Gendered Adaptation Debt: A Human Security Analysis of Climate-Driven Water Scarcity and Credit Exclusion among Female Smallholders in the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria

Climate adaptation policy in Nigeria is meant to advance food security and gender equality together, yet little is known about how it plays out for women farmers on the edge of the capital. This article examines the gendered side of climate adaptation in the agrifood sector of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) between 2016 and 2025. It combines Human Security Theory, Feminist Political Ecology and the Climate Vulnerability Framework to ask how gaps in public adaptation support become private burdens for female smallholders, a burden described here as “gendered adaptation debt”. The study is qualitative and draws on 20 in-depth interviews with officials and association representatives in Abuja and two focus group discussions with smallholder farmers and food traders. Participants described dry-season water scarcity that pulls women from their fields for several hours each morning, land and collateral rules that keep them out of formal credit, and reliance on high-interest informal loans to buy seed and equipment. Interviewees reported that distribution of climate-smart inputs is fragmented and often defaults to male-dominated local leadership. Because the sample is small and Abuja-centred, the findings are presented as exploratory. The article recommends low-interest, cooperative-guaranteed credit for women’s groups, community-managed water points, shared storage and gender-disaggregated tracking of input distribution.