Maize post-harvest losses in smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa have been shown to result in significant costs at household and national level, making it difficult to move towards achievement of SDG2 â Zero Hunger.
Within smallholder farming systems, new grain storage technologies such as metal silos can help reduce these losses during storage. However, technologies are often introduced into systems with complex sets of relationships, which may differentially affect the ability of women and men to secure the expected benefits. This, in turn, can have a knock-on effect on adoption rates and expected outcomes.
A recent study by an international team of researchers investigated whether modern storage structures such as metal silos provide equal benefits to women and men farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, using a mixed methods approach to explore the relationships governing maize production and storage in Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, where 1717 metal silos have been introduced through the Effective Grain Storage Project (EGSP).
The authors used random sampling to carry out quantitative surveys on metal silo owners in Kenya (124 respondents) and Malawi (100 respondents). Qualitative surveys using purposive sampling were also conducted in all four countries covering 14 ethnic groups using focus group discussions (360 respondents), key informant interviews (62 respondents), and household case studies (62 respondents). âOur aim was to understand gendered post-harvest management and storage strategies in traditional systems and to map changes when metal silos were introduced,â explain the authors.
âWe hypothesized that existing gender norms might differentially influence womenâs ability to benefit from the introduction of metal silos and our findings seem to indicate that this is correct. In most instances when metal silos are introduced, ownership of the grain storage facility and any benefits attached to that ownership typically switch from women to men, or menâs existing control over stored maize is deepened.â
A farmer from Embu, Kenya, demonstrates how to load maize grain into a metal silo for storage. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Their findings highlight that roles and responsibilities regarding the ownership and management of storage structures are strongly gendered. Though there are differences between ethnic groups and countries, overall men benefit more than women from the introduction of metal silos. Ownership of a grain storage facility and the benefits attached to this ownership can switch from women to men, with women having less scope for bargaining over their rights to use the stores for their own needs and the benefit of all household members.
Many of the women interviewed suggested that this compromised their ability to access sufficient maize because men might insist on taking any grain set aside to meet their personal needs. âWe did not measure how much grain is taken and whether food security is indeed negatively affected, but our research registers that women are concerned about this issue.â
The qualitative research explored whether ownership over the granary â and control over the maize stored within â changed when metal silos were purchased. In all four countries, cultural norms tend to result in men typically owning all large household assets such as land, water pumps, ox-ploughs and carts, etc. They generally make key decisions about how these assets are to be used as well. Furthermore, the income differential between women and men in male-headed households means that it is considerably more difficult for women than men to make a large purchase like a metal silo. âAs a consequence of these factors, we found men were more likely to own metal silos in each country.â
There is some differentiation between ethnic groups. In Zimbabwe, for example, Zezuru women who had previously owned and managed a dura â a traditional granary â lost control over maize grain reserves when metal silos were introduced. But for Korekore women nothing changed: men had always controlled traditional storage technologies and the maize within, and they continued to do so when metal silos were introduced. These examples highlight the fact that despite the cultural differences between ethnic groups, Zimbabwean women lost out across the board when metal silos were introduced, either through losing control over storage structures, or because male ownership was not challenged.
In light of these findings, the authors argue that understanding social context is key to designing and disseminating post-harvest technologies that meet the needs and preferences of both men and women farmers in various cultural contexts.
Their results make a strong case for ensuring that agricultural policy-makers prioritize the provision of equal access to improved technologies, as this is crucial not only for supporting women to meet their individual production goals, but also for ensuring that household-level food security needs are met.
The first meetings of the Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat for Improved Livelihoods (AGG) wheat and maize science and technical steering committees â WSC and MSC, respectively â took place virtually on 25th and 28th September.
Researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) sit on both committees. In the WSC they are joined by wheat experts from national agricultural research systems (NARS) in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, India, and Nepal; and from Angus Wheat Consultants, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), HarvestPlus, Kansas State University and the Roslin Institute.
Similarly, the MSC includes maize experts from NARS in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya and Zambia; and from Corteva, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), SeedCo, Syngenta, the University of Queensland, and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
During the meetings, attendees discussed scientific challenges and opportunities for AGG, and developed specific recommendations pertaining to key topics including breeding and testing scheme optimization, effective engagement with partners and capacity development in the time of COVID-19, and seed systems and gender intentionality.
