Abstract
Climate change significantly impacts women in India’s agriculture sector, where women farmers constitute almost 80% of the rural workforce and contribute a significant amount to food production. Despite the important role they play face massive systemic challenges worsened by climate change. Challenges include lack of land ownership, restricted access to financial resources, and lack of agricultural training. These barriers, compounded by gender assigned norms like the collection of water, natural resources, and other household activities, add more burden and reduce their resilience to climate change disasters such as droughts, floods. Solutions include reducing women’s care burden, strengthening social protection schemes, and supporting gender-sensitive research initiatives.
History
Climate change is currently one of the biggest issues in the world, with many countries facing great danger. Every year, countries face large-scale implications from climate change, like earthquakes, floods, sea level rise, water scarcity, high temperatures, and many more. According to the UN climate report 2021, 40% of the world’s population is already highly vulnerable to climate change. If immediate action is not taken to reduce emissions, it is anticipated that an additional 130 million people will go into poverty in the next ten years.
In 2020, India ranked 112 out of 153 countries in the World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report. India also ranks 149 out of 153, with the lowest economic participation levels and opportunities for women. Other gender inequality problems include lack of resources, a lack of knowledge, restricted rights, lack of participation, and lack of voice. These challenges also make women highly vulnerable to climate change. According to Chatterjee (2021), women tend to grow food crops rather than cash crops, while men tend to grow more cash crops.
Due to the continued rise in climate change by 2050, certain crop production in South Asia will reduce significantly. Rice production is anticipated to drop by 14%, wheat production by 49%, and maize production by 9%. This will also cause sharp rises in the price of major food crops, which will directly affect the women growing the food crops.
In traditional gender roles, women are primarily responsible for collecting water to satisfy household and irrigation needs, as well as for household work such as cleaning, cooking, etc. The effect of climate change has caused very long drought periods, resulting in women travelling long distances to fetch water. Due to travelling long distances to fetch water, women get less time to invest in activities that generate income. During the dry season, water irrigation is key for agriculture. Hence, women prioritise bringing water over household activities. This shows the limited influence women have on decision-making.
Chatterjee (2021) shows that women are more sensitive to climate change in comparison to men. Studies have also shown that women tend to notice the impact of climate change more often than men in different areas, such as water availability, agricultural productivity, and livestock problems. According to the 2011 census, women farmers contributed towards 55%–65% of India's total agricultural production. India has seen a rise in women farmers, as the current trend shows that male farmers are exiting the agricultural sector and moving to wage labour in non-agricultural sectors. The role of women as cultivators and agricultural labourers has led to an increased burden because the farm work becomes an extension of their household work, which adds more pressure on them.
In the agriculture sector, 80% are rural women. According to Chatterjee (2021), women working in agriculture are most vulnerable, especially in developing countries where women produce water, food, firewood, and fuel, all of which are natural resources affected by climate change. During this time, women have little to no access to financial resources, technology, land rights, etc., which affects their productivity.
Major Challenges
- Limited land ownership rights: Research has shown that nearly 65% of India’s female workforce is engaged in agricultural work, yet only approximately 13.5% of land holdings are run by women. Over the years, there has been a rise in women landholders; we have seen an increase from 12.5% to 13.5% from 2010-2011 to 2015-2016. The area used by women farmers has also increased from 10.3% in 2010 to 11.5% in 2015, but the growth is very slow, and women's ownership is lower than men's. In India, women are allowed to own land, but very few of them do so. They also have very limited control over the land and its assets, such as machinery, technology, and other equipment.
This also means that women will not be able to grow cash crops due to the restrictions on plot size, plot quality, and ownership. Women are most likely to grow crops in subsistence crop groups due to the gender-assigned norms, which determine that women are responsible for household food production and food security. Due to the burden of domestic care work, these often eat away the productive time that can be used for farming.
- Lack of Financial resources: Women’s ability to adapt to climate change mostly depends on the extent to which they have access to financial resources. However, studies show that most of the rural programs have been designed in a way that the male head of the household will be the beneficiary. The program fails to recognise women as productive farmers who also need financial assistance. Many of these reasons limit the options available to women in accessing rural credit; on top of that, they are not able to provide collateral security. Women farmers also have a hard time buying good fertilisers, better seeds, and high-quality fertilisers. The lack of funds also makes it difficult to adapt to climate change issues and practice sustainable practices, which can improve crop productivity.
