Launch of the Gender & Climate Training Guide: Better research for better programmes and policies
As the agricultural sector races to adapt to climate change, awareness is growing that gender issues are at the heart of climate-smart agriculture and food security. A Training Guide on Gender and Climate Change Research was recently launched to support t
In eastern Kenya, farmers terrace their fields and build water harvesting structures in time for the rains. [© FAO/T. Hug]
Climate-smart agriculture is an agriculture that sustainably increases productivity, resilience and reduces/removes greenhouse gases while enhancing the achievement of national food security and development goals. |
Smallholder men and women farmers play different roles in agriculture and have different levels of access to resources: For example, women farmers tend to take care of smaller livestock and grow food crops while men have control over larger animals and cultivate cash crops. As a result, they develop different strategies to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change. For better results, these respective strategies need to be equally taken into consideration in the formulation of programmes and policies that support climate-smart agriculture.
FAO’s Mitigation of Climate Change in Agriculture (MICCA) Programme and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) recently launched the Training Guide for Gender and Climate Change Research in Agriculture and Food Security for Rural Development for agricultural development professionals. The guide provides users with tools to collect and analyze gender-sensitive information about agricultural communities facing climate change, and to use this knowledge to create better policies and programmes that equally support men and women farmers to shift to climate-smart practices.