Male–female sensitivity in climate-induced income insecurity: some empirical evidence from farming households in Northern Cameroon

Ernest Molua and Justine E. Ayuk

Development in Practice, 2021, vol. 31, issue 8, 1014-1039

Abstract: African women's particular responsibilities in the family make them vulnerable to environmental change, exacerbated by the impacts of climate variability. In light of varying climatic conditions, this paper compares the exposure of female-headed and male-headed rural households to income risk induced by climate variation. Three hundred and twenty households and their farms are observed in the three Northern provinces of Cameroon. Most of them are livestock and crop farmers in a region characterised by high average daily temperatures, longer dry seasons, and shorter rainy seasons. The econometric assessment of incomes and market food expenditure (non-own farm-related expenses) indicates that increases in climate variability have an explicit impact on the expected farm and household incomes and expenditures on food, with significant implications for system's resilience and food security. Risk measured as variations in rainfall or temperature has an unexpected positive significant impact on incomes, with the impact more substantial in female-headed households. However, when the variations in rainfall and temperature double, households experience negative returns to income levels, indicating the insufficiency of the coping choices in cushioning the households against stronger shocks. This has significant consequences on household livelihood security.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09614524.2021.1937528 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:cdipxx:v:31:y:2021:i:8:p:1014-1039

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/cdip20

DOI: 10.1080/09614524.2021.1937528

Access Statistics for this article

Development in Practice is currently edited by Emily Finlay

More articles in Development in Practice from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().