Paper short abstract:

Share the ground realities while working with women farmers in building climate resilience. specifically, will the gender transformation approaches be really effective? what other enabling measures are needed to sustain and push the change among small farmers when climate risks are increasing?

Paper long abstract:

Small-scale agriculture in Ganjam district, Odisha India is undergoing feminization with out-migration of men to non-farm sectors. Women are transitioning from ‘labourer’ to ‘farmer, but without changes in the existing gender inequalities. Prevailing key gendered issues are limitation in locally-led adaptation technologies to adapt to climate change, farming system and markets, inadequate support for technology demystification & innovation to local context and pedagogy while building capacities. Besides, women have less access to and use of, control over land & technical advisories with gendered vulnerability to multiple climatic risks. The three main gender responsive strategies piloted are (a) participatory technology demonstration to build their knowledge and skills on Climate Smart Agricultural technologies; (b) harnessing strength of digital tools to build forward, backward and lateral linkages with partners and horizontal network among farmers and (c) building producer collectives to promote social learning and leverage economy of scale in production and marketing. These strategies aimed to strengthen skills and knowledge, access to & control over services and resources, workloads through farm machinery, voice & representation, access to market and employment opportunities and decision making. The process of change started with access to inputs and services to address first level inequalities. Next level, it is moving towards women’s empowerment, promoting social inclusion by addressing gender norms through collective actions and institutions and striving to gender transformation to sustain the change. The paper unravels steps and processes that enabled the change process & its impacts while promoting climate resilience.