Week 3: Sharing experiences of women on climate change

Agriculture and climate change
#1

Hello everyone

I trust you had a great weekend. It is good to see participation continuing over the weekend on issues relating to climate change. Our discussion on agriculture and climate change continues. We are now in Week 3.

The main focus this week is on how climate change affects men and women. We are looking at sharing women’s experiences in particular. We all know understand climate change may impact more on women than on men.

These are our guiding questions this week:

  1. What is the experience of women farmers particularly?
  2. Do they grow certain crops that experience climate change in a particular way?
  3. Do they hold certain jobs in the value chain?
  4. Do women need certain information and how do they get it?

Click on reply to contribute and respond to at least one other participant post.

Have a wonderful week!

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#2
#3
  • What is the experience of women farmers particularly?

Ans: Last year was a disaster for the women farmers in my community. Almost 99% were in debt, couldn’t harvest their farm produce. But this year they learned the new waves so they are okay. They now have the experience on how and when to plant their seeds and also prepare their lands.

  • Do they grow certain crops that experience climate change in a particular way?

Ans: Yes

  • Do they hold certain jobs in the value chain?

Ans: No

  • Do women need certain information and how do they get it?

Ans: yes they do, we get the resources from FRI and it is really helping them.

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#4

Hello @Rosemond9600

Thank you for sharing. Do you mind sharing what specific crops do women grow that are affected by climate change?

#5

Groundnuts, beans and maize.

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#6

Hello,
Hope everyone is doing great. Last week was so great following all the discussions on climate change. At least in my own capacity, I learnt a number of issues especially from other countries in line with climate change. Hopefully this week’s discussion will be amazing and fruitful too.

Here is my submission for this week’s questions:

  1. What is the experience of women farmers particularly?
    Ans: women farmers have had challenges affecting them due to climate change. Despite the old way of growing maize being a staple food in Zambia, women have an opportunity to grow other crops which has actually helped them with yields in a case where maize do not do well. Because of the change with the rain pattern, more women have decided diversify and grow crops like groundnuts and sweet potatoes. This has really helped in terms of food security not only at household level but also the district at large.
  2. Do they grow certain crops that experience climate change in a particular way?
    Ans: Yes, women grow crops like groundnuts, sweet potatoes and cow peas (not very common). Women also keep village chicken but not at a large scale. This has actually helped out especially in cases where the over grown maize has not done well.
  3. Do they hold certain jobs in the value chain?
    Ans: Unfortunately no.
    4: Do women need certain information and how do they get it?
    Ans: yes, women need more information about climate change. This information can help them to expand the already existing opportunities in line with what they grow and climate change. If a women is to make it in her farming career, information is vital on certain agricultural practices, the wind of climate change and what crops she can grow.
    Women can access this information through various platforms like radio (with the help of FRI information), TV, from the ministry of agriculture via farmer’s meetings that they hold.
    Note: In times of food scarcity and drought, women will often give priority to their husbands, his nutritional needs will be met before hers. Women are also more vulnerable because they have less access to education and information that would allow them to manage climate-related risks to agriculture and livestock.
    Women and girls also face higher rates of child marriage, domestic violence, sexual violence, and human trafficking due to climate change.
    I submit.
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#7

Q1). What is the experience of women farmers particularly?

Ans: Women farmers in Valley Area (Nyimba Valley) in debt, couldn’t harvest their farm produce. But this year they learned the new waves so they are okay. They now have the experience on how and when to plant their seeds and also prepare their lands.

  • Do they grow certain crops that experience climate change in a particular way?

Ans: Yes

  • Do they hold certain jobs in the value chain?

Ans: No

  • Do women need certain information and how do they get it?

Ans: yes they do, we get the resources from FRI and it is really helping them.

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#8

Good morning all colleagues
Women farmers, just like men, experience the effects of climate change. In Africa, women are the ones who run the house. From bearing children to growing crops in the fields to making sure that there is a meal for the whole family every evening. As such, women are the ones who carry the burden of making sure children have food particularly when there is a drought, when food is scarce.

