Gendered Impact of Irrigated Rice Schemes’ Governance on Farmers’ Income, Productivity and Technical Efficiency in Benin

Collective actions groups have many advantages and are sometimes essential, yet they can reinforce or perpetuate inter-and intra-gender inequalities when their functioning is left entirely subject to internal community dynamics and they are not well managed. This is well illustrated by the case of Koussin-Lélé rice scheme in the central Benin. This paper apply inequality indices and frontier production function to data from a sample of male and women rice farmers to analyze the gender inequalities in access to land and the governance of the groups, and their gender-differentiated impacts on farmers' productivity, technical efficiency and income. The results show that women are particularly discriminated against with regards to access to land, with significant negative impacts on their productivities and incomes. However, this discrimination did not have a significant impact on technical efficiency.Gender, land distribution, Rice, technical efficiency, productivity, income, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, International Relations/Trade, Marketing, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Women, Social Capital and Collective Action – The Case of NERICA Rice Technology in Benin

Women rice farmers in Africa are often constrained in accessing resources and technologies adapted to their requirements. AfricaRice has targeted women in disseminating NERICA to consider their needs. Along with top-down strategies, also processes that strengthen women rice growers at the grassroots are essential. Farmer groups’ social relation networks and collective action might open opportunities for women. This qualitative case study examines the interplay of technology adoption, social capital, collective action and women’s empowerment by focusing on women’s perceptions in the context of NERICA in Benin. Findings show that social capital and collective action enhance women’s economic and social position and their personal advancement. The study indicates what kind of external support might be useful to exploit, in the best possible way, the potential of collective action as a means for promoting women’s holistic development. The results can help in the design of strategies for women’s empowerment within NERICA dissemination activities

Gendered impact of NERICA Adoption on Farmers’ Production and Income in Central Benin

Today, development and dissemination of new technologies constitute an important strategy for agricultural intensification, poverty reduction and food security in developing countries. Rice is an important source of farmers’ income and foreign currencies in developing countries. Although women play a vital role in rice production, they have not been adequately involved in technology generation activities until recently. The New Rices for Africa (NERICA) were developed by Africa Rice Center (WARDA) in 1994 and disseminated starting in 1997 in some Sub-Saharan African countries including Benin in collaboration with National Agricultural Partners. This paper use econometric method based on Local Average Treatment effect (LATE) to estimate the gendered impact of NERICA adoption on farmers’ yield and income. The results show that NERICA adoption has positive and significant impact on farmers’ yield and income. The impacts of NERICA adoption are higher within women farmers than within men farmers

Weed management in upland rice in sub-Saharan Africa: impact on labor and crop productivity

Rice is one of the most important crops for food security in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). There exists, however, a widening gap between its regional demand and supply. Competition from weeds is typically one of the major biophysical constraints in upland rice, frequently leading to significant yield losses and sometimes to complete crop failure, thereby threatening the food security of subsistence farmers. However, weed management practices that are currently employed to avoid such losses are associated with high weeding labor demands. This study examined the relationships between weeding times per farm, average time per hectare per weeding and rice yields of upland rice farmers in SSA, with the objective of estimating the impact of weeds on rural households’ economies in SSA reliant on upland rice production systems. To this end, we analyzed survey data collected from 992 farmers in four countries (Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Togo and Uganda). The counterfactual outcomes framework of modern evaluation theory was used to estimate the Average Treatment Effect (ATE) of the number of times a farm is weeded on weeding labor efficiency, as measured by the average number of hours spent per hectare at each weeding, and on crop productivity expressed as rice grain yield per hectare. A single weeding required 173 h per hectare, while weeding twice required 130 h per hectare per weeding (259 h per hectare in total) and weeding three times required 125 h per hectare per weeding (376 h per hectare in total). Correspondingly, a single weeding was associated with an average rice yield of 1.2 t ha−1, weeding twice yielded 1.7 t ha−1 and weeding three times yielded 2.2 t ha−1. Compared to the situation where the farm is weeded only once and controlling for other factors, the model estimated yield gains of a second weeding to be 0.33 t ha−1 and a third weeding to result in a gain of 0.51 t ha−1. The estimated labor gains were respectively 64.2 and 68.1 h per hectare per weeding for a second and a third weeding. We conclude that weeding an upland rice crop more than once in SSA increases weeding labor efficiency by about 37 % and rice productivity by more than 27 %. Rather than motivating farmers to increase their labor inputs for manual weeding, however, we propose that more research and development funds should be devoted to developing, testing and promoting locally adapted strategies of labor-saving weed management in rice in sub-Saharan Africa. This will result in a significant contribution to regional food security and poverty alleviation

Gendered Impact of Irrigated Rice Schemes’ Governance on Farmers’ Income, Productivity and Technical Efficiency in Benin

Collective actions groups have many advantages and are sometimes essential, yet they can reinforce or perpetuate inter-and intra-gender inequalities when their functioning is left entirely subject to internal community dynamics and they are not well managed. This is well illustrated by the case of Koussin-Lélé rice scheme in the central Benin. This paper apply inequality indices and frontier production function to data from a sample of male and women rice farmers to analyze the gender inequalities in access to land and the governance of the groups, and their gender-differentiated impacts on farmers' productivity, technical efficiency and income. The results show that women are particularly discriminated against with regards to access to land, with significant negative impacts on their productivities and incomes. However, this discrimination did not have a significant impact on technical efficiency

Who Benefits More From Nerica Varieties? Gender Differential Impact on Yield and Income in Benin

The NERICA varieties are modern rice varieties developed by AfricaRice which won its creator Monty Jones the 2004 World Food Prize. They are widely believed to offer hope for Africa’s Green Revolution because of their ability to grow under multiple stresses as well as their high response rate to inorganic fertilizers and other inputs. This paper examines the gender differential impact of NERICA adoption on the yield and farmers’ household annual income using data from 342 rice farmers from Benin. It applies the potential outcomes framework to estimate the Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) of NERICA adoption on farmers’ rice yield and households’ income. Evidence from the results shows that NERICA adoption has positive and significant impact on farmers’ yield and per capita annual households’ income. The impacts of NERICA adoption are not homogeneous across farmer gender and geographical area. The impact on rice yield is higher for female farmers potential adopters while the impact on per capita annual household income is higher for male farmers potential adopters. Concerning the geographical area, the impact on rice yield is higher for potential adopters from Central Benin while the impact on per capita annual household income is higher for potential adopters from Northern Benin. The findings suggest to impact assessment specialists to estimate not only the impact of technologies for the whole target population, but also for the different social groups inside the population. This will allow them to better understand the benefit of the technology to each group