The lack of access to financial credit can be due to a lack of financial literacy. Women also lack access to networks to support the growth of their crops and increase their access to the market. Women are highly vulnerable to losing assets during climate change events such as floods, droughts, and other calamities. The Indian government released a scheme called the Kisan Credit Card scheme, which helps make access to credit easier for farmers. However, the awareness of this scheme is very low among women farmers. According to sources, only 5% of the women have been issued Kisan Credit Cards in India.
- Lack of Training in Agriculture: Agricultural training is very important to learn the required techniques and skills to achieve a high yield rate and high productivity levels, without training in the alternative cultivation method for the efficient use of water resources and energy management. These issues hinder the economic capacity of women farmers to use scarce/natural resources. Training in agricultural cultivation can improve the management of resources and also help farmers to know what steps to take in case of depletion of natural resources or unforeseen climate change events. This training is essential to the women farmers who live in the rain shadow/drought-prone regions.
There is a lack of a training program that focuses on educating women farmers on climate and weather information, giving them the ability to adapt to climate change. The central government began a scheme in 1996 called the Krishi Vigyan Kendras for the education and training of women in agriculture. However, the scheme only focused on areas like home economics and ignored agricultural operations.
Recommendations
- Reduce the care burden on women workers: Women tend to travel long distances to fetch water; hence, essential resources like clean water and clean energy are crucial. Installing water points and rainwater harvesting systems can reduce the distance travelled. The government shall also provide subsidies on clean energy resources like solar cookers and energy-saving/efficient stoves, which can minimise the time spent collecting firewood, improve health, and reduce indoor pollution. It also helps in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Women's participation in local climate change government bodies should be encouraged so that better strategies and solutions can be implemented to help women farmers.
- Financial adaptations: The financing of the agriculture sector should be increased; as of today, the cumulative amount in the agriculture sector for adaptation is 85 lakh crores, which is still insufficient to battle climate change. The sectors most vulnerable to climate change fall under the state list, which also means urging the state government to create interventions to solve these issues as early as possible. This also means more funding allocations and fund inflows from the state government, with the primary focus on gender-responsive climate change, climate-smart agriculture, green economy, and social safety nets. These funds can also empower women to access better agricultural tools, income sources, diversity, and more participation.
The role of the private sector also plays an important role, as the private sector can bridge the financial gap in terms of climate adaptation. Private sector organisations can help implement climate resistance policies, finance, and technology, and also prioritise women's education and skills. The government, in return, can provide subsidies to these organisations.
- Supporting gender-sensitive research initiatives: The government, in collaboration with academic institutions, NGOs, think tanks, and international organisations, could fund and promote research, data collection, and understanding of how climate affects women farmers and come up with potential solutions to solve these critical issues. These organisations can also help in monitoring climate adaptation and immigration efforts. Regular monitoring and evaluation backed by an in-depth study of data can ensure that policies remain responsive to gender-based needs and that they adjust as required over time.
- Social protection for women workers: Strengthening social protection by expanding the current government schemes and policies, which are essential for supporting women in the informal sector. Policies like Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana to ease accessibility for women farmers and caretakers, then financial schemes that can help women farmers can help them cover losses caused by natural disasters due to climate change, like crop failure, earthquakes, floods, and property damage, and many more.
References
Chatterjee, S. (2021). Why gender matters: Climate change and agriculture in India. In ISSUE BRIEF. https://sprf.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/SPRF-2021_Gender-Agriculture-and-Climate_IB_Final.pdf
Climate change and women in agriculture. (n.d.-b). https://www.uncclearn.org/wp-content/uploads/library/02-issue-brief_climate-change-and-women-in-agriculture.pdf
Sinha, S., Oberai, D., Pandey, S., Singh, D., Institute for What Works to Advance Gender Equality, & The Quantum Hub. (n.d.). Climate change and the future of women’s work. https://iwwage.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Policy-Brief-Women-and-Climate-Change.pdf
