Gendered adaptations to climate change in the Honduran coffee sector

Abstract

Despite the principal role of coffee exports in rural Latin American livelihoods, the literature on gender and climate adaptation in agriculture has paid little attention to this sector. This paper examines gender differences in on-farm and off-farm climate adaptation measures undertaken by smallholder coffee farmers in Western Honduras. We conducted 29 qualitative interviews with women and men coffee farmers in three coffee-dependent villages in Intibucá. We find that participants, regardless of gender, use few on-farm climate adaptation measures, and increasingly rely on off-farm activities such as waged employment and international migration to complement their coffee-based livelihoods. We also find that women farmers utilize fewer adaptation measures due to a gender asset gap and the gender division of labor in coffee-producing households. We conclude that women's limited access to the means of production in coffee-producing communities and their responsibilities for domestic labor impede community resilience to climate change.