Climate change effect on gender roles and practical and strategic gender needs

Abstract

Proper understanding of practical and strategic gender needs and gender roles would help to formulate appropriate extension interventions in addressing various issues including climate change implications. The study identified practical and strategic gender needs and changing gender roles in the selected households pursuing crop and dairy enterprises in the three villages, one each from Karnal, Yamunanagar and Sirsa districts of Haryana, adopted under the Technology Demonstration Component of the National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) Project. Majority of female respondents (53.33 %) expressed the need for information related to access of inputs, followed by financial need felt by 41.11 per cent. Nearly all the women respondents (97.78 %) voiced their need for collective organization into women’s groups / SHGs. Addition of roles for females and males (80.56 %) and more time claim for females and males (94.44 %) was opined due to more involvement of women in agricultural activities such as sowing, transplanting, harvesting, threshing and the males for information and skill building on changing crop patterns, new varieties and seed management. The identified gender needs require specific interventions in each district as well as on aggregate basis for increasing resilience and decreasing gendered household vulnerability.