In most of rural Africa, the main crops grown are cereals. Most subsistence farmers grow cereals to sustain the families. These are the crops that are affected by climate change year after year. These are the crops that are easy to grow because they do not require complicated expertise when you compare with growing other crops like for the market like horticulture crops for instance. When these crops fail, women will have to find means of getting food to feed the family.

Depending on the different countries, women are found doing jobs in the value chain. However most women are found doing hard work on the farms. You would find them in agro processing and marketing but they are not many in this area. Most women who work in agriculture are found in rural areas practicing subsistence farming or working as laborers on commercial farms. Many countries are still lagging behind in terms of promoting women to actively participate in the value chain. In Zimbabwe for example, we do have many women in the value chain and some of them are successful.

Women need vital information on climate change and measures to mitigate it. They need information on which crops to grow and how to grow those crops. Weather forecast is also important particularly for rural farmers who may not have access to such valuable information. Such information is provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, Meteorological Services Department and other organizations working to improve agriculture like International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). Sometimes that information may be available from local Community Based Organizations (CBOs).

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#9

Good morning. Am Papa Kweku Amissah of Ahomka Fm in the central region of ghana. Very prepared to engage and learn today

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#10

Hello Alfred. I do agree with you that women farmers end up in debt because of bad harvests. Sometimes debt relief from financial institutions is very important to liberate these women farmers.

#11

Gift banda
Hope everyone is doing great. Last week was so great following all the discussions on climate change. At least in my own capacity, I learnt a number of issues especially from other countries in line with climate change. Hopefully this week’s discussion will be amazing and fruitful too.

Here is my submission for this week’s questions:

What is the experience of women farmers particularly?
Ans: women farmers have had challenges affecting them due to climate change. Despite the old way of growing maize being a staple food in Zambia, women have an opportunity to grow other crops which has actually helped them with yields in a case where maize do not do well. Because of the change with the rain pattern, more women have decided diversify and grow crops like groundnuts and sweet potatoes. This has really helped in terms of food security not only at household level but also the district at large.
Do they grow certain crops that experience climate change in a particular way?
Ans: Yes, women grow crops like groundnuts, sweet potatoes and cow peas (not very common). Women also keep village chicken but not at a large scale. This has actually helped out especially in cases where the over grown maize has not done well.
Do they hold certain jobs in the value chain?
Ans: Unfortunately no.
4: Do women need certain information and how do they get it?
Ans: yes, women need more information about climate change. This information can help them to expand the already existing opportunities in line with what they grow and climate change. If a women is to make it in her farming career, information is vital on certain agricultural practices, the wind of climate change and what crops she can grow.
Women can access this information through various platforms like radio (with the help of FRI information), TV, from the ministry of agriculture via farmer’s meetings that they hold.
Note: In times of food scarcity and drought, women will often give priority to their husbands, his nutritional needs will be met before hers. Women are also more vulnerable because they have less access to education and information that would allow them to manage climate-related risks to agriculture and livestock.
Women and girls also face higher rates of child marriage, domestic violence, sexual violence, and human trafficking due to climate change.
I submit.

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#12

  1. What is the experience of women farmers particularly?
    Female farmers in my municipality went through debt this year. One farmer lost all her planted water melon because of rain. And even asked me to borrow her money because she is not having any money on her. It very challenging and we pray for better harvest coming season. They depend on the rain to do their farming so in situations of climate change, they get affected. We advised them to dig holes on their farm incase water in needed to water their crops

  2. Do they grow certain crops that experience climate change in a particular way?
    Yes, some grow water melon, maize, pepper, tomatoes, rice etc.

  3. Do they hold certain jobs in the value chain?
    Some do and some don’t. This lady does only farming. Other do sell local food like waakye and some do go to market to sell bottled water to support their farming. Other do poultry farming in addition.

