Farmers in a changing climate: Does gender matter? Food security in Andhra Pradesh, India

This report documents a study conducted across six villages in two of Andhra Pradesh’s most drought-prone districts, Mahbubnagar and Anantapur. Both districts have had a history of drought, linked to low levels of agricultural output. Farmers rely on the timely and sufficient annual monsoon, and when delayed, as it was in 2008 and 2009, the consequences for the farmers and their families’ food security can often be catastrophic. Working with over 300 smallholder farmers, the study tests whether gender shapes how climate variability is experienced, perceived, and responded to. 

It finds that it does, consistently and across multiple dimensions. Women were more likely to report health as affected by the climate crisis while men were more likely to report fodder loss and borewell depletion as primary concerns. While women identified increased workload at home as a consequence of the climate crisis, men identified increased pressure to mobilise loans. Additionally, in drought-hit years, women reported eating less to ensure food security. More women than men turned to wage labour when income from the farm failed; the women preferred local wage labour while men preferred migration, with implications for who manages the farm and household during these absences. The report is included here as a primer on the gender-differentiated effects of the climate crisis as well as consequential coping strategies, grounded in field data.

This report was authored before the formation of the State of Telangana and notes that the district of Mahbubnagar and Anantapur are a part of Andhra Pradesh. However, following the formation of Telangana, Mahbubnagar is now a part of it.