Women, youth, and tail-end users: improving the livelihoods of disadvantaged irrigators in southern Africa

Karen Parry, Henning Bjornlund, Makarius Mdemu, Thabani Dube and Miguel Tafula

International Journal of Water Resources Development, 2025, vol. 41, issue 2, 374-401

Abstract: Tackling the inequalities that exist in sub-Saharan Africa is critical for sustainable development. In this paper we explore whether the ‘Transforming irrigation in southern Africa’ project’s interventions – Agricultural Innovation Platforms and soil monitoring tools – reduced inequity for women, youth and tail-end farmers on smallholder irrigation schemes. Our analysis focussed on access to plots, decision-making and economic well-being. We found evidence of equity improvements, though this was inconsistent across households and schemes, and complicated by COVID-19 disruptions. Equity can be an emergent outcome of complementary and participatory interventions that seek to improve profitability and functionality of irrigation schemes.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/07900627.2024.2435988 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:cijwxx:v:41:y:2025:i:2:p:374-401

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/cijw20

DOI: 10.1080/07900627.2024.2435988

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Water Resources Development is currently edited by Cecilia Tortajada

More articles in International Journal of Water Resources Development from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().