Sustainable Agrifood Systems Approach for Sudan (SASAS) takes a modular and multi-crop approach, implementing an integrated agrifood system that supports food security, employment, and equity. The project focuses on soil fertility management integrated with agrifood systems based on smallholder farmer productivity gains, leveraging both One CGIAR and non-CGIAR innovation partners to support scaling on the ground by last-mile partners.
SASAS moves beyond humanitarian response and resilience to inclusive agriculture-led economic growth and enables landless and under resourced people to participate in functional and gender-sensitive high-production value chains.
This work contributes to six of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Zero Hunger; Good Health and Well-Being for People; Gender Equality; Decent Work and Economic Growth; Responsible Consumption and Production; and Climate Action.
SASAS Feature FilmÂ
Technical Overview: Interventions and Food Security Initiative
Abdelrahman Kheir, chief of party for SASAS, highlights the project’s rapid deployment of agricultural technologies across Sudan.
Imtithal Ali Atta Allah from the El-Harram Cooperative
Ali Atta Allah, a farmer, talks about her recent financial gains from selling vegetables cultivated with SASAS-provided seeds.
Aziza Haroun from the El-Harram Cooperative
Aziza Haroun shares her story working with Mercy Corps and SASAS who have provided her with improved seed, doubling her crop yields compared to previous years.
The existing model of funding for agricultural research and development (R&D) is not equipped for the challenges it needs to meet, according to an opinion piece for MarketWatch, penned by Bram Govaerts, Director General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and Elizabeth Cousens, President and Chief Executive Officer of the United Nations Foundation.
To tackle climate change, address hunger and malnutrition, and revive rural livelihoods, Cousens and Govaerts call for increased and more balanced investment in R&D for agri-food systems, using a participatory model to take advantage of knowledge sharing.
Co-designed projects, such as MasAgro, which involve local communities and value chain actors, can be vital in bridging the R&D gap.
Mizanur Rahman is a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Officer with the Sustainable Agrifood System (SAS) programâs Innovation Sciences in Agroecosystems and Food Systems theme across Asia. His role involves developing and implementing logical and conceptual data flows for analytical processes supporting decision-making at the project and donor level. He has more than 18 years of progressive experience with 12 years in research, monitoring, and evaluation.
Maize grain aggregator invests in developing storage for coping with increased grain production. (Credit: Aayush Niroula/CIMMYT)
Him Lal Neupane has been in the business of agriculture for more than a decade. His company Annupurna Suppliers, in Banke District, Nepal, trades in agri products and has an annual turnover of around $626,000, up from $195,000 eight years ago.
Recently, Neupane has been heavily investing in maize. He says involvement from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in market strengthening has given him the confidence to go big on the crop. He encountered CIMMYT through the meetings led by the organization in the district, as part of its Nepal Seed and Fertilizer (NSAF) project. In the meetings, he was able to hear perspectives on maize production from leading market experts, as well as government officials. Getting direct access to high level government representatives and agricultural scientists was incredibly fruitful and raised his confidence to invest in maize. He also got to air his own grievances about the industry and learn more from other farmers.
âI learnt that the project was invested in training farmers to produce better quality maize,â said Neupane. âIf we get quality products from farmers, I immediately deduced that there is a great chance that the product will keep doing well in the market.â
Neupaneâs confidence in investing in maize has increased thanks to market strengthening from CIMMYT. (Credit: Aayush Niroula/CIMMYT)
In 2022, Neupane bought a truck and has been constructing a massive storage facility that can store up to 4 million kilograms of produce. He has plans for proper grading and drying of maize in the facility to sell to industrial buyers.
The majority maize in Nepal is used as feed for the poultry industry, so there is high value for the crop in the market. âSince Nepal is a big consumer of poultry products and will remain so, it is inevitable that locally produced maize will sell,â explained Neupane.
Neupane went into agriculture because he could not secure employment after completing higher education. He grew up learning and practicing farming, so he understood farmersâ plights and wanted to start a company that would improve their lives. He also wants to grow the industry to curb the countryâs maize import dependence, which has been affected by recent disruptions like the Ukraine conflict and the pandemic. Annually, Nepal imports around $120 million worth of maize, which depletes the countryâs foreign currency reserves.
CIMMYTâs efforts in developing the maize market through value chain coordination and private public partnerships intend to help stakeholders at every level of the industry,âfrom farmers to suppliers like Neupane,âwhose companyâs growth represents a strong reinforcement of confidence in domestic maize production.
There is growing awareness that not all rural women are alike and that social norms and technological interventions affect women from different castes in distinct ways. The caste system in South Asia, which dates back over 3,000 years, divides society into thousands of hierarchical, mostly endogamous groups. Non-marginalized castes are classified as âgeneral casteâ while those living in the social margins are categorized as âscheduled casteâ and âscheduled tribeâ. Scheduled caste and scheduled tribe farmers face both social and economic marginalization and limited access to information and markets, despite government efforts to level up social inequalities.
In India, women of all castes are involved in farming activities, although their caste identity regulates the degree of participation. General caste women are less likely to be engaged in farming than women of lower castes. Despite their level of participation across caste groups, women are rarely recognized as âfarmersâ (Kisan) in Indian rurality, which restricts their access to inputs, information and markets.
Gender experts from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and partners investigated caste-gender relations among wheat farmers in Madhya Pradesh, Indiaâs second-largest state by area. The team conducted focus group discussions and interviews in a village community, and carried out a review of GENNOVATE research in the same area. The team also carried out a survey involving about 800 wheat farmers from 18 village communities across the state.
Women work in the fields in India’s Madhya Pradesh state. Our study found that women are involved in all aspects of agricultural work on family farms. (Photo: CIMMYT)
The study, published last month in Gender, Technology, and Development, revealed five key findings:
First, caste distinctions are sharp. There is little interaction between women and men farmers from the scheduled caste category â even between subcastes in this category â and other castes. They live in separate enclaves, and land belonging to scheduled caste farmers is less fertile than others.
Second, all women are fully involved in all aspects of agricultural work on the family farm throughout the year.
Third, despite their strong participation in farming activities, women across caste groups are normatively excluded from agricultural decision-making in the household. Having said that, the findings were very clear that some individual women experience greater participation than others. Although women are excluded from formal agricultural information networks, they share knowledge with each other, particularly within caste groups.
Fourth, about 20 years ago, women across caste groups were being employed as hired agricultural laborers. Over the past four years, increasing mechanization is pushing many women off the field. While scheduled caste women compensate for the employment loss to a certain degree by participating in non-farm activities, general caste women are not able to move beyond the village and secure work elsewhere due to cultural norms. Women therefore face a collapse in their autonomy.
Fifth, gender poses a greater constraint than caste in determining an individualâs ability to make decisions about farm and non-farm related activities. However, a significant difference exists across the caste groups, presenting a strong case for intersectionality.
Challenging social norms in agriculture
The results of the study show that caste matters in the gendered evaluations of agricultural technologies and demonstrates the importance of studying womenâs contributions and roles in wheat farming in South Asia.
Agriculture in India is also considered to be broadly feminizing, with men increasingly taking up off-farm activities, leaving women to as primary cultivators on family fields and as hired laborers. However, rural advisory services, policy makers, and other research and development organizations are lagging behind in recognizing and reacting appropriately to these gendered changes. Many still carry outdated social norms which view men as the main decision-makers and workers on farms.
