Protection Motivation and Drought Adaptation Behavior: Does Institutional Support Matter for Women Farmers in Northern Cameroon Under Climate Crisis?

Purpose: This study examines the association between protection motivation and drought adaptation behavior with the potential role of institutional support for women under climate crisis in Northern Cameroon. Originality: Beyond individual protection motivation, the research proposes the importance of institutional support for adaptive resources to address climate change adaptation challenges embedded in gender inequality across farming communities in low resource settings. Methodology: A cross-sectional survey was carried out using non-probabilistic and probabilistic sampling techniques, known as systematic sampling, to recruit women farmers in Northern Cameroon. The data was analyzed using path analysis with moderation modeling. Result: A total of 343 women participated in the survey. The results demonstrated the positive associations between protection motivation and drought adaptation behavior. Specifically, protection motivation constructs such as perceived vulnerability (β=.104, t-value= 2.291, P<0.05), perceived severity (β=.143, t-value= 2.322, P<0.05), self-efficacy (β=.174, t-value= 3.144, P<0.001), and response efficacy (β=.120, t-value= 2.218, P<0.05) were statistically significant. Furthermore, the moderating effect of the institutional support for women farmers was identified, influencing the associations between protection motivation represented as self-efficacy (β =.031, t-value=2.242, P<0.05) or response cost (β =-.060, t-value=-2.107, P<0.05) and drought adaptation behaviors. Conclusions and Implication: The study concludes that protection motivation among women farmers can be insufficient to initiate sustainable drought adaptation in farming communities faced with gender inequality. Therefore, institutional support for women matters in explaining women farmers’ drought adaptation behaviors. The government should provide adequate farm resources to women farmers and train them to adapt to socio-environmental changes. This will contribute to solving climate adaptation challenges embedded in gender inequality.