Discussion groups noted, for example, the need to address family structure in yield trials, to strengthen collaboration with national partners, and to develop effective regional on-farm testing strategies. Interestingly, most of the recommendations are applicable and valuable for both crop teams, and this is a clear example of the synergies we expect from combining maize and wheat within the AGG project.
All the recommendations will be further analyzed by the AGG teams during coming months, and project activities will be adjusted or implemented as appropriate. A brief report will be submitted to the respective STSCs prior to the second meetings of these committees, likely in late March 2021.
Where agriculture relies heavily on manual labor, small-scale mechanization can reduce labor constraints and contribute to higher yields and food security. However, demand for and adoption of labor-saving machinery remains weak in many areas. Paradoxically, this includes areas where women face a particularly high labor burden.
âHow do we make sense of this?â asks Lone Badstue, a rural development sociologist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). âWhat factors influence womenâs articulation of demand for and use of farm power mechanization?â
To answer this question, an international team of researchers analyzed data from four analytical dimensions â gender division of labor; gender norms; gendered access to and control over resources like land and income; and intra-household decision-making â to show how interactions between these influence womenâs demand for and use of mechanization.
âOverall, a combination of forces seems to work against womenâs demand articulation and adoption of labor-saving technologies,â says Badstue. Firstly, womenâs labor often goes unrecognized, and they are typically expected to work hard and not voice their concerns. Additionally, women generally lack access to and control over a range of resources, including land, income, and extension services.
This is exacerbated by the gendered division of labor, as womenâs time poverty negatively affects their access to resources and information. Furthermore, decision-making is primarily seen as menâs domain, and women are often excluded from discussions on the allocation of labor and other aspects of farm management. Crucially, many of these factors interlink across all four dimensions of the authorsâ analytical framework to shape womenâs demand for and adoption of labor-saving technologies.
A diagram outlines the links between different factors influencing gender dynamics in demand articulation and adoption of laborsaving technologies. (Graphic: Nancy Valtierra/CIMMYT)
Demand articulation and adoption of labor-saving technologies in the study sites are shown to be stimulated when women have control over resources, and where more permissive or inclusive norms influence gender relations. âWomenâs independent control over resources is a game changer,â explains Badstue. âAdoption of mechanized farm power is practically only observed when women have direct and sole control over land and on- or off-farm income. They rarely articulate demand or adopt mechanization through joint decision-making with male relatives.â
The study shows that independent decision-making by women on labor reduction or adoption of mechanization is often confronted with social disapproval and can come at the cost of losing social capital, both within the household and in the community. As such, the authors stress the importance of interventions which engage with these issues and call for the recognition of technological change as shaped by the complex interplay of gender norms, gendered access to and control over resources, and decision-making.
By 2050, global demand for wheat is predicted to increase by 50 percent from todayâs levels and demand for maize is expected to double. Meanwhile, these profoundly important and loved crops bear incredible risks from emerging pests and diseases, diminishing water resources, limited available land and unstable weather conditions â with climate change as a constant pressure exacerbating all these stresses.
Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat for Improved Livelihoods (AGG) is a new 5-year project led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) that brings together partners in the global science community and in national agricultural research and extension systems to accelerate the development of higher-yielding varieties of maize and wheat.
Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), AGG fuses innovative methods to sustainably and inclusively improve breeding efficiency and precision to produce seed varieties that are climate-resilient, pest- and disease-resistant, highly nutritious, and targeted to farmersâ specific needs.
AGG seeks to respond to the intersection of the climate emergency and gender through gender-intentional product profiles for its improved seed varieties and gender-intentional seed delivery pathways.
AGG will take into account the needs and preferences of female farmers when developing the product profiles for improved varieties of wheat and maize. This will be informed by gender-disaggregated data collection on current varieties and preferred characteristics and traits, systematic on-farm testing in target regions, and training of scientists and technicians.
Farmer Agnes Sendeza harvests maize cobs in Malawi. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)
To encourage female farmers to take up climate-resilient improved seeds, AGG will seek to understand the pathways by which women receive information and improved seed and the external dynamics that affect this access and will use this information to create gender-intentional solutions for increasing varietal adoption and turnover.