Funding for this study was provided by the Collaborative Platform for Gender Research under the CGIAR Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets as well as the International Development Research Center of the Government of Canada, the CGIAR Research Programme on Wheat (CRP WHEAT https://wheat.org/), CIMMYT and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The paper additionally drew on GENNOVATE data collected in India in 2015â16 with financial support from CRP WHEAT. Development of the GENNOVATE research methodology was supported by the CGIAR Gender and Agricultural Research Network, the World Bank, and the CRP WHEAT and CRP MAIZE, and data analysis was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Cover photo: A woman harvests wheat in Madhya Pradesh, India. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Womenâs involvement in maize production is often shrouded in assumptions. One might assume that women have minimal say in management decisions, especially regarding jointly managed plots, due to rigid gender norms that prioritize menâs decisions on farming-related matters. However, operating under such assumptions about womenâs role in the management of maize farms risks confining women to specific roles and not meeting their needs in the maize seed system.
To break these assumptions, Rachel Voss, Gender Specialist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), and a team of fellow researchers are conducting a study, “Unpacking maize plot management roles of women and men in smallholder households in Kenya.” The study, part of the Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat (AGG) project, aims to asses the gender dynamics of maize management in Kenya in order to categorize plots and households, analyzing intrahousehold decision-making and evaluating which women have the power and agency to apply their preferences for seed on their farms â and which ones do not.
Challenging perceptions
Take, for example, Sofa Eshiali, a 60-year-old farmer from Ikolomani, western Kenya, who participated in the study. She defies the stereotype of women having a limited role in maize farming, as she is deeply involved in decision-making on maize production in her household and represents an important client for new breeding efforts and more inclusive seed distribution programs. Together with her husband, she has grown maize primarily for family consumption since getting married, getting involved in all matters concerning their half acre farm. âFor us, when we want to plant [our maize seeds], we sit together and discuss the cash we have at hand and decide if we can get two hands to help us work our half acre of land,â she says.
Eshiali and her husband make a joint decision on the maize seed variety they plant every season based on performance of the previous planting season. âWe previously used the H614D [maize seed variety] and it did well in our farm â except when it gets very windy, as our crops fall and our bean crop gets destroyed before it is ready for harvest. Last season, we decided to use the H624 because it remains there even when it is windy,â she said, demonstrating her knowledge of maize seed variety.
In addition to seed choice and farm labour, Eshiali and her husband also discuss what fertilizer to use and when they need to shift to a new choice, and they make decisions together concerning their farm and farm produce. This includes deciding what amount of harvest they can sell and what to do with the sale proceeds. For a household like Eshiali’s, new maize varieties need to appeal to â and be marketed to â both spouses.
Sofa Eshiali, a 60-year-old maize farmer from Ikolomani, Western Kenya, who participated in the study. (Photo: Susan Umazi Otieno/CIMMYT)
Farming roles
Eshiali’s reality of equitable engagement in the farm may not be the case for other households in her community and across Kenya, meaning that reaching women with new varieties is not always simple.
As Voss points out, women are often less involved in major household decisions than men, frequently due to longstanding social norms. However, there is little understanding of how decisions are negotiated at the household level, particularly when crops are jointly produced. Furthermore, in many places, men are perceived to be the ârealâ farmers, while women are viewed to only play a supportive role within household farming. This can lead to the exclusion of women from extension activities, trainings and input marketing efforts.
Against this background, Voss notes that the ongoing study aims to identify in which types of households women have control over seed choice and in which households other constraints might be more important.
âTo get new maize varieties into menâs and womenâs fields, we need to identify the bottlenecks to reaching women. This means understanding, among other things, how decisions about seed are made within households and how households source their seed,â she explains.
Vignettes showing five different decision-making scenarios based on fictitious husband and wife characters. (Photo: Susan Umazi Otieno/CIMMYT)
Best-case scenario
To overcome the challenge of discussing the sensitive topic of decision-making roles between spouses and to encourage more culturally unbiased, candid responses, the study uses vignettes, or short stories, to describe various scenarios. This enables farmers to relate with different farm management decision making scenarios without pointing fingers at their spouses.
The studyâs coauthor and research team leader, Zachary Gitonga, explains that the use of vignettes is still a relatively new method, especially in agricultural research, but enables digging deeper into sensitive topics.
Data collection involved a joint survey with both men and women household heads about maize plot management before breaking into separate discussions using the vignettes. These presented five possible decision-making scenarios with fictitious husband and wife characters. The five scenarios were then used to discuss strategic seed choices, operational decisions related to issues such as planting date and hiring farm labor, and financial decisions such as the use of the income from the maize sales.
âBy presenting a set of short stories, a farmer can determine what scenario they relate with. In the study, farmers can talk about sensitive interaction without having to assign responsibility to their spouse, especially negatively, in the way decisions are made,â Gitonga said.
The vignettes also made it easier for both the enumerators to explain the scenarios and the farmers to understand and freely give their feedback. Sometimes, he pointed out, what men and women perceive as joint decision-making might not be the same. For instance, some men may think informing their wives that they are going to buy a particular seed means involving them. Here, the vignette activity aims to unpack the reality of joint decision-making in households.
From East Africa to Asia
During a recent field visit to the study area in Kakamega, Kenya, Hom Gartaula, Gender and Social Inclusion Research Lead at CIMMYT, noted the studyâs importance to the inclusion of women in the farming cycle. âWe urgently need to better understand the reality of womenâs and menâs situation in terms of access to maize seed and other needed inputs and services. Otherwise, we risk designing breeding and seed systems that do not address the needs of the most vulnerable farmers, including women,â he said, adding that data from the study will enable insights into and comparison with the gender dynamics of wheat production in South Asia through cross-regional learning.
Gartaula also noted that, even though men predominantly manage South Asiaâs wheat agriculture, women significantly contribute to it, especially in smallholder farming systems. In recent years, womenâs contribution to providing labor and decision-making in wheat agriculture has increased due to the feminization of agriculture and livelihood diversification among smallholders.
Since womenâs contributions to wheat farming are often vital to pre- and post-harvest processes, Gartaula notes they ought to be part of the entire maize and wheat value chain. That includes building more equitable seed delivery systems. âIt is therefore important to have seed products that address the needs of different users and include home consumption and commercial sales,â he says.
The study will inform future efforts to ensure equitable seed access for both men and women farmers. Ultimately, if both men and women farmers access the best seed based on their needs and priorities, incomes will rise, households will be better sustained, and communities will become more food secure.
This international Womenâs Day, March 8, 2022, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) celebrates the essential role that women play in agriculture and food systems, and acknowledges that gender equality is essential to achieve a sustainable future. The burden of climate change impacts women disproportionately, even though we rely on them to drive change in climate adaptation, mitigation and solutions.
For example, in the last year, CIMMYT research found that educating women farming wheat in Bihar, India, increases the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices, which, in turn, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and boosts nitrogen productivity, eco-efficiency and yield. Additionally, in Mexico, a CIMMYT study found that women are less likely to default on agricultural credit than men, but seldom receive loans. Connecting women to financial capital to obtain agricultural inputs is an essential step in boosting their decision-making in food production.
Read more about our pathbreaking work in gender research in the collection of stories below!
Gender equality for climate-resilient, sustainable food systems
A farmer weeds a maize field in Pusa, Bihar state, India. (Photo: M. DeFreese/CIMMYT)
Gender-responsive and gender-intentional maize breeding
A new paper by CIMMYT researchers takes stock of lessons learnt on gender inclusivity and maize breeding in Africa. Scientists also assess knowledge gaps that need to be filled to effectively support gender-responsive and gender-intentional breeding and seed systems work.
