ABSTRACT
Jean Davison has identified central questions concerning women and agriculture in Africa—focusing on changes in women’s access to resources and participation in production brought by the penetration of capitalism during the colonial period and later by the policies of African governments. This chapter explores the issues in assessing the consequences of irrigated schemes for Muslim women in northern Sudan. The legal grounds recognized by the Gezira administration for a tenant to delegate a manager include old age and cases where the tenant is a woman. Women also farm along the Blue Nile east of Rufa’a and in Blue Nile communities off-scheme near the Ethiopian border. In 1954 an irrigated scheme was established at Wad al Abbas by two Sudanese merchants from outside the community, under license from the British colonial government. It was later nationalized by the Sudanese government in 1969 and is administered by the parastatal Blue Nile Agricultural Corporation.
