300 5,100-7400 7,600-10,500

*All costs and returns estimated on a 1979 basis. Source: Kathleen M. Baker,1989: 24. It should be pointed out that such three initial irrigation projects shown on Table 4 were (a) on the Kano River, Located at Tiga dam which directly affects only 1-2 percent of the population of the State,(Kathleen & Barker, op:cit: 38) (b) near the collapsed Bakolori on Sokoto River and on the Southern Lake Chad Region. The schemes

involved the damming of both Kano and Sokoto rivers for irrigation and other purposes

20

while in the South Chad irrigation project a large and deep channel, as a reservoir, was dug to retain water to be fed into the irrigated canals. The objectives of the scheme were: (a) To produce a surplus of wheat and other imported crops to reduce import and conserve foreign exchange. (b) (c) To improve rural life through increase of rural productivity and incomes. To transport water from the dam to different irrigation canals and distributor

canals feeding to the fields and accompanied with modern irrigation technology and inputs as well as extension workers to the local farmers.(Nigeria, 1975-80) Whereas Tables 3 and 4 above show and indicate the irrigation potential and the investment costs of the large scale projects in Nigeria respectively, they however express the capital intensive nature and the use of heavy machinery of the modern type which invariably excludes the participation or involvement of women. However, it is not only because of the nature of capital intensiveness of the irrigation projects that excludes women but due largely to the fact that the social, economic and cultural settings of the irrigation areas seriously frown at the excessive exposure of women. Kano, Sokoto and Borno are among the largest concentration of the Muslim population with the highest observance of women in purdah and restrictions of women involvement in farm activities. As for irrigation activities, it is largely a period of extreme cold season which, as a result of the harsh whether conditions, keep women at home to, among others, keep children vigil and take care of them from the attacks of the cold harmattan. Hence, extension, training and others are therefore only designed for and benefit men. Since the first world conference on women in 1975 it sought to elevate the status of women especially those constrained by the excesses of purdah while the conference of

21

1995 actually came up with scenarios of how the more economically inactive housewives with limited assets and access to production resources and techniques could expand their socio-economic horizons and activities. Notwithstanding this very essentiality of impediments or barriers confronted by Islamic women which, due to social and religious restrictions, do not give them exposure to engage in modern irrigation activities, there are however certain opportunities abound for great number of them to solely exploit the potential of the irrigation activities, like all other agricultural endeavors. It must be recognized that in all human societies, agricultural activities have relative differential impacts on both male and female genders with the latter carrying the greater burden of activities. Even though rural Muslim women in purdah are limited in access to directly participate in modern agricultural activities, a lot could immensely be derived and benefited by the society should this group have gender-specific or crystallized activities, particularly in the irrigated agriculture since women constitute 50 percent of the Nigeria population (Nigeria, 1991). The 1991 Population census of

Nigeria had 88,514,501 Nigerians. Out of this figure, 43,969,970 were females and 44,544,531 males. Another scheme which partly involves irrigated agricultural activities and runs parallel to RBDAs and dominated by men preoccupied with the process of

embourgeoisment, is the Agricultural Development Projects (ADPs). This scheme is funded by the tripartite arrangement of the World Bank, Federal and State Governments. Ostensibly designed to help the smallholder farmers to, among others, develop local technology in the provision of seeds, fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides as well as provide infrastructures in terms of roads, dams, irrigation canals, extension services,

22

credit facilities and marketing structures. The pioneer ADPs in the country were located at Funtua, Gombe and Gusau. Other similar schemes contained in the third five-year development plan included the large-scale capital-intensive farms run by government but later run by private enterprises. This in effect means that large-scale private farmers in the northern portion of the country were granted license to take over as large as 20,000 hectares of land to produce, among others, irrigated maize. Strong oppositions from peasant farmers

ensured as not only land was taken away from them but also resisted the intense use of fertilizers and other chemicals which adversely affect the soil fertility and productivity thereby affecting the local seeds and local methods of farming. This includes leveling and land preparation, use of tractors, access to funds and extension, procurement of improved seeds, fertilizer and other chemicals, solving problems of water delivery network from the dam to project sites and the accompanying transfer of irrigation technology, overcoming the labor intensiveness, shortage and high cost of labor and above all the frustrations of unequal benefits which include causing salinity to the soil, lowering productivity, pest attack, threat to food production sufficiency etc. In retrospect, the launching of the National Accelerated Food Production Programme (NAFPP) in 1973, designed to improve the production of irrigated wheat and other crops did not ameliorate the already bad agricultural position. When OFN was hurriedly introduced without clear focus in 1976, it was clear that the crisis in the agricultural sector had obviously reached a point of no return. The Green Revolution (GR) depicted and culminated in a situation whereby a mad woman who could not carry

