Despite the development of improved wheat varieties with increased productivity, farming systems in the Global South are still marred by inequitable access based on gender and other social characteristics.
Focusing on Ethiopia and India due to their large wheat economies and challenges with inequality, researchers assessed the barriers preventing male and female smallholders from using modern wheat varieties. Issues covered through evaluation could include wheat varietal trait preferences, adoption of technology, and decision-making and labor-use changes associated with new varieties.
Concluding the paper is the argument that institutional arrangements in research and development (R&D) programs must transform to address gender equity and inclusivity in wheat improvement.
Cover photo: Rural farmers associated with JEEViKa-Bihar attend a public wheat harvest activity organized by the Cereal Systems in South Asia (CSISA) project in Nagwa village, India, to encourage conservation agriculture practices in the region. (Photo: Nima Chodon/CIMMYT)
Using data from 2,279 farm households in Ethiopia, the results show a significant gap due to the observable and unobservable different characteristics of households headed by men and women. For example, women are less likely to adopt climate change adaptation measures due to their workload in household chores. However, evidence suggests that when the gender gap shrinks, climate change adaptation can be improved in female-headed households by almost 19%.
The study determined that policies must tackle unobservable characteristics in order to address the gender gap. Short-term projects and long-term gender-informed policies are essential in creating equitable opportunities for all.
This crucial work will support developing countries to achieve targets set by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and farming households’ susceptibility to the risks of climate change.
Cover photo: Female farmer harvests green maize in Ethiopia. Women are essential to the agricultural sector, but the gender gap prevents them from embracing climate change adaptation measures. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)
A new special issue on gender research in agriculture highlights nine influential papers published in the past three years on gender research on crop systems including maize.
The virtual special issue, published earlier this month in Outlook on Agriculture, features work by International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) scientists on gender inclusivity in maize systems in Africa and South Asia.
In the Global South, women contribute substantial labor to agriculture but continue to face barriers in accessing agricultural resources, tools and technologies and making decisions on farms.
Combatting gender inequality is crucial for increasing agricultural productivity and reducing global hunger and poverty and should be a goal in and of itself. Evidence suggests that if women in the Global South had access to the same productive resources as men, farm yields could rise by up to 30 percent, increasing total agricultural output by up to 4 percent and decreasing the number of hungry people around the world by up to 17 percent.
The latest virtual special issue includes a review of existing research by CIMMYT gender experts, exploring issues and options in supporting gender inclusivity through maize breeding and the current evidence of differences in male and female farmers’ preferences for maize traits and varieties. The team also identified key research priorities to encourage more gender-intentional maize breeding, including innovative methods to assess farmer preferences and increased focus in intrahousehold decision-making dynamics.
The issue also features a study by CIMMYT and Rothamsted Research researchers on differences in preferred maize traits and farming practices among female and male farmers in southern Africa. The team found that female plot managers and household heads were more likely to use different maize varieties and several different farming practices to male plot managers and household heads. Incorporating farming practices used by female farmers into selection by maize breeding teams would provide an immediate entry point for gender-intentionality.
Also included is a recent paper by CIMMYT gender researchers which outlines the evidence base for wheat trait preferences and uptake of new farming technologies among male and female smallholder farmers in Ethiopia and India. The team highlight the need for wheat improvement programs in Ethiopia and India to include more gender-sensitive technology development, evaluation and dissemination, covering gender differences in wheat trait preferences, technology adoption and associated decision-making and land-use changes, as well as economic and nutritional benefits.
In a study carried out in the Eastern Gangetic Plains of South Asia, CIMMYT scientists investigated how changes in weed management practices to zero tillage – a method which minimizes soil disturbance – affect gender roles. The team found that switching to zero tillage did not increase the burden of roles and responsibilities to women and saved households valuable time on the farm. The scientists also found that both women and men’s knowledge of weed management practices were balanced, showing that zero tillage has potential as a gender inclusive farming practice for agricultural development.
Also featured in the special issue is a study by CIMMYT experts investigating gender relations across the maize value chain in rural Mozambique. The team found that men were mostly responsible for marketing maize and making decisions at both the farm level and higher levels of the value chain. The researchers also found that cultural restrictions and gender differences in accessing transport excluded women from participating in markets.
Finally, the collection features a study authored by researchers from Tribhuvan University, Nepal and CIMMYT exploring the interaction between labour outmigration, changing gender roles and their effects on maize systems in rural Nepal. The scientists found that the remittance incomes sent home by migrants and raising farm animals increased maize yields. They further found that when women spent more time doing household chores, rearing farm animals and engaging in community activities, maize yields suffered, although any losses were offset by remittance incomes.
