Women market gardeners and climate change in Kinshasa (DRC): Knowledge, attitudes and practices in the FUNA VALLEY

Abstract

Urban market gardening supplies a large share of the leafy vegetables consumed in Kinshasa. It is practised mainly by women who farm in flood-prone valleys. Yet little is known about how these women understand and respond to climate change. This study assessed the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of women market gardeners regarding climate change in the Funa valley, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). A cross-sectional survey was conducted in November 2025 among 206 randomly selected women (54% of the 384 registered market gardeners), using a structured closed-ended questionnaire; the data were analysed descriptively. Most respondents had heard of climate change (64.7%), had noticed that the climate had changed in recent years (60.6%), had personally experienced its effects (60.5%) and believed that it affects their farming (63.3%). Heavy rainfall (24.9%) and rising temperatures (22.4%) were the most frequently cited signs, and crop flooding was the most frequently cited effect on farming (32.7%). Only 42.8% attributed climate change to human activities alone or combined with natural causes, while 16.9% gave a supernatural explanation. A majority (61.5%) expressed a positive attitude, but one third (32.7%) could not express any attitude. Between 71.7% and 85.4% reported an adaptation strategy against each of the six climate hazards studied, most often based on traditional knowhow. Training was rare: 30.1% had attended training or awareness-raising on climate change and 12.6% agricultural training. Awareness of climate change is therefore widespread among these women, but it rests on lived experience rather than on formal information. Practical training programmes, adapted to women with little schooling and delivered through market gardeners’ associations, are needed to turn this awareness into planned adaptation.

Keywords: climate change, urban agriculture, women market gardeners, knowledge attitudes and practices (KAP), adaptation, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. 

Received Date: September 17, 2026

Accepted Date: October 09, 2026

Published Date: November 01, 2026

Available Online at: https://www.ijsrisjournal.com/index.php/ojsfiles/article/view/1058