The diversity of gendered adaptation strategies to climate change of Indian farmers: A feminist intersectional approach

Drawing on fieldwork across two contrasting ecological and social contexts (the mid-high Himalayan hills of Kumaon, Uttarakhand, and the flood- and drought-prone plains of Bihar), the study uses a feminist intersectional framework to examine how topography, caste, wealth, land access, and household composition intersect with gender to shape which adaptation strategies farmers adopt and who makes those decisions. In Uttarakhand, where male outmigration has made most women the de facto managers of agricultural systems, middle-aged women with access to land and diversified income have developed strong collective agency through seed sharing, agro-biodiversity management, maintaining traditional knowledge networks, and increasing participation in household decisions. Meanwhile, in Bihar, the picture is more constrained: oppressor-caste women with wealth and education are able to adopt a range of ecosystem-based management strategies whereas oppressed-caste women, who have the least seclusion from agricultural labour, are also the most time-poor, with very little access to information and extension services are likelier to adopt reactive strategies such as decreasing their food consumption in times of crisis. Oppressor-caste women in some parts are more secluded from outdoor work entirely, regardless of their economic position. The study demonstrates that adaptation strategies cannot be assumed to be homogenous even within a gender category, and that policies or programmes designed for “women farmers” as a single group risk benefiting some while bypassing or further burdening others.