More than 200 staff came together to celebrate the winners of CGIAR’s first-ever Inclusive Workplace Awards on September 15 at a special online ceremony that rolled out the red carpet from Peru to Penang.
When the nomination period closed in early July, more than 150 staff had submitted nominations – indicating the value of CGIAR’s collective work towards creating even more inclusive workplaces.
“It’s our very own GDI Oscars,” said co-host Fiona Bourdin-Farrell, CGIAR’s Global Director of People and Culture, setting the celebratory tone in the first few minutes of the event.
“The Inclusive Workplace Awards allow us to recognize the stars among us who have demonstrated in words and deed their personal commitment to advancing gender, equity and inclusion in our workplaces.”
Inclusive Team Award
The final award of the day, the Inclusive Team Award, went to the CIMMYT Women in Crop Science Team for proactively adopting better ways of working to create an inclusive and respectful team culture.
Members of CIMMYT’s award-winning Women in Crop Science group.
Accepting the award on behalf of the team, Alison Bently, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program, said that the Women in Crop Science Team grew out of the significant underrepresentation of women in crop science.
“We established the group to identify and try to collectively address some of the causes of underrepresentation,” she said. “And importantly,” she added “to develop tangible actions broadly covering operational equality, recruitment and retention, and raising awareness and visibility.”
Winding up her acceptance remarks, Alison said: “I think it’s important to say that there’s much work that remains to be done. But the CIMMYT Women in Crop Science Team is committed to working with and supporting colleagues here at CIMMYT, across the CG[IAR], and in the international community to build a more inclusive and diverse community.”
French Gates believes initiatives to improve gender equality “treats symptoms, not the cause”, which is why the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) incorporates gender equality work into each project. Social norms and gender-based labor division mean women are often confined to set roles in agricultural production, leading to exclusion from decision-making and a lack of control over their economic wellbeing and household food security. Across CIMMYT’s work in the Global South, researchers are addressing multiple aspects of gender inequality.
Training shows women their power
Rina Begum, Nilufar Akter and Monika Rani are Bangladeshi women supported by CIMMYT to achieve their highest economic potential. Developing their business acumen enabled the women to take on essential roles in the workplace, establish themselves in their communities, and fund their children’s education.
CIMMYT-led workshops helped the women grow their self-confidence and identify where their skills and knowledge could enhance their economic situations. In turn, they are keen to help more women access the same opportunities for independence and growth.
“I used to think I wasn’t cut out for light engineering because it was primarily male-dominated, but I was mistaken”, confessed Akter. “This industry has a lot to offer to women, and I’m excited at the prospect of hiring more of them.”
“When women have economic means in their own hands—not just cash, but in an account that they control—it unlocks all kinds of things for their lives,” French Gates says.
Adapting research methods to women’s needs
CIMMYT’s Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat (AGG) project is designing a better framework for faster turnover of improved varieties and increased access for women and marginalized farmers. However, traditional data collection methods may not be suitable for understanding the true experiences of rural women.
Instead, researchers have adapted their data collection methods to cultural restrictions, where women may feel unable to talk openly. Instead of a traditional survey, the team used five vignettes that explore how the production and consumption decisions are held within the households. Respondents then chose the scenario that best represents their own experiences.
Providing opportunities for women to tell their stories in more accessible ways will lead to richer qualitative data, which can improve the development and implementation of gender interventions.
Climate change and gender equality
For International Day of Women and Girls in Science this year, researcher Tripti Agarwal shared her research on the impact of Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices (CSAPs) on women and farming households in Bihar, India. The region is at risk of natural disasters, causing agricultural production loss and food insecurity – with women’s food security more severely affected.
Climate-Smart Villages (CSVs) could offer a solution by acknowledging the gender gap and promoting gender-equitable approaches in enhancing knowledge, developing capacity and improving practices. Through the adoption of climate-resilient practices and technologies, CSV reduces the risk of crop loss and ensures there is enough food for the household.
Agarwal also highlights the work that men must do to level the playing field. “When we talk about women, especially in rural/agricultural contexts, we see that support from the family is critical for them,” said Agarwal. “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.”
During field day, women farmers use a mini tiller for direct seed. Training women in new technologies improves their opportunities and income. (Credit: P. Lowe/CIMMYT)
Careers for women in science
CIMMYT’s global presence provides opportunities for women to launch and grow their careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Madhulika Singh, an agricultural scientist with CIMMYT’s Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) project, made what was seen as a radical choice to study a STEM subject. She was inspired by seeing other women in her family build successful careers, showing the power of role models in inspiring the next generation. “I grew up thinking ‘there is so much that a woman is capable of,’ whether at home or her workplace,” said Singh.
