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,

Adegbola, Patrice Ygue

Agboh-Noameshie, Afiavi. R.

Diagne, Aliou

Kinkingninhoun-Medagbe, Florent M.

English

Research Papers in Economics

AAAE Conference Proceedings (2007) 417-420 
 
Gendered Impact of Irrigated Rice Schemes’ Governance on Farmers’ Income, 
Productivity and Technical Efficiency in Benin 
Florent M. Kinkingninhoun-Mêdagbé
1, Aliou Diagne
2,
 Afiavi R. Agboh-Noameshie
3 and Patrice Y. Adégbola
4  
1 Research Assistant (WARDA), Tel: 21 35 01 88 
,
 2 Impact Assessment Economist (WARDA), Tel: 21350188, E-
 3 Agro-sociologist (WARDA). Tel: 21 35 01 88, 
Agricultural Economist, PAPA/INRAB (Bénin), Tél: 20 21 27 73.
 
Abstract 
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.  
Keywords: Gender, land distribution, Rice, technical efficiency, productivity, income 
 
Introduction 
Rice is becoming an important crop in Benin. It is an 
important source of income for producers and 
contributes significantly to food security and poverty 
reduction (Adégbola et Sodjinou, 2003). In the 
majority of developing countries, women play a very 
important role in agriculture, particularly in rice 
production (Carney, 1998; Quisumbing, 1996). 
However, they are generally excluded from decision-
making and actions related to rice sector development. 
Many rural development programs and projects have 
been implemented in Benin to support rice production 
through the creation of irrigated schemes. That women 
continue to be subject to discrimination in these 
collective action-based rice development programs, 
may be partly explained by discrimination against 
women being part of Beninese socio-cultural heritage 
which allots the social role of household head to a man 
(Sohinto, 2001; Dijoux, 2002). The case of Koussin-
Lélé rice scheme in the Central part of Benin shows 
that collective actions constitute valid reasons for 
having some form of outside influence on the creation 
and governance of collective action groups to ensure 
that they do not exacerbate or perpetuate gender 
inequality.The purpose of this paper is to assess the 
gender-differentiated impacts of irrigated scheme’s 
governance on farmers’ income, productivity and 
technical efficiency in Benin. After a brief description  
 
of materials and methods, the paper presents and 
discusses the main results of the analysis, and 
concludes with a brief summary of the results and 
suggestions.  
Materials and Methods 
Koussin-Lélé irrigated scheme, the focus of this study 
is located in Central Benin. For its first 25 years, the 
rice scheme was managed as a “men-only” collective 
where women were used as laborers. It was only after 
revolts and intervention by district authorities that 
women had their own plots of land. Today 145 
producers (including 23) omen divided into seven 
groups, are currently working in the scheme. The 
seven groups are coordinated by a management 
council (CA). Each farmer was allocated a rice plot, 
which he or she manages individually. 45 rice farmers 
were randomly selected within the different strata of 
the scheme. Twenty women and twenty five men were 
then formed the selected farmers. 5 women and 11 
men among them are leaders. Primary and secondary 
data were collected for the study through structured 
questionnaires, semi-structured and non-structured 
discussions. The primary data used are for the 2003-
2004 cropping season and were collected in August 
2004. 
 Impact of Irrigated Rice Schemes Governance on Income 
418  AAAE Ghana Conference 2007 
Data analysis methods 
The specialized program, Distributive Analysis (DAD) 
was used to estimate the inequality indices (Gini 
coefficients) and plot the Lorenz curves for the land 
distribution. The Statistical software STATA version 9 
was used to compute the summary statistics and 
difference tests, and to estimate the parameters of the 
stochastic production frontier and the technical 
efficiency series. The stochastic frontier production 
approach was used to estimate the level of technical 
efficiency of rice farmers (Greene, 1997; Diagne, 
2002). 
Results 
Inter and Intra gender inequalities in land access and 
equipment use 
Table 1 presents the inequality indices for the studied 
sample and for the different social categories. The Gini 
coefficient for the studied sample indicates an 
inequality index of 0.28 in the distribution of land 
among the farmers of Koussin-Lélé scheme. Figure 1 
presents a Lorenz curve for land distribution which is 
away from the 45-degree line. It confirms the 
inequality in land distribution in the entire studied 
population of rice farmers. Comparing the inequalities 
over sex, the Gini coefficient is higher for men (0.16), 
compared to women (0.015). This means that land 
distribution is more unequal within the male groups 
than within the female group. While the Lorenz curve 
of men groups is markedly away from the 45-degree 
line, that of the women almost coincides with the 
equality line (Figure 1). These findings are strong 
confirmation of what is happening within the male 
groups where social status of members is a very 
important criterion in the allocation of land. 
Furthermore, women are an isolated group and were 
given each a small piece of land. Women, members of 
Management Council received each 0.27 hectares and 
women ordinary members received each 0.24 hectares. 
Men members of Management Council are the most 
privileged, with each of them receiving at least 0.9 
hectare on average.
  The operators of motorized 
plowing equipment received about 0.75 ha. The 
remaining land is then distributed to ordinary members 
based on the number of years spent with the groups, 
the ability to influence the decision-makers and the 
relationship between farmers and group leaders. A 
higher average productivity (statistically) was 
observed for men as compared to women (Table 2). 
This shows that men make more profit than women 
per unit of land, seeds, fertilizer and labor. These 
results could be explained by the small size of the land 
allocated to women that did not allow them to benefit 
from the inputs used because of lack of economies of 
scale. These findings are similar to earlier findings by 
Sharma et al. (1999) and Lundvall and Battese (2000), 
who reported a positive relation between average total 
productivity and farm size. The utilization of some 
production factors such as labor, for instance, often 
does not increase in a linear form with the farm size. 
The difference between net agricultural incomes of 
men and women is highly significant (Table 2). Men 
have more than four times the women’s average 
income. These findings confirm the importance of the 
access to the land on the Koussin-Lélé rice scheme and 
reveal the negative impact of the discrimination at the 
level of land on the scheme. It also came out (Table2) 
a highly significant difference between net agricultural 
incomes of men and women. Men have more than four 
times the women’s average income. These findings 
confirm the importance of the access to the land on the 
Koussin-Lélé rice scheme and reveal the negative 
impact of the discrimination at the level of land on the 
scheme. 
Gender differences in Technical efficiency 
Table 3 indicates that all the technical efficiency 
coefficients are lower than 1 (0.9 and 0.86 for male 
and female farmers respectively) indicating that rice 
farmers in this study are not efficient in production 
factor use. The comparison of these coefficients over 
sex gives no significant difference between men and 
women. This indicates that female rice farmers are 
equally as technically efficient as male rice farmers. 
Although the women are newcomers in the scheme 
they had being working as laborers for long time and 
are equally familiar with rice production technologies 
and practices. This result confirms the studies of 
Moock (1976) and Dey Abbas (1997) who measured 
gender differential efficiency and found that women 
are equally as technically efficient as men. Thus, the 
lower productivity of female rice farmers is not due to 
a lower technical efficiency, but mainly to the  
Table 1- Inequality indices for the distribution of land in the 
Koussin-Lélé scheme  
Inequality index  Male  Female  Total 
Gini Coefficient   0.16  (0.10)
 