âUntil recently, investments in seed improvement work have not actively looked in this area,â said Olaf Erenstein, Director of CIMMYTâs Socioeconomics Program at a virtual inception meeting for the project in late August 2020. Now, âit has been built in as a primary objective of AGG to focus on [âŠ] strengthening gender-intentional seed delivery systems so that we ensure a faster varietal turnover and higher adoption levels in the respective target areas.â
In the first year of the initiative, the researchers will take a deep dive into the national- and state-level frameworks and policies that might enable or influence the delivery of these new varieties to both female and male farmers. They will analyze this delivery system by mapping the seed delivery paths and studying the diverse factors that impact seed demand. By understanding their respective roles, practices, and of course, the strengths and weaknesses of the system, the researchers can diagnose issues in the delivery chain and respond accordingly.
Once this important scoping step is complete, the team will design a research plan for the following years to understand and influence the seed information networks and seed acquisition. It will be critical in this step to identify some of the challenges and opportunities on a broad scale, while also accounting for the related intra-household decision-making dynamics that could affect access to and uptake of these improved seed varieties.
âIt is a primary objective of AGG to ensure gender intentionality,â said Kevin Pixley, Director of CIMMYTâs Genetic Resources Program and AGG project leader. âOften women do not have access to not only inputs but also information, and in the AGG project we are seeking to help close those gaps.â
Cover photo: Farmers evaluate traits of wheat varieties, Ethiopia. (Photo: Jeske van de Gevel/Bioversity International)
For smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, new agricultural technologies such as improved maize varieties offer numerous benefits â increased incomes, lower workloads and better food security, among others. However, when new technologies are introduced, they can denaturalize and expose gender norms and power relations because their adoption inevitably requires women and men to renegotiate the rules of the game. The adoption of new varieties will often be accompanied by a number of related decisions on the allocation of farm labor, the purchase and use of inorganic fertilizers, switching crops between women- and men-managed plots, and the types of benefit household members expect to secure may change.
In an article published this month in Gender, Technology and Development, researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) explore how women in Nigeria negotiate these new power dynamics to access and secure the benefits of improved maize varieties and, more broadly, to expand their decision-making space.
Using focus group and interview data collected as part of the GENNOVATE project, the authors draw on case studies from four villages â two in the northern states of Kaduna and Plateau; two in the southwestern state of Oyo â to develop an understanding of the relationship between gender norms, womenâs ability and willingness to express their agency, and the uptake of agricultural technologies. âThis is an important step toward improving the capacity of agricultural research for development to design and scale innovations,â say the authors. âAchieving this ambition is highly relevant to maize.â
The results were similar across all four sites. The authors found that women in each area were constrained by powerful gender norms which privilege male agency and largely frown upon womenâs empowerment, thus limiting their ability to maximize the benefits from improved varieties or realize their agency in other domains.
All women respondents remarked that improved maize varieties were easy to adopt, have higher yields and mature quickly, which meant that income flows started earlier and helped them meet household expenditures on time. They prioritized the contribution of improved maize to securing household food security, which helped them meet their ascribed gender roles as food providers.
âAt the same time though, women felt they could not maximize their benefits from improved maize varieties due to menâs dominance in decision-making,â the authors explain. âThis was particularly the case for married women.â
âMen are meant to travel far â not womenâ
Woman selling white maize at Bodija market in Ibadan, Nigeria. (Photo: Adebayo O./IITA)
Embedded gender norms â particularly those relating to mobility â infuse the wider environment and mean that womenâs access to opportunities is considerably more restricted than it is for men.
The findings demonstrate that both women and men farmers secure benefits from improved maize varieties. However, men accrue more benefits and benefit directly, as they have unfettered mobility and opportunity. They can access markets that are further away, and the maize they sell is unprocessed and requires no transformation. Additionally, men do not question their right to devote profits from maize primarily to their own concerns, nor their right to secure a high level of control over the money women make.
On the other hand, women respondents â regardless of age and income cohort â repeatedly stated that while it is hard to earn significant money from local sales of the processed maize products they make, it is also very difficult for them to enter large markets selling unprocessed, improved maize.
The difficulties women face in trying to grow maize businesses may be partly related to a lack of business acumen and experience, but a primary reason is limited personal mobility in all four communities. For example, in Sabon Birni village, Kaduna, women lamented that though the local market is not large enough to accommodate their maize processing and other agri-business ventures, they are not permitted travel to markets further afield where âthere are always people ready to buyâ.