Initiatives such as CIMMYT’s Women in Crop Science group also help to highlight role models, create mentorship opportunities, and identify areas for change. The group recently received the Inclusive Team award at the inaugural CGIAR Inclusive Workplace Awards.
“When I see women achieving their dreams in science, or as businesswomen, and supporting other women, that keeps me hopeful,” said French Gates.
Cover photo: A girl in India harvests good quality hybrid green maize cobs. Women and girls play an essential role in global agriculture. (Credit: CSISA/Wasim Iftikar.)
More than 40% of the global agricultural labor force is made up of women, and in the least developed countries, two in three women are employed in farming. Yet, despite being the largest contributors to this sector, women’s potential as farmers, producers and entrepreneurs is frequently untapped due to gender inequalities, limited access to farming assets and inputs, low participation in decision-making spaces, and lack of financing and capacity-building opportunities.
Tackling these gendered barriers is critical not only to help women achieve their highest economic potential, but also to feed an increasingly hungry world. Before this year’s Women’s History Month comes to an end, read the stories of three Bangladeshi women—Begum, Akter and Rani—to find out how the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) are empowering them to become decision-makers in their communities, learn new skills and knowledge to boost their incomes, and advocate for bending gender norms across the country.
Embracing agricultural mechanization has improved Begum’s family finances
Rina Begum lives in Faridpur, a major commercial hub in southern Bangladesh. Before starting a business, her financial situation was precarious. Her primary source of income was her husband’s work as a day laborer, which brought in very little money. This, coupled with the lack of job security, made it hard to support a family.
Rina Begum started out in business as a service provider, hiring agricultural machines to farmers.
About five years ago, Begum’s interest in agricultural mechanization was ignited by the farmers in her town, who were earning extra money by investing in farm machinery and hiring it out. Her first foray into the business world was buying a shallow irrigation pump and setting herself up as a service provider. Next, she saw her neighbor using a power tiller operated seeder and decided to try one out for herself. Finally, after taking part in a potential machinery buyer program run by CIMMYT under the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia – Mechanization and Irrigation (CSISA-MEA) and funded by USAID, she took the bold step of purchasing a seeder and adding it to her inventory of machines available for hire.
While her husband learned to operate the seeder, Begum put her business and accounting skills to good use, taking on an essential role in what ended up being the family business and establishing herself as an entrepreneur. Her work defied the established social norms, as she regularly interacted with the mechanics and farmers who came to her for mechanized services. Moreover, she occasionally stepped up alongside her husband to repair and maintain the machines. All this earned Begum a reputation as an experienced service provider, operator and mechanic, and turned her into a decision-maker and a role model to her family and community.
In 2021, Begum used her business profits to pick up the bill for her daughter’s marriage. “I know this job inside-out now,” she says, “and I’m really proud to have paid for the wedding myself.”
This taste of success fueled Begum’s appetite to expand the business even further, pushing her to take part in another training offered by CIMMYT, this time in mat-seedling production. Moreover, Begum, who plans to grow seedlings to sell on to rice farmers this year, has applied for a government subsidy to buy a rice transplanter, which can be hired out for use with mat-seedlings, and increase her stock of agricultural machinery.
With her new skills, Akter is advancing gender equality in Bangladesh’s light engineering sector
At age 18, Nilufar Akter (pictured top) passed her high school certificate and soon after married Rezaul Karim, the owner of a light engineering workshop in Bogura, a city in northern Bangladesh, that manufactures agricultural machinery parts, with a workforce mainly composed of men. Akter’s ambition was to go out into the workplace and make her own money, so when Karim asked her to work alongside him, she agreed and soon became a valuable part of the business. Her primary responsibilities were inventory management and marketing, as well as business management, which she found more difficult.
Reza Engineering Workshop began working with CIMMYT in 2020 as part of CSISA-MEA, an initiative that supports light engineering workshops in Bangladesh with staff development, access to finance, management, and business growth. Under this project, CIMMYT organized a management training at the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI), which Akter attended. With the confidence these new skills gave her, she went back to the workshop and introduced a few changes, including building a computerized finance management system and updating the stack management. Moreover, she also established a dedicated restroom for female employees.
“We need human resources to maintain things in the business—and women can do a fantastic job”, Akter says. “We had no idea what good source of strength women workers would be for the factory. Therefore, if we provided them with adequate facilities, we could create jobs for many women who really need them”, she adds.
