VEGETABLE GARDENS AS A STRATEGY TO IMPROVE THE POSITION OF RURAL WOMEN THE CASE OF ILE À MORPHIL, SENEGAL

The women of Ile à Morphil had already begun to develop vegetable gardens for themselves, when, in 1985 they made a request to the Dutch-funded small-scale irrigation project for support. A programme was consequently started in 1986 with the aim of helping women's groups to improve their gardens, and through these to improve the families food supply and the women's own income and to strengthen the women's organisation.

The development of the irrigated women's vegetable gardens did not only improve families nutrition and therefore their health, but also appeared noticeably to improve the position of women. Firstly this was due to a better organisation of women's groups and a growing self-confidence of the women themselves and secondly because of the small income it generated. However for a continued improvement in the position of women it is necessary for the gardens to be developed further to increase women's income or other income-generating activities to be started alongside.

In an irrigated vegetable garden or more general an irrigation scheme for women it is important that they can manage the system themselves. This needs to be taken into account in planning an irrigation scheme. Experience in Senegal proves that the following criteria are important:

• definite allocation of land to women,
• a flexible system of irrigation (because of restrictions in available time),
• complete control by the women themselves over the water source,
• minimum distance between the village and the scheme,
• all decisions have to be made by the women themselves and therefore they have to receive all the necessary information.

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