Solar irrigation pumps (SIPs) are proven women-friendly technology. They are easy to use since they eliminate the burden of carrying pumps back and forth from the fields. In communities with restrictive gender norms in Tarai, Southern Nepal, women’s limited mobility, skills, and the ‘veil’ tradition (where their faces are to be covered, especially when interacting with older people or strangers) define women farmers’ dependence on men. The limitations imply that women need the support of men in accessing markets for inputs, negotiating time and equipment, and irrigating their fields. These barriers have forced women, particularly those without men in the house or with migrant men, to irrigate fields during the night with a risk of gender-based violence or experience severe crop loss due to untimely irrigation.
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