Women in Agriculture and Climate Change

Zoom Webinar – 4 June 2020

Following on from our first extremely well-received webinar, “Doing International Research In Lockdown”, the RAID Network team hosted a presentation and discussion on how climate change is impacting women in agriculture and the role women play in agricultural adaptation and mitigation strategies.

This second webinar was a 3-person expert panel discussion. Topics discussed included gender and climate change and the complexities with considering a whole farm system for increasing resilience and efficiency.

Facilitated by Anika Molesworth, participants heard from three amazing women working in international agriculture – Tamara Jackson, Elizabeth Brennan and Humera Iqbal. The panel spoke about challenges and opportunities in three different regions of the world, which gave a great global overview for the audience of commonalities and differences of the impacts of climate change on farming women. Audience members gained greater understanding of climate change issues, what further research is needed, and how people can get involved in international agricultural research projects.

It was a diverse audience – from early career researchers through to seasoned professionals, both men and women. For those people who couldn’t make the Zoom presentation, the video was uploaded to the RAID Network Facebook page and to date has had 839 views. The event involved 45 mins of presentations by three international researchers, and 15 mins of audience Q&A.

The aim of the presentation was to draw awareness to how climate change is impacting farming women in different parts of the world and to discuss how challenges could be overcome. Each speaker delivered a great presentation covering both these points, highlighting the context of their focus region. There were many great questions during the Q&A time, which demonstrated audience interest and eagerness to know more. This engagement and curiosity will hopefully flow into further conversations and research.