ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the impact of Jahaly Pacharr on improving rural women’s access to and control of productive resources and provides a context for understanding the project’s goal to target women rice farmers. It presents a background for interpreting the changes in resource control that were to occur with project development. The chapter reviews pre-project farming strategies and focuses on the organization of production, specifically crop rights, labour obligations, land access and a longitudinal analysis brings into relief the key intra-household conflicts characterizing Gambian rice development projects. It also provides the basis for interpreting the changes that took place in resource control during the first year of Jahaly Pacharr. Women might meet their food crop labour obligations on irrigated maruo during the dry season, but their kamanyango crops and rights were protected on non-project land during the rains. The chapter concludes with several issues of bearing to theoretical and policy debates on gender equity goals in African rural development processes.