23

the wood collected felt that adding more and more wood would ease and solve the problem of lifting and putting the wood on her head. Introduced in 1983 and operated under the GR rhetories with HYV of seeds, intense fertilizer inputs and irrigation technology. The usual practice of seasonally intense traditional farming undertaken at the waterlogged flood plains or at residual fadama areas whereby sugar cane, rice, vegetables and other related crops are grown also exclude womens direct involvement and participation in this part of the country with severe limitations except probably in the upper and lower Benue or even Niger South and central regions. Cultivation in these areas continues well into the dry season partly due to the topography and ecology of the areas since the soil retains moisture for some times. The fadama crop production essentially depends on the wet season, rainfall and the residual moisture after the dry season. Thus local irrigation is undertaken by the use of the available shallow ground water or surface wells or directly from flows of the nearby rivers with water lifting devices to transport water into the land, particularly by using the traditional irrigation method of shaduf which are the traditionally men strenuous activities. The objectives of the large scale irrigation projects and the gendering of irrigated agricultural strategies and development have been designed, like all other agricultural programmes, to directly go against the interest of women in the extreme situation right from the mechanical adaptation and application to the social and economic operations. Irrigted agriculture, within the prevailing circumstances, devastatingly affects women in all directions. In the first place, since the crop is essentially oriented for the market, it is by and large- gendered affair in its technology orientation and practice. On the other

24

hand, since wet and dry season cropping conflicts rather than complements each other particularly the planting of the traditional millet crops and wheat with other vegetables as well as in terms of the period of harvesting and land preparation do not set in smoothly without any qualms. Conflicts thus emerge as wheat is sown in mid-November, land preparation for wheat has to be done well in advance when sorghum is not due for harvesting. However, since maize is not a very popular and dominant wet season crop, it is therefore not a popular source of local food or it is as nutritious and easy to prepare as sorghum. In this regard, farmers, particularly women, reject this crop and therefore prefer to forgo cultivating irrigated wheat and even maize than sorghum. This, in

essence, is to ensure the sustainability of food supply. The choice was vividly clear and open: If they continue to grow wheat and maize at the expense of subsistence crops, it would mean resorting to buy food and thus making the home more vulnerable; a situation highly unacceptable to women. Not only is irrigated wheat production an alien practice for the traditional farmers but also it is too costly in all respects for the poor farmers to venture into. As problems associated with irrigated wheat production far outnumber the benefits, many small farmers abandoned the crop and continued growing traditional crops on the irrigated project lands. Thus, the money gobbler irrigated projects in Nigeria have not been successful notwithstanding the huge financial investment poured. In the early 1980s, wheat continued to be imported into the country at $150 per tonne while the one being produced at home cost $800 per tone (Beckman, 1985). As wheat being produced at home proved to be not a viable substitute for the imported product, rice production in the

25

Sokoto region similarly proved too expensive also and could not complete with the imported commodity. The gendered and gendering limitations to womens role in irrigated agriculture are numerous. These limited roles include the policy environment and the socio-cultural and economic setting. Hence, access to land and unequal division of labor completely retard womens participation. For instance, land tenure system, based on the Even though agriculture is

discriminatory policies affect womens access to land.

undoubtedly the backbone of African economics which undisputedly acknowledges the significant role of women for its sustenance and development, it nonetheless pays little no attention to the land tenure systems which discriminate against women. Thus, inability to own land, based on existing discriminatory practices constrained women to have access to loan and credit facilities for their agricultural endeavors, whereas the existing credit policies are equally blind to the existing discriminatory system. Even in environments with male-migrant labor, female-headed households equally lack power to control or own land they till. In most African societies, gender specific roles, in all agricultural activities including irrigated farming, have been in practice. Thus, land cleaning is usually an exclusive men work while both men and women jointly participate in tilling the land. However, weeding is a usual activity undertaken by women. Women also undertake the tasks of transporting crops from the farms to the home and to the market. It should be recalled that in terms of division of labor women have been contributing more time in agricultural cycle than men.

26

Studies by the World Bank indicate that Women in sub-Sahara African produce 80 percent of the stable food but own less than 10 percent of the land. They however contribute up to 30 percent of the labor in ploughing, 50 percent of labor in planting, 60 percent in weeding, 88 percent labor in processing and preserving food, while performing up to 95 percent of all domestic chores(Meena,1994: 48). This involves biological reproduction, breast-feeding and rearing of children. Throughout rural Africa, womens labor input is estimated to be three times that of men. It should be noted that unpaid domestic work by women is rarely documented as it is indirectly manifested in the labor market and in form of gender differences in labor force participation rate, sector of employment, hours of work, and wage level (World Bank, 1990:15). Socio-cultural barriers are great limitations to women accessibility which are however part of the sources of marginal participation of women; thereby encouraging gender insensitivity in the planning and development of agricultural sector. This, the gender stereotyped educational system inherited from colonialism contains such limited abilities inhibiting women to have self-expression, self-actualization and selfdetermination and thus over-come artificial barriers placed before them. With limited and the nature of knowledge being imparted, women cannot climb the ladder of decision regarding the laws of the land since the policy making body is male gender dominated and incidentally gender blind. While majority of women have been participating as marginal actors in the agricultural economy by tilling the land they do not own with the crudest tools and producing crops they do not control, most states have not demonstrated intentions to expunge such obnoxious laws they inherited from the pre-colonial patriarchal structure