Akter’s current priorities are workshop safety and occupational health, two issues she’s tackling using the knowledge she learned in the CIMMYT training. Recently, she’s created some occupational health and safety posters, and established a series of workshop rules. “I used to think I wasn’t cut out for light engineering because it was primarily male-dominated, but I was mistaken”, Akter confesses. “This industry has a lot to offer to women, and I’m excited at the prospect of hiring more of them”, she adds.
Producing better quality rice has boosted the income of Rani and her family
Monika Rani lives in Khoshalpur, a village located in Dinajpur district in northern Bangladesh, with her husband Liton Chandra Roy and their two-year-old child. They farm just a quarter of a hectare of land, and Liton supplements their income with occasional wages earned as a day laborer.
Monika Rani wanted to increase her family’s income to provide better schooling opportunities for her children.
Rani was looking for ways to increase their income so they could give their children an education and a better life. During last year’s boro rice-growing season (December to May), she and her husband joined the premium grade rice production team of CIMMYT as part of CSISA-MEA. The market value and yield of premium quality rice is greater than other types, so when Rani heard that she could make more money producing that variety, she decided to make a start right away. CIMMYT provided her with five kgs of premium seed for the 2021-22 winter season and trained her in premium quality rice production technology and marketing, which she followed to the letter.
Through hard work and persistence, Rani and her husband avoided the need to hire any additional labor and were rewarded with the maximum yield possible. She dried the premium quality rice grain according to buyer demand and sold 1,600 kgs, in addition to 140 kgs to farmers in her town.
“Knowing about premium quality rice production has tremendously changed my future for the better,” Rani explains. “I had no idea that, through my own hard effort, I could have a better life”, she added.
Cover photo: Nilufar Akter is using the knowledge she gained in CIMMYT training to focus on workshop safety and occupational health in her business.
Over 70% of rural women in India are engaged in agriculture. Women carry out a large portion of farm work, as cultivators and agricultural laborers, but in most cases they are not even counted and recognized as farmers. Millions of Indian rural women also carry the burden of domestic work, a job that is undervalued and unrecognized economically.
On the International Day of Rural Women, October 15, the focus is on their contributions to growing food and feeding families. The often invisible hands of rural women play a pivotal role in food security and sustaining rural communities.
Today, we have a glimpse at the daily life of farmer Anita Naik.
She hails from the village of Badbil, in the Mayurbhanj district of India’s Odisha state, surrounded by small hills and the lush greenery of Simlipal National Park.
Naik belongs to a tribal community that has long lived off the land, through farming and livestock rearing. Smallholder farmers like her grow rice, maize and vegetables in traditional ways — intensive labor and limited yield — to ensure food for their families.
Married at a young age, Naik has a son and a daughter. Her husband and her son are daily-wage laborers, but the uncertainty around their jobs and her husband’s chronic ill health means that she is mostly responsible for her family’s wellbeing. At 41, Naik’s age and her stoic expression belie her lifelong experience of hard work.
The small hours
Naik’s day begins just before dawn, a little past 4 a.m., with household chores. After letting out the livestock animals — goats, cows, chicken and sheep — for the day, she sweeps the house’s, the courtyard and the animal shed. She then lights the wood stove to prepare tea for herself and her family, who are slowly waking up to the sound of the crowing rooster. Helped by her young daughter, Naik feeds the animals and then washes the dirty dishes from the previous evening. Around 6:30 or 7 a.m., she starts preparing other meals.
During the lean months — the period between planting and harvesting — when farm work is not pressing, Naik works as a daily-wage worker at a fly ash brick factory nearby. She says the extra income helps her cover costs during emergencies. “[I find it] difficult to stay idle if I am not working on the farm,” she says. However, COVID-19 restrictions have affected this source of income for the family.
Once her morning chores are over, Naik works on her small plot of land next to her house. She cultivates maize and grows vegetables, primarily for household consumption.
Naik started growing maize only after joining a self-help group in 2014, which helped her and other women cultivate hybrid maize for commercial production on leased land. They were supported by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) through the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) maize intensification program.
Every year from June to October, Naik also work on this five-acre leased farmland, along with the other group members. She is involved from planting to harvest — and even in marketing.
“There are eleven women members in our self-help group, Biswa Jay Maa Tarini. Thanks to training, awareness and handholding by CSISA and partners, an illiterate like me is currently the president of our group,” said an emotional Anita Naik.
Anita Naik (first from left) meets with her self-help group Biswa Jay Maa Tarini in village of Badbil, in the Mayurbhanj district of India’s Odisha state. Together, they work on a five-acre lease land, where they grow maize commercially. (Photo: Nima Chodon/CIMMYT)
Not quite done yet
A little further away from her house, Naik has a small field where she grows rice with the help of her husband and son. After checking in on her maize crop on the leased land, Naik works in her paddy the rest of the day. She tends to her land diligently, intent on removing the weeds that keep springing up again and again in the monsoon season.
