Climate Risk Management (Jan 2023)
Gender differences in smallholder farmers’ adoption of crop diversification: Evidence from Shaanxi Plain, China
Abstract
Crop diversification can restore land fertility and increase smallholder farmers’ resistance to climate change and market fluctuations, particularly for female farmers who are more vulnerable to the impact of these risks. To understand planting situation, motivation and influencing factors of crop diversification of smallholder farmers based on gender differences, we conducted a detailed survey of 262 smallholder farmers (118 female and 144 male) in the Shaanxi Plain of China. On average, male-headed households planted 2.27 species on 0.47 ha of land, whereas female-headed households planted 1.57 species on 0.37 ha of land. The main factors motivating smallholder farmers to diversify their crops are increased income and reduced economic loss of market fluctuation; the main obstacle is farmer reliance on traditional planting methods. We found significant gender differences following the expanded theory of planned behavior model. Attitude (standardized path coefficient (SPC) = 0.32), subjective norms (SPC = 0.26), perceived behavior control (SPC = 0.32) and environmental knowledge (SPC = 0.27) significantly impact male-headed households’ willingness of crop diversification. In contrast, female-headed households are most significantly influenced by perceived behavior control (SPC = 0.42), followed by attitude (SPC = 0.34) and subjective norms (SPC = 0.21), whereas environmental knowledge has no significant effect on their willingness to diversify their crops. Female-headed households are sensitive to climate change, but their low education, less access to agricultural extension and weak family decision-making power contribute to their unwillingness and inability to reduce risks by adopting crop diversification. Agricultural credit, crop diversification training, and efficient agricultural extension services are recommended for increasing farmer’s adoption of crop diversification and risk alleviation.
