This paper examines the occurrence and impact of gender discrimination in access to production resources on the income, productivity, and technical efficiency of farmers. Through an empirical investigation of farmers from Koussin-Lélé, a semi-collective irrigated rice scheme in central Benin, we find that female rice farmers are particularly discriminated against with regard to scheme membership and access to land and equipment, resulting in significant negative impacts on their productivity and income. Although women have lower productivity, they are as technically efficient as men. The findings suggest that there is considerable scope for improving the productivity of women through increasing their access to production resources.

This study presents results from a farmer survey conducted with 560 rice farmers from 27 villages spread over five hubs (concentration areas of rice production and processing) in three different countries in Eastern Africa (Ethiopia, Tanzania and Madagascar). The main research objective was to assess women's access to rice technologies and constraints to adoption of technologies. Constraints were analyzed over five different categories: (1) institutional (2) access to agricultural inputs, (3) technology-contextual, (4) household and socio-cultural and (5) extension. Key providers of extension were public (government), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and international organizations. Our study identifies that the

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crop in others, while in many places, the gender pattern for rice cultivation is complex. In spite of the active involvement of both men and women in rice farming, processing and marketing, the overall research-for-development agenda has not always fully appreciated or considered the gender perspective (Poats, 1991). Consequently, the technologies and knowledge generated through rice research may not have reached the women end-users. A gender perspective needs to be integrated into agriculturespecifically in rice research for development-as a strategic pathway towards sustainable and effective rice development in Africa. Gender Actors and Levels in Rice Development 'Gender' is a term used to explain how society constructs the differences between women and men, whereas 'sex' identifies the biological differences between women and men. Therefore, looking at gender does not focus primarily on women or men, but rather on the relationships between their different roles, responsibilities,

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