“It is back-breaking work, but I have to do it myself as I cannot afford to employ a laborer,” Naik laments.
Naik finally takes a break around 1 p.m. for lunch. Some days, particularly in the summer when exhaustion takes over, she takes a short nap before getting back to removing weeds in the rice fields.
She finally heads home around 4 p.m. At home, she first takes the animals back into their shed.
Around 6 p.m., she starts preparing for dinner. After dinner, she clears the kitchen and the woodstove before calling it a night and going to bed around 8 or 9 p.m.
“The day is short and so much still needs to be done at home and in the field,” Naik says after toiling from early morning until evening.
Tomorrow is a new day, but chores at home and the work in the fields continue for Naik and farmers like her.
Anita Naik lights up her wood fire stove to prepare food, at her family home in the village of Badbil, in the Mayurbhanj district of India’s Odisha state. (Photo: Nima Chodon/CIMMYT)
Paradigm change
Traditionally farmers in and around Naik’s village cultivated paddy in their uplands for personal consumption only, leaving the land fallow for the rest of the year. Growing rice is quite taxing as paddy is a labor-intensive crop at sowing, irrigating, weeding and harvesting. With limited resources, limited knowledge and lack of appropriate machinery, yields can vary.
To make maximum use of the land all year through and move beyond personal consumption and towards commercial production, CIMMYT facilitated the adoption of maize cultivation. This turned out to be a gamechanger, transforming the livelihoods of women in the region and often making them the main breadwinner in their families.
In early 2012, through the CSISA project, CIMMYT began its sustainable intensification program in some parts of Odisha’s plateau region. During the initial phase, maize stood out as an alternative crop with a high level of acceptance, particularly among women farmers.
Soon, CIMMYT and its partners started working in four districts — Bolangir, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj and Nuapada — to help catalyze the adoption of maize production in the region. Farmers shifted from paddy to maize in uplands. At present, maize cultivation has been adopted by 7,600 farmers in these four districts, 28% of which are women.
CIMMYT, in partnership with state, private and civil society actors, facilitated the creation of maize producers’ groups and women self-help groups. Getting together, farmers can standardize grain quality control, aggregate production and sell their produce commercially to poultry feed mills.
This intervention in a predominantly tribal region significantly impacted the socioeconomic conditions of women involved in this project. Today, women like Anita Naik have established themselves as successful maize farmers and entrepreneurs.
A list of women leaders in STEM features Evangelina Villegas—a plant chemist at CIMMYT during its early days whose ground-breaking work on quality protein maize (QPM) helped combat malnutrition among developing communities worldwide.
A new guidance note shines a brighter light on the role of women in wheat-based farming systems in the Indo-Gangetic Plains and provides actionable recommendations to researchers, rural advisory services, development partners, and policymakers on how to support working communities more effectively and knowledgeably. The publication, Supporting labor and managerial feminization processes in wheat in the Indo-Gangetic Plains: A guidance note, is based on a literature review, including work by researchers at and associated with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and Pandia Consulting.
“Feminization of agriculture is happening in wheat-based systems in South Asia, but these processes are under-researched and their implications are poorly understood. This guidance note, focusing on Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan, highlights some of the commonalities and differences in feminization processes in each country,” said Hom Gartaula, gender and social inclusion specialist at CIMMYT, and one of the lead authors of the study.
This eight-page publication is based on research funded by the CGIAR Collaborative Platform on Gender Research, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT).
How great innovations miss critical opportunities by ignoring women
Even the most well-intentioned agricultural interventions can have external costs that can hinder economic development in the long run. The guidance note cites a study that reveals, during India’s Green Revolution, that the introduction of high-yielding varieties of wheat actually “led to a significant decline in women’s paid hired labor because wheat was culturally defined as suited to male laborers. Male wages rose, and women’s wages fell.” Importantly, most women did not find alternative sources of income.
This is not to say that the high-yielding varieties were a poor intervention themselves; these varieties helped India and Pakistan stave off famine and produce record harvests. Rather, the lack of engagement with social norms meant that the economic opportunities from this important innovation excluded women and thus disempowered them.
Wheat farmers during a field day in Odisha, India. (Photo: Wasim Iftikar/CSISA)
A closer look at labor feminization and managerial feminization processes
The guidance note points out that it is not possible to generalize across and within countries, as gender norms can vary, and intersectionalities between gender, caste and other identities have a strong impact on women’s participation in fieldwork. Nevertheless, there seem to be some broad trends. The fundamental cross-cutting issue is that women’s contribution to farming is unrecognized, regardless of the reality of their work, by researchers, rural advisory services and policymakers. A second cross-cutting issue is that much research is lodged in cultural norms that reflect gender biases, rather than challenge them, through careful, non-judgemental quantitative and qualitative research.
