Women, climate change and agricultural adaption

The "victimisation fallacy" (Fröhlich and Gioli, 2015) is common within narratives that surround women and climate change. It presents women as usual victims of environmental change and its consequences, and frames them as helpless, which draws directly upon Wainaina's satirical conceptualiztion of African women, and reinforces existing gender inequalities. Indeed, Wainana would agree that "African farmers are not helpless in the face of variable and changing climates; they already adapt to climate variability and change in a multiplicity of ways" (Fisher and Carr, 2015), although some scholars fear "Africans will not be able to keep pace with the scale and speed of current climate change" (Kefale and Gebresenbet, 2012:127), alongside other factors such as poverty and weak marginalisation. 

Up until 2016, Uganda was predominantly dependent upon rain-fed agriculture (specifically maize), until climatic change effectively disturbed rainfall patterns. Erratic rainfall remains a key issue as it disturbs the growing season of staple crops, and poses as a food security risk.

Graphic visualisation to show the climate-change related challenges farmers have experienced across East Africa in the last 10 years, including erratic rainfall (Otieno et al, 2021)

 

Video to explain how climate change in Uganda has modified rainfall patterns (leading to erratic rainfall), which in turn produces lower crop yields, and shorter growing seasons (Otieno et al, 2021): these consequences put key factors such as livelihood and food security at risk. 

Women are well placed to adapt agricultural skills which address increasing water stress conditions; up to 70% of women in Uganda are responsible for carrying out agricultural activities, and in South Omo, Ethiopia, "women are arguably better than men in agricultural skills and constitute 50% of water user associations" (Kefale and Gebresenbet, 2012). Their practice of small-scale agriculture is more directed towards subsistence farming although they do account for cash crop labour too. Yet, some challenges remain. This responsibility, combined with other key domestic duties such as water collection, poses a quite literally heavy burden upon women. One study found that women on average contributed a high proportion of labour for rural water  acquisition whilst practicing small scale agriculture, demonstrating how women face challenges to their productivity. Despite a scheme of water pump distribution in South Omo from the banks of the Omo River, Kefale and Gebresenbet (2012) argue that [gendered] land ownership is not accounted for, where despite Ethiopian constitutional reforms in 1995 to protect women's land rights, "Ethiopian land tenure practices continue to be characterised by the marginalisation and invisibilization of women" (CIFOR-ICRAF, 2021)

To address gender-based inequalities such as these, a pilot project: "Reaching Smallholder Women with Information Services and Resilience Strategies to Respond to Climate Change" was launched with the aim to reach 40,000 smallholder women farmers, including Uganda, through online videos, which show other women demonstrating climate adaption strategies such as water harvesting. A partnership between UNICEF and women's groups in the districts of Rakai and Masaka also promoted rainwater catchment jars, which means access to safe higher-quality water, and higher productivity rates. Maximising alternative strategies, where is lack of access to irrigation technologies, may empower women to help themselves, whilst addressing their needs. 

Undoubtedly both men and women experience the climate-change related effects and threats (Marimo et al, 2021). However, to resolve this concern, policy should take a holistic approach on the complex power dynamics between men and women, which I hope this blog has outlined.