âWomenâs benefits relate to the fact that improved maize varieties increase the absolute size of the âmaize cakeâ,â say the authors. âThey expect to get a larger slice as a consequence. However, the absolute potential of improved varieties for boosting womenâs incomes and other options of importance to women is hampered by gender norms that significantly restrict their agency.â
The implications for maize research and development are that an improved understanding of the complex relational nature of empowerment is essential when introducing new agricultural technologies.
Seed systems are complex and dynamic, involving diverse, interdisciplinary actors. Women play an important role in the seed value chain, although underlying social and cultural norms can impact their equal participation. Gender-sensitive seed systems will create more opportunities for women and increase food security.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) convened a multi-stakeholder technical workshop titled, âGender dynamics in seed systems in sub-Saharan Africa and worldwide lessonsâ on December 2, 2019, in Nairobi, Kenya. Researchers and development practitioners operating in the nexus of gender and seed systems shared lessons learned and research findings to identify knowledge gaps and exchange ideas on promising â and implementable â interventions and approaches that expand opportunities for women in the seed sector.
Women in societies practicing wheat-based agriculture have started challenging the norm of men being sole decision-makers. They are transitioning from workers to innovators and managers, a recent study has found.
Women were adopting specific strategies to further their interests in the context of wheat-based livelihoods, the study found. The process, however, is far from straightforward.
Using data from 12 communities across four Indian states, an international team of researchers has shed new light on how women are gradually innovating and influencing decision-making in wheat-based systems.
The study, published this month in The European Journal of Development Research, challenges stereotypes of men being the sole decision-makers in wheat-based systems and performing all the work. The authors, which include researchers from the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT)-funded GENNOVATE initiative, show that women adopt specific strategies to further their interests in the context of wheat-based livelihoods.
In parts of India, agriculture has become increasingly feminized in response to rising migration of men from rural areas to cities. An increasing proportion of women, relative to men, are working in the fields. However, little is known about whether these women are actually taking key decisions.
The authors distinguish between high gender gap communities â identified as economically vibrant and highly male-dominant â and low gender gap communities, which are also economically vibrant but where women have a stronger say and more room to maneuver.
The study highlights six strategies women adopt to participate actively in decision-making. These range from less openly challenging strategies that the authors term acquiescence, murmuring, and quiet co-performance (typical of high gender gap communities), to more assertive ones like active consultation, women managing, and finally, women deciding (low gender gap communities).
In acquiescence, for example, women are fully conscious that men do not expect them to take part in agricultural decision-making, but do not articulate any overt forms of resistance.
In quiet co-performance, some middle-income women in high gender gap communities begin to quietly support men’s ability to innovate, for example by helping to finance the innovation, and through carefully nuanced ‘suggestions’ or âadvice.’ They donât openly question that men take decisions in wheat production. Rather, they appear to use male agency to support their personal and household level goals.
In the final strategy, women take all decisions in relation to farming and innovation. Their husbands recognize this process is happening and support it.
A wheat farmer in India. (Photo: J. Cumes/CIMMYT)
âOne important factor in stronger womenâs decision-making capacity is male outmigration. This is a reality in several of the low gender gap villages studiedâand it is a reality in many other communities in India. Another is educationâmany women and their daughters talked about how empowering this is,â said gender researcher and lead-author Cathy Farnworth.
In some communities, the study shows, women and men are adapting by promoting womenâs âmanagerialâ decision-making. However, the study also shows that in most locations the extension services have failed to recognize the new reality of male absence and women decision-makers. This seriously hampers women, and is restricting agricultural progress.
Progressive village heads are critical to progress, too. In some communities, they are inclusive of women but in others, they marginalize women. Input suppliers â including machinery providers â also have a vested interest in supporting women farm managers. Unsurprisingly, without the support of extension services, village heads, and other important local actors, womenâs ability to take effective decisions is reduced.
âThe co-authors, partners at Glasgow Caledonian University and in India, were very important to both obtaining the fieldwork data, and the development of the typologyâ said Lone Badstue, researcher at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and another co-author of the paper.
The new typology will allow researchers and development partners to better understand empowerment dynamics and womenâs agency in agriculture. The authors argue that development partners should support these strategies but must ultimately leave them in the hands of women themselves to manage.
âItâs an exciting study because the typology can be used by anyone to distinguish between the ways women (and men) express their ideas and get to where they wantâ, concluded Farnworth.
The use of small-scale mechanization in smallholder farming systems in South Asia has increased significantly in recent years. This development is a positive step towards agricultural transformation in the region. Small-scale mechanization is now seen as a viable option to address labor scarcity and offset the impact of male outmigration in rural areas, as well as other shortages that undermine agricultural productivity.
