Gender perspectives in vulnerability of Nigeria’s agriculture to climate change impacts: a systematic review

Peer Reviewed
3 April 2022

Ifeoma Quinette Anugwa, Esdras Abréwa Rêmilokoun Obossou, Robert Ugochukwu Onyeneke, Jane Mbolle Chah

Abstract 

Gender inequality is one of the main drivers of food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa, as it is the main threat to the agricultural production activities of women due to climate change. The interplay between gender and vulnerability to the impacts of climate change especially on agriculture and food security in Nigeria is poorly documented. Through a systematic review, this paper investigated the interplay between gender and the impact of climate change vulnerability on agriculture and food security in Nigeria. The review was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA approach. The results document that gender issues are poorly addressed in research on vulnerability to climate change impacts on agriculture with implications for food security in Nigeria. More importantly, the existing studies are limited in number with little focus on food security in relation to vulnerability. Moreover, the majority of these studies conceptualized gender in terms of two sexes: male and female. Only a few studies have considered gender as the socio-cultural roles played by men and women. Findings also indicated that women are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change impacts on agriculture and food security than men. Besides, several factors have contributed to these gender inequalities including education, age, access to land etc. Gaps in gender research include the limited gender studies in the Northern region of the country, the little conceptualization of gender as the sociocultural roles of men and women with regards to the vulnerability to climate change impact on agriculture and food security; the long-term impacts of vulnerability to climate change on social cohesion in rural households and the sustainability of strategies to reduce rural women’s vulnerability.

Files and links

Country
Sustainable Development Goals
Publication reference
Anugwa, I. Q., Obossou, E. A. R., Onyeneke, R. U., & Chah, J. M. (2022). Gender perspectives in vulnerability of Nigeria’s agriculture to climate change impacts: a systematic review. GeoJournal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-022-10638-z
Publication | 2 June 2022