Women\u2019s empowerment and farmland allocations in Bangladesh: evidence of a possible pathway to crop diversification

Alessandro De Pinto,Greg Seymour,Elizabeth Bryan,Prapti Bhandari

doi:10.1007/s10584-020-02925-w

Alessandro De Pinto, Greg Seymour + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-020-02925-w

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Abstract

Climate change will likely affect several of the dimensions that determine people’s food security status in Bangladesh, from crop production to the availability and accessibility of food products. Crop diversification is a form of adaptation to climate change that reduces exposure to climate-related risks and has also been shown to increase diet diversity, reduce micronutrient deficiencies, and positively affect agro-ecological systems. Despite these benefits, the level of crop diversification in Bangladesh remains extremely low, requiring an examination of the factors that support uptake of this practice. This paper explores whether women’s empowerment, measured using the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), leads to increased diversification in the use of farmland. Our results reveal that some aspects of women’s empowerment in agriculture, but not all, lead to more diversification and to a transition from cereal production to other crops like vegetables and fruits. These findings suggest a possible pathway for gender-sensitive interventions that promote crop diversity as a risk management tool and as a way to improve the availability of nutritious crops.

Highlights

Despite recent reductions in poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition remain serious problems in Bangladesh
Since previous studies have found that different aspects of women’s empowerment can have opposite effects on nutrition and education outcomes (Malapit et al 2019), we examine the influence of three variables derived from sub-components of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI)
The parameter for the composite women’s empowerment score is negative and indicates that an increase in women empowerment does not lead to greater crop diversification

Summary

Introduction

Despite recent reductions in poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition remain serious problems in Bangladesh. High levels of stunting are observed in children under the age of five, with 36% suffering from chronic malnutrition and 14% from acute malnutrition (USAID 2018). It is in this challenging context that climate change will take place with potentially significant adverse effects for the agriculture sector. Climate change is expected to adversely reduce rice production in each of the country’s three growing seasons and have significant negative impacts on fisheries due to the increased intensity and frequency of extreme events, such as coastal cyclones and flooding (Ruane et al 2013; Ara et al 2016). The combination of reduced yields and flooding is expected to have an overall negative impact on land value (Hossain et al 2020)

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