However, most existing farm mechanization technologies are either gender blind or gender neutral. This is often to the detriment of women farmers, who are increasingly taking on additional agricultural work in the absence of male laborers. Minimizing this gender disparity among smallholders has been a key concern for policymakers, but there is little empirical literature available on gender and farm mechanization.
A new study by researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) addresses this gap, using data from six districts in the highlands of Nepal to assess the impact of the gender of household heads on the adoption of mini-tillers â small machinery used to prepare and cultivate land before planting.
Their findings reveal that, when it comes to mini-tiller adoption, there is a significant gender gap. Compared to male-headed households, explain the authors, the rate of adoption is significantly lower among female-headed households. Moreover, they add, when male- and female-headed households have similar observed attributes, the mini-tiller adoption rate among the food insecure female-headed households is higher than in the food secure group.
The authors argue that this gender-differentiated mini-tiller adoption rate can be minimized in the first instance by increasing market access. Their findings suggest that farm mechanization policies and programs targeted specifically to female-headed households can also help reduce this adoption gap in Nepal and similar hill production agroecologies in South Asia, which will enhance the farm yield and profitability throughout the region.
The pursuit for higher and more stable yields, alongside better stress tolerance, has dominated maize breeding in Africa for a long time. Such attributes have been, and still are, essential in safeguarding the food security and livelihoods of smallholder farmers. However, other essential traits have not been the main priority of breeding strategies: how a variety tastes when cooked, its smell, its texture or its appearance.
They are now gradually coming into the mainstream of maize breeding. Researchers are exploring the sensory characteristics consumers prefer and identifying the varieties under development which have the desired qualities. Breeders may then choose to incorporate specific traits that farmers or consumers value in future breeding work. This research is also helping to accelerate varietal turnover in the last mile, as farmers have additional reasons to adopt newer varieties.
In the last five years, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has been conducting participatory variety evaluations across East Africa. First, researchers invited farmers and purchasers of improved seed in specific agro-ecologies to visit demonstration plots and share their preferences for plant traits they would like to grow in their own farms.
In 2019 and 2020, researchers also started to facilitate evaluations of the sensory aspects of varieties.
Fresh samples of green maize, from early- to late-maturing maize varieties, were boiled and roasted. Then, people assessed their taste and other qualities. The first evaluations of this kind were conducted in Kenya and Uganda in August and September 2019, and another exercise in Kenyaâs Machakos County took place in January 2020.
Similar evaluations have looked at the sensory qualities of maize flour. In March 2020, up to 300 farmers in Kenyaâs Kakamega County participated in an evaluation of ugali, or maize flour porridge. Participants assessed a wider range of factors, including the aroma, appearance, taste, texture on the hand, texture in the mouth and overall impression. After tasting each variety, they indicated how likely they would be to buy it.
Participants were asked to rate the texture of different maize varieties, cooked as ugali, at a sensory evaluation in Kakamega County, Kenya. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Participants were asked to rate the smell of different maize varieties, cooked as ugali, at a sensory evaluation in Kakamega County, Kenya. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Participants taste ugali at a sensory evaluation in Kakamega County, Kenya. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Cooks prepare ugali, or maize flour porridge, with different maize varieties at a sensory evaluation in Kakamega County, Kenya. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
At a sensory evaluation in Kakamega County, Kenya, different types of ugali were cooked using maize flour from several varieties. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Ugali made with different maize varieties is served to participants of a sensory evaluation in Kakamega County, Kenya. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Tastes differ
âFarmers not only consume maize in various forms but also sell the maize either at green or dry grain markets. What we initially found is green maize consumers prefer varieties that are sweet when roasted. We also noted that seed companies were including the sensory characteristics in the maize varietiesâ product profiles,â explained Bernard Munyua, Research Associate with the Socioeconomics program at CIMMYT. âAs breeders and socioeconomists engage more and more with farmers, consumers or end-users, it is apparent that varietal profiles for both plant and sensory aspects have become more significant than ever before, and have a role to play in the successful turnover of new varieties.â
For researchers, this is very useful information, to help determine if it is viable to bring a certain variety to market. The varieties shared in these evaluations include those that have passed through CIMMYTâs breeding pipeline and are allocated to partners for potential release after national performance trials, as well as CIMMYT varieties marketed by various seed companies. Popular commercial varieties regions were also included in the evaluations, for comparison.
