Agnes Quisumbing, IFPRI Presentation on Bangladesh CCAFS work at IFPRI January 2016 Webcast of full recording: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yd5uw8llltv0vrv/2016-01-14%2010.01%20Gender%20and%20Climate%20Change.mp4?dl=0

1. Agnes Quisumbing*, Elizabeth Bryan, Quinn
Bernier, and Chiara Kovarik
*(a.quisumbing@@cgiar.org)
Gender differences in awareness and
adoption of climate-smart agricultural
practices in Bangladesh

2. Gender and agriculture in Bangladesh
• Similar to other parts of South Asia, where
patrilineal and patriarchal systems prevail,
women in Bangladesh have much lower levels of
literacy, schooling, assets, and land than men (and
this is also true in our study sites)
• As a result of lower education and other assets,
women in Bangladesh earn half of what men earn
• Production system involves joint (male and
female) farming on family farms; women rarely
recognized as farmers, and seldom are targeted
by extension services

3. Recognizing women as agricultural
producers
• Although still lower than
men’s, women’s
participation in agricultural
employment has been
increasing.
• Women tend to be involved
in homestead rather than
field crop production.
• Women are often more
involved in vegetable and
small livestock production,
because it does not violate
social norms of female
seclusion Source: BBS, Labour Force Survey, 199/00, 2002/03 and
2005/06

4. Bangladesh CCAFS
sites
Two different potential types of water
management systems:
--Bagerhat: medium saline, less potential
for groundwater access; easier to reach, so
more diversification options
- Satkhira: highly saline but with higher
potential for shallow groundwater
use due to less salinity intrusion into
groundwater; more difficult to reach but
borders West Bengal

5. Men and women get information from different
sources
Males Females Significance
level
Agricultural information sources
Government extension services 0.28 0.07 ***
Agricultural service providers 0.04 0.00 ***
Farmer field days 0.12 0.01 ***
Group-based information sources
NGO 0.14 0.10
Community meetings 0.03 0.00 ***
Farmer orgs, coops, CBOs 0.02 0.01
Informal sources
Family members 0.13 0.05 ***
Neighbors 0.50 0.81 ***
Media, internet, and schools
Radio 0.72 0.88 ***
Television 0.58 0.32 ***
Newspaper/bulletin 0.87 0.55 ***
Schools/teacher 0.15 0.04 ***
Cell phone 0.02 0.01
Internet 0.02 0.01
Traditional sources
Traditional forecasters, indigenous knowledge, etc. 0.55 0.39 0.000

6. Awareness and adoption of CSA practices relevant
at the farm level in Bangladesh
Whether respondent is aware of
practice
Whether respondent adopted
practice in past year
if they were aware of it
Male Female p-value Male Female p-value
Planting stress-tolerant varieties 0.03 0.02 * 0.31 0.17
Improved high yielding varieties 0.62 0.42 *** 0.55 0.48
Irrigation 0.97 0.97 0.62 0.55 *
Applying crop residue 0.56 0.54 0.42 0.40
Composting 0.79 0.70 *** 0.37 0.40
Livestock manure management 0.62 0.60 0.48 0.33 ***
More efficient fertilizer use 0.88 0.56 *** 0.83 0.64 ***
Cover cropping 0.14 0.09 ** 0.02 0.03
No till/minimum tillage 0.31 0.27 0.06 0.04
Improved livestock feed
management 0.31 0.26 0.53 0.67 **
Integrated pest management 0.79 0.65 *** 0.51 0.48

7. Analyzing adoption of CSA practices, conditional
on awareness
• Analyzing determinants of adoption needs to take into account
selectivity: men and women who are more aware of these
technologies may have different characteristics, better access to
information, compared to those who don’t
• Approach is very similar to Kenya paper that uses a Heckman two-
step procedure
– First stage: analyze determinants (correlates) of awareness
– Second stage: analyze determinants (correlates) of adoption, conditional
on awareness

8. Correlates of awareness: summary--1
• Women less likely to know about CSA practices in general,
controlling for other characteristics
• More schooling and household assets=>knowledge about CSA
practices; individual asset shares not that important
• Total household assets increase awareness of 3/10 practices, but
household nonland assets decrease awareness of irrigation (less
invested in agriculture). These effects are small in magnitude
• Household livestock ownership increases awareness of composting
and cover cropping, consistent with the practice of composting with
manure and using fodder crops as cover crops.
• Households who have titled land more likely to be aware of crop
residue application and minimum tillage practices; secure tenure
important for practices that yield returns over a longer period of
time.

9. Correlates of awareness: summary--2
• Importance of information sources: spouse—not
always reliable. This constrains women more
than men
• Agricultural service providers and extension less
important compared to informal and family
networks, media, internet, schools, and even
traditional sources.
• Need for extension services to improve their
outreach about CSA practices in general, and to
women in particular, given that information is not
perfectly shared within the household.

10. Correlates of adoption: summary--1
• Taking awareness is taken into account, women
appear to be equally likely to adopt most CSA
practices
• Household wealth is a more important
determinant of CSA adoption than individual
ownership of livestock and nonlivestock assets--
consistent with the jointness of family farming in
Bangladesh
• Wealthier farmers, in terms of landholding size,
also more likely to practice CSA.

11. Correlates of adoption: summary--2
• Previous experience of shocks increases adoption
of CSA, but knowledge of shocks is less important
than general knowledge of agriculture in
stimulating CSA adoption
• Farmers may not consider CSA practices as ways
to reduce adverse effects of climatic shocks,
particularly if these shocks are outside their
immediate control, or they think that these
events are too severe to be counteracted with
these practices.
• Scope for messaging—but note differences in
perceptions of time horizons

12. Discussion and policy implications
• There are gender gaps in awareness and
adoption, but conditional on awareness,
gender gaps in adoption are less stark
• Implication: improve reach of CSA-
related information; improve traditional
agricultural extension systems’
messaging
• Agricultural extension systems need to
reach women farmers!
• Also explore other ways of disseminating
information that may be less biased
against women: radio, social networks,
ICT (phone and internet)
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