Women, Climate Resilience and Climate-Smart Agriculture

This chapter analyses the relationship between women’s agricultural roles, climate vulnerability and climate-smart agriculture. It argues that droughts, floods, heat stress, pest outbreaks, rainfall variability and market shocks do not affect rural women and men equally because they differ in access to land, water, credit, insurance, mobility, information and institutional support. Women contribute substantially to climate resilience through seed selection, crop diversification, livestock care, home gardens, water management, post-harvest practices, food preservation and household risk management. However, they often lack authority over adaptation decisions and access to climate services. The chapter discusses climate-smart agriculture as an integrated approach aimed at improving productivity, adaptation, resilience and, where possible, mitigation. It warns that climate-smart technologies can reproduce inequality if they are labour-intensive, expensive, inaccessible or controlled by men. Examples include irrigation, improved seed, insurance, solar technologies, digital weather advisories and mechanisation. The chapter recommends gender-responsive climate planning, women’s participation in adaptation governance, local climate information, labour-saving technologies, climate-resilient seed systems, livestock support, collective action and gender-sensitive financing. It concludes that climate resilience requires women not only to participate in agricultural interventions but also to control assets, influence priorities and share equitably in adaptation benefits.