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Paper short abstract

This paper explores approaches to tackle coastal soil salinization by women smallholder agricultural workers in South India. It identifies women workers’ strategies to deal with changes in land use, cropping patterns and mechanisation, aiming to improve ecosystem services and secure livelihoods.

Paper long abstract

This paper explores approaches to tackle coastal soil salinization by women who are largely landless/smallholders and primarily depend on natural resources for their livelihoods. In the context of a high proportion of agricultural workers rather than owner-cultivators in the study site, this paper unpacks the different dimensions of the vulnerabilities they face due to land degradation, and at the same time, identifies women’s strategies to halt further degradation through a revival of ecosystem services through appropriate on-farm activities. Conservation of soil and water in public and private lands both reduces salinization and enhances productivity, securing livelihoods in the process.

Through a qualitative thematic analysis in a coastal delta region of Tamil Nadu, South India, the paper identified changes in cropping patterns, cropping intensity and land use, alongside increase in farm mechanisation as key drivers deepening agricultural workers’ vulnerabilities. These changes are contributing to a rise in gendered disparities in the types of employment available in farming, wages, potential for diversification to the non-farm sector, the emergence of caste-centred non-farm work, and persistent, low-value family farming by women.

The region has been declared as a Special Agricultural Zone by the state government. Given the high proportion of women agricultural workers in the region, the paper highlights specific actions to restore farming and foster gender and caste equality in a changing context, subject to growing climate risks alongside socio-economic precarity.