Alice Nasiyimu stands in front of a drought-tolerant maize plot at her family farm in Bungoma County, in western Kenya. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Towards gender-transformative research in the CGIAR
Gender scientists from ten CGIAR centers and key partner institutions came together in a hybrid workshop to integrate gender-transformative research and methodologies into the new CGIAR Initiatives. In this series of videos, GENNOVATE partners share their insights on this topic.
On this International Day of Women and Girls in Science, CIMMYT speaks to Tripti Agarwal, whose research paper delves into the impact of Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices (CSAPs) on women and farming households in Bihar, India. CSAPs offer a promising solution to address environmental issues through gender-inclusive technological interventions. As we celebrate the achievements of women in science today, we see CSAPs bridging the gender gap and empowering women.
Hello Tripti, it’s great to talk to you about labor migration and how the adoption of CSAPs ensures household food security. Could you share how this approach influences gender equality in farming households?Â
My paper is titled “Gendered impacts of climate-smart agriculture on household food security and labor migration: insights from Bihar, India.” Bihar is highly vulnerable to hydro-meteorological natural disasters that cause agricultural production loss. The issue is that the male workforce migrates to other cities to seek different employment opportunities and improve their families’ livelihoods, often leaving the women behind to farm. Women left behind are then responsible for household and farming activities, making them overburdened. Therefore, Climate Smart Agricultural Practices (CSAPs) could play a vital role in safeguarding the loss in production and supporting livelihoods. The concept of Climate-Smart Villages (CSVs) links this, acknowledging the gender gap and striving to promote gender-equitable approaches in knowledge enhancement, capacity development, and better practices. CSAPs empower women to support farming decision-making and a better utilization of resources
That is interesting. Would you also tell us how the CSV program addresses climatic risks from technological and social perspectives?Â
As per the study I mentioned earlier, climatic stress that affects crop production directly impacts a household’s food security and, more severely, women’s food security. The CSV program promotes adopting climate-resilient practices and technologies that mitigate the risk of crop loss and ensure enough food for the household. CSV is a promising solution to address environmental issues through gender-inclusive technological interventions.
Ensuring food for the household is the most important thing. We also see that this paper highlighted the knowledge gaps between men and women farmers in terms of CSAPs. What action plan is needed to have a more equitable gender-responsive environment at the policy level?Â
The paper attempts to drive the concentration of the state/policymakers in providing more opportunities to women in having access to resources. Policies or strategies â driven towards ensuring female education, knowledge and capacity building â are likely to play a significant role in providing access and control of resources to women across their lifetimes in varied areas of work.
As per the research paper, the probability of out-migration is reduced by 21% with the adoption of CSAPs. What factors do you think are the critical indicators of this trend?Â
The increase in knowledge about CSAPs, both for men and women, supports household decision-making in adopting CSAPs. With the adoption of CSAPs, the increase in agricultural production reduced the compulsion of males to migrate, and better female literacy also had a negative and significant effect on male out-migration
The study also reveals that the farmer’s education has a direct impact on the adoption of CSAPs. Is there any plan to bridge this gap? Or a suggestion for the policy makers to address this issue?Â
There are two steps to be covered on this front. First, to have gender-equitable knowledge dissemination and to ensure that women receive the required and necessary information about CSAPs. For this, the role of women in society needs to be strengthened and would primarily come from (i) support from the family & society and (ii) right to education. Second, knowledge alone is not enough to contribute to economic activities. Gender-inclusive strategies need to be framed and implemented to provide women the required access and control over resources. For this, multi-sectoral efforts are necessary, like having policies from the government, corporates supporting the cost of efforts, specialized agencies providing the expertise, NGO partners working with the community, and foremost, support from the society.
Very rightly said, and we hope that some strong measures are taken at the policy level. Today, women play a huge role in agriculture; thus, it becomes vital to enhance their capacities, especially in newer technologies. In this context, what approaches can you suggest to strengthening their skills and knowledge to achieve a gender-empowered agricultural domain?Â
There is no limit to enhancing the skills and capacities of an individual. And when we talk about women, especially in rural/agricultural contexts, we see that support from the family is critical for them. To ensure that, we need ways to educate men on how women can support them in providing better livelihoods. Creating plans and roadmaps for women would help achieve a gender-empowered agricultural domain, but we must also bring behavior change among men towards a more accepting role of women in farming and decision making.
One last question related to this special day. Why do you love your work? And how is science exciting for you?
I was assigned the position of Project Administrator; however, after working for many years with a team of experts, my interest in research slowly ignited. Thanks to the support I received, I decided to work closely on the subject and identify the areas where I may add value. Linking my knowledge and field studies, I started contributing to relevant publications like this one, which is the output of my years of experience at CIMMYT. I received a lot of support from my team, especially from Dr. M.L. Jat, who has been a great mentor throughout my journey of learning and growth.
M.L. Jat is a Principal Scientist at CIMMYT and co-author of the article. Building on this publication, CIMMYT’s gender research will be further strengthened under the One CGIAR Regional Integrated Initiative on Transforming Agri-Food Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA), which has a core learning site in Bihar.
A group of farmers involved in participatory rice breeding trials near Begnas Lake, Pokhara, Nepal. (Photo: Neil Palmer/CIAT/CCAFS)
As CGIAR develops 33 exciting new research Initiatives, it is essential for its new research portfolio to move beyond âdiagnosing gender issuesâ and to supporting real change for greater social equity. Gender-transformative research and methodologies are needed, co-developed between scientists and a wide range of partners.
To advance this vision, gender scientists from ten CGIAR centers and key partner institutions came together from October 25 to 27, 2021, in a hybrid workshop. Some participants were in Amsterdam, hosted by KIT, and others joined online from Canada, the Philippines and everywhere in between.
The workshop emerged from gender scientistsâ desire to create a supportive innovation space for CGIAR researchers to integrate gender-transformative research and methodologies into the new CGIAR Initiatives.
The organizing team calls this effort GENNOVATE 2, as it builds on GENNOVATE, the trailblazing gender research project which ran across the CGIAR between 2014 and 2018.
GENNOVATE 2 promises to help CGIAR Initiatives achieve progress in the Gender, Youth and Social Inclusion Impact Area. It will also advance change towards Sustainable Development Goals 5 and 10 on gender and other forms of inequality.
In the workshop, participants sought to:
Share and develop ideas, methods and approaches to operationalize gender-transformative research and methodologies. Working groups focused on an initial selection of CGIAR Initiatives, representing all the Action Areas of CGIAR:
ClimBeR: Building Systemic Resilience against Climate Variability and Extremes; (Systems Transformation)
Securing the Asian Mega-Deltas from Sea-level Rise, Flooding, Salinization and Water Insecurity (Resilient Agrifood Systems)
Sustainable Intensification of Mixed Farming Systems (Resilient Agrifood Systems)
Market Intelligence and Product Profiling (Genetic Innovation)
Build on the significant investments, methods, data, and results from the original GENNOVATE.
Conceive a community of practice for continued sharing, learning and collaboration, across and within Initiatives, to accelerate progress on gender and social equity.
Participants at the GENNOVATE 2 workshop in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in October 2021.
