Who is Involved? A Study Explores Links Between Gender and Technology in Irrigated Agriculture in Two Villages of Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Gender in agriculture, ever since its genesis, has been underwritten in the social requirement of who should do what?’. It is now seen as a question of „Who basks in the glory of agriculture comparatively more?” and has pushed the planners, policy makers and irrigation managers to the front-line with a view to understanding the different levels of participation of both men and women in agriculture and irrigation management. For a long time, because of the stringent procedural background of the irrigation bureaucracy, farmers’ participation has been given much less importance. But later, with the implementation of the National Water Policy (1987), citizen participation in all aspects of water planning and management became one of the several objectives of the State (Tamil Nadu) Water Policy. With it, farmers’ participation, especially women’s as part of the farmers in agriculture and irrigation management became crystallised (CWR 1995).