Abstract
AbstractThis study identifies the need for holistic understanding of gender-differentiated climate-smart agriculture (CSA) adoption by smallholder farmers who are at the frontline of climate-related hazards and disasters in Africa. CSA adoption is predominantly informed by a parochial linear approach to farmers’ decision-making processes. Resilience-building and adaptation, which forms the second pillar of CSA and can enhance understanding of the CSA adoption nuances at farmer level, often receives less attention in adoption investigations. To appreciate CSA adoption from a resilience perspective, this study focused on resilience-building based on the interlinkage between CSA and disaster risk reduction and applied a resilience perspective in a gendered approach to CSA adoption by smallholder farmers. Through primary data collected in an exploratory sequential mixed method design, the study presents a proposed normative gender-sensitive CSA adoption framework to guide CSA implementation strategies and policies. The framework is anchored in resilience thinking, and some of its key components include gender-sensitive CSA technology development, risk-informed decision-making by heterogeneous smallholder farmers, gender-sensitive enabling factors, resilience strategies, gender equitable and equal ownership, and control of and access to resilience capitals. The proposed framework can be used to improve CSA adoption by smallholder farmers by addressing gendered vulnerability and inequality that influence low adoption.
Highlights
Climate change threatens the achievement of sustainable development, undeniably presenting complex developmental challenges in less developed regions
Findings show that low climate-smart agriculture (CSA) adoption can be attributed to gender disparities in ownership of resilience capitals, inadequate provision for equal participation of smallholder farmers in CSA technology development, a lack of diverse CSA options that farmers could adopt, and the failure to sustain household food security, income generation, and improved quality of life through CSA
The assessment of the gender dimensions of CSA adoption by smallholder farmers anchored in resilience thinking enriches understanding of the inherent challenges faced by women farmers
Summary
Climate change threatens the achievement of sustainable development, undeniably presenting complex developmental challenges in less developed regions. The impetus is to find solutions to the dilemmas that disasters related to climate change present, especially in regions such as Southern Africa, which are categorized as climate change hotspots (Müller et al 2014). Southern Africa has faced devastating and unprecedented climate change-related disasters, often resulting in Member States declaring a state of disaster. Some climate-related disasters affect only one country, such as the floods in Malawi in the 2014–2015 agricultural season that caused the country to declare a state of disaster due to floods (Murray et al 2016). For example, the El Niño-Southern Oscillation-induced drought of 2015–2016 that caused Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, and Zimbabwe to declare state of drought emergency (Nhamo et al 2019). Other examples include the fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda infestation of 2017–2018 and cyclones Idai and Kenneth in the
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