Climate Smart Agriculture Awareness for Farm Women

Abstract

Empowering farmwomen to respond to the challenges posed by climate change is the need
of the hour. Climate change and environmental degradation represent a great threat to
poverty reduction, gender equality and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals
(SGDs. Its impact is not only on food production but also on health, food security,
nutrition, migration, and people’s earnings. Awareness, perceptions and knowledge play a
key role in shaping individual and collective response to climate change. Understanding
gender dimensions of climate change, awareness and knowledge contributes to effective
climate change adaptation. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is one of the integrative
approach to address these interlinked challenges of food security and climate change,
clearly aiming at food security, increase productivity and incomes, build resilience to
climate change, and reduce emissions from agricultural systems. Farms, crops, livestock
aquaculture and Fisheries Management, better resource management as well ecosystem
and land management leading to the increase in the resource efficiency and resilience.
CSA provide a platform for shared learning and collaboration among all interested Farm
women and Farmers. The study explored the awareness levels of the farm women from 6
adopted villages of All India Coordinated Project on Home Science (AICRP –HSc)
through questionnaire-based personal interviews involving 100 respondents. Majority of
the respondents were farmers with marginal and small land holdings. Findings of the study
revealed that most (74) of the respondents are not very well aware of the climate change.
Whereas only few (26) of the respondents were aware that deforestation is the main cause
for the climate change. Hence the study recommends a requirement for scientists,
government and non-government agents and other stakeholders to focus on awareness
creation on climate change and mitigating approaches in perception of crop Rotation,
drought tolerant varieties, Zero Tillage, Weather Forecasting, Indigenous technologies etc.