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Energy Use and Women’s Work in Agriculture
Changes in women’s use of energy in agriculture, in the spheres of crop production and social reproduction, can bring about a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Two technological changes—the shift from household cooking with carbon-emitting solid biomass fuels to liquified petroleum gas as a clean cooking fuel; and the shift from methane-emitting flooded rice cultivation to the System of Rice Intensification with electricity-based alternate wetting and drying—have been considered in this regard. The changes in women’s roles and energy use accompanying these technological interventions have been examined.
This paper is an output of the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development-funded Energia research project on “Gender and Energy,” being implemented by the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai. We thank Andrew Barnett and the Energia team for comments.
This is an exploratory paper in understanding the connection between women’s work in agriculture—including within agriculture, both crop cultivation and what is usually called social reproduction or domestic work—and the way in which energy use can bring about a reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture. Thefieldwork used in this paper comprised focus group discussions (FGDs) mainly, including women, but also some men, in villages of Wayanad district in Kerala, Dindigul district inTamil Nadu, and Mayurbhanj and Koraput districts in Odisha from 2015 to 2017. We also met officials of various state agricultural departments, and local liquified petroleum gas (LPG) dealers. In order to set the scene for the role of changes inenergy use and women’s work in agriculture, we first outline the contours of reduction in GHG emissions.
Reducing GHG Emissions
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