# Water Gender Indicators in Agriculture: A Study of
## 1 Introduction  
### Women, Access to Agricultural Resources and Dirj Irrigation Systems  
In 2014, the United Nations inaugurated a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aiming to substitute the previous Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as a reference for the new international development Agenda (2015-2030). In order to favor a greater inclusive and participatory process, several consultations were conducted worldwide involving multiple stakeholders. The SDGs include 17 goals, 169 targets and a preliminary proposal of 303 indicators. The 17 goals cover new topics such as climate change, economic inequality, innovation, sustainable consumption, peace and justice [1]. Nevertheless, the SDGs have been subjected to some criticisms, as the excessive importance due to the \"quantification\" of the development actions and the enormous number of targets and indicators to be achieved [2; 3; 4]. Our study may be integrated into the framework of two particular SDGs, SDG 5 (aimed to achieve gender equality and empower women and girls worldwide) and SGD 6 (focused on guaranteeing available and sustainable management of water for everybody). In order to cover these areas of analysis, an overview on water gender management and irrigation issues in agriculture is presented. Women are generally the main beneficiaries of many food security projects aimed to improve the households' nutrition levels. However, despite this preference, women have difficulty being recognized as actual farmers [5]. Gender mainstreaming is feeble and low importance is given to assessing who really benefits from the projects [6] because the different gender knowledge, education, ability and potential are often not considered, favoring the technical aspects. In particular, horticulture, more than other food crops, requires technical expertise, first concerning water management issues, considering the large amount of needed water, which is not always easily accessible. In this framework, drip irrigation systems (largely fostered by international donors) are frequently applied to irrigate home gardens aimed to providing vegetables and a most balanced diet, both for self-consumption and for additional selling purposes [7; 8]. Drip irrigation (low cost, reliable, laborsaving, and easy to be technologically accepted) uses networks of pipes and tubes to direct water to the soil surface, in order to reduce the water consumption and the losses due to evaporation [9]. It was shown by researchers that drip irrigation can help farmers with saving time, improving health, food security, income, employment and control over resources [10; 11]. Despite the advantages, the widespread application of drip irrigation systems presents some constraints [12; 13; 14]. Such drawbacks may be technical (e.g., the occlusion of pipes and drip trays in case of high mineralization of water), related to the management and the maintenance (high purchase, installation and repair costs) or socio-cultural. In some cases [9], the adoption of drip irrigation systems may increase the existent social and economic inequalities, to the detriment of the smaller and disadvantaged actors. In fact, the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) [15] indicated that improved irrigation benefited the bigger and better organized farmers more, especially thanks to their greater capacity to count on additional capital and public support. Other researchers [16] specifically described how women and men appeared to have different incentives for investing time, labor, and capital in irrigation-related activities. In particular, especially in the Latin American context, women are generally associated with sanitation aspects, while the most \"productive\" uses of water (as the water for irrigation purposes) should be a peculiarity of men [17].