A total of 819 people participated in the evaluation exercises in Kenya and Uganda, 54% of them female.
âCurrently, there is increasing demand by breeders, donors, and other agricultural scientists to understand the modalities of trait preferences of crops by women and men farmers,â said Rahma Adam, Gender and Development Specialist at CIMMYT.
Bags of seeds with a diversity of maize varieties are displayed before being cooked at a sensory sensory evaluation in Kakamega County, Kenya. (Photo: Bernard Munyua/CIMMYT)
Thatâs the way I like it
For Gentrix Ligare, from Kakamega County, maize has always been a staple food in her family. They eat ugali almost daily. The one-acre farm that she and her husband own was one of the sites used to plant the varieties ahead of the evaluation exercise. Just like her husband, Fred Ligare, she prefers ugali that is soft but absorbs more water during preparation. âI also prefer ugali that is neither very sticky nor very sweet. Such ugali would be appropriate to eat with any type of vegetable or sauce,â she said.
Fernandes Ambani prefers ugali that emits a distinct aroma while being cooked and should neither be very sweet nor plain tasting. For him, ugali should not be too soft or too hard. While it should not be very sticky, it should also not have dark spots in it. âWhen I like the taste, smell, texture and appearance of a particular variety when cooked, I would definitely purchase it if I found it on the market,â he said.
While the task of incorporating all the desired or multiple traits in the breeding pipeline could prove complex and costly, giving consumers what they like is one of the essential steps in enhancing a varietyâs commercial success in the market, argues Ludovicus Okitoi, Director of Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Organizationâs (KALRO) Kakamega Center.
âDespite continuously breeding and releasing varieties every year, some farmers still buy some older varieties, possibly because they have a preference for a particular taste in some of the varieties they keep buying,â Okitoi said. âIt is a good thing that socioeconomists and breeders are talking more and more with the farmers.â
Advancements in breeding techniques may help accelerate the integration of multiple traits, which could eventually contribute to quicker varietal turnover.
âPreviously, we did not conduct this type of varietal evaluations at the consumer level. A breeder would, for instance, just breed on-station and conduct national performance trials at specific sites. The relevant authorities would then grant their approval and a variety would be released. Things are different now, as you have to go back to the farmer as an essential part of incorporating end-user feedback in a varietyâs breeding process,â explained Hugo de Groote, Agricultural Economist at CIMMYT.
A new fact sheet captures the impact of CIMMYT after six decades of maize and wheat research in Pakistan.
Dating back to the 1960s, the research partnership between Pakistan and CIMMYT has played a vital role in improving food security for Pakistanis and for the global spread of improved crop varieties and farming practices.
Norman Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and first director of CIMMYT wheat research, kept a close relationship with the nationâs researchers and policymakers. CIMMYTâs first training course participant from Pakistan, Manzoor A. Bajwa, introduced the high-yielding wheat variety âMexi-Pakâ from CIMMYT to help address the national food security crisis. Pakistan imported 50 tons of Mexi-Pak seed in 1966, the largest seed purchase of its time, and two years later became the first Asian country to achieve self-sufficiency in wheat, with a national production of 6.7 million tons.
CIMMYT researchers in Pakistan examine maize cobs. (Photo: CIMMYT)
In 2019 Pakistan harvested 26 million tons of wheat, which roughly matches its annual consumption of the crop.
In line with Pakistanâs National Food Security Policy and with national partners, CIMMYT contributes to Pakistanâs efforts to intensify maize- and wheat-based cropping in ways that improve food security, raise farmersâ income, and reduce environmental impacts. This has helped Pakistani farmers to figure among South Asiaâs leaders in adopting improved maize and wheat varieties, zero tillage for sowing wheat, precision land leveling, and other innovations.
With funding from USAID, since 2013 CIMMYT has coordinated the work of a broad network of partners, both public and private, to boost the productivity and climate resilience of agri-food systems for wheat, maize, and rice, as well as livestock, vegetable, and fruit production.
KULIMA stands for âKutukula Ulimi mâMalawiâ, which means âpromoting farming in Malawiâ in the countryâs main local language, Chichewa. KULIMA aims to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and diversification of smallholder farmers based on market demand, while increasing income generation by farm enterprises and creating jobs through developing local value addition of raw agricultural products. It also seeks to stimulate better information supply on agricultural policy, investments and their outcomes to both government actors and the general public.