27

and those introduced by the colonial patriarchal rule. Gender and development strategies have been designed and popularized for about three decades while these policies have, by and large, contributed in the improvement of womens socio-economic milieu, they have notwithstanding facilitated in the furtherance of womens subordination within the family as well as the national economy (Goetz; 1996). CONCLUSION Gender differentiated roles in human history are accepted and established norms for societal dynamism and equity. Overtime, disproportionate roles with non-

commensurate benefits have come to be glaringly exhibited in agricultural and other related human activities. Even though women have been the primary commodity

producers, human societies have been gender-based with a patriarchal socio-cultural setting. While the state is a serious impediment to the equitable gender differential in agricultural policies, attempts made to explore such gendered and gendering impacts have revealed that the prevailing environment, within the family structure and the political economy have militated further assaults on women. Whereas irrigated agriculture is essentially an alien practice in Nigeria, its introduction, particularly the large scale, was rushed and haphazard, capital intensive and market oriented and above all a male-gendered preoccupation. Even in the traditional fadama irrigated agriculture, women participatory role on the farms is highly insignificant, if not totally absent. Although vegetable gardens close to the households are mostly cultivated and watered diligently by women, they are, but with a very few exceptions to the general rule, only undertaken by the poorer women.

28

Since gender disparity, in all aspects of human endeavor, is a global phenomenon, the differential in agriculture, particularly irrigated agriculture, is part of the globalization trends albeit with gender-silence exhibited policy. Thus, the roles of women within the family and the national economy are enormous which far override those of men in quantum and intensity: from home management of child bearing and rearing to the traditional pre and post harvest processing activities as well as the actual labor expended on all agricultural and non-farm related production activities, women, no doubt, are subjected to intense and increasing pressure and thus denied proportionate benefits with less recognition by the State. Based on the agitation of women in diverse activities while faced with dearth of data, it is safe to conclude that more research is required to properly unveil the depth of the role of women and the gendering perspectives of state policy issues and their repercussions in irrigated agriculture. WORKS CITED: *Being a paper presented at the 12th National Irrigation and Drainage Seminar held at AERLS Conference Hall, ABU, Zaria from 14th 16th April, 1998. 1. Baker, K.M. (1984) Agricultural Change in Nigeria, John Mumy Publishers, London. Beckman, B. (1985) Bakolori: Peasants Versus the State and Capital. Nigerian Journal of Political Science No.4. Boserup, E. (1997) Womens Role in Economic Development Allen and Unwini New York. Cernea,M.M. ((ed.) (1985) Putting People First: Sociological Variables in Rural Development, World Bank Publication, OUP USA. Cleaver, M. and Schreilber, G.A (1994). Reversing the Spiral The Population, Agriculture and Environment Nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa, World Bank Publication, USA

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Dankelman, T. and David, J. (1988) Women and Environment in the Third World: Alliance for the Future Earthscan Publication, London Dey, J. (1984(a)) Women in Food Production and Food Security in Africa cf. Women in Agriculture No 3 FAO ..(1984(b)) Women in Rice Farming Systems (Focus; Sub-Saharan African) cf. Women in Agriculture No. 2, FAO Doorembos, J. Haverkot, B. Jiggins, J. (1988) Women and the Rationalization of Smallholder Agriculture cf. Agricultural Administration and Extension 28 Due, J.M. (1988) Intra-Household Gender Issues in Farming Systems in Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi cf. Poats, Schmik and Spring. FAO (1997) Land and Water Bulletin 4 Irrigation Potential in Africa: A Basic Approach, Rome Goetz, A. M. (ed.) (1996) Getting Institutions Right for Women Development. University of Sussex. Hill, P. (1982) Population, Prosperity and Poverty: Rural Kano 1900 and 1970, CUP, London (1982) Dry Grain Farming Families: Hausaland (Nigeria) and Karnataka (India) CUP, London Hirschmann, D. and Voughan, M. (1983) Food and Income Generation in Matrilineal Society: Rural Women in Zambia, Malawi cf. Journal of Southern African Studies 10 (1).

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