Women farmers leading and co-learning in an agroecology movement at the intersections of gender and climate

abstract

This study, carried out in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, was particularly interested in women farmers’ access to social learning spaces for expanding their knowledge about farming in the context of climate change. Small-scale women and peasant farmers face historical intersectional inequalities as a result of the colonial and apartheid past which has continued to disadvantage women in the present through exclusion, limited or no access to finance, insecure or no land tenure, little bargaining power and unequal access to water. The gender prejudices and unequal access to resources experienced by women is brought into sharp relief by climate change. The article provides a case study of an agroecology movement led by women farmers that promotes climate-appropriate, low-cost farming practices using community and home gardens. The practices are tried out and further developed by women farmers themselves, relying on agroecology-informed extension services, open dialogue and the support of communities of practice. Unlike traditional top-down approaches to farmer learning common in public extension services, extension officers in the movement participate in creating conditions for co-learning and co-construction of new knowledge − that is, social learning − thus responding directly to their needs as farmers. The lead researcher joined in and observed farming and learning activities following an ethnographic approach. Farmers and other movement members were engaged in semi-structured interviews which explored the value derived from social learning (Wenger-Trayner & Wenger-Trayner 2020). The article concludes that the movement is responding to many of the intersectional challenges that women farmers in the Eastern Cape face. Further, its social learning approach holds potential for expanding women farmers’ ability to provide for themselves and their communities and inform their climate change adaptation.

keywords:

• agroecology
• climate change
• women farmers
• social learning
• value creation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://ruralwomensassembly.wordpress.com/

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ludwig Chanyau

LUDWIG CHANYAU is the co-chairperson of the Monitoring and Evaluating Climate Communication and Education project’s Africa-Regional Hub. He is currently a PhD candidate in the Environmental Learning Research Centre at Rhodes University. His study evaluates climate change learning among small-scale women farmers in South Africa to find pathways for their access to effective climate change learning for enhanced adaptive capacity. Ludwig holds a BSocSc in Psychology from the University of Zimbabwe and Honours and MSocSc degrees in Social Development from the University of Cape Town, where he also taught and supervised undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Email: [email protected]

Eureta Rosenberg

EURETA ROSENBERG (Prof.) is Research Chair in Environment and Sustainability Education in the Environmental Learning Research Centre at Rhodes University in South Africa. She obtained her PhD in 1995 with a dissertation on critical and transformative research methodology. Her research and development interests include organisational learning, evaluation that supports learning, and skills for inclusive green economies. She was the Editor in Chief of the Southern African Journal of Environmental Education, and President of the Southern African Association of Environmental Education. Currently she serves as the Dean of Education at Rhodes University and as the South African Country Co-Director for a programme on Transdisciplinary Education Collaboration for Transformations in Sustainability (TRANSECTS). Email: [email protected]