Access to irrigation and gender: The case study of Bontanga Irrigation Scheme in the northern region of Ghana

As climate change in the savanna belt of Ghana poses great limitations on rain-fed agriculture, governmental and non-governmental agencies turn to irrigated agriculture to provide employment and food for the growing population. Gendered analyses of the Bontanga irrigation project reveal that in many cases women’s participation in irrigated agriculture has been limited due to lack of access to land. Past research suggests that variables other than access to land condition low women’s participation in irrigated agriculture. Fully understanding women’s participation in terms of their access to irrigated land demands the examination of how intra-household dynamics and the market, as well as the state, interplay as constraints to women access to irrigation land.