{"id":22770,"date":"2025-04-14T12:31:31","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T11:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/?p=22770"},"modified":"2025-04-14T12:39:35","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T11:39:35","slug":"kbs-academic-awarded-research-grant-to-support-climate-resilience-for-smallholder-women-farmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/2025\/04\/kbs-academic-awarded-research-grant-to-support-climate-resilience-for-smallholder-women-farmers\/","title":{"rendered":"KBS academic awarded research grant to support climate resilience for smallholder women farmers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/kent-business-school\/people\/2388\/balta-maria\">Dr Maria Balta<\/a> from Kent Business School has been awarded funding as Co-Investigator on a major international research project exploring how conservation agriculture can help smallholder women farmers adapt to the growing challenges of climate change.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The collaborative project, titled &#8216;Building Resilience: How Conservation Agriculture Can Help Smallholder Women Farmers Adapt to Climate Change (2024\u20132027)&#8217;, brings together academic experts and partners from King\u2019s College London, University of Kent, University of Surrey, and institutions across Canada, Brazil and Nigeria. It is jointly funded by UKRI-ESRC (UK), NFRF (Canada) and FAPESP (Brazil), with a total budget of approximately $1.3 million.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Climate change is having an increasingly devastating impact on agricultural communities, particularly in low- and middle-income countries such as Brazil and Nigeria. Smallholder women farmers are especially vulnerable, often facing limited access to resources and systemic socioeconomic challenges.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">This project seeks to examine how cost-effective, sustainable farming practices can offer a route to resilience. Conservation agriculture \u2014 including techniques like crop rotation, minimal soil disturbance, and permanent soil cover \u2014 is recognised as a key strategy to protect livelihoods, preserve the environment, and enhance food security.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The project will run for three years, beginning in April 2024, with the following core aims:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"x_MsoNormal\">To explore existing conservation agriculture practices among smallholder women farmers in Nigeria and Brazil, identifying benefits, gaps, and resource needs<\/li>\n<li class=\"x_MsoNormal\">To provide training and pilot funding that empowers these women and addresses the physical and socioeconomic challenges they face<\/li>\n<li class=\"x_MsoNormal\">To co-produce evidence-based policy recommendations that promote climate resilience and elevate the socioeconomic status of women in agriculture<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Dr Balta\u2019s involvement further demonstrates Kent Business School\u2019s commitment to research with real-world impact \u2014 supporting inclusive growth, sustainability, and international collaboration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\u201cWe\u2019re proud to be part of a project that not only contributes to climate resilience but also supports the empowerment of women farmers globally,\u201d said Dr Balta.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr Maria Balta from Kent Business School has been awarded funding as Co-Investigator on a major international research project exploring how conservation agriculture can help &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/2025\/04\/kbs-academic-awarded-research-grant-to-support-climate-resilience-for-smallholder-women-farmers\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79181,"featured_media":22795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9875,70,151067],"tags":[142775,57671,263972],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22770"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22770"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22796,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22770\/revisions\/22796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}