In Bangladesh, women’s participation in agriculture is slowly increasing as off-farm opportunities decline, though it remains limited compared to women in the other countries examined. Hired agricultural work is an important income source for some women. Emerging evidence from work from CSISA and CIMMYT shows that women are becoming decision-makers alongside their husbands in providing mechanization services. Nevertheless, technical, economic and cultural barriers broadly constrain women’s effective participation in decision-making and fieldwork.
In India, agricultural labor is broadly feminizing as men take up off-farm opportunities and women take up more responsibilities on family farms and as hired laborers. Yet information derived from CIMMYT GENNOVATE studies cited in the guidance note shows that external actors, like rural advisory services and researchers, frequently make little effort to include women in wheat information dissemination and training events despite emerging evidence of women taking managerial roles in some communities. Some researchers and most rural advisory services continue to work with outdated and damaging assumptions about “who does the work” and “who decides” that are not necessarily representative of farmers’ realities.
Women in Nepal provide the bulk of the labor force to agriculture. With men migrating to India and the Gulf countries to pursue other opportunities, some women are becoming de-facto heads of households and are making more decisions around farming. Still, women are rarely targeted for trainings in on-farm mechanization and innovation. However, there is evidence that simple gender-equality outreach from NGOs and supportive extension agents can have a big impact on women’s empowerment, including promoting their ability to innovate in wheat.
In Pakistan, male out-migration to cities and West Asia is a driving force in women’s agricultural involvement. Significant regional differences in cultural norms mean that women’s participation and decision-making varies across the country, creating differences regarding the degree to which their increased involvement is empowering. As in the other three countries, rural advisory services primarily focus on men. This weakens women’s ability to make good farming decisions and undermines their voice in intra-household decision-making.
Women in Nepal using agricultural machinery. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)
Recommendations
Research should be conducted in interdisciplinary teams and mindsets, which helps design both qualitative and quantitative research free of assumptions and bias. Qualitative and quantitative researchers need to better document the reality of women’s agricultural work, both paid and unpaid.
National agricultural research systems, rural advisory services and development partners are encouraged to work with local partners, including women’s groups and NGOs, to develop gender-transformative approaches with farmers. Services must develop more inclusive criteria for participation in field trials and extension events to invite more women and marginalized communities.
Policymakers are invited to analyze assumptions in existing policies and to develop new policies that better reflect women’s work and support women’s decision-making in the agricultural sector. Researchers should provide policymakers with more appropriate and up-to-date gender data to help them make informed decisions.
These recommendations name a few of many suggestions presented in the guidance note that can ensure agricultural feminization process are positive forces for everyone involved in wheat systems of the Indo-Gangetic Plains. As a whole, acknowledging the reality of these changes well underway in South Asia — and around the world — will not just empower women, but strengthen wheat-based agri-food systems as a whole.
Cover photo: Farmer Bhima Bhandari returns home after field work carrying her 7-month-old son Sudarsan on her back in Bardiya, Nepal. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)
Maize and wheat fields at the El Batán experimental station. (Photo: CIMMYT/Alfonso Cortés)
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) congratulates the winners of the inaugural 2020 Bӓnziger Award.
The award is named for former CIMMYT Deputy Director General Marianne Bӓnziger, who retired in 2019 after 23 years in maize science and leadership, including as CIMMYT’s first woman to reach the Deputy Director General position. It recognizes the contribution of women to CIMMYT’s work and mission. Nominees must exemplify one or more of the core values of CIMMYT: teamwork, integrity, excellence and respect.
“Gender diversity is critical to the development of robust and impactful science,” said CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff, speaking at the virtual award ceremony during an all-staff CIMMYT end-of-year celebration on December 15.
“Research and administration have been demonstrated time and time again to be more effective and efficient when gender is considered, because women bring unique perspectives to conversations and decisions.”
The inaugural Bӓnziger Award received more than 50 nominations from across the organization’s offices in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Because of the high number of excellent candidates, the 2020 award committee selected two winners: Rahel Assefa and Kate Dreher.
Rahel Assefa is a project manager based in Ethiopia who has spent nearly five years supporting CIMMYT programs in eastern and southern Africa. In their nomination, her colleagues emphasized her “can-do” attitude and problem-solving skills as well as her positivity, maintained even when “deadlines are tight and tensions are high.”
