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What’s happening with the climate?!
Global Warming Is Particularly Bad for Women-Led Families
A new report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization with data from 24 low- and middle-income countries, finds that women-led families suffer more from extreme heat than other families. While heat stress is costly for all rural households, it is significantly more costly for households headed by a woman. Female-headed households lose 8 percent more of their annual income compared to other households. While many women are farmers, fewer women own the land they farm. Women-headed households are likely to lack access to essential services, like loans, crop insurance and agricultural extension services to help them adapt to climate change.
The report also found some possible solutions in pilot projects already underway. It cites an experiment in Mozambique, where increasing the number of women agricultural extension workers encouraged more women to adopt new agricultural techniques. In Malawi school-meal programs are reducing the pressure on families to pull girls out of school during bad droughts. Elsewhere, insurance payouts are triggered when the temperature spikes to a certain threshold.
This year had the hottest January worldwide since C3S records began in 1950,