A new study by Dawn Cheong, Bettina Bock & Dirk Roep examines how conservation agriculture affects gendered labour dynamics in Nepal’s Terai region.

While conservation agriculture is often promoted for its sustainability benefits, this research applies a feminist lens and the concept of social reproduction to explore its broader impacts. Using surveys, focus groups, and interviews, the study shows that conservation agriculture increases farmers’ workloads and reorganises agricultural labour at the individual level. However, it does not substantially restructure gendered roles in either productive or reproductive work.

Women experience greater empowerment and recognition as contributors to agriculture, yet their reproductive labour remains largely unchanged, creating a transitional space where traditional and new subjectivities of women coexist and negotiate. This highlights how agricultural innovations, if not carefully evaluated, can increase women’s labour burdens and deepen the feminisation of social reproduction crises.

The research underscores the importance of integrating gender perspectives in evaluating agricultural innovations to ensure truly sustainable and equitable development.

Access the publication here.

Dawn D. Cheong is a PhD in Rural Sociology from Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands. She has about 15 years of experience in agriculture and rural development and climate adaptation, working as a planner, practitioner, and researcher with national and international organisations. Her research focuses on gender, labour, and processes of agricultural and rural innovation, with particular interest in how social dynamics shape technology adoption and rural change.

Bettina Bock is Professor of Inclusive Rural Development at the Rural Sociology Chairgroup at Wageningen University and a Professor of Population Decline and Quality of Life at the University of Groningen. Her research areas include inclusive rural development and social innovation, migration, sustainable agriculture and gender relations.

Dirk Roep is a former Assistant Professor and Research Coordinator at the Rural Sociology Chairgroup of Wageningen University and a Project Associate Professor at Kyoto University. He has expertise in place-based sustainable agricultural and rural development, sustainable modes of food provisioning, social learning and innovation, transition studies and rural transformation processes.