Joining a vibrant community
GENNOVATE 2 is envisioned to complement the CGIAR GENDER Platform and the proposed new CGIAR gender-focused research Initiative, HER+.
âWe have several gender methodology assets in CGIAR, and GENNOVATE is one of them,â said Nicoline de Haan, Director of the CGIAR GENDER Platform, opening the workshop. âWe want to make sure we cultivate and grow the efforts started during GENNOVATE and move forward important lessons and practices in the new CGIAR portfolio.â
The team of scientists behind GENNOVATE 2 wants to support a vibrant community of researchers who âwork out loud.â They will document and share their research methodologies, experiences and insights, in order to accelerate learning on gender issues and scale out successes more quickly.
The ultimate objectives of GENNOVATE 2 are to:
Develop and deepen a set of methodologies expected to directly empower women, youth, and marginalized groups in the targeted agri-food systems
Contribute to normative change towards increased gender equality across different scales, ranging from households to countries.
Generate and build an evidence base on the relationship between empowering women, youth and marginalized people, and moving towards climate-resilient and sustainable agri-food systems â and vice versa.
âAn example of the added value GENNOVATE 2 can bring to CGIAR Initiatives is understanding what maintains prevailing gender norms in research sites, and also at relevant institutional and political levels,â said Anne Rietveld, gender scientist at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, and co-organizer of the workshop. âThis will enable CGIAR scientists, partners and policymakers to design locally relevant gender-transformative approaches and policies for more impact. We can do this by building on our GENNOVATE 1 evidence base, adapting methods from GENNOVATE 1 and co-developing new methods in GENNOVATE 2.â
Participants at the GENNOVATE 2 workshop in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in October 2021.
Whatâs next?
The workshop showed that many scientists from CGIAR and partner institutes are motivated to invest in the vision of GENNOVATE 2. Achieving impact in the Gender, Youth and Social Inclusion Impact Area will require concerted efforts and inputs from scientists on the ground.
âThere is a groundswell of experience and enthusiasm that you, we, this group brings. We need answers and we can and should work together to make this a reality,â remarked Jon Hellin, Platform Leader – Sustainable Impact in Rice-based Systems at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and co-lead of the ClimBeR Initiative.
The organizing team listed concrete actions to follow the workshop:
Developing processes and spaces for discussing methodological advancements among the gender scientists in these four Initiatives which other Initiatives can tap into, contribute to and become part of.
To develop these shared and integrated methodologies and approaches into a GENNOVATE 2 conceptual and methodological roadmap â to contribute to the CGIAR Gender, Youth, and Social Inclusion Impact Area and guide other Initiatives, as well as bilateral research
To develop a position paper articulating what can be achieved through concerted efforts to integrate gender and social equity more effectively into the Initiatives, to showcase gender-transformative research methods for further development and implementation. The aim of the position paper is to influence global science leaders and CGIAR leadership in how they include issues of social equity in the Initiatives.
To support these conversations, learnings and harmonization processes through setting up a community of practice, where the âpracticeâ to be improved is the practice of advancing gender research methodologies to go from diagnosis to action. This will start with a core group of enthusiastic researchers and then will expand as it gains momentum, so that all researchers in the various Initiatives interested in social equity can contribute
To seek funding opportunities to support the activities outlined above.
The GENNOVATE 2 organizing team welcomes the participation of interested CGIAR Initiatives as they move forward. The organizing team will also help strengthen interactions with external resource people and research networks, in to cross-pollinate new knowledge and innovations.
If you would like to know more about GENNOVATE 2, please contact Anne Rietveld, Gender Scientist at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and Hom Gartaula, Gender and Social Inclusion Specialist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
The GENNOVATE 2 workshop was supported with funds from the CGIAR Research Programs on Roots Tubers and Bananas, Maize, and Wheat.
Workshop organizers Anne Rietveld (Alliance), Cathy Rozel Farnworth (Pandia Consulting, an independent gender researcher), Diana Lopez (WUR) and Hom Gartaula (CIMMYT) guided participants. Arwen Bailey (Alliance) served as facilitator.
Participants were: Renee Bullock (ILRI); Afrina Choudhury (WorldFish); Marlene Elias (Alliance); Gundula Fischer (IITA); Eleanor Fisher (The Nordic Africa Institute/ClimBeR); Alessandra Galie (ILRI); Elisabeth Garner (Cornell University/Market Intelligence); Nadia Guettou (Alliance); Jon Hellin (IRRI); Deepa Joshi (IWMI); Berber Kramer (IFPRI); Els Lecoutere (CGIAR GENDER Platform); Angela Meentzen (CIMMYT); Gaudiose Mujawamariya (AfricaRice); Surendran Rajaratnam (WorldFish); Bela Teeken (IITA), among others.
External experts who provided methodological inputs were: Nick Vandenbroucke of Trias talking about institutional change; Shreya Agarwal of Digital Green talking about transformative data; Katja Koegler of Oxfam Novib talking about Gender Action Learning Systems (GALS) for community-led empowerment; and Phil Otieno of Advocates for Social Change (ADSOCK) talking about masculinities and working with men.
Farmer Florence Ochieng harvests green maize on her 105-acre family farm near Kitale, Kenya. (Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT)
Smallholder farmers are often torn between maize seed varieties that have multiple desirable traits. Since they cannot always have it all â there are limits on what traits breeders can integrate in any given variety â they face the dilemma of which seed to pick at the expense of an equally desirable option.
Trait preference trade-offs among maize farmers in western Kenya, published in March 2021, provides evidence of this prioritization and seeks to help breeders, seed companies and other stakeholders set priorities that account for farmersâ needs and their willingness to make preference trade-offs. The researchers evaluated responses from 1,288 male and female farmers in the mid-altitude maize growing areas of western Kenya.
The study argues that farmer-centered seed systems (including seed companies) should be guided by farmersâ priorities and reflect a greater understanding of the tradeoffs these farmers make between traits and varieties. They have two key options, according to Paswel Marenya, the studyâs lead researcher and adoption and impact assessment economist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). The first involves prioritizing the critical must-have traits in any one variety. The second option entails having multiple varieties that meet diverse farmersâ needs and then segmenting the seed markets.
While Marenya argues that prioritization is important for balancing commercial realities and farmersâ diverse interests, he is quick to add that âmarket segmentation has limits imposed by the commercial viability of each segment.â
âAt every turn, from breeding to farmer varietal preferences to seed company considerations, there have to be trade-offs, as one cannot keep segmenting the market forever,â Marenya said. âAt some point, you must stop and choose what traits to prioritize in your breeding or commercially viable market segments, based on the most pressing challenges already identified.â
CIMMYT researchers conduct interviews in Kenya to determine farmer preferences for maize traits. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Differences in tradeoffs among men and women
From a gender lens, the paper reveals an obvious difference in tradeoffs made by men and women. Whereas the two groups desire some similar traits in their varieties of choice, women seem to be willing to make slightly larger yield sacrifices in favor of tolerance to drought and Striga and good storability. Women also valued good storability over 90-day maturity, while men appeared to place a higher value on the closed tip, a sign of resistance to moisture infiltration which causes grain rotting.
âThese results imply that unless the risks of storage or pre-harvest losses are reduced or eliminated, the value of high yielding varieties can be diminished if they are susceptible to production stresses or the grain characteristics make them susceptible to storage pests,â the study states.
The study indicates that farmers may adopt stress tolerant and high yielding varieties with somewhat low storability only if advanced grain storage technologies are available.
