Does women’s participation in agricultural technology adoption decisions affect the adoption of climate‐smart agriculture? Insights from Indo‐Gangetic Plains of India

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/rode.12670
• Author: Ritika Khurana,Dil Bahadur Rahut,Srabashi Ray,Tek B. Sapkota,Cathy R. Farnworth,Jeetendra Prakash Aryal
• Published date: 01 August 2020
• Date: 01 August 2020

Rev Dev Econ. 2020;24:973–990. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/rode

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973

© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Received: 4 October 2018

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Revised: 4 March 2020

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Accepted: 29 March 2020

DOI: 10.1111/rode.12670

REGULAR ARTICLE

Does women’s participation in agricultural

technology adoption decisions affect the adoption

of climate-smart agriculture? Insights from Indo-

Gangetic Plains of India

Jeetendra PrakashAryal1

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Cathy R.Farnworth2

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RitikaKhurana3

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SrabashiRay4

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Tek B.Sapkota1

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Dil BahadurRahut1

1International Maize and Wheat

Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Texcoco,

Mexico

2Gender consultant, Münster, Germany

3West Virginia University, Morgantown,

WV, USA

4Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR,

USA

Correspondence

Dil Bahadur Rahut, International

Maize and Wheat Improvement Center

(CIMMYT), Texcoco, Mexico.

Email: d.rahut@cgiar.org

Funding information

CGIAR Research Program on Climate

Change, Agriculture and Food Security

(CCAFS) and CGIAR Research Program

on Wheat Agri-Food Systems (CRP-

WHEAT).

Abstract

Increased participation of women in the agricultural technol-

ogy adoption decision by farm households is one of the key

indicators of gender empowerment in the agricultural sector.

This study examines whether women’s participation in the

household decision to adopt agricultural technology affects

the adoption of climate-smart agriculture (CSA), using data

collected from 1,267 farm households from two Indian states

of Bihar and Haryana. When we considered the sex of the

household head (using a dummy variable for male-headed

vs female-headed household) as a basis of analyzing the role

of gender in the adoption of CSA, we found that women in

Haryana had no role in the adoption of CSA. On the contrary,

when we considered women’s participation in technology

adoption decisions as a basis of gender analysis, we found that

women’s participation in technology adoption decisions in

Haryana is much higher as compared to Bihar. Consequently,

the likelihood to adopt CSA is higher in Haryana than in Bihar.

We also found that wealth, training, and access to extension

and market positively influenced CSA adoption. Qualitative

analysis shows that women farmers prioritize family food se-

curity rather than farm income, and therefore, they are more

likely to focus on CSA to ensure food security.

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ARYAL et AL.

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INTRODUCTION

Agricultural production in South Asia is increasingly facing an adverse impact of climate change

(Arshad et al., 2017; Aryal, Sapkota, et al., 2019; Asseng et al., 2014; Knox, Hess, Daccache, &

Wheeler, 2012). Although cereal production in South Asia, including India, has increased signifi-

cantly since the mid-1960s, due to the Green Revolution, sustaining this is more challenging in the

context of climate change (Bhatt, Kukal, Busari, Arora, & Yadav, 2016; Gupta, Somanathan, & Dey,

2017; INCCA, 2010; Mughal & Fontan Sers, 2020) and also due tothe impacts of climate change on

natural resources, primarily soil and water (Ortiz et al., 2008; Vinke et al., 2017). For instance, global

warming reduced wheat yield in India by 5% from 1981 to 2009, notwithstanding the use of adaptation

measures (Gupta et al., 2017). Recent projections show that climate change will reduce the yield of

rainfed maize by an average of 3%–6% in 2030 and 5%–12% in 2050 and the yield of irrigated maize

by 3%–8% and 5%–14% in 2030 and 2050, respectively, if current varieties were grown (Tesfaye et al.,

2017). Although evidence about the effects of climate change on agriculture is divergent, climatic

variability is already exerting 5%–10% drag on the yield growth of major crops such as rice and wheat

in India (Lobell, Schlenker, & Costa-Roberts, 2011; Lobell, Sibley, & Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio, 2012).

Another crucial issue is the contribution of agriculture to global warming. In India, the contribution

of the agriculture sector to the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is increasing (Aryal, Rahut,

Sapkota, Khurana, & Khatri-Chhetri, 2020). Therefore, climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is necessary

to ensure food systems to develop the capacity to adapt to climatic variability, sequester atmospheric

carbon into the soil, and reduce GHG emissions from agroecosystems while increasing production

and productivity (Aggarwal et al., 2018; Aryal, Sapkota, Rahut, & Jat, 2020; IPCC, 2014; Sapkota,

Jat, Aryal, Jat, & Khatri-Chhetri, 2015).

CSA (for details, see Section 2) addresses three major challenges, namely, climate change adapta-

tion, GHG mitigation, and food security benefits (Aryal, Sapkota, et al., 2020; Campbell, Thornton,

Zougmoré, van Asten, & Lipper, 2014; Sapkota et al., 2015). In this study, we consider zero tillage

with residue retention, conservation agriculture, laser-assisted precision land leveling, site-specific

nutrient management (SSNM), and information and communication technology (ICT)–based weather

information and farm advisory services as CSA. Despite proven economic benefits of CSA to farmers,

its uptake among smallholder farmers in India remains low because of the failure to properly under-

stand, and respond to, gender relations as they relate to decision-making in the farm systems. The

adoption of CSA is influenced by complex interactions between natural factors, including climatic

and agroecological conditions, and socioeconomic factors, including interactions between gender,

caste, market participation, ownership of resources, and information. Yet, the recognition that the

farming landscape is configured a priori by gender relations and the implications this has for farmer

decision-making is low (Lambrou & Pianna, 2005; Lamontagne-Godwin et al., 2019; Lawson, Alare,

Salifu, & Thompson-Hall, 2019). Women and men farmers, in their capacity as household heads and

as household members, typically experience differences in their ability to respond to incentives for be-

havioral change. These differences can be partly associated with gaps in the ownership of and access

to assets and in decision-making capacity regarding the deployment of assets of all kinds, including

information (Aryal, Mottaleb, Rahut, & Dil, 2019; Reggers, 2019; Shaw & Kristjanson, 2014).

Climate change has gender-differentiated impacts as the capacity to respond to climate change is

shaped by power relations that govern the access to productive resources, information, and availability

KEYWORDS

climate change, climate-smart agriculture, gender, India