Regional Mountain Conference

Women are highly engaged in agricultural production, climate change adaptation and the preservation of biodiversity in mountainous regions. Especially female farmers make a considerable contribution to ensuring sustainable livelihoods and and are at the forefront of driving adaptation and innovation on farms. Nevertheless, women in agriculture continue to face challenges due to gender-specific norms, and their needs are often overlooked. Enhancing female farmers’ adaptive capacity is essential to reduce vulnerability and build resilience to climate change. To explore this, workshops were conducted in Switzerland, Tanzania and the Dominican Republic. Data collection and qualitative content analysis were guided by the Community Capital Framework and the Proximity Framework to identify factors shaping the adaptive capacity and to capture women’s visions for the future.

Female farmers in Switzerland, Tanzania and the Dominican Republic exhibit a high self-efficacy. They experiment with new adaptation practices, such as soil improvement and crop diversification to strengthen their adaptive capacity. Female farmers identify themselves as pioneers who are driving innovation forward. Therefore, women describe how they exchange knowledge and support each other.

Nevertheless, they face persistent challenges due to gender specific norms and traditional caregiving roles. This results in a high workload and constrained time for educational trainings. Moreover female farmers report a lack of access to crop insurance and financial assistance. This is in addition to the ongoing uncertainty surrounding unpredictable extreme weather events. Ensuring the security of irrigation systems is therefore crucial for adapting to droughts. Female farmers’ visions for the future include supporting womens leadership in agriculture, as well as fostering access to financial and non financial resources and further educational trainings.