Intrahousehold decisionmaking and resource control : the effects of rice commercialization in West Africa

This study evaluates the impact of this new technology on intrahousehold decisionmaking, resource control, and labor patterns. Several major changes resulted from the project. Whereas rice had been grown mainly by women as both a private cash crop and as a communal food crop, the new technology resulted in an almost total shift to communal production. Control of the crop was passed on to men, who are traditionally responsible for communal food production, and male labor in the rice fields increased significantly. Contrary to planners" expectations, higher rice yields resulting from irrigation have been retained in order to increase household food security rather than sold as a cash crop. However, many women have replaced their former rice cash crop activities with individual production of upland cash crops such as groundnuts and cotton. The report illustrates not only the varied tasks of different household members, but the great potential of agricultural projects to respond to this variety. This conclusion underscores the importance of the complex household production-consumption system in analyzing the distributional effects of commercialization and technological change in West Africa.