Africa’s ‘Green Revolution’ and Climate Change
Uneven resilience and ‘climate-smart agriculture’
How does Africa’s Green Revolution influence climate change resilience? Based on over two years of multi-sited fieldwork in Rwanda, this project considered how rural transformations brought about by technology-led agricultural intensification influence smallholder producers’ capacities to cope with and adapt to climate change. It examines conceptions of resilience in ‘climate-smart agriculture,’ demonstrating how the privileged minority benefit while those without means to adopt financialized, technology-led adaptations see their livelihood opportunities erode. It also works with feminist geography to develop the concept of ‘everyday adaptation,’ where climate change experiences can be understood through considering not only explicit adaptation decisions but also mundane changes to everyday life.
Gender and climate change
How is Africa’s ‘climate smart’ Green Revolution gendered and with what implications for food sovereignty? My writing on Rwanda presents technology-led agricultural intensification as a gendered process, encouraging development researchers and practitioners to move beyond thinking about ‘gender gaps’ in productivity. It presents agricultural intensification as a partial and contested political ecological process. And emphasizes how socio-spatial diversity is vital to food sovereignty and equitable climate resilience in mountain environments.