Rahel Assefa receives her certificate during the virtual award ceremony. (Photo: CIMMYT)
“The nominations for Rahel covered all bases — teamwork, integrity, excellence and respect,” explained Sarah Hearne, a maize molecular geneticist at CIMMYT and chair of the 2020 award committee. “She was praised for her openness, collaboration and support of colleagues, both in and outside of her immediate environment and program.”
“I am grateful to my colleagues for the recognition of my contributions to CIMMYT,” said Rahel Assefa. “It is nice to be awarded — even though it is not why we do what we do. I like my work and I enjoy my colleagues in Africa and at HQ, and more than anything I believe in teamwork and collaboration.”
Kate Dreher is a senior germplasm curator based at CIMMYT HQ in Mexico. Her award focused not only on her official duties but also on her charity and community-building work in larger the El Batan and Texcoco area — including leading the Charity Initiative and organizing countless gatherings and activities for staff, newcomers and visitors to CIMMYT HQ.
“Nominees told us that Kate goes extra mile to help others succeed, selflessly focusing on ‘we’ rather than ‘I’ and ensuring that the voices and needs of all in a team are heard — a fantastic example of empowering teams,” said Hearne.
“Her hard work, kindness and dedication not only apply to CIMMYT’s mission enhance the CIMMYT community as a whole, touching the lives of colleagues and those less fortunate within the communities where we work.”
Kate Dreher receives her certificate during the virtual award ceremony. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Dreher expressed that this recognition would encourage her to redouble her efforts to follow Bӓnziger’s example.
“I feel inspired when I see people trying to improve the well-being of others — at work and in life in general — and I feel uplifted by the countless daily examples that I see in the CIMMYT community of people trying to make a positive impact in the world,” she said. “I admire everyone who is motivated by this goal whether their actions have an immediate impact or will lead to positive outcomes many years in the future.”
Marianne Bӓnziger shared her appreciation for the fact that CIMMYT has installed the award in her name. Speaking at the ceremony, she reiterated the words inscribed on the plaques, and offered advice for all CIMMYT staff.
“The header of the award says ‘Diversity enriches every team. Women make CIMMYT stronger,’” she told ceremony attendees. “Let’s open our eyes to the contribution that diverse team members make: women and men, young and more experienced, staff in research and administration, staff from different nations.”
“This award celebrates excellence among women staff. It’s a call to everybody to find, celebrate and foster diversity; to find, celebrate and foster excellence. Diversity in views and contributions make us stronger, and life much more colorful.”
A common approach toward data structuring is needed to improve access to gender research across agriculture data repositories, a recent report by the CGIAR Platform on Big Data in Agriculture suggests.
Simply adding the keyword ‘gender’ in database descriptions will improve the findability of gender agricultural research, which currently is hard to find due to the inconsistent use of keywords and tagging, said the report’s author Marcelo Tyszler, a (gender) data expert with the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in the Netherlands.
“The data is there. We just can’t find it all! A lack of consistent keywords when tagging research is leading to holes in searches for gender research across CGIAR, the world’s largest network of agricultural researchers,” he says.
“A more systematic and sharper use of keywords when describing datasets will improve findability in searches,” Tyszler states.
As part of the Findability of Gender Datasets report, researchers used a range of keywords, including ‘gender’, ‘women’ and ‘female,’ to search repositories for gender-based data across CGIAR agricultural research centers and compared the search results with a reference list of gender datasets provided by scientists. The results showed that a number of the datasets in the reference list were not found using these search terms.
The results uncovered important inconsistencies in the description of gender research, especially in terms of how data is structured and the detail of documentation provided in CGIAR repositories, says co-author Ewen Le Borgne, a KIT gender researcher.
“Poor data management limits the impact of research to be found, read and incorporated into new research projects,” Le Borgne says, invoking the age old saying, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
Ibu Rosalina arranging a Kacang Panjang bush. (Credit: Icaro Cooke Vieira/CIFOR)
The researchers used the findings to promote a standardized approach to tagging and describing their research.
“To improve findability and the impact of data, the gender community should develop a list of commonly agreed keywords that can be used to consistently describe gender research data sets,” Le Borgne explains.
Any dataset containing ‘sex-disaggregated’ data should indicate so in the keywords, said Tyszler. This is also important for non-gender researchers, to broaden the scope of their impact.
“By facilitating the tagging, findability and accessibility of quantitative and qualitative gender data we hope to facilitate mixed methods research by providing opportunities for both qualitative and quantitative researchers to exchange insights and create a stronger dialogue,” he explains.