Until then, the suggestion to policy makers responsible for maize breeding is to use âmulti-criteria evaluationsâ of new varieties to ensure that traits for stress tolerance and storability are given optimal weighting in variety release decisions.
Additionally, information about farmer preferences should be fed back to breeding programs in national and international institutes responsible for maize genetic improvement.
A list of women leaders in STEMÂ features Evangelina Villegasâa plant chemist at CIMMYT during its early days whose ground-breaking work on quality protein maize (QPM) helped combat malnutrition among developing communities worldwide.
Women represent approximately 43 percent of the worldâs agricultural labor. Despite making up less than half of the labor force, women account for 60 to 80 percent of food production in developing countries. Often, official statistics ignore unpaid work â whether in the field, at a home garden or preparing food in the household â thus misrepresenting womenâs real contribution to agricultural work and production.
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), if the worldâs women farmers had the same access to resources and agricultural financing as men, 150 million people could be lifted out of poverty.
There is no way that we will be able to reach zero hunger if the public and private sectors do not get involved in gender-sensitive programming that addresses womenâs access to finance and other resources and opportunities.
A new study supported by the Walmart Foundation, which has been working steadily on this issue, found that smallholder farmers in Mexico must overcome considerable obstacles to access financing â but the barriers to credit are significantly higher for women.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has conducted interventions in the field to support this finding. A multidisciplinary CIMMYT team offered advice on financial inclusion to a group of 1,425 farmers in southern Mexico from 2018 to 2020. The team found that while 331 men received credit, only six women of the same target group did.
Similarly, only three women were able to take out agricultural insurance and 29 opened a savings account after two years of intervention, compared to 110 and 171 men, respectively.
However, there is some hope: an increasing number of farmers, both women and men, is progressively acquiring the basic information and skills to formally request financial products.
CIMMYT obtained funding from the Walmart Foundation in 2018 to implement a project aimed at improving smallholder farmersâ access to markets through collective action, crop diversification, and enhanced access to finance in Mexicoâs southern states of Campeche, Chiapas and Oaxaca. The projectâs solid results in validation and adoption of sustainable and inclusive technologies were key factors enabling the continuation of activities through 2021.
According to VĂctor LĂłpez, senior manager of partnerships for access to markets at CIMMYT, women farmers are less likely than men to default on loans but seldom have the necessary collateral to be considered as potential clients by standard financial institutions. Without this financial support, they are unable to obtain land, insurance or other critical agricultural inputs, trapping them in a cycle of poverty.
CIMMYT and its partners are working toward a more inclusive approach. With the support of the Walmart Foundation, CIMMYT is strengthening the capacity of farmers â particularly smallholders â and farmer organizations to mitigate production risks and incorporate market-sound considerations into their cropping plans.
These and similar rural development ventures with an inclusive business model perspective can help smallholder farmers, particularly women, combat hunger and food insecurity in Mexico and beyond.
The challenge is to bridge the financial services divide between agriculture and almost every other sector. As economic activity resumes and Mexico gradually recovers from the pandemic crisis, we have a big opportunity to create new credit products and financial services for women farmers that prioritize innovation and sustainable production over ownership rights.
This op-ed by CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff was originally published in the Mexican Business Review.
At the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), staff are one of our most important assets. We anchor our commitment to diversity and inclusion through our vision, mission and organizational strategy. We interpret workplace diversity as understanding, accepting and valuing all aspects of oneâs identity, including gender.
Scientists such as Itria Ibba, head of the Wheat Chemistry and Quality Laboratory, Thokozile (Thoko) Ndhlela, maize line development breeder, and Huihui Li, quantitative geneticist, empower the rest of the maize and wheat research community to do more for those who need sustainable food systems the most.
It wasnât easy to find a convenient time for the four of us to have a conversation â me, because of COVID-19 travel restrictions, from the Netherlands, Itria in Mexico, Thoko in Zimbabwe and Huihui in China â but we managed. I enjoyed hearing about their work, what sparked â and continues to spark â their passion for maize and wheat research and had the chance to share some thoughts about where the CGIAR transition is taking us.
Martin Kropff, Itria Ibba, Thoko Ndhlela and Huihui Li share a discussion over Zoom. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Martin Kropff: Hello Itria, Huihui and Thoko, great to see you! Iâd love to hear more about what you do. Why do you think your work is important in this day and age?
Itria Ibba: Hello Martin! I lead the [CIMMYT] Wheat Chemistry and Quality Laboratory. I am very passionate about my work, which I believe is very important.
In the lab we work both on the improvement of wheat technological and nutritional quality. Both of these aspects are fundamental for the successful adoption of a wheat variety and, of course, to promote a healthy and nutritious diet. Development of nutritious varieties is especially important because â especially in developing countries â the basic diet doesnât provide all the micro and macronutrients necessary to live a healthy life. Since my focus is wheat, a staple crop that is mainly used for human consumption, I think the work that I am doing can actually have a direct and real impact on the lives of many people.
Kropff: It is important that you â on the quality side of the work â can give feedback to the breeders, and they listen to you. Is it happening?
Ibba: I believe that yes. Of course, quality cannot be the only target in the selection process where several other traits such as yield potential, disease resistance and tolerance to abiotic stresses have to be considered. However, especially for wheat, quality needs to be considered because it is strictly associated with the economic value of a specific variety and plays a fundamental role throughout the whole wheat value chain. The feedback we are giving is being taken positively. Of course, it could be âheardâ more.
Kropff: If I may ask, do you think youâre being treated as a scientist regardless of your gender? Or does it matter?
Ibba: Personally, I have always felt that I was respected, in my lab and in my team, especially at CIMMYT. At the beginning, I had some concerns because I am a bit young⊠Mainly because of that, yes, but not because I am a woman. I cannot say anything bad from that perspective.
Kropff: I think that young people must have the future in our organization. Sometimes when people get older â I try not to be like that, but I am also getting older â they think that they know everything and then you have to be very careful, because the innovations are mostly coming from young people. But young minds come up with new ideas. What about your work, Huihui? You are contributing in a completely different way than Itria and Thoko, and you are coming from a mathematical point of view. When I see you, I always think about math.
Li: Yes, due to my major, sometimes I feel like I am a stranger working in an agricultural research organization. Because I canât breed new varieties, for example. So, whatâs my position? I ask myself: how can I have a successful career in agriculture? But I think that in this new era, this new digital era, I can do more.
Kropff: Data, data, data!
Li: Yes! We can do smart agriculture based on big data. We can do a lot of things with prediction, so that breeders can save time and effort. Maybe we cannot breed the varieties directly or we cannot publish our new findings in high impact journals, but we can play an essential role for this work to be successful. I think thatâs my added value: to be useful to breeders.
Kropff: And you are! Thoko, what about you?
Ndhlela: Iâm a maize breeder. Iâm responsible for two product profiles in southern Africa and these are extra early, early and nutritious maize. I feel like my work is very important, given that I am focusing on developing and deploying nutritious and stress-tolerant maize varieties to people who rely on maize as a staple food crop. White maize is the one that is mainly consumed and yet it doesnât contain any of the micronutrients such as vitamin A, zinc, iron. We are working towards closing that gap where people have limited or no access to other foods that contain those micronutrients. If we provide them with maize that is nutritious, then we close that gap and addressing the issue of malnutrition. It is especially critical, for young children. According to UNICEF, 53% of the mortalities in children globally are due to micronutrient deficiencies. My work aims to address to a greater extent the problems that farmers face.
