Question
Asked 9th Aug, 2014
  • Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University

What role do women play in meeting the challenges of climatic change in South Asia.

In many south Asian countries including India, Nepal, Bangladesh, women farmers are playing an important role in agriculture. With effects of climatic change more visible and severe than ever, women are evolving their own mechanisms to fight the after effects to mitigate the risk and uncertainty. What are your views on challenges faced by the women and strategies adopted by them to minimize the risk and uncertainty in agricultural production. Any links to studies on this topic are welcome.

Most recent answer

16th Mar, 2023
Rk Naresh
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology
I agree with Dr. Sarwan Kumar Dubey that South Asian women proactively employ their own traditional ecological knowledge and skill set to adapt to the constant changes in their environments, lives, and livelihoods and in rural areas, women is the primary caretakers of the households. South Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate shocks. The region is living through a “new climate normal” in which intensifying heat waves, cyclones, droughts, and floods are testing the limits of government, businesses, and citizens to adapt. Empowering women in agriculture can also have a positive impact on climate adaptation. By providing appropriate technology and resources, they can promote more sustainable farming and conservation practices and reducing poverty and adapt to the effects of climate change. Women give greater priority to protection of and improving the capacity of nature, maintaining farming lands, and caring for nature and environment's future. Climate Action Network shows that women perform additional 12–14 hours of work due to climate displacement and migration. In times of food shortages due to unfavorable weather conditions, it is the women who sacrifice and eat less than the men due to gender-biased expectations of altruism.
1 Recommendation

Popular answers (1)

4th Dec, 2022
Rk Naresh
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology
The global climate crisis has exacerbated gender inequality around the world. Women are often more vulnerable than men to climatic variability and extremes based on a variety of factors, including socially constructed roles and responsibilities, limited access to and control over resources, muted voices in decision-making, restricted rights, and limited access to education. All these factors contribute to preventing women from standing up against climate catastrophes on their own. Poor women are particularly at risk from environmental stresses caused by the increased frequency and intensity of climate-induced droughts, floods, heat waves, deforestation, and the accompanying scarcity of natural resources, given that they have access to even fewer opportunities and resources. Women are the primary gatherers of water, food, and fuel, and they dominate subsistence farming, caregiving, and cleaning. These duties are more prone to feel the effects of environmental degradation and rising global temperatures as they rely heavily upon natural resources. Women give greater priority to protection of and improving the capacity of nature, maintaining farming lands, and caring for nature and environment's future. Repeated studies have shown that women have a stake in environment, and this stake is reflected in the degree to which they care about natural resources. South Asian women proactively employ their own traditional ecological knowledge and skill set to adapt to the constant changes in their environments, lives, and livelihoods. In South Asia's rural areas, women are the primary caretakers of the households. There is a significant body of literature on gender and climate change, which shows that women and men perceive and experience climate change differently, and usually women are more vulnerable due to their dependence on natural resources and structural inequity in their access and control of such resources. The simple view of women as a homogenous group is shifting toward a more complex view of identities within gender. Multiple social, economic, and cultural characteristics interact with gender in influencing power inequities and explaining how and why people face and manage climate change and environmental stresses in different ways.
4 Recommendations

All Answers (10)

