Paper short abstract:

Women farmers despite the devastating effects of climate change and the paralyzing effects of Covid 19 lockdown in 2020 fought were able to escape hunger by overcoming gender discrimination in accessing government benefits. The government needs to re-evaluate their policies to favour the marginalized.

Paper long abstract:

Climate change is recorded to have increased the vulnerability of women smallholder farmers because of their critical gender roles as home keepers and their socio-economic responsibilities in farming and trading especially in Africa. These women farmers are combating the effects of climate change on their farms; 97% of respondents lamented about the various losses they have incurred due to the devastation effects of climate change ranging from dry and infertile soil to flooding. All the respondents have poor knowledge of the scientific explanations behind climate change, but experience taught them that nature (weather) is no longer their friend and they have to devise strategies to make it work in their favor. More so, the immediate past year was plagued with the Covid 19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown rules, subjecting the women to more poverty. They create indigenous adaptation strategies (innovations) to fight the effects of climate change and recover from the Covid 19 pandemic effects. They devise methods like using swamp farming, rain harvesting for dry season irrigation and forming cooperative societies to make funds available. However, the Nigerian government has made efforts to curtail climate change and Covid 19 challenges by promoting various adaptation measures; most of these measures however are not accessible to women because of their sexual category, they cannot compete with men because most cultures and some religions forbid it. Thus the need for the government to re-evaluate their policies to favor this marginalized group.