GENDER AND STORAGE-BASED CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: DETERMINANTS OF HOME-SAVED SEED USE AND CROP STORAGE AMONG SMALL LANDHOLDERS IN SOUTH PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

Abstract

Climate change increasingly threatens the food and livelihood security of smallholder farmers in semi-arid regions such as South Punjab, Pakistan. Among the autonomous adaptation strategies available to farm households, storage-based adaptation, comprising the use of home-saved seed and crop storage offers a low-cost, time-tested buffer against production and market shocks, yet it remains one of the least studied adaptation pathways in the empirical literature, which has concentrated disproportionately on on-farm and diversification strategies. This study examines the gender-differentiated determinants of storage adaptation strategies among 1,152 small landholder farmers (974 male-headed and 178 female-headed households) drawn through proportionate sampling from the Multan, Bahawalpur, and DG Khan divisions of South Punjab. Using binomial logit regression, the study estimates the effects of eight categories of household and community-level factors, demographic characteristics, human capital, land-related variables, non-land assets and income, access to services, climate change exposure, food security, and planned adaptation support on the probability of using home-saved seed and engaging in crop storage. The results show that age, marital status, joint family structure, farming experience, land size and ownership, land quality, climate change exposure, food security, and planned adaptation support are positively associated with both storage strategies across most divisions for both genders, while access to services and, in most divisions, non-land assets and income exhibit divergent effects across the two sub-strategies. The findings inform gender-responsive policy for strengthening rural storage infrastructure and post-harvest resilience among small landholders.