  4. Do women need certain information and how do they get it?
    Yes. especially with the climate change, they need it alot. We do get such from the update with the help from (FRI information) delivered to them on radio daily.
    Department of Agriculture headed by Madam Victoria Abankwah do help us alot with discussion on some issues raised by the farmers and delivered on radio also.
    The department has extention agents assigned to each community to help farmers.

Thank you

Papa Kweku Amissah (Ahomka FM)

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#13

I) What is the experience of women farmers particularly?

Millions of women farmers are engaged in agriculture across the globe and they undergo different experiences with regard to climate change.

  1. Women farmers are faced with Food insecurity and Low income:
    Climate Change shocks such as flash floods, prolonged dry spells, storms, pest and diseases, poor crop germination, crop wilting has negatively impacted the woman farmers which has contributed to hunger and low income(poverty), and as a result some of the woman farmers are NOT able to feed their families, pay school fees for their children, access better health services, purchase agriculture inputs etc.

  2. Women farmers are faced with water shortage/crisis:
    As a result of poor rainfall, most of the water sources get dry, hence woman travel long distances to fetch water for home consumption, irrigation, livestock etc. Due to long distances, they take long hours to fetch water, hence this brings mistrust and disputes by some of their husbands, even their children go late to school.

  3. Women farmers are faced with limited access to land ownership:
    Most of the woman farmers have limited access to land ownership, hence this restrict them in food production process, even planting of agroforestry trees.

  4. Woman farmers are often used as farm lobourers to do most of the agriculture work:
    Woman farmers are hardworking by nature, most of the times women does more agriculture work. For instance, they do land preparation, weeding, harvesting and some of their husbands controls the income from the sales of the produce.

  5. Woman farmers are not fully involved in descion making at household level:
    Some women farmers are not fully involved by men in descion making, for instance on what crops to grow, quantities of input required, which varieties are suitable in this era of climate change etc.

  6. Women farmers have limited access to markets: Mostly, woman farmers are involved in the production of various crops such as Soybeans, Groundnuts, Maize, vegetables etc. Nevertheless, when it comes to marketing of the produce, the majority are men who goes to sell their produce at the market.

  7. Women farmers have limited access to credits and agriculture inputs:
    Some women farmers have limited access to credits, inputs due to issues of trust and lack of collateral.

  8. Woman farmers are occupied with so many responsibilities such as farming, taking care of children, cooking, drawing water, washing etc, hence they have limited access to education, trainings, meetings, employment etc.

ii) Do they grow certain crops that experience climate change in a particular way?
Yes:
Women farmers have continued growing different types of crops in response to climate change:

  1. Women farmers grow drought tolerant crops such as sorghum, millet, cassava, sweet potatoes for home consumption and for sell.

  2. Women farmers grow early maturity varieties for maize; in our local language we call it " Ambuya angafe" or “Kapya wangu”

  3. Woman farmers living in areas where they are experiencing floods are growing crops such as rice.

  4. Woman farmers have continued practicing crop diversification such as Soybeans, Groundnuts, Cowpeas and vegetables. This is in response to climate change.

  5. In response to climate change: Woman farmers have ventured into alternative sources of livelihood such as Poultry production, goats rearing, bee- keeping, cattle rearing etc.

iii) Do they hold certain Jobs in the value chain?
Yes:
Woman hold certain Jobs in the value chain such as cashier’s, security personnel, graders, packers, machine operators, transporters, sales personnel etc.

iv)Do woman need certain information and how do they get it?

  1. Woman need accurate information about weather prediction; when to plant, when to have effective rains, when to experience dry spells etc. This information can obtained from meteorological stations, Radio &TVs stations, Ministry of agriculture.

  2. Woman farmers need information about conservation and climate smart agriculture practices in order to mitigate climate change. This information can be accessed from Ministry of agriculture extension staff, Radio& TV stations, NGOs like COMACO, magazines, newspapers etc.

  3. Woman farmers need information on early maturing varieties, drought resistance varieties, disease tolerant varieties in this era of climate change. This information can be accessed from input supplies, research stations, radio & TV stations, agriculture extension staff etc.

