Women’s Empowerment at the Frontline of Adaptation
Annex 6: Existing adaptation practices
Hazard
Adaptation practices by individuals/ people • Cemented or stone water tanks (at source) • Rainwater harvesting using plastic or bamboo as pipes, plastic ponds and drums (big/small) • Planting bananas inside orange groves to preserve moisture • Altering planting times for crops to gain benefit of monsoon rain, avoiding crop losses from drought/heavy late rains • Plastic greenhouses to protect seedlings from heavy rain/frost) and reduce instances of blight • Substituting chemical fertilizers for poultry and farmyard manure • Mixed cropping system to reduce risk of complete crop failure (e.g., maize planted with beans or cowpeas • Women help each other by sharing labour (‘perm’ system) • Burning or manually remove weeds and pests • Hiring extra labour • Keeping less livestock • Introduction of new varieties resistant to drought or pests/ diseases • Intensive planting of fodder grass • Use of chemical pesticides, herbicides and growth hormones • Shifting to new cash crops (e.g., broom grass, ginger, sugarcane etc.) • Merging/conducting series of monthly committee meetings on one day • Selective and less participation in community meeting/work • Active women leaders directly approaching and inquiring through mobile phones about resources and opportunities • Controlling haphazard collection of forest resources • Using agricultural residue and dung to make up for firewood deficit • Planting fuelwood species in private lands • Traditional seed storage practices • Selling locally produced cereals in local market to purchase cheaper rice and food products • Opting for wage labour, small non- farm businesses • Plantation on slopes (e.g., broom- grass, bamboo to prevent landslides) • Saving food for disasters • Use of women’s knowledge and networks during disasters
Adaptation practices by organizations
Gender analysis
Erratic rainfall and temperature rise/water scarcity (for drinking, irrigation, agriculture)
• Awareness of climate change impacts, sustainable use of water resources at local level • Deep boring in the hills • Agricultural subsidies and technical inputs (District Agriculture Development Office) • Construction of conservation ponds and conservation of water sources • Sprinkle irrigation • Multiple water use system (MUS) promoted by organizations (for drinking and irrigation) • Promotion of crop diversification • Seed conservation, seed banking, drought resistant varieties • Promotion of home gardens • Plastic tunnel vegetable farming • Seasonal riverbank farming • Crop insurance (private. companies) • Planting improved varieties of fodder grasses • Application of integrated pest management • Avoiding formation of new groups and capacitating existing groups on new issues • Strengthening capacity of existing community based organizations (CBOs), civil society organizations (CSOs) and NGOs on tackling climate change • Use of innovative approaches like Reflect sessions, ‘Pathshala’ for disseminating new knowledge and creating gender awareness. • Promotion of improved cooking stoves (consume less firewood) • Promotion of good agroforestry practices and stall feeding • Promotion of biogas • Promotion of NTFP planting and harvesting methods • Promotion of high yielding crop varieties • Promotion of domestic employment and income generating opportunities • Promotion of leasing land to poor with inputs • Promotion of seed banks in safe places • Preparedness training • Women targeted skill training (e.g., masonry) • Formation of community disaster management committees • Creation of emergency fund
• Poor women cannot invest in infrastructure • Rainwater harvesting not feasible for poor women with thatched roof houses • Poor women cannot buy plastic drums • Women not registered in District Agriculture Development Office as farmers groups and, therefore, not entitled to government organization subsidies/technical inputs • Political and power interests limit women’s access to resources and decision making • Women have less time to innovate/ test new ideas • Limited access to new and resistant seed varieties • Health implication with use of off-the shelf chemicals • Increased workload (back- breaking labour)
Decrease in crop and vegetable production/ crop failure/ decline in livestock holding
Natural resource
• Women have less time to grab opportunities at their doorstep • Women excluded from key decision making processes, information/resources
management governance
Decline in forest/NTFPs
• Increased women’s workload in individual adaptation measures • Use of alternative technologies decreases women’s workload • Biogas is affordable for rich households only • External interventions and service providers not gender sensitive • Special attention to woman’s needs not addressed • No/limited access of women to resources (committees, training, subsidies, grants, etc.)
Food insecurity/ malnutrition/ migration
Disasters (landslide, drought, flood)
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