The relative importance of climate change in the context of multiple stressors in semi-arid Ghana

Coping with and Adapting to Climate Change: A Gender Perspective from Smallholder Farming in Ghana

“…Compared with male heads of farm households, females gave a lower rating to planting trees or fruit trees as an effective adaptation strategy. As observed in other studies in the Upper West Region of Ghana, female farmers showed preference for adaptation measures that have benefits that could be realized in the short run because of the constraints they faced in accessing productive resources such as land and labor [13,39]. Perhaps this explains why female heads of households showed interest in adaptation measures that yield food security and income within a relatively short period.…”

“…This latter result is consistent with the tenets of Feminist Political Ecology (FPE). The FPE framework focusing on gender as a key variable explains how the complex interactions between class, race, culture, age, ethnicity, and other forms of social categories shape access to and control over resources [38,39]. As an analytical framework, FPE sheds light on "local agency, recognizing the resourcefulness of marginalized women and men, often under significant socio-ecological constraints" [39] (p. 42).…”

“…The FPE framework focusing on gender as a key variable explains how the complex interactions between class, race, culture, age, ethnicity, and other forms of social categories shape access to and control over resources [38,39]. As an analytical framework, FPE sheds light on "local agency, recognizing the resourcefulness of marginalized women and men, often under significant socio-ecological constraints" [39] (p. 42). In Ghana, particularly northwestern Ghana, the result is that, though male and female farmers are willing to engage in coping and adaptation practices, they (slightly more females) are constrained by sociocultural norms and other forms of inequality.…”

Gendered vulnerabilities to climate change: insights from the semi-arid regions of Africa and Asia

“…The semi-arid region of Ghana has the highest incidence of extreme poverty in the country, driven by colonial and post-colonial neglect of these regions, alongside high levels of climate variability and severe droughts (Songsore, 2003). The current emphasis on agriculture intensification and liberalization of the sector has favoured large-scale developments, including the proliferation of foreign direct investment in biofuels, reinforcing radical land fragmentation, land grabbing and marginalization of smallholder farmers (Nyantakyi-Frimpong & Bezner-Kerr, 2015). Evidence from India too suggests that economic growth in the 2000s enhanced inequalities between the rural and urban, between social groups (especially the exclusion of Scheduled Castes, Tribes and minorities) and across genders (Rao, Deshpande, Dubey, & Verschoor, 2008).…”

Gaps in agricultural climate adaptation research

“…The limited research that has focused on gender nonetheless reiterates its relevance. Research consistently shows that farming households headed by women are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and women in all types of households are relatively more vulnerable to food insecurity in those cultural settings in which men control food distribution 11 . Female farmers are also less likely to adopt any available adaptation strategies 12 due to financial and resource limitations, control over smaller land parcels and less tenure security.…”