  4. Woman farmers need information on the benefits of agroforestry- tree planting such as Gliricidia Sepium, faidhebia albida etc. Information can be obtained from ministry of green economy, agroforestry centres, Radio & TV stations, NGOs such as COMACO, newsletters, magazines.

  5. Woman farmers need information on water harvesting and water saving technologies such as drip irrigation systems, minimum tillage (basin, ripping) etc. Information can be obtained from ministry of agriculture, Radio &TV stations, magazines, input supplies.

  6. Woman farmers need information about the causes of climate change, effects, adaptation and mitigation. This information can be accessed from meteorological department, Radio& TV stations, NGOs, Ministry of agriculture, ministry of green economy, magazines, newspapers etc.

I submit
Isaac Soko.

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#14

Women are partners in development in the case of my 20 years experience working for conservation Farming unit Zambia an organization that has promotes climate smart technologies since 1996 can safely say at 65% adoption levels in our catchment areas are women.They easily adopt to climate resilient methods of farming.

Women are involved in all kinds of farming various cash crops and do it well.The challenges they have faced is lack of owning their own land and Capital to increase their conservation Farming practices.

Some solutions we have advanced is to link them to specific financial institutions like vision fund that has the interest of youths and women in boosting their business endeavors.

Also other organisations that are supporting women ownership of land.This is so critical if a women cannot own land it would be difficult to practice climate resilient methods on someone’s else land.They need to be empowered with ownership of land as it is not every woman is married to have entitlement to their husbands property.

So as we advocate for climate smart technologies we need to look at other incentives that could make it easier for women to enhance their involvement in the fight against climate change.Could it be women group support in mitigating climate change through agriculture? Or any other intervention they can do it better.

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#15

Afternoon everyone,in this week’s we are looking at gender and farming.

We can and should think of climate change as a threat to all of us,the consequences of continued global temperature rise are far-reaching:

Stronger storms, dangerous heat waves,sea-levels rise and large scale migration for farmers,income loss,and food insecurity.

If farmers are particularly vulnerable to climate change,the impact on women Farmers is that much greater.Women make up 50 percent of the agricultural labour force and produce 60 to 80 percent of food crops in poorer parts of the world. But compared to their male counterparts, they have limited ability to overcome climate shocks. Why? Because, as too often the case women start out on uneven playing field.

In Zambia male famers archive an average of 20 to 30 percent higher yields than women. As a result women aren’t able to cultivate as much food for themselves and their families and they earn lower wages from crops they sell. Of course women don’t have lower yields because they don’t work as hard as men. Most women farmers own their land.

-They have higher levels of illiteracy, which may prevent them from acquring information that could help with climate change adaptation.

Women farmers also face the double time burden that women all over the world contend with.

They get up early to prepare food for the household management means they re experienced in allocating limited resources for their family’s well-being.

Research shows that women help their families adapt to environmental threats and that they are adept at information sharing and community mobilization which means,if women can gain access to the knowledge and tools to combat climate change,they could help build the resilience of whole communities.
They can only get certain information though various women groups, media.

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#16

(1) Experience of women farmers on climate change

Women in Africa like in Kenya have been always on higher possibility of being affected by climate change compared to men because most of them relies on nature and nature based income sources in rural areas and also high percentage of communities are highly dependant on local natural resources for their livelihood.

Climate change has affected women in terms of crop production and their livelihoods, example frequent drought has has led to delayed planting and also contributed on crop failure to women farmers such as maize.

Another effect is occured floods have highly caused low yields to women farmers because swept away farm crops hence causing low yields or even poor yields.This affects stable food such as maize an beans which impacts direct and indirect to women who do farming activities as they expected to process, cook and also serve food for their families.

Climate change not only affects farm produce but also affects post harvest processing and storage.This is because bad weather causes grain loss.For example when there is inadequate sunlight grains can not dry sufficiently to be stored and become moldy then end up being unuseful to consumers and producers.

