Farmer field schools help women to lead on climate change

Published on 27 January 2017 by the Interpress Service: News and Views from the Global South, this article considers that discussions around climate change have largely ignored how men and women are affected by climate change differently, instead choosing to highlight the extreme and unpredictable weather patterns or decreases in agricultural productivity. FAO, with funding from European Union, is implementing the Global Climate Change Project in Luwero, Nakasangola, Nakaseke, Mubende, Sembabule and Kiboga Districts, Uganda. Recognsing women’s labour burden and time poverty, the project aims to ensure that all project activities are gender inclusive and participatory – particularly adjusting meeting/learning time to ensure women are involved and benefit from the skills and knowledge on climate smart agriculture.

According to the FAO, discriminatory cultural practices that tend to favor men have limited women’s ownership and control over key productive resources in the country — a factor also exacerbating women’s vulnerability to climate change.Through the Farmer’s Field School (FFS) methodology, the FAO has enabled both men and women with a common goal to receive training, share ideas, learn from each other through observation and experimentation in their own context. On average the FFS have about 60% women farmers participating. The FFS methodology is now being implemented in 90 countries with 4 million farmers across the globe having improved their skills and adjusted positively to the effects of climate change.