Paper short abstract:

My paper focuses on how women conduct agricultural operations in climate vulnerable districts of India which are characterized by rising rates of male exit from agriculture. I look at how these women farm while navigating restrictive socio-cultural norms and inherent gender inequity in agriculture.

Paper long abstract:

Globalization and policy shifts have increased market volatility and weakened farmers’ safety nets in India, generating serious concerns that culminated in the world’s largest farmer protests in 2020-21. This has been accompanied by two trends: intensifying climate change and an increasingly rapid exit of men from agriculture, primarily through outmigration. While there are still far more male operated landholdings, female operated landholdings grew much faster (57%) than male operated landholdings (18%) from 2000-2016. Simultaneously, the agricultural environment has become increasingly hostile, characterized by irregular water availability, plot fragmentation, high input costs, soaring agricultural debt and rising farmer suicides. It is in this landscape that an increasing number of women are compelled to navigate the unfamiliar terrain of farm management. My paper focuses on the agricultural experiences of women farm operators in five climate vulnerable districts of India: Chitrakoot, Beed, Parbhani, Latur and Osmanabad. I chose these districts to explore the effect of state institutions, crop choices, household wealth and other factors on climate resilience. My central questions are: 1) in what ways are female farm operators and their landholdings susceptible to climate change and how is their experience in this regard different from that of male farm operators and 2) what policy interventions would be most useful to them? To answer these questions, I draw on my qualitative findings from 45 focus groups with 583 participants ( primarily women farmers) and 18 semi-structured interviews with journalists, NGO representatives, government officials and farmers.