About this research
This research received external funding from:
Climate change in Ghana is intensifying gender inequalities in agriculture, but gender must be viewed intersectionally to fully understand vulnerabilities and their causes
This research received external funding from:
The study finds that there are intensifying gender and other intersecting inequalities in agriculture, in particular gender/class, gender/ethnicity that are getting worse as a result of climate and and international development-oriented commercial agriculture interventions. Disparities are getting worse based on these inequalities: access to seed, fertilizer, tractor mechanization, credit, processing/marketing services and extension and information.
The gendering of farming is being shaped and exacerbated by all of these things, not just climate change or development.
Ethnic minority women in these communities are most acutely vulnerable to changing economies & climate change – intersectional analysis is imperative to properly identify markers of vulnerability.
Land tenure arrangements are complicated, with land grabs being facilitated from within communities resulting in internal disparities. Many studies falsely talk about African communities as single, homogenous entities. Donor support does not affect all individuals equally within communities.
6 months of immersive qualitative fieldwork (2016-2017)- living within communities & spending time on farms to understand vulnerabilities and causes.
Focused in one district, so cannot necessarily be generalised to other parts of Ghana or the African continent.
Concept | Definition |
---|---|
Feminist political ecology | A body of scholarship based on feminist scholarship & political scholarship. A critical theoretical framework for viewing the environment as a socially produced and politicized phenomenon, based on many factors at different scales. |
Farm resource entitlements | Resources individuals are entitled to; distinct from ownership. Ownership does not fully represent who uses, controls and benefits from a resource such as land |
Intersectionality | Looking at the way social relations and identities can combine or intersect to create different privileges and vulnerabilities |
Siera Vercillo (2021) A feminist political ecology of farm resource entitlements in Northern Ghana, Gender, Place & Culture
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