Adoption of Climate Smart Agricultural Practices through Women Involvement in Decision Making Process: Exploring the Role of Empowerment and Innovativeness

Pomi Shahbaz, Shamsheer ul Haq, Azhar Abbas, Zahira Batool, Bader Alhafi Alotaibi and Roshan K. Nayak
Additional contact information
Pomi Shahbaz: Institute of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan
Shamsheer ul Haq: Department of Economics, Division of Management and Administrative Science, University of Education, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
Azhar Abbas: Institute of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan
Zahira Batool: Department of Sociology, Government College University, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
Bader Alhafi Alotaibi: Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Society, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Roshan K. Nayak: Division of Agricultural and Natural Resources, University of California, 2801 2nd Street, Davis, CA 95616, USA

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-16

Abstract: The sustainability of global food production has been facing many threats, including climate change. The adaptation to such threats is both a challenge as well as an opportunity, especially for woman-operated farms in Pakistan. The challenge is how to devise measures and look for options to counter its impact, while the opportunity lies in developing new techniques, skills, and interventions leading to innovativeness. As women farmers are constrained regarding resources, cultural, societal, and personal reasons in Pakistan’s context, they particularly need innovative behavior and decision power to adapt to climate change. This study aims to measure the decisional empowerment and innovativeness of women farmers and their role in adopting different climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices at the farm level. To this end, data from 384 farms where women were majorly involved are utilized in a multivariate probit model and propensity score matching to reveal various aspects of women’s role in adopting CSA practices. Results reveal that most women farmers lacked decisional power related to productive resources such as sale/purchase and renting of farmland, using farm machinery, and availing credit. Their decisional empowerment and innovativeness positively affected the adoption of CSA practices at the farm level. Females with more decisional power and innovativeness adopted more CSA practices than women with weaker decisional power and innovativeness. Therefore, the world can benefit greatly from giving more power to women in agriculture in terms of increased adoption of CSA practices, consequently improving food security and mitigating climate change. This outcome will assist in achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals of gender equality (SDG5) and climate action (SDG 13).

Keywords: women participation; poverty; equity; decision support; technology; wellbeing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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