Women’s access and control over farm resources: Determinants of decision-making power in climate smart agriculture

Introduction

Agriculture in developing countries like India is progressively influenced by the dual challenges of climate change and gender inequality. Women represent a substantial portion of the agricultural workforce; however, their access to and control over essential farm resources like land, finance and agricultural equipment continue to be restricted (Shahbaz et al., 2022; Barman et al., 2019) [9,1] . These structural inequalities frequently hinder their involvement in the decision-making process, especially concerning climate smart agriculture (CSA) adaptation strategies that improves farm resilience and agricultural productivity and income (Tsige et al., 2020; Mishra et al., 2009; Ekeogu et al., 2025) [11,5,12] . One fundamental resource affecting women's negotiating power in homes and communities is access to land. However, legal restrictions and cultural standards usually prevent women from inheriting or owning land, which limits their capacity to decide on their own how much to produce (Barman et al., 2019; Tsige et al., 2020) [1,11] . Many women farmers lack access to cash and institutional credit to invest in CSA-relevant seeds, irrigation systems, and low-emission technologies (Borah et al., 2018; Niemann et al., 2024) [2,6] . Furthermore, gendered constraints on farm equipment and extension services marginalize women, increasing their dependence on male household members and decreasing their adaptability (Kavyashree et al., 2021) [4] . Thus, analyzing women's climate adaptation decision-making ability requires understanding their access and control over farm resources. These dimensions show how gendered agricultural resource allocation is and how empowering women can speed the adoption of sustainable and climateresilient farming methods (Pradhan et al., 2017) [7] . This study examines how land, financing, and equipment differences affect women's decision-making in climatesmart agriculture, affecting policy, gender equality, and rural development.

Materials and Methods

The research was conducted in the Cooch Beher district of West Bengal, multistage purposive cum random sampling used. The state West Bengal and Cooch Beher district were www.extensionjournal.com selected purposively. Cooch Beher has 12 development blocks. In the Cooch Beher district, two blocks-Cooch Beher II and Dinhata II were selected by simple random sampling out of 12 blocks based on climate vulnerability. Gopalpur, Khagribari and Singimari villages from Cooch Beher II block and Durganagar village from Dinhata II block were selected randomly. Appropriate number of women farmer respondents has been taken as sample. Total 232 number of accessible sample size (farm women) were selected on the basis of the following criteria: married, unmarried, divorced and wives of migrants and it was enumerated based on the formula given by Krejcie and Morgan (1970). Data collection was conducted through personal interview method with women farmers by using a structured interview schedule. Data collected were categorized and analyzed to meet the study objective. Data were processed into several statistical tools like correlation of coefficient and regression analysis by using the SPSS online open access software. From the Table 1, it revealed that the correlation analysis of level of women's access and control over farm resources influences their decision-making power regarding CSA adaptation indicated that positive and significant relationship at a percent level with education, land holding, annual household income, mass media exposure, extension contact, economic motivation, scientific orientation, risk orientation, information seeking behavior, management orientation. The variable age and farming experience are negatively and significantly associated. The TABLE 2 presents the multiple regression analysis of the variable level of women's access and control over farm resources influences their decision-making power regarding CSA adaptation and 14 casual variables. The results shows that the variables land holding, extension contact, risk orientation and information seeking behavior are positively and significantly contributing towards characterizing the variable level of women's access and control over farm resources influences their decision-making power regarding CSA adaptation. www.extensionjournal.com

Results and Discussion

The R 2 value being 0.398, it is to infer that the sixteen predictor variables put together have explained 39.80% variation embedded with the predicted variable level of women's access and control over farm resources influences their decision-making power regarding CSA. Still 60.20% embedded with the predicted one remains unexplained. Thus, it would be suggested that inclusion of some more contextual variables, could have increased the level of explicability.

Discussion

The favorable impact of young age women with less farming experience are more information seeking behavior and innovative in nature suggests that women frequently benefit from increased social legitimacy and bargaining power within the household, enabling them to exert greater influence over resource distribution and farm-level adaptation decisions. This finding aligns with research that associates their access and control over land, finance and equipment with women's involvement in farm decisionmaking (Shukla et al., 2025) [10] . Similarly, increased exposure to mass media and consistent extension contact seem to improve women's awareness, material possession and confidence in assessing and implementing CSA practices, consistent with evidence that information and advisory services serve as vital mechanisms for women's empowerment and climate-resilient agriculture. Simultaneously, the favorable associations of economic motivation, scientific orientation and risk orientation with women's access to and control over farm resources which influences their farm decision making for climate smart agriculture adaptation, aligning with research that connects aspirations, risk preferences and rational, evidence-based perspectives with CSA adoption. Women who are more economically focused, scientifically inclined and prepared to undertake calculated risks are better equipped to negotiate for essential resources and to invest in climate-resilient technologies and practices. Robust information-seeking behavior and a management-oriented approach further facilitate this process by empowering women to proactively seek pertinent knowledge, organize and coordinate agricultural activities, and convert resource control into tangible climate-smart decisions at the household level. Collectively, these findings indicate that efforts to enhance CSA adoption among women should extend beyond mere resource provision and concurrently focus on improving access to information, strengthening extension linkages and fostering the socio-psychological capacities that underpin women's agency and decision-making power for climate smart agriculture in agriculture.

Conclusion

The study shows that women's decision-making authority on climate-smart agriculture (CSA) adaptation depends on their access to and control over land, financing and agricultural equipment. Ownership and control of these resources increase autonomy, involvement and confidence in sustainable agriculture. The results also show that sociopsychological and communication factors like marital status, mass media exposure, extension contact, economic motivation, scientific orientation, risk orientation, information-seeking behavior, and management orientation positively and significantly affect women's CSA adoption decisions. These findings demonstrate that farm women can better adapt to climate change with equal access to productive resources, focused extension services, capacitybuilding efforts and enhanced communication channels. Thus, gender-responsive agricultural development and inclusive decision-making frameworks are necessary to improve livelihood resilience and climate-smart agriculture.

References

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