Managing irrigation, child help (Benin)

Growing liberalisation of the agricultural markets and feminisation in poor countries, are redefining the links between gender and agricultural development.

In Benin natural habitats are being seriously affected by different causes, among them the reduction of forests, biodiversity and water sources in lands controlled by foreign investors. This means that women and girls have to go further to fetch water and firewood, which affects the chances of education of girls and the finding of paid jobs by women. Men, for their part, are subjected to intense selective migration.

The rural world has feminised and women here have fecundity rates well above the average for the country as a whole which, in 2015 was 4.7.  The help of certain foundations has allowed the installation of automatic irrigation, as in the photo, which saves the women a lot of work and the community a lot of water.

Photo, Ramón Herrera

 

 

Woman irrigating the plot in Bangui (República Centroafricana) © Thomas Koehler/Photothek/Getty Images