Women would adopt to cope with food shortage by purchasing food if they have means to do so. This is a common coping mechanism but comes with challenges since drought causes food shortage hence end up to cause price increase that heighten food insecurity,this affects women more than men because they have limited access to financial capital.When it’s more worse women would tend to feed their children first or even skip meal for sake of their families,and that affects their health negatively since they become weaker and malnourished.

(2) Yes women who do farming activities in Kenya and even all over other areas in Africa grows crops which experience climate change, examples are maize which is stable food,Green grams, cassava,peas and etc . when there is no enough rains and they planted these crops especially maize they end up having less yields or no yields at all.

On crops like cassava women grow them especially to ensure there is something to depend on during drought seasons and mostly in Some areas of Kenya in wich people are living near wild animal conservation experience climate change in a case where the wild animals during those dry seasons they would move to human settlements in search of food and also water and they end up destroying those crops which women had grown especially Cassava,This causes them to suffer hunger yet they did their best to overcome it.

(3) Yes they hold, Women not only do farming activities but also involve themselves into other activities like livestock keeping such as keeping cows for production of milk and meat where if farming would not succeed they can still earn something to provide their families.

Still livestock keeping has it challenges same as farming where if no enough capital the animal produce would not be good.For instance if there is outbreak of animal diseases and no money to treat it ,this would cause low produce or even poor health of animal.

(4) Yes women need information about these farming activities so that they are able to understand how to adopt climate change impacts.This would help them do their farming activities in best way as they can.Example they can understand weather and rain patterns which help to know what type of crops are they supposed to plant at certain season of rain.

They can get information from media such as radio station,Tvs ,Agricultural department,also from Departments wich deal with climate change issues and etc.

1 Like
#17

  1. What is the experience of women farmers particularly?
    Female farmers in my Area went through pain this year. Female Farmers lost all their crops because of rain which they seek to into irrigation farming but the support and sponsors are not there to help them. Its very challenging and we pray for better harvest coming season. Female farmers depend on the rain to do their farming so in situations of climate change, they get affected. We advised them to dig holes on their farm incase water in needed to water their crops but for how long can this offer help to them.

  2. Do they grow certain crops that experience climate change in a particular way?
    Yes, They grow tomatoes, pepper, rice, garden eggs etc.

  3. Do they hold certain jobs in the value chain?
    Some do and some don’t. This lady does only farming and some do sell local food like “tubani” and some do go to market to sell sachet water to support their farming.

  4. Do women need certain information and how do they get it?
    Yes, They need it specifically the climate change, which we always get informations and updates from from FRI information delivered to them on radio weekly from
    Department of Agriculture.
    The department has extention agents assigned to each community to help farmers.

2 Likes
#18

Wow!!! @Busi_Ngcebetsha time is going we are now in week 3 as we are now sharing experiences of women on climate change. Women are the key players in farming process because most of our women especially in our region depend on farming for survival and they are the providers of food in most households. Therefore if there is poor rainfall pattern, floods, and droughts due to climate change women go through (Suffers) a lot.

  1. WHAT IS THE EXPERIENCE OF THE WOMEN FARMER PARTICULARLY? : Women like here in our country Zambia we have different types of women and their experience as farmers are different. But here I will just describe two different experiences being successful and unsuccessful experience of women in farming.
    • SUCCESSIFULL EXPERIENCE: These are women that are able to do climate smart agriculture, access extension services, Able to follow cropping calendar and in most cases these women are able to do everything for themselves like open their own bank account, Pay school feels for their children, able to provide for the family and even take farming as a business despite being women.
    • UNSUCCESSIFULL EXPERIENCE: These are women farmers who experience a lot of bad than good in there farming process especially issues to do with access to land, financing, markets and extension training
    • Especially married women, mostly of these women work as unpaid workers as per traditions. Majority of our married women spend their time in the farms doings all the work needed at the farm but at the end their labor go unpaid and on bad notes these women are involved in both crop and livestock faming but when it comes to marketing husbands are involved.

