Gendered impacts of greenhouse gas mitigation options for rice cultivation in India

Abstract

The nexus of gender-agriculture-emissions reduction is one of the least explored areas related to agriculture and climate change. This nexus plays an important role in the areas where women’s participation in agriculture is high, and the contribution of the agricultural sector to total emission is significant. This study generates evidence on women’s labor contribution in rice cultivation and potential reduction of their labor drudgery, including GHG mitigation co-benefits with the adoption of direct seeding and machine transplanting technologies. Using a large number of plot-level data (11,987 data points) from the rice-growing regions of India, the study shows that changing rice production technology from conventional to direct-seeded rice (DSR) and/or machine-transplanted rice (MTR) offers huge potential to reduce women’s labor in rice planting (745 million labor-days for DSR and 610 million labor-days for MTR) and greenhouse gases (GHG) emission (34 MtCO2e for DSR and 7 MtCO2e for MTR) at the same time. This potential differs from the agro-ecological region, the level of input use, and women’s involvement in rice cultivation. The realization of this gender-responsive GHG mitigation strategy depends on the adoption of these technologies, which rely on several social, economic, and political factors. At the same time, the immense potential for negative implications for some specific groups should not be ignored, but focused on addressing and mitigating those challenges.

A feminist political ecology of agricultural innovations in smallholder farming systems: Experiences from wheat production in Morocco and Uzbekistan

“…Women were found to be getting limited advice from agricultural extension agents, even those working on their husband’s lands. These findings are similar to other case studies from South Asia, such as in India, Nepal and Bangladesh ( Agarwal, 2001 , Devkota et al, 2016 , Gartaula et al, 2020 ). In both Morocco and Uzbekistan, the majority of women were implicated in wheat processing (whether for sale or for household consumption).…”

Gendered impacts of climate-smart agriculture on household food security and labor migration: insights from Bihar, India

“…Results from more than 15 CSA interventions in Nepal show that women’s participation in different agricultural activities were found to potentially reduce women’s drudgery in agriculture and improve productivity and farm income (Khatri-Chhetri et al , 2019). Another study conducted in India also observes the potential of CSAPs to reduce women’s labor drudgery (Gartaula et al , 2020), indicating that adopters of CSAPs tend to be less affected by climatic risks.…”

“…A recent study points out that some CSAPs have the potential to reduce women's labor drudgery, but their adoption depends on several social, economic and political factors. Notably, the prospect of negative implications for a specific group of women should not be ignored but addressed and mitigate challenges accordingly (Gartaula et al, 2020). India's agricultural labor force is reducing.…”

Emerging Issues and Potential Opportunities in the Rice–Wheat Cropping System of North-Western India

“…The emission of methane from the soil in puddled transplanted rice ranged from 0.8 to 1.9 t CO 2 equivalent ha −1 in various districts of Punjab compared to only 0.1–0.3 t CO 2 equivalent ha −1 in DDSR ( Gartaula et al, 2020 ). The average global warming potential due to all the three greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) in transplanted rice was 2.91 t ha −1 compared to 1.94 t ha −1 in DDSR ( Gartaula et al, 2020 ). Gupta et al (2016) reported significantly low methane emission (82–87.2%) in the DDSR as compared to the puddled transplanted rice.…”