CIAO DATE: 06/2011
June 2011
Climate change is affecting agriculture across Tajikistan and threatening the food security of thousands of people who depend on small-scale subsistence farming for their survival. Intense droughts, extensive flooding and increased frequency of weather-related shocks are becoming more apparent, and hitting poor people hardest. In Tajikistan, it is women who will most likely bear the brunt of this insecurity as they are increasingly responsible for securing an income from farming and providing for their families. As men often migrate to find work aboard, women are reliant on the small household plots for their year-round food source. However, they are often at the mercy of stresses that climate change will place on their natural resources, and face rising prices for staples, such as wheat or sugar. As the impacts of climate change intensify, women farmers are at higher risk of losing their livelihoods, pushing them deeper in poverty. Against this background there is a need to recognize and support the central role that women smallholder farmers play in the food economy. This report looks at climate change through the eyes of women farmers in Tajikistan. It examines the critical role that women can play in food security and in mitigating and adapting to climate change. As part of an ongoing climate change campaign, it makes recommendations on what needs to happen in order to secure a sustainable food economy in the country.
Resource link: Climate change: Beyond coping. Women smallholder farmers in Tajikistan [PDF] - 4.7M