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Gender dynamics and remittances in the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices in Nepal

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Abstract

Agricultural systems in rural Nepal face significant transformation due to climate change and shifting household labour dynamics. Male out-migration, a key but underexplored driver of this change, disrupts traditional gendered labor divisions and reshapes agricultural decision-making. In smallholder farms, traditionally, men are more responsible for tasks like ploughing and harvesting, whereas women take on planting, weeding, and winnowing roles. In the context of male out-migration, women must take primary responsibility for managing farms and households. However, persistent social and structural inequalities continue to constrain their decision-making authority. The feminisation of agriculture has important implications for adopting sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs). Using survey data from 400 households and Poisson regression analysis, this study examines the effects of migration, remittances, and female-managed farms on SAP adoption. Our results highlight that household farms having migrated member(s), receiving remittance and female-managed farms are more likely to adopt SAPs. In contrast, a higher number of out-migrating females negatively affects adoption, reflecting women’s critical role in sustainable farming adoption. Their participation in women’s groups, which provide training and financial resources and their management of tasks such as seed selection, winnowing, and organic pest control, are essential to SAP implementation. As such, our study provides a deeper understanding of the positive role of females in SAP adoption. We advocate for policies that recognising intersectional vulnerabilities, supporting women’s groups, lead to increased adoption of sustainable agricultural practices.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Due to ethical considerations and to protect participants’ privacy, the raw survey data cannot be made openly accessible.

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Funding

We would like to express our gratitude to the Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences of the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague for financially supporting this research (IGA 20223113). This project has also received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101084201 (ECO-READY). Moreover, we acknowledge funding from the European Research Council for the BeyondSDG project, the European Union (101077492). The sponsors had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Agrobiology, Food, and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamycka 129, Prague, Suchdol, 16500, Czech Republic

    Giri Prasad Kandel & Ioannis Manikas

  2. Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamycka 129, Prague, Suchdol, 16500, Czech Republic

    Mustapha Yakubu Madaki, Tereza Pilarova, Ayat Ullah & Miroslava Bavorova

  3. Energy and Sustainability Research Institute Groningen (ESRIG), University of Groningen, Groningen, 9747 AG, Netherlands

    Prajal Pradhan

  4. Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, P.O. Box 60 12 03, Potsdam, D-14412, Germany

    Prajal Pradhan

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  1. Giri Prasad Kandel
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Contributions

Giri Prasad Kandel: Conceptualization; Methodology; Data curation; Formal analysis; Writing – original draft; Project administration.Mustapha Yakubu Madaki: Methodology; Validation; Writing – review & editing.Tereza Pilarova: Methodology, Validation, Writing – review & editing.Ayat Ullah: Formal analysis; Visualization; Writing – review & editing.Prajal Pradhan: Supervision; Writing – review & editing.Ioannis Manikas: Supervision; Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing.Miroslava Bavorova: Conceptualization; Supervision; Funding acquisition; Writing – review & editing.

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Giri Prasad Kandel.

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Kandel, G.P., Madaki, M.Y., Pilarova, T. et al. Gender dynamics and remittances in the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices in Nepal.
Sci Rep (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-31848-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-31848-8

Keywords

  • Feminization of agriculture
  • Gender dynamics
  • Male out-migration
  • Climate change
  • Remittances
  • Sustainable agricultural practices

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