This research identifies gender-based constraints and opportunities for the adoption of conservation agriculture production systems based on a casestudy with smallholder farmers in two villages in Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao, Philippines. Using a livelihoods framework, we explore gendered dimensions of access to assets or resources, agricultural practices, and knowledge and perceptions in the context of food security and soil conservation. Our mixed methods approach includes focus group discussions, household interviews, participatory mapping, and GPS mapping. We found that men and women have different access to assets, gender roles, and soil perceptions that could have implications for whether farmers adopt conservation agriculture (CA) in the Philippines. This paper also discusses how development activities like CA could affect gender relations in a site-specific context and provides recommendations for increasing gender equity and the likelihood of adoption.

Scientists often turn to farmers to understand soil management. This process reveals differences and overlaps between local and scientific soil knowledge but rarely considers women and gender issues. This paper examines men's and women's local knowledge of soils in upland, smallholder farms in two villages in Mindanao, the Philippines, using focus group discussions, semi‐structured household interviews, field visits, GIS and soil testing. Farmers' field areas were calculated and delineated based on their perceptions of the different types of soils on their land. Men and women chose the same plots for what they considered their best soil but differed on what they felt were their worst. The fertility of the soils that women considered to be the best and worst was not significantly different from that of the men's respective choices. There was a difference in fertility, however, between the best and worst soils regardless of gender. Although soil fertility analyses showed that the women's chosen soils were similar to men's, analyses of qualitative data showed that their knowledge of soils was different and was based in part on a gendered division of labour. A multidisciplinary approach helped bridge the gap between sociocultural and physical research.