Within KULIMA Action, CGIAR Centers are working to make their expertise and technologies more easily available to more people. In coordination with GIZ and FAO, they provide guidance on the suitability of technologies and inputs in different agroecological zones in Malawi, successful agricultural practices, and the application of relevant innovations and technologies to address the issues affecting agricultural production systems in a holistic manner.
CIMMYTâs role within the project is to contribute towards increasing agricultural productivity and diversification through upscaling climate-smart agriculture technologies. To achieve this, CIMMYT supports production and utilization of drought tolerant and nutritious maize along with sustainable intensification practices that protect the soil and enhance soil fertility, commonly referred to as conservation agriculture. The focus is on creating demand for these technologies among smallholders by increasing awareness through farmer training, extension messaging and demonstrating the yield benefits of using drought tolerant versus unimproved non-drought tolerant varieties, and sustainable intensification practices versus conventional ones. CIMMYT is working in collaboration with NGOs and community-based organizations to train lead farmers and extension agents to reach out to smallholder farmers.
The project is financed under the 11th European Development Fund and is being implemented in ten districts of Chitipa, Chiradzulu, Karonga, Kasungu, Mzimba, Mulanje, Nkhata Bay, Nkhotakota, Salima and Thyolo.
Objectives
Increase agricultural productivity and diversify production in a participatory, sustainable and climate-change resilient manner
Establish agricultural value chains and create related income and employment opportunities
Focusing on highly profitable but weather-risk prone mung bean production in coastal Bangladesh, the Climate and market-smart mung bean advisories (CAMASMA) project develops farmer friendly and demand-driven climate- and market-smart mung bean advisory dissemination systems.
Heavy rainfall events can cause significant damage to mung bean production, causing large yield and income losses for farmers in coastal Bangladesh. By integrating and disseminating weather-forecast information, climate-smart advisories for when and how to harvest mung bean help farmers to mitigate some of the climate risks associated with crop production.
Both mung bean farmers and traders can also benefit from real-time market price data. In addition to market intelligence on where large blocks of farmers have quality mung bean for sale, CAMASMA improves information flow to lower trading firmsâ transactions costs while speeding farm-gate purchase and income generation from farmers.
CAMASMA is a pilot project that demonstrates the power of climate services, agricultural advisories, and use of social network analysis and ICTs to speed information delivery and increase farmersâ resilience to extreme climatic events.
Objectives
Customize heavy and extreme rainfall event forecasts for coastal Bangladesh
Analyze social networks to assist extension agents in rapid deployment of crop management advice in remote and hard to reach areas
Set up interpretive algorithms and interactive voice response (IVR) mobile call systems for weather, mung bean management and market advisories appropriate to men and women smallholder farmers
Release and promote a smartphone app providing customized weather forecasts, mung bean agronomic advice, early warnings for potential crop damaging extreme weather events, and market information
Establish business models and strategies for sustaining the use of IVR and smartphone apps after project closure
On March 8, the world celebrates International Womenâs Day, and the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the most progressive roadmap for the empowerment of women and girls, everywhere. In an op-ed in The Independent, Claudia Sadoff, CGIAR Gender Champion and Director General of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), declares that our climate change-ravaged food systems cannot wait for the gradual progress of gender quality.
From locust swarms, hurricanes, wildfires and emerging famines, climate-related disasters are taking place around the world and our fragile food systems are on the front line.
Our food systems are in need of urgent support, and rural women play a critical role in reversing the problem. Research has found that rural women are disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change, yet their significant contributions to food systems receive only a fraction of the focus they deserve.
Rural women are hamstrung by gender bias in food systems, home life, economics and culture. Barriers to accessing finance, insurance, high-quality seed, fertilizer, additional labor and markets result in women producing 20-30% less per hectare than men.
Womenâs unpaid daily household tasks are often backbreaking and time-consuming. Women are responsible for collecting water and fuel for cooking and tending kitchen gardens and family-owned livestock. With African women producing up to 80% of food for their household, these women have less opportunity to grow and sell foods at market to improve their financial position.
Breaking free of this gender bias requires a rethink on how rural women are reflected in, and participate in, society at large, says Sadoff in her op-ed, published in The Independent on March 7, 2020.
So, what does this rethink look like? How can we enable women and, in the process, strengthen our food systems?