• 
0.015  (0.00)  0.28  (0.02) 
The numbers in parenthesis indicate the standard errors Kinkingninhoun-Mêdagbé, F. M et al.  
Expanding Frontiers of Agricultural Economics  419 
discrimination against them in resources (land and 
equipment) use.  
Conclusion 
To be more effective, more sustainable and more 
equitable, all human development approaches must 
pay particular attention to the analysis of social 
division of work and to inequalities within the arena 
concerned, and attend to the reduction of these 
disparities. This study showed an inequality in land 
distribution and equipment use between Koussin-Lélé 
rice farmers. Women are particularly subject to 
discrimination and have smaller pieces of land as 
compared to men. They are also delayed in plots 
plowing. Thus, this affects their average productivity, 
their marginal productivity and their income, and 
therefore their well-being. This does not affect their 
technical efficiency. It would be necessary to ensure 
equitable management of the scheme resources to 
make Koussin-Lélé rice scheme governance more 
efficient. The resources of the scheme should be fairly 
use and distributed. This could be done through the 
more active intervention of the communal authorities 
and leaders of agricultural development and more 
attentive monitoring by the scheme management. 
More equity in access to production resources, in this 
case access to land and unbiased management of 
agricultural equipment, could increase women’s 
productivity and income, thereby increasing those of 
the scheme and improving their technical efficiency. 
Acknowledgments 
The authors would like to acknowledge the “Institut 
National des Recherches Agricoles du Bénin” (INRAB) 
for making available its data and the Africa Rice Center 
(WARDA) for its support.  
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 Impact of Irrigated Rice Schemes Governance on Income 
420  AAAE Ghana Conference 2007 
Source: INRAB, Koussin-Lélé Survey, 2004 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Table 2- Average factor productivities of rice farmers in the Koussin-Lélé scheme 
  Men   Women   Total (T) 
Average land productivity  4.95*** (0.78)  3.90 (1.01)  4.47 (1.03) 
Average productivity of seeds (kg/kg)  3.95*** (1.1)  1.81  (0.44)  2.98 (1.37) 
Average productivity of fertilizers   (kg/kg)  1.66** (1.13)  1.00  (0.26)  1.36  (0.90) 
Average productivity of labor (kg/man.day)  5.37*** (1.12)  3.5 (1.35)  4.52 (1.54) 
Net agricultural income (x 1000 F CFA)  530*** (198)  125 (39)  346 (252) 
Net agric. Income per hectare (x 1000 F CFA)  773*** (143)  568 (171)  680 (186) 
*** Difference between men and women significant at the 1%. ** Difference between men and women significant at 5% 
The numbers in parenthesis indicate the standard errors 
Table 3- Average estimated technical efficiencies by gender and social status 
  Men (M)  Women (W)  Total (T) 
Technical efficiency (TE)  0.90 (0.10)  0.86 (0.14)  0.88   (0.12) 
• The numbers in parenthesis indicate the standard errors 

Etude de la compétitivité des systèmes de production de riz au Bénin : Approche par la matrice d’analyse des politiques. Rapport d’étude.

Farm size, age and efficiency: evidence from Kenyan manufacturing farms.

Gender Asymmetries in Intrahousehold Resource Allocation in SubSaharan Africa: Some Policy Implication for Land and Labor Productivity, in Intrahousehold Resource Allocation in Developing Countries: Models, Methods and Policy. Edited by

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Male-female differences in agricultural productivity: Methodological issues and empirical evidence.

Question du genre liées aux conflits fonciers : Impact sur la production durable des viviers au Sud-Bénin.

Source: INRAB, Koussin-Lélé Survey,

Technical, allocative and economic efficiencies in swine production in Hawaii: a comparison of parametric and nonparametric approaches.

The efficiency of women as farm managers,

Women’s land rights in Gambian irrigated rice schemes: Constraints and opportunities.

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

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

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