Thoko Ndhlela presents on provitamin A maize at a CIMMYT demonstration plot in Zimbabwe. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Kropff: Are you working on provitamin A maize?
Ndhlela: Yes!
Kropff: Itâs orange right? How are consumers adopting it? Does that require extra marketing activities?
Ndhlela: Yes, because in most countries where maize is a popular staple food, people use yellow maize mostly for livestock feeds. But when it comes to the main food, they mainly use white maize. So there has to be that extra effort. We have been working with HarvestPlus on that front, and so far in southern Africa weâve made good strides in terms of getting people to accept the maize.
Back in the day, when they were first introduced to the idea of eating yellow maize as main food, that maize came from food relief and not in a good state, so there was that negative attitude, which they remembered when we came in with vitamin A maize [which has a yellow color]. We told them, âThis is differentâ and the fact that we did demos, they grew the maize, they harvested and consumed it, led to their acceptance of it. Right now, we have so much demand for seed, especially across southern Africa. Seed companies that we work with say that the seed is sold out and people are still looking for it.
Kropff: Iâm very happy to hear this. We have to make sure that what we do is demand-driven, right? And on your role as a woman in research in Zimbabwe. Do you feel like you are taken seriously as a scientist?
Ndhlela: I really do, yes. I am really given space to be myself, to do my work and have that impact on the ground.
Ibba: Martin, I have a question regarding One CGIAR. Will there be any changes within CIMMYT regarding redistribution of research areas? Will some of the research areas change the research focus or implement new research groups and strategies?
Kropff: I could talk for five hours about this. CGIAR has big plans to change the structure, to change the initiatives, to change everything this year.
I believe that CIMMYT is strong, we have a lot of impact. The quality of our work is really high, and I want to make sure that CIMMYTâs work â your work â finds a solid landing in the new CGIAR.
Theyâre envisioning a restructuring in three large science groups. Several Directors General suggest that we shouldnât start breaking everything up but that we take whole programs as we have them now and bring them into the new science groups. Itâs complicated but everyone wants the CGIAR to be successful.
In terms of research, what we do as CIMMYT already provides solutions, for example, the Integrated Development Programs, such as CSISA, MasAgro, SIMLESA. This has now been taken over by the whole CGIAR. These are programs where you work with national systems and you look at what is important to them, and where innovation is needed. Not focusing on single solutions but integrated solutions from different disciplines. When the research needs come directly from the stakeholders, we become more demand-driven. And that makes life even more exciting.
I think that when we listen to our stakeholders, there will always be a maize and wheat component [in agricultural research]. When we interviewed them in 2020, they stated that things [that are on top of their wish list for agricultural research and development are] breeding, agronomy, big data, and wheat, maize and rice.
I always say: what we need is food systems that deliver affordable â you said it already, Thoko â sufficient and healthy diets produced within planetary boundaries. And for all those criteria, wheat and maize are key because they are efficient, they are produced very well, they provide a good basis of nutrition, and you can produce them within planetary boundaries.
But, back to you. Could you share a story or anecdote about a turning point or defining moment in your work?
Ibba: Personally, Iâve had different turning points that led me to this career but I believe that one of the most important moments for me was when I started my PhD in Crop Science at Washington State University. There for the first time in my scientific career I understood the importance of working together with breeders, molecular scientists, cereal chemists and even with food companies in order to deliver a successful product from farmers all the way to consumers. The research done there had a real impact that you could see and I loved it. Also for this reason, I am happy to now work at CIMMYT because this happens here, as well, but at a bigger scale. You can clearly see that the work and research you do are directly used and go into new wheat lines and new varieties which are grown by different farmers across the world. Itâs amazing. Thatâs what I think had a bigger impact for me.
Itria Ibba presenting on wheat quality in her lab at CIMMYT HQ, Mexico. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Ndhlela: I think the biggest moment in my work was when I was first employed as a scientist at CIMMYT. I always looked at CIMMYT scientists as role models. I remember many times that CIMMYT jobs were being advertised for technicians, and people would say, âOh, this is yours now!â and I told them, âNo, no, no, I will only join CIMMYT as a scientist.â And I waited for that moment. And it came and was a turning point in my career and I really thought that now I can express myself, do my work without limitations. And to reach impact!
Another great moment in my work is when I hear that hundreds of farmers are growing and consuming the varieties that I am involved in developing and deploying. I really want to hear people talking of impact: how many tons of certified seed is being channeled from seed companies to the growers, and how many peoplesâ lives are we improving. I think that really defines my work. If the varieties donât get to the farmer, then it is just work going to waste.
Li: Sometimes I feel inferior because I canât breed a variety, or have big papers in agriculture-related journals, but one day I looked up my citation of my publications and I felt self-satisfied. I could feel my impact. Actually, several of my papers are highly cited; my total citation is more than 3,000 right now.
Kropff: Oh good!
Li: Yes! That means that my work has impact and many people are using the algorithm I developed to have even more impact. Papers that cite my work are published in Science and Nature, Nature Genetics, etc. I feel useful and like my work plays an essential role in research.
Kropff: Thatâs the thing: thereâs impact in science and impact in farmersâ fields and at CIMMYT it comes together. Colleagues at CIMMYT are taking your results and using them to make a difference through crop variety improvement and other things.
Ndhlela: How do you think that One CGIAR will help strengthen our research towards the Sustainable Development Goals across the geographies where we work?
Kropff: I have always promoted the idea of âOne CGIARâ. Even before joining CIMMYT. But it is complicated because weâre bringing 13 CGIAR Centers together. I saw it at Wageningen University: when you have one organization, you can be so much stronger and more visible, globally.
Because together we [One CGIAR] are the global international organization for agricultural research. We add something [to our global partners such as] the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) which works on agricultural policy, and IFAD that has international development programs and World Food Programme which delivers food â most of it staple crops â to those who need it the most. But supplying food is not a sustainable approach, we want to have sustainable food systems in those countries, so that people can produce their own food. Thatâs where research is necessary, and knowledge is necessary.
I am super proud that the wheat and maize and agronomy work we do is so well adopted. Farmers are adopting our varieties across the globe. These are new varieties Iâm talking about â this is key â which are on average 10 years old and they respond to current challenges happening on the ground. Regarding your work, Thoko, with maize, I just got data from Prasanna [CIMMYTâs Maize Program and CGIAR Research Program on Maize Leader, Prasanna Boddupalli] that farmers are growing drought-tolerant maize and other maize varieties from CIMMYT on 5 million hectares in eastern and southern Africa! All of this is because of a good seed systems approach with the private sector: small seed companies delivering our varieties scaling our great breeding work. Taking it to the farmers!
I think that the work that we do is super important to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. Number one ââ well, itâs number two, but for me it is the first ââ is ending hunger. Because when youâre hungry, you cannot think or live normally. Poverty is also an incredibly important challenge. But I would put hunger as number one. I donât think any of us here have had real hunger. My parents did, in the Second World War and let me tell you, when I heard those stories, I realized that thatâs something that nobody should go through.
Climate change as well. We have to keep innovating because the climate keeps changing. I was just reading today in a Dutch newspaper that 2 degrees wonât be reached, it will be more. And in the Netherlands the land is so low, so that even with dykes, we will not be able to manage in the next 50 years. People will have to start moving. In the Indo-Gangetic Plains, theyâll have to plant short duration rice, use smart machinery such as the Happy Seeder, then plant short duration wheat â all just to stay ahead of the looming 50 ËC weather.