Sadoff has summarized this huge undertaking into three key steps: (1) Ensure rural women can invest in productivity in their farms, (2) ease the burden of daily household tasks, and (3) build research systems and cultures to be more gender equitable in the long run.
Through One CGIAR and the Generating Evidence and New Directors for Equitable Results (GENDER) Platform, we are proud to say that we are working together to achieve these three objectives. Closing the gender gap completely will not happen in a generation but taking steps towards achieving greater gender equality will help to build the resilience of our food systems, bolster rural economies and improve rural livelihoods.
With UN Women, One CGIAR supports #GenerationEquality, for the benefit of all.
When it comes to labor markets, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is one of the most gender unequal regions in the world. The male labor force participation rate in MENA is no different from other regions, at around 75%, but female labor force participation rates have remained stubbornly low, at around 20% .
Agriculture is the largest employer of women in the MENA region and the female share of the agricultural workforce increased from 30% in 1980 to almost 45% in 2010, exceeding 60% in Jordan, Libya, Syria and the occupied Palestinian Territory. However, women in the region still face significant challenges accessing land and benefitting from technologies and decent, equitable working conditions.
In the fall of 2019, a group of experts, including London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) professor of Gender and Development Naila Kabeer, came together to discuss the persistent limited access to labor market opportunities for women in South Asia and MENA, despite an increase in womenâs education and access to fertility planning. The workshop organized by LSE discussed barriers, opportunities and policy challenges.
We share some of the expert panelâs key recommendations for the MENA region, which featured research funded by the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat.
1. Recognize women as workers not helpers
According to the World Bank, agriculture employs 36% of women and 22% of men in Egypt. However, research shows that women who work in agriculture are widely categorized as âhelpersâ to male workers rather than workers in their own right. Whatâs more, women are listed as âhousewivesâ on their national ID cards, while men are listed as âagricultural workers.â As a result, these women are unable to even access opportunities to bargain for better wages and working conditions.
Legally and socially recognizing these women as workers is a first step to introducing equal pay legislation for men and women in agriculture. It would also justify their inclusion in agricultural extension services and strengthen social protection measures.
2. Change perceptions of property ownership
The MENA region has the lowest level of womenâs landownership in the world, at just 5%. Our research findings indicate completely different perceptions of ownership among women and men.
Research in Egypt shows that women tend to identify land officially owned solely by themselves as belonging to themselves and their husbands. Men, on the other hand, are less likely to consider their wives as co-owners, identifying male relatives instead.
In the New Lands â lands irrigated after the building of the High Aswan Dam in Egypt â there are land distribution quotas to encourage more land ownership among women. This has enabled some women to gain significant economic, social and political power. Despite this, these women still prefer to bequeath their land to their sons rather than their daughters due to social pressure and the expectation that their sons will provide for them in their old age.
To mitigate these low levels of womenâs land ownership, policy change on its own is not enough. Changing perceptions of land and property ownership needs to go hand in hand with changes at a policy level.
3. Enforce legislation for equal pay and zero tolerance for sexual harassment
In Morocco, female employment in agriculture has jumped from 29% in 1980 to 48% in 2010. However, womenâs wages, working conditions and bargaining power have not risen with it.
Research shows that women are designated lower paid and more time-consuming tasks, and are systemically paid less than men, even for the same tasks. Women agricultural workers also face high levels of sexual harassment and have limited bargaining power.
Moroccan legislation already stipulates equal pay and zero tolerance for sexual harassment. However, enforcement remains extremely weak. Enforcing existing pro-active legislation is an essential step towards equality for women in agriculture.
4. Revitalize agriculture as a valuable and necessary occupation in society
Much of the world sees agriculture as an occupation of last resort. When surveyed, men and women in Morocco both complained about agricultural work being an unstable and unreliable way of making a living. Women were found to be hired more easily but only because they were paid less than men.
To shift how agriculture is viewed and rebrand it as an important and respected occupation, it needs to be reformed as a safer, more equal and respectful space for both women and men.
Building resilience for smallholder farmers in marginal drylands. (Photo: ICARDA)
A key overall take-away message from the expert panel is that supportive policies alone are not enough. Rather, in order to tackle the institutionalization of harmful gender norms and stimulate actual change in practice at all levels, policy interventions need to go hand in hand with strong consciousness-raising, critical reflection and behavior change initiatives.
