Village Grandmothers Become Smart Farmers – and Change Social Norms

Senior women in India’s Janakpur village have stepped up against climate change, redefining farming in the community with the added bonus of improving gender relationships.

Uttar Pradesh, home to Janakpur village, Campierganj, is one of the poorest states in the nation, and has been badly affected by climate change. Despite social expectations, women have been attending training sessions to cope with weather extremities – even if they were teased or beaten for it.

“Nobody considered women as farmers. There was no term like ‘women farmers’, despite them doing most of the work,” explains Ajay Singh, project coordinator for the non-profit Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group, which trains women in climate-smart farming in villages around Campierganj and texts women farmers weather updates and advisories.

The sessions have not only managed to improve crop yields and cut farming costs, but the project has also managed to tackle gender relation issues in the villages: more and more women are becoming the decision makers on the farms, improving household earnings so significantly that a handful of them no longer need to see their husbands migrate to hunt for work.