To build women's decision-making capacity, it is impor­tant that women have the same access to information as men. Traditional assignment of market-oriented activities means that introduced technology helps reinforce stereotyped gen­der roles and reduces the control of women over resources (Kolli and Bantilan, 1997). The rice-fish farming system in Indonesia resulted in increased income (Wardana and Syamsiah, 1990). Although women transplanted, weeded and harvested rice, they made few production decisions and were not involved in farmer meetings and classes.

2AAA  Employment opportunities and income distribution New AKST in ESAP has created jobs for poor farmers, women and indigenous people and in some cases has helped to reduce poverty. However, the benefits from these new op­portunities have varied among gender, class, ethnicity and caste. In most cases, the poorest of the poor did not get equal benefits, compared with richer or middle-income groups. A study conducted in Bangladesh on employment and modern agricultural technology in crop production found the de­mand for labor increased because of technological changes. However, this demand was mostly met by hiring male la­borers; the few women hired were paid significantly lower wages than men. Furthermore, opportunities for women were unequal, and they had less bargaining power both in the conventional hired labor market (Rahman and Routray, 2001) and in contract farming (Singh, 2003). The effect of new technology on women varied with category. In Viet Nam promoting plastic row and drum seeders in rice plant­ing displaced poor women from farming households, who worked as wage laborers in hand weeding and filling gaps. Poor and landless women faced the worst consequences be­cause of lack of alternative jobs and increased debts. Women from better-off families had more time for leisure and other income-generating activities. Progressive men farmers, who had more frequent contact with extension workers, had bet-

ter-educated wives and used lower seeding rates. This group of women was more likely to benefit from a new technol­ogy (Paris and Ngoc Chi, 2005). The farming system also affected the gender decision pattern and income benefits. Female farmers were more involved in farm production and management on vegetable farms and mixed livestock and cash crop farms than in mechanized and capital-intensive production (Hall and Mogyorody, 2007).
     Studies of household income distribution revealed that women benefited from small-scale and integrated farming within homesteads, whereas men benefited more from other than subsistence farming (Berman, 2003). Studies in Ban­gladesh showed that some women involved in growing veg­etables had negligible income, but most of their income and vegetables were used for home consumption. Another study showed that women in fish production in Bangladesh got no benefit, because men did the trading and women never knew how much money was earned (Naved, 2000). New groundnut technology in India and intensified aquaculture in Thailand and Viet Nam showed that, while additional income gained was small, women did gain control over it and generally used it for daily expenses (Kolli and Bantilan, 1997; Kusakabe, 2002). If the increased production was more than needed for the home, the extra would be used for trading, and eventually, men benefited from it. Though new technology was likely to change traditional farming into more entrepreneurial systems and add to family income, it was necessary to examine in detail the equity implications of the benefits derived by each member of the farm household. Usually the household was considered as a unit and benefits from certain activities were distributed equally among mem­bers. However, case studies showed that to increase weaker groups' choices, it was important that household income have several sources to negotiate priorities. Diversification of sources of income is desirable for addressing risks, in­creasing household income and controlling economic activi­ties among household members (Kusakabe, 2001).