Do you agree?
Ibba: Well, yes, but I hope that in the end there will be good coordination between the CGIAR Centers and everything. But if it works well, then I definitely think that it will be more impactful. Thatâs for sure.
Kropff: What can supervisors and mentors do to encourage women in science careers?
Li: I think this is a good question Martin. I am sure that Itria and Thoko will agree with me: women need more than just our salary. I think that women are more emotional, so, most of the time, when my supervisor is more considerate and careful in regard to my emotions, I feel touched and actually, more motivated. I simply need more consideration, emotionally. I have some experience in this with students [who work for me]. When I want to stimulate their motivation, I compare the two effects. Say, I increase their salary. I feel that the male student is happier than the female. [Laughs] On the other hand, I try to be more considerate with all of my students and ask them about their families or express concern about something. When I do this, I donât get much of a reaction from the males but the females are grateful. I think the same works for me.
Huihui Li at work in her lab in China. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Kropff: I always intend to treat everyone equally and I think I do. But then some people need to be treated differently. That is situational management based on the capabilities and also the personality of people. Do we have to be more mindful of how one works with women?
Li: Well, people are diverse.
Kropff: Right. On the one hand, people should be treated as they want to be treated based on their individual personality, and then on the other hand you want to make sure that women are taken as seriously as men in, say, science.
Ndhlela: I agree with Huihui. Supervisors should give maximum support to women because they already have full plates. The field of science is challenging, so if they feel that theyâre not being given enough support, they tend to get discouraged and demoralized. So, supervisors and colleagues need to take that into account. Like Huihui said, women are more emotional than our counterparts. And they need that support. When dealing with women in a professional setting, supervisors could take a visionary style where they give us space to work and do our assigned duties without a lot of interference. Micromanagement is frustrating. From my experience, women in science are serious and they can work with minimum supervision and they are really out there to achieve objectives.
Ibba: I agree with both of you. Space and trust, and constructive criticism. Apart from the strength and support from oneâs supervisor, it would be good to implement a mentorship program for young scientists. Sometimes you need a non-supervisor voice or someone that can guide you [who you do not report to]. Human Resources also need to play a key role in supporting women and men, and ensuring zero discrimination. But Iâm sure that all we really want is to be treated as humans [laughs]. We all have emotions.
Kropff: Thank you very much colleagues for this open discussion. This has been very interesting and given me a lot of food for thought. Our conversation makes me miss pre-COVID-19 informal moments at work and at conferences, social moments where people open up. But here we show, we can do that during Zoom meetings as well with videos on to read each otherâs body language and with groups that are small. Thank you for the inspiration!
Mary Nzau enters a mock agrodealer shop set up on a field on the outskirts of Tala town in Machakos County, Kenya. On display are nine 2kg bags of hybrid maize seed. She picks one. By the look of it, her mind is made up. After a quick scan of the shelf, she has in her hand the variety that she has been purchasing for years.
Regina Mbaika Mutua is less lucky. The variety she always buys is not on display in the mock shop. As part of the experiment, the research team has removed from the shelf the variety she indicated she usually buys. The teamâs goal is to observe what factors influence her seed purchase decision in the absence of the variety she was expecting to purchase.
âAlthough I did not find the variety I was looking for, I picked an alternative as I have seen it perform well on a neighboring farm,â Mutua says, adding that she will plant it this season alongside recycled (farm-saved) seed on her one-acre farm.
Michael Mutua passes up the popular variety he has been planting for the previous two years. He picks one that has been advertised extensively on local radio. âI have heard about it severally on radio. I would like to experiment with this new seed and see how it performs on my farm. Should I like the results, I will give it a chance in ensuing seasons,â he says.
Pieter Rutsaert explains the study setup at a mock agrodealer shop. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
The big adoption conundrum
The goal of the out-of-stock study is to improve an understanding of how farmers make their maize seed choices, says Pieter Rutsaert, Markets and Value Chain Specialist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
âWe do this by inviting farmers to a mock agrodealer store that we set up in their villages and give them a small budget to purchase a bag of seed. However, not all farmers walk into the same store: some will find their preferred variety, others wonât. Some will have access to additional trait information or see some varieties with price promotions while others donât.â
Rutsaert acknowledges that breeding programs and their partner seed companies have done a great job at giving farmers access to maize hybrids with priority traits such as drought tolerance and high yield. CIMMYT then works closely with local seed companies to get varieties into the hands of farmers. âWe want to extend that support by providing insights to companies and public breeding programs on how to get new varieties more quickly into the hands of farmers,â he says.
Pauline Muindi (left), gender research associate with CIMMYT, acts as a mock agrodealer clerk and attends a farmer. (Photo: CIMMYT)
The hybrid maize seed sector in Kenya is highly competitive. Amid intensifying competition, new varieties face a daunting task breaking into the market, independent of their quality. While farmers now have more options to pick from, a major challenge has been how to get them to adopt new varieties.
âMoving farmers from something they know to something they donât is not easy. They tend to stick with what they know and have been growing for years,â Rutsaert says.
Pauline Muindi, gender research associate with CIMMYT, acted as the stand-in clerk at the mock store. She noticed that farmers tend to spend very little time in the shop when their preferred variety is available. However, this all changes in the out-of-stock situation, pushing farmers to step out of their comfort zone and explore new options.
The first step to overcoming this challenge is to entice maize farmers to try a new seed variety, even just once, Rutsaert observes. If it is a good variety, farmers will see that and then the market will work in its favor: farmers will come back to that variety in subsequent years and tell others about it.
âThe good news is that many of the varieties we are currently seeing on the market have performed well â thatâs why theyâre popular. But there are newer varieties that are even better, especially in terms of attributes like drought tolerance. We would like to understand how farmers can be convinced to try out these newer varieties. Is it about the need for more awareness on varietal traits? Can we use price promotions? Or are there other factors?â he says.
A researcher interviews Mary Nzau (right), a farmer from Tala town in Machakos County, after her mock purchase. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Does seed price matter?
âWith todayâs climate uncertainty, it is better to stick to a variety that is adapted to such climate rather than banking on a variety one is oblivious of. The risk is not worth it,â Nzau says. She adds that she would rather buy a higher-priced seed packet she knows and trusts than a lower-priced one that she has not used in the past. Radio promotions of new or other varieties have limited sway over her decision to make the switch.
Faith Voni, another farmer, agrees. âIt is better to purchase a higher-priced variety whose quality I can vouch for than risk purchasing a lower-priced one that I know little about. I do not wish to take such a risk.â Voni says she would also be more inclined to experiment with another variety that she had seen perform well on a neighborâs farm.
Michael Mutua holds a different view. âIf there is an option of an equally good but new variety that is lower-priced than the variety I prefer, my wallet decides,â he says.