  2. DO THEY GROW CERTAIN CROPS THAT EXPERIENCES CLIMATE CHANGE IN A PARTICULAR WAY
    • Women farmers are the majority farmers in our region. Like here in Zambia women farmers grow different crops with different varieties. These crops are maize, groundnuts; soybean, cassava, sweet potatoes, sunflower, rice etc. These crops mentioned here are highly affected by Climate Change in a different way.
    • Notes: when there is Below normal rainfall forecast (drought) most women who grow crops like cassava, sunflower, wheat and sweet potatoes They benefits more with good yields, When there is Above normal rainfall forecast Rice farmers will have goods yields because rice requires more water. Finally if there is Normal Rainfall forecast women involved in growing crops like maize, groundnuts, soybean, etc will have goods yields.

  3. DO THEY HOLD CERTAIN JOBS IN THE VALUE CHAIN:
    • YES!!! Women hold most jobs in the value chain. I would like to explain Value chain in my own understanding, Value chain is more like a process or activities in which a farmer being receives raw materials, add value to them through production, manufacturing, and also do other processes to create a finished product, and then sell the finished product to consumers.
    Notes: Jobs like seed sourcing, land preparation, planting, weeding, post harvest handling, and all these jobs in the farming value chain are done by women most men jump in when it comes to the Marketing process.

  4. DO WOMEN NEED CERTAIN INFORMATION AND HOW DO THEY GET IT?
    Our women need a lot of information but I will only mention thing that I feel need urgent action which are in line with climate change and farming.
    • Climate smart information: women farmers need to be informed on how to farm with natural e.g. Agro-forestry, basins, compost making, Ripping and many more technologies.
    • Metrological information: Weather forecast information will help our farmers to plan by following the seasonal rainfall forecast to avoid loses and hazard.
    • Nutrition information: This information will help women farmers to choose better crops to grow after they understand nutrition contents that are in every crop they choose to grow. Also In most times when there is no food at the household due to drought or floods caused by climate change women will often give the only food to their husbands and children forgetting their nutrition needs at the end our women suffer malnutrition due to poor diet.
    • Business and skill information: I feel women also needs training on capacity building of their little knowledge in businesses and also empower them with farming implements like tractors and Ripper.

• How do they acess these needed info? : All these information can be easily accessed through Training, Radio programs, Meeting, workshops TVs etc. Notes: women should also be encouraged to form groups for easy identifications with some NGOs and for them to access government grants.
THANKS,
Liche from Zambia.

1 Like
#19

Q) 1. Ans: most Women farmers are faced with Food insecurity and Low income:
Climate Change shocks such as flash floods, prolonged dry spells, storms, pest and diseases, poor crop germination, crop wilting has negatively impacted the woman farmers which has contributed to hunger and low income(poverty), and as a result some of the woman farmers are NOT able to feed their families, pay school fees for their children, access better health services, purchase agriculture inputs etc.

Q)2.ans: yes

Q) 3. And: they are there but very few, like in my place they use to be bag counters if they are loading to and selling the products like maize.

Q)4. Ans: yes they do. Through FRI, radio station, TV station, internet, book reading

#20

  1. What is the experience of women farmers particularly?
    Female farmers in my Area went through pain this year. Female Farmers lost all their crops because of rain which they seek to into irrigation farming but the support and sponsors are not there to help them. Its very challenging and we pray for better harvest coming season. Female farmers depend on the rain to do their farming so in situations of climate change, they get affected. We advised them to dig holes on their farm in case water in needed to water their crops but for how long can this offer help to them.

  2. Do they grow certain crops that experience climate change in a particular way?
    Yes, They grow tomatoes, pepper, rice, garden eggs etc.

  3. Do they hold certain jobs in the value chain?
    Some do and some don’t. This lady does only farming and some do sell local food like “tubani” and some do go to market to sell sachet water to support their farming.

  4. Do women need certain information and how do they get it?
    Yes, They need it specifically the climate change, which we always get information’s and updates from from FRI information delivered to them on radio weekly from
    Department of Agriculture.
    The department has extension agents assigned to each community to help farmers.