In the recent past, there has been an increase in calls for integration of gender in agricultural research and development (R&D) owing to the recognition that gender-blind interventions have ended up exploiting women in order to empower households. In response to the call, R&D actors are putting in place measures to guarantee that R&D projects are gender-integrated with a focus on increasing provision for women’s economic empowerment in order to increase the income under their control. Income under women’s control is often used as a proxy indicator for empowerment.

To measure the gendered impacts of economic development interventions, gender scientists are increasingly using assets over income because income is easy to underreport and fluctuates remarkably across the year for agricultural communities. Moreover, some scholars have reported that although earning an income can enhance women’s economic and social status, it would be naïve to assume that earning an income alone brings…