11th Aug, 2014
András Bozsik
University of Debrecen
Dear K.M. Singh,
This is a question of good education opportunities. Where the daughters of farmers can get good agricultural education, they can use environmentally friendly methods if they can afford them. Equal rights and democracy help to imprease the number of well trained woman farmers.
3 Recommendations
13th Aug, 2014
Amartya K Saha
Archbold Biological Station
Women are far more connected to preserving their natural resources than are men, for a variety of reasons. These  range from economic (for instance in hill villages most men outmigrate for jobs while women farm), to biological (women's innate ability to nurture leads to their impassioned protection, such as Chipko). In the event of greater rainfall uncertainty as well as extreme rainfall events/droughts, forested watersheds are able to buffer watersheds by disallowing extreme runoff+soil erosion as well as prolonging dry season streamflow. Women's groups engaged in forest protection can play a critical role to locally ensure the existence of forests and their ecosystem services to buffer ill-effects of climate change. There are many other examples in lowland agriculture as well as rural economies where women's cooperative groups strengthen their financial resilience based upon sustainable natural resource based livelihoods.
1 Recommendation
15th Aug, 2014
Mahmood Ahmad Khwaja
Sustainable Development Policy Institute
Get themselves educated/well informed about CC and pass on first to their own family and then other womenfolk.
1 Recommendation
15th Nov, 2014
Sarwan Kumar Dubey
National Vice President Bhartiya Agro Economic Research Center New Delhi EX Head ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation (Earlier known as CSWCRTI)
Dear Sir, Woman's play a major role in climate change as in they are playing vital role in agricultural production. Only thing required to educate them about the techniques and strategies for combating CC. Thanks
1 Recommendation
4th Dec, 2022
Rk Naresh
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology
The global climate crisis has exacerbated gender inequality around the world. Women are often more vulnerable than men to climatic variability and extremes based on a variety of factors, including socially constructed roles and responsibilities, limited access to and control over resources, muted voices in decision-making, restricted rights, and limited access to education. All these factors contribute to preventing women from standing up against climate catastrophes on their own. Poor women are particularly at risk from environmental stresses caused by the increased frequency and intensity of climate-induced droughts, floods, heat waves, deforestation, and the accompanying scarcity of natural resources, given that they have access to even fewer opportunities and resources. Women are the primary gatherers of water, food, and fuel, and they dominate subsistence farming, caregiving, and cleaning. These duties are more prone to feel the effects of environmental degradation and rising global temperatures as they rely heavily upon natural resources. Women give greater priority to protection of and improving the capacity of nature, maintaining farming lands, and caring for nature and environment's future. Repeated studies have shown that women have a stake in environment, and this stake is reflected in the degree to which they care about natural resources. South Asian women proactively employ their own traditional ecological knowledge and skill set to adapt to the constant changes in their environments, lives, and livelihoods. In South Asia's rural areas, women are the primary caretakers of the households. There is a significant body of literature on gender and climate change, which shows that women and men perceive and experience climate change differently, and usually women are more vulnerable due to their dependence on natural resources and structural inequity in their access and control of such resources. The simple view of women as a homogenous group is shifting toward a more complex view of identities within gender. Multiple social, economic, and cultural characteristics interact with gender in influencing power inequities and explaining how and why people face and manage climate change and environmental stresses in different ways.
4 Recommendations
25th Jan, 2023
Rk Naresh
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology
At the local level, the participation of women in natural resource management is associated with better resource governance and conservation outcomes. Expanding women's access to productive resources can increase agricultural production and food security and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. By increasing access to education and empowering women to make their own decisions about the size of their family, we could potentially slow the rate of population growth, leading to an estimated 68.9 billion tons of carbon reduction by 2050. Women are the primary gatherers of water, food, and fuel, and they dominate subsistence farming, caregiving, and cleaning. These duties are more prone to feel the effects of environmental degradation and rising global temperatures as they rely heavily upon natural resources. Women show a more positive green consumption intention, consume less carbon, and purchase green products more frequently. Women share the primary responsibility for nutrition, child care and household management in almost all countries. They are also active in environmental management.
3 Recommendations
25th Jan, 2023
K. M. Singh
Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University
Thank you for your detailed answer, Rk Naresh appreciate it.
1 Recommendation
16th Mar, 2023
Rk Naresh
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology
I agree with Dr. Sarwan Kumar Dubey that South Asian women proactively employ their own traditional ecological knowledge and skill set to adapt to the constant changes in their environments, lives, and livelihoods and in rural areas, women is the primary caretakers of the households. South Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate shocks. The region is living through a “new climate normal” in which intensifying heat waves, cyclones, droughts, and floods are testing the limits of government, businesses, and citizens to adapt. Empowering women in agriculture can also have a positive impact on climate adaptation. By providing appropriate technology and resources, they can promote more sustainable farming and conservation practices and reducing poverty and adapt to the effects of climate change. Women give greater priority to protection of and improving the capacity of nature, maintaining farming lands, and caring for nature and environment's future. Climate Action Network shows that women perform additional 12–14 hours of work due to climate displacement and migration. In times of food shortages due to unfavorable weather conditions, it is the women who sacrifice and eat less than the men due to gender-biased expectations of altruism.
1 Recommendation

Similar questions and discussions

Is it time we shift emphasis from technological solutions to climate change & focus on the 'Human Dimension'?
Question
7206 answers
  • Raveendra Nath YasarapuRaveendra Nath Yasarapu
Isn't the obvious solution and the elephant-in-the-room 'BETTER HUMAN BEINGS'? Shouldn't the focus be on better human beings rather than better technology? Why is it that everyone wants to develop better technology rather than focus on better humanity? Because no one has the answers and no one wants to change themselves? In environmental degradation, is it not obvious that nature can heal itself, if only left alone, and it is we humans who need regulation? Many natural parks managers do just that; seal off the area from human interference to let nature heal and recover. It is classified as 'Strict Nature Reserve"by IUCN. Complacency and inaction are not advocated here, as many have misunderstood, but the shifting of focus from technology to the human being. As technology is no match for human greed, isn't introspection & restraining ourselves more relevant than developing more technology, which caused the mess in the first place, by making it easy for a few to consume more? Since technology is only a short term quick fix which fails after a short time, isn't the real problem our addiction to material consumption & our lack of understanding about human nature? Isn't developing more technology sustaining the addiction instead of correcting it, leading to more complex problems later on, needing more complex technological quick fixes like higher drug dosages, more ground troops & equipment, (along with their debilitating side effects) in the future? Isn't this the vicious addiction circle we are trapped in? As researchers, do we merely buy more time with technology OR go to the very root of the problem, the human being?
A lot of hue and cry is made about climate change and the environment in general. Public and private money is poured into research to study its effects on the environment, sustainability etc. Should we study nature or ourselves?
" Our studies must begin with our selves and not with the heavens. "-Ouspensky
Human activities have been found to have a direct correlation to climate change and its impact on the environment(I=P x A x T, the Ehrlich and Holdren equation), in spite of what some complacent sections say to protect their own self interests.
We hardly know about Human nature. We can scarcely predict human behavior. We need to find out why we think like we do and why we do what we do and why, in spite of all knowledge and wisdom, consume more than what we need, in the form of addictions to consumption and imbalance not only ourselves but also the family, society and environment around us..
Humanity is directly responsible for all the unnatural imbalances occurring on the planet. Yet we refuse to take responsibility and instead focus on climate change, or fool the public exchequer with a 'breakthrough in renewable energy just around the corner'. We scarcely know what drives human beings. If we had known, all the imbalances around us would have had solutions by now, given the amount of money plowed into finding such solutions. Are we blindly groping in the dark of climate change because we don't know the answers to our own nature?
Is it not high time we focus on what makes us human, correct our consumptive behavior and leave nature to take care of climate change? Why focus effort on 'externals' when the problem is 'internal'- 'me'?
Aren't we addicts denying our addiction and blaming everything else but ourselves?
" We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts, we make the world." - Buddha 
IMHO, We don't need to save the World. It is enough if we save ourselves from ourselves. The need of the hour is not vain glorious interventions, but self-restraint and self-correction!
The Mind is the Final frontier.

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