# Water Gender Indicators in Agriculture: A Study of
## 1 Introduction
### Farmer Organizations and Gender Exclusion Mechanisms  
In many interventions, a commutitarian management of the irrigation perimeters is required and promoted by the international donors [12]. One of the main adduced motivations is that, by decentralizing to local institutions the management of water resources, the whole community will benefit, and this will lead to a sustainable use of the resources over time [40]. However, the orientation methods towards entrepreneurial models (rather implied within the drip irrigation projects) may undermine the existent relationship within the local farming systems, as those belonging to the traditional farmer organizations (FOs) [41].  
For these reasons, an important dimension, taken into consideration by this study, is related to the link between the farmer organizations (FOs) and the implementation of drip irrigation systems.  
FOs are organizations created by the producers to render services to the members of the organizations. We can distinguish four main types of functions, and relative forms of organizations: (1) representing and defending the interests of the producers (as the \"Unions\"); (2) having economic and technical function (generally cooperatives or professional associations); (3) improving natural resource management (as the water user associations--WUAs--irrigation schemes or associations of forestry operators); (4) fulfilling a social development function (as informal or formal village associations or local development associations) [42]. We can also distinguish other types of FOs on the basis of their gender components--for instance: men, women and mixed organizations. These types of FOs should provide the same type of services to their members; nonetheless, the effective power owned by women organizations and women within mixed organizations appears weaker compared with the male members. As largely stressed by [PERSON] [43,44], when women perform substantial decision-making roles within the management committees of FOs, positive effects in terms of sustainable management, use and conservation of commons resources (as water) are frequently observed. Other researchers observed that, when women farmers have a greater access and participation in water issues (especially within irrigation institutions), their performance and revenues, as well as the general household livelihoods, increase [45]. However, at the same time, gender is a critical factor leading to further exclusion mechanisms within the internal decision-making processes of farmer organizations [46].  
The women exclusion can be observed looking at some particular type of grassroots organizations such as the water user associations (WUAs). WUAs are intermediate organizations based on the principles of the \"Community-based Management (CBM)\", diffused in several areas of southern countries. WUAs are strongly connected with the structural adjustment policies, promoting the increasing privatization of water and irrigation processes. These policies had a significant impact on the irrigation sector in southern countries and often result in the transfer of the operations to Water User Associations [15]. Even in the WUAs, a sporadic representation of women is often observed [47]. This exclusion is usually due to the WUAs selection criteria, often allocated to the \"formal rights holders\" and based on the education level, on the social status and on the power relations within the local communities (which, in practice, exclude women) [48].