Vivian Hoffmann, an economist at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and collaborator on the study, says price can be key for convincing consumers to try a new product. âOur previous research on maize flour choice found that a provisional 10 percent discount boosted sales tremendously,â Hoffmann says. âOf course, that only gets your foot in the door; after that, a new variety will need to win farmers over based on its merits.â
Hoffmann is interested in the extent to which drawing farmersâ attention to key varietal attributes influences their seed choice. âThis information is generally already available on seed packets, but we live in a world of information overload. Promoting certain attributes through in-store signage is an approach that is widely used to help consumers make more healthier food choices. Doing the same for new seed varieties makes a lot of sense.â
Michael Mutua (left) responds to preliminary questions from one of the research team members before proceeding to make his seed selection at the mock agrodealer shop. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
The value of drought tolerance
Situated on Kenyaâs eastern region, Machakos is characterized by persistent water stress. Climate change induced erratic rainfall has pushed traits that can tolerate the unfavorable weather conditions in the favoriteâs corner. While other traits such as high yield and disease resistance are equally important, the seed, when planted, must first withstand the effects of droughts or water stress in some seasons and germinate. This is the most crucial step in the long journey to either a decent, bare minimum or no yield. A lot of farmers still plant recycled seed alongside hybrid varieties. But these are no match to water stress conditions, which decimate fields planted with farmer-saved seed.
âIf a variety is not climate resilient, I will likely not harvest anything at all,” says Nzau. She has planted a drought-tolerant variety for ten years now. Prior to that, she had planted about three other varieties as well as recycled seed. âThe only advantage with recycled seed is that given the right amount of rainfall, they mature fast â typically within two months. This provides my family with an opportunity to eat boiled or roast maize,â she notes.
However, varieties need to do more than just survive harsh weather conditions. Breeders face a daunting task of incorporating as many traits as possible to cater to the overarching and the specific interests of multiple farmers. As Murenga Mwimali, a maize breeder at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) and collaborator in this research says, innovations in breeding technologies are making breeding more efficient.
âIt is better to have a diversity of product profiles as different market niches are captured within a particular agroecological zones. This is such that farmers may not just benefit from the minimum traits like drought tolerance, but also more specific traits they are looking for,â Mwimali says.
Smallholder farmers continue to play a central role in the seed development process. Capturing what happens at the point of purchase, for instance, at the agrodealer, and understanding how they purchase seed offers valuable insights on the traits that are deemed essential in the breeding process. This work contributes to CIMMYTâs focus on fast-tracking varietal turnover by turning the levers towards a demand-driven seed system.
Cover photo: Pauline Muindi, gender research associate with CIMMYT, at the mock agrodealer shop where she acted as a clerk. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Gokul Paudel is an agricultural economist working to streamline farming practices in South Asia. He seeks to understand, learn from and improve the efficiency of on-farm management practices in a vast variety of ways. Although he joined the International Improvement Center for Wheat and Maize (CIMMYT) right after university, Paudelâs on-farm education started long before his formal courses.
âI was born in a rural village in Baglung district, in the mid-hills of Nepal. My parents worked on a small farm, holding less than half a hectare of land,â he says. âWhen I was a kid, I remember hearing that even though Nepal is an agricultural country, we still have a lot of food insecurity, malnutrition and children who suffer from stunting.â
âI would ask: How is Nepal an agricultural country, yet we suffer from food insecurity and food-related problems? This question is what inspired me to go to an agricultural university.â
Paudel attended Tribhuvan University in Nepal, and through his coursework, he learned about plant breeding, genetic improvement and how Norman Borlaug brought the first Green Revolution to South Asia. âAfter completing my undergraduate and post-graduate studies, I realized that CIMMYT is the one organization that contributes the most to improving food security and crop productivity in developing countries, where farmers livelihoods are always dependent on agriculture,â he explains.
Approaching the paradox
Paudel is right about the agriculture and food paradox of his home country. Almost two thirds of Nepalâs population is engaged in agricultural production, yet the country still has shockingly high numbers in terms of food insecurity and nutritional deficiency. Furthermore, widespread dissemination of unsustainable agronomic practices, like the use of heavy-tilling machinery, present similar consequences across South Asia.
If research and data support the claim that conservation agriculture substantially improves crop yields, then why is the adoption of these practices so low? That is exactly what Paudel seeks to understand. âI want to help improve the food security of the country,â he explains. âThatâs why I joined the agricultural sector.â
Paudel joined CIMMYT in 2011 to work with the Socioeconomics Program (SEP) and the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), providing regional support across Bangladesh, India and Nepal.
His work is diverse. Paudel goes beyond finding out which technological innovations increase on-farm yield and profit, because success on research plots does not always translate to success on smallholder fields. He works closely with farmers and policy makers, using surveys and high-tech analytical tools such as machine learning and data mining to learn about what actually happens on farmersâ plots to impact productivity.
Gokul Paudel holds up two bags of wheat crop-cuts in a farmer’s field. (Photo: CIMMYT)
A growing future for conservation agriculture
Over the last two decades, the development of environmentally sustainable and financially appealing farming technologies through conservation agriculture has become a key topic of agronomic research in South Asia.
âConservation agriculture is based on three principles: minimum disturbance of the soil structure, cover crop and crop rotation, especially with legumes,â Paudel explains.
Leaving the soil undisturbed through zero-till farming increases water infiltration, holds soil moisture and helps to prevent topsoil erosion. Namely, zero-till farming has been identified as one of the most transformative innovations in conservation agriculture, showing the potential to improve farming communitiesâ ability to mitigate the challenges of climate change while also improving crop yields.
Can farm mechanization ease South Asiaâs labor shortage?
In South Asia, understanding local contexts is crucial to streamlining farm mechanization. In recent years, many men have left their agricultural jobs in search of better opportunities in the Gulf countries and this recent phenomenon of labor out-migration has left women to take up more farming tasks.
âWomen are responsible for taking care of the farm, household and raising their children,â says Paudel. âSince rural out-migration has increased, they have been burdened by the added responsibility of farm work and labor scarcity. This means that on-farm labor wages are rising, exacerbating the cost of production.â
The introduction of farm machinery, such as reapers and mini-tillers, can ease the physical and financial burden of the labor shortage. âGender-responsive farm mechanization would not only save [womenâs] time and efforts, but also empower them through skills enhancement and farm management,â says Paudel. However, he explains, measures must be taken to ensure that women actually feel comfortable adopting these technologies, which have traditionally been held in the male domain.
Gokul Paudel records the total above-ground biomass of maize and other maize yield attributes in a farmerâs field in Kanchunpur, Nepal. (Photo: Ashok Rai/CIMMYT)
From farm-tech to high-tech
Right now, amidst the global lockdown due to COVID-19, Paudelâs field activities are highly restricted. However, he is capitalizing on an opportunity to assess years’ worth of data on on-farm crop production practices, collected from across Bangladesh, India and Nepal.
âWe are analyzing this data-set using novel approaches, like machine learning, to understand what drives productivity in farmers’ fields and what to prioritize, for our efforts and for the farmers,â he explains.
Although there are many different aspects of his work, from data collection and synthesis to analysis, Paudelâs favorite part of the job is when his team finds the right, long-lasting solution to farmersâ production-related problems.
âThereâs a multidimensional aspect to it, but all of these solutions affect the farmerâs livelihood directly. Productivity is directly related to their food security, income and rural livelihoods.â
A changing landscape
About 160 km away from where he lives now, Paudelâs parents still own the farm he grew up on â though they no longer work on it themselves. They are proud to hear that his work has a direct impact on communities like theirs throughout the country.
âEvery day, new problems are appearing due to climate change â problems of drought, flooding and disease outbreak. Though itâs not good news, it motivates me to continue the work that Iâm doing,â says Paudel. âThe most fascinating thing about working at CIMMYT is that we have a team of multidisciplinary scientists working together with the common goal of sustainably intensifying the agricultural systems in the developing world.â
