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New varieties are the main output of a breeding program

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New varieties are the main output of a breeding program

‘Intuitively’ many breeders may say:

  • “Varieties are gender neutral”
  • “The benefits from new varieties are for everyone”
  • “Farm households function as a unit - work and benefits are shared”
  • “We cannot breed varieties only for women”

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So what? For what?

While plant breeding involves technical activities, its impact on life and livelihood will differ depending on:

  • Who is doing what?
  • Who is involved?
  • How specific steps are handled?
  • Who is driving the agenda?

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Seed system functions

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Actor categories

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Gender and varieties:

Differences we observe

Adoption rates for varieties

Differences for trait preferences

Roles,norms responsibilities,

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Some examples from southern Mali and sorghum

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Note to trainer: insert photo of women farming and processing sorghum

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Initial gender focused learning

Who does what in southern Mali sorghum-based production systems:

  1. Households are large family units with a male ‘chef de famille’ and 10-100 people working and eating together
  2. ‘Chef de famille’ is responsible for providing the family with the staple food (production and storage)
  3. All men, women and children provide labor for the production of the staple crop, grown in the ’family fields’

F.

Rattunde

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Initial gender focused learning

Who does what in southern Mali sorghum-based production systems:

  • Women and men get assigned individual fields for their own production, fields may change from year to year, no private land ownership but land use rights
  • Women are responsible for grain processing and food reparation, which includes firewood and water collection
  • Women are responsible for providing ingredients for the ‘sauce’
  • Fields are typically assigned to women at the end of the rotation’ to grow legumes

F.

Rattunde

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Consequences for sorghum breeding approach

  1. Involve ‘chef de famille’ in variety evaluations
  2. Involve women in the evaluation of grain quality related traits for processing
  3. Explore use of local germplasm as base material to breed for improved yield while maintaining adaptation and grain quality traits

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Learning from studies focusing on women and sorghum cultivation:

  • Many women interviewed grew sorghum, in addition to groundnut or rice, vegetables, etc.
  • They often grew sorghum as an intercrop with groundnuts
  • Not owning oxen, women’s fields tend to be sown late (after the family fields are finalised) with lower yield expectations
  • Women do not have access to farm-yard manure, used for family field

Based on recurring group discussions, van den Broek, 2007, Donovan, 2010

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What do women use their sorghum for?

Note to trainer: Insert graph that demonstrates women’s trait preferences in sorghum. Consider adapting a graph from van den Broek, 2007.

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Consequences for Sorghum Breeding

  • Ensured women conduct their own sorghum variety trials, best as groups on a village basis
  • Adapted on-farm trial protocols to enable women to test sorghum varieties as an intercrop with groundnuts
  • Initiated nutrition research on sorghum’s contribution of Fe in children’s diets
  • Monitored soil fertility in both men’s and women’s sorghum fields

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Learning from women’s variety trials and grain quality evaluations

  • Tall sorghums preferred for intercropping with groundnut
  • Women often prefer earlier sorghum varieties suited for early groundnut harvests and drought avoidance
  • Widespread preferences of loose, drooping panicles by both women and men farmers
  • ‘rice sorghum’, a sub-race of sorghum (guinea margarithiferum) primarily grown by women in the southern Savannah zone
  • Poor soil fertility, especially low P availability, is critical

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Bray1 P (ppm)

Leiser et al. 2018

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Changes in the breeding approach

  • Elaborated selection strategy for adaptation to low P conditions
  • Increase effort to select for preferred panicle and grain types
  • Developed concept of “FOOD YIELD”
  • Initiate identification of markers for preferred panicle and grain traits
  • Involve expert women farmers in on-station grain quality evaluations in early generation material

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Some ‘lessons learned’: for

gender responsive breeding, cont’d

  • It is critical to understand women’s and men’s roles in farm and household management to be able to predict, which type of variety and traits will be beneficial to whom
  • Women and men often have complimentary roles and responsibilities, thus the new varieties need to be acceptable to both: e.g. high productivity with good grain processing traits

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Some ‘lessons learned’: for

gender responsive breeding, cont’d

  • Women may manage their fields differently, and thus require traits for specific adaptation, e.g. adaptation to low Phosphorus availability
  • Women may use their crop differently, e.g. sell more, or into different markets thus need to understand market demands
  • Learning about gender roles is iterative and requires interdisciplinarity

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Some ‘lessons learned’: Do no harm

  • Women labor load should not increase as a results of new varieties, e.g. weeding, food processing?
  • Women should not loose income generation opportunities, e.g. sale of crop residues

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Some ‘lessons learned’: Do no harm

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  • A trait or variety should not require inputs, to which women have poor access, e.g. early sowing
  • Women should not loose control over a product they produced, e.g. qualities for marketing (by men)
  • Avoid traits that are not preferred by women or men

Based on Ashby and Polar, 2019

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Who contributed?

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Farmer Organizations, NGOs

ULPC- Dioila, AOPP Region Koulikoro, AMEDD – Koutiala, ACOD, UACT-Tominian

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Agricultural extension servic

Service d’agriculture de Dioila

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Research

IER, Programme Sorgho, IPR Katibougou, CIRAD, Univ. Hohenheim, Cornell Univ.,Wageningen Univ.

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Funding

BMZ- GIZ, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, McKnight Foundation, IFAD

F. Rattunde

M. Sidibe

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Thank you!

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Isaacs, K., E. Weltzien, C. Diallo, M. Sidibé, B. Diallo, and F. Rattunde. 2018. Farmer Engagement in Culinary Testing and Grain-Quality Evaluations Provides Crucial Informaiton for Sorghum Breeding Strategies in Mali. p. 95–107. In Tufan, H.A., Grando, S., Meola, C. (eds.), State of the Knowledge for Gender in Breeding: Case Studies for Practitioners. Peru.

Rattunde, F., M. Sidibé, B. Diallo, E. van den Broek, H. Somé, K. vom Brocke, A. Diallo, B. Nebie, A. Touré, K. Isaacs, and E. Weltzien. 2018. Involving women farmers in variety evaluations of a “men’s crop”: Consequences for the sorghum breeding strategy and farmer empowerment in Mali. p. 95–107. In Tufan, H.A., Grando, S., Meola, C. (eds.), State of the Knowledge for Gender in Breeding: Case Studies for Practitioners. Peru.

Christinck A, Weltzien E, Hoffmann V. (eds.) 2005. Setting Breeding Objectives and Developing Seed Systems with Farmers. A Handbook for Practical Use in Participatory Plant Breeding Projects. Margraf Publishers, Weikersheim, Germany and CTA, Wageningen, The Netherlands 188p.

Also available in French

Further Reading:

Vom Brocke, Trouche G, Weltzien E, Kondombo-Barro CP, Sidibé A, Zougmoré R and Gozé E. 2014. Helping Farmers Adapt to Climate and Cropping System Change Through Increased Access to Sorghum Genetic Resources Adapted to Prevalent Sorghum Cropping Systems in Burkina Faso. Experimental Agriculture. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0014479713000616

Vom Brocke K, Trouche G, Weltzien E, Barro-Kondombo CP, Gozé E, Chantereau J. 2010. Participatory variety development for sorghum in Burkina Faso: Farmers’ selection and farmers’ criteria. Field Crops Research 119, 183-194.

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Citations

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