How are women farmers in rural areas adapting to climate change?
Subquestions
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How are rural women in developing countries adapting their livelihoods and traditional roles in response to climate change, and what barriers do they face in accessing climate-resilient solutions and technologies?
read all How are rural women in developing countries adapting their livelihoods and traditional roles in response to climate change, and what barriers do they face in accessing climate-resilient solutions and technologies?
Key finding
Women and girls face significant barriers in adapting to climate change, including limited resources, restrictive gender roles, and cultural norms, yet they employ diverse strategies like alternative livelihoods, localized networks, and indigenous knowledge to withstand effects of climate change.
Short summary
Women face unique barriers in adapting to climate change, including limited access to financial resources, land, credit, education, and institutional support. Gender roles and cultural norms often restrict their participation in broader adaptation networks, leaving them reliant on localized, food-security-focused social connections. Despite these challenges, women cope through diverse strategies such as engaging in alternative livelihoods, utilizing indigenous knowledge, and prioritizing household needs by reducing their own consumption. From soil-cutting in Bangladesh to handicrafts and petty trade in India and Vietnam, women adapt to environmental stressors creatively, often assuming greater responsibilities when male migration shifts family roles. However, these efforts are constrained by poverty and systemic inequalities, underscoring the need for targeted policies to enhance women's ability to cope with climate change.
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What role do rural women in developing countries play in community-based natural resource management and conservation efforts, and how does climate change affect their participation and leadership in these initiatives?
read all What role do rural women in developing countries play in community-based natural resource management and conservation efforts, and how does climate change affect their participation and leadership in these initiatives?
Key finding
Women are key agents in community-based natural resource management, leveraging traditional knowledge for climate adaptation, but face barriers like limited mobility, localised networks, and cultural restrictions, which hinder their full participation and leadership.
Short summary
Women play a vital role in community-based natural resource management and climate adaptation by leveraging traditional knowledge and fostering grassroots innovation. Their reliance on natural resources allows them to collect and share ecosystem knowledge, vital for resilience planning. For example, in the Torres Strait Islands and Fiji, women use Indigenous knowledge to predict weather patterns and ensure food security, while in Bangladesh and Uttarakhand, India, they employ local techniques to mitigate climate hazards and adapt to disasters. However, climate change challenges their participation and leadership. Gendered cultural norms restrict mobility and limit women’s access to broader social networks, confining them to localised, informal networks focused on food security, unlike men, who access wider institutional networks. Addressing these barriers is essential to fully harness their expertise in sustainable resource management and climate resilience.
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What role do women farmers play in implementing sustainable farming techniques, such as crop diversification or water conservation?
read all What role do women farmers play in implementing sustainable farming techniques, such as crop diversification or water conservation?
Key finding
Women farmers adopt sustainable farming techniques prioritising household food security and ecological resilience despite systemic gender barriers that limit their capacity to adapt.
Short summary
Women farmers play a vital role in sustainable farming by adopting crop diversification and water conservation, often focusing on household food security and ecological resilience. In flood-prone areas of India and Bangladesh, they grow flood- or salt-tolerant crops, while in Nepal, women cultivate drought-resistant crops and integrate agroforestry. They also engage in water harvesting, as seen in Sudan and Vietnam, despite increased labour burdens. Women prioritise food crops over commercial ones, ensuring sustenance during shortages, and contribute to community-level practices like mangrove regeneration and home gardening. However, gendered constraints, including limited land rights and resource access, often restrict them to managerial rather than technical adaptation practices.
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How are women in rural farming communities accessing information, technology, and financial resources to adapt to climate change?
read all How are women in rural farming communities accessing information, technology, and financial resources to adapt to climate change?
Key finding
Women in rural farming communities rely on livelihood diversification, microfinance, training programs, and traditional knowledge to adapt to climate change, but face significant barriers such as financial constraints, gendered resource disparities, and cultural restrictions, limiting their adaptive capacity
Short summary
Women in rural farming communities use a combination of livelihood diversification, microfinance, training, and traditional knowledge to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Livelihood diversification, such as rope-making in Gujarat or earth-cutting in Bangladesh, helps offset losses from climate-affected occupations. Financially, women often rely on high-interest loans, NGO support, or selling personal assets like jewellery and livestock, which can further deepen poverty. To enhance their adaptive capacity, women participate in training programs focused on livelihood diversification and climate risk management, such as flood mitigation training in Bangladesh and drought management programs in India. However, gendered disparities in access to irrigation, labour, and institutional support, as seen in Vietnam, limit women’s ability to adapt. Cultural practices also restrict women’s participation in formal social networks and NGO programs. Despite these barriers, women’s resourcefulness, including the use of indigenous knowledge, plays a crucial role in their climate change adaptation strategies.
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What social, economic, or cultural barriers are hindering women farmers’ ability to adapt to climate change, and how are they overcoming these obstacles?
read all What social, economic, or cultural barriers are hindering women farmers’ ability to adapt to climate change, and how are they overcoming these obstacles?
Key finding
Women face economic barriers like limited access to credit and productive resources, cultural restrictions tied to traditional gender roles, and social challenges such as weaker institutional networks and mobility constraints. Despite these challenges, they adopt resource-efficient and community-focused strategies, emphasizing food security and livelihood diversification.
Short summary
Women face significant economic, cultural, and social barriers in adapting to climate change, including limited access to resources like land, credit, and agricultural inputs, as well as cultural restrictions tied to traditional gender roles. These barriers often force women to rely on informal financing and local networks, while men benefit from broader institutional support. Women’s roles are further constrained by social restrictions like purdah and cultural norms that limit their participation in resource-intensive activities. Despite these challenges, women demonstrate resilience by adopting strategies that align with their traditional roles, such as growing fast-maturing crops, diversifying livelihoods through petty businesses, and leveraging local knowledge. Overcoming these barriers requires improving women’s access to resources, training, and social support while promoting gender-sensitive policies.
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In what ways are women farmers collaborating with local organizations, governments, or international programs to build resilience against climate impacts?
read all In what ways are women farmers collaborating with local organizations, governments, or international programs to build resilience against climate impacts?
Key finding
Women leverage local and institutional support through loans, training, and social networks to combat climate change challenges
Short summary
Women farmers are using a combination of loans, training, and social networks to tackle climate change. In Bangladesh, rural women access financial loans from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to mitigate the impacts of floods. In northeastern Nigeria, government schemes provide agricultural loans, pesticides, and tools to women-headed households, enabling them to adapt to drought conditions. In Vietnam, organisations offer low-interest loans to women in coastal and central regions, helping them start businesses and adapt to decreasing rice productivity. Additionally, training programs provided by NGOs equip women in countries like India and Bangladesh with skills to diversify their income sources, innovate, and adjust farming practices. In Sudan, women benefit from social networks facilitated by community organizations to learn Indigenous Technological Knowledge (ITK). Despite cultural restrictions, these organizations play a pivotal role in building resilience and empowering women to tackle climate change.