Moreover, across the CGIAR there is a wealth of gender specific qualitative data collected through focus groups, interviews and other participatory research. As CGIAR continues to advance gender research efforts, big data is unearthing exciting opportunities for understanding and acting on the relationships among gender, agriculture, and rapidly digitizing economies and societies. However, varied approaches to data management is restricting access, thus limiting the impact data can have when other researchers aim to reuse results to gain deeper insights.
Moving beyond the ‘gender’ tag
Lubuk Beringin villagers cut off palm nut fruits at Lubuk Beringin village, Bungo district, Jambi province, Indonesia. (Credit: Tri Saputro/CIFOR)
Not surprisingly, ‘gender’ was the most common keyword used to describe data found in the study. Although it is essential for researchers to add the ‘gender’ keyword to research descriptions they must also go further in describing what the dataset represents, the researchers indicated.
“‘Gender’ is not precise enough a keyword to find all relevant gender-focused datasets. However, our search shows very few details as to what, about gender, is studied in each project,” says Tyszler.
Studies in other fields, for example nutrition, seem to have much more granularity in the description, with keywords including, nutrient intake, nutrition policy, micronutrient deficiencies, etc. We need a movement like this in gender research, he explained.
Better keywords should be a minimum, but it is also possible to consider the identification of a set of smart ‘gender metadata fields’. These would be input elements that need to be filled in that could ensure all CGIAR datasets properly assess gender dimensions, which would boost the visibility of gender research.
Working as part of the CGIAR Socio-Economic Data Community of Practice, the gender researchers support the exchange of gender-focused data collection tools, with standardized focus groups and interview questions, to improve the potential for comparing different datasets.
Since 2018, the CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture and CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research have been collaborating out of mutual interest, to identify ways to unlock the big data potential of gender research.
Together they aim to take a much more active role in shaping up how gender data can be better analysed and reveal new insights, said Gideon Kruseman, the lead of the CGIAR Socio-Economic Data Community of Practice.
“We are promoting a standardized approach by bringing together gender data experts with other socio-economic and even biophysical scientists that may not know how to best engage with gender research and data,” Kruseman explains.
Access the full Findability of Gender Datasets report, which was funded through a 2018 grant to KIT Royal Tropical Institute, by the Community of Practice on Socio-Economic Data with co-funding by the CGIAR Gender Platform.
Cover photo: A woman helps to install a drip irrigation pipe on a farm in Gujarat, India. (Credit: Hamish John Appleby, IWMI)
On March 8, the world celebrates International Women’s 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.
Women’s 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.
Sixteen years of consistent learning and practice of climate-smart agriculture, led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), are paying off for Luganu Mwangonde. Together with her husband Kenson, she has established herself as a successful smallholder farmer in Malawi’s Balaka district. She enjoys the multiple benefits of high yields from diverse crops, surplus to sell at the markets and improved soil quality.
“I started practicing the farming that does not demand too much labor back in 2004,” she explains at her 2.5-acre farm. “Over the years the process has become easier, because I have a full understanding of the benefits of techniques introduced through the project.”
In Malawi’s family farms, women often carry the burden of land preparation and weeding in the fields while juggling household responsibilities, contributing to widen gender differences already prevalent in the community.
Mwangonde observes that learning climate-smart techniques — such as minimum tillage, mulching and planting on flat land surfaces — has given her an advantage over other farmers practicing conventional agriculture.
Better off
At the beginning, like other farmers in the area, Mwangonde thought conservation agriculture and climate-smart techniques required a lot of work, or even hiring extra labor. As she tried this new approach, however, weed pressure in her plot decreased gradually, with the help of mulching and other techniques, and the labor required to maintain the fields reduced significantly. This allowed her to have extra time to add value to her products and sell them on the markets — and to rest.
The best gain for her is knowing that her family always has enough to eat. “I have enough grain to last until the next harvest,” she says. “My husband and I can provide for our seven children and four grandchildren.” During the 2018/19 season, Mwangonde’s family harvested six bags of maize, two bags of pigeon pea and four bags of groundnuts. The surplus from the harvest is reserved for later, when prices are more competitive.
“I am an equal partner in the farming activities. That means I can make decisions about how we work on our plot, distribute crops and apply everything that I have learnt about conservation agriculture,” Mwangonde explains. She has participated in CIMMYT activities where she could share her experiences on climate-smart agriculture with other women. As a lead farmer, she notes, she can confidently inspire the next generation of smallholders because of the empowering knowledge she has acquired.
Out of the 3,538 smallholder farmers from Balaka, Machinga and Zomba districts, up to 2,218 are women smallholder farmers who have successfully adopted climate-smart technologies.
Mwangonde is one of the beneficiaries of the Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) project. She also benefitted from the support of the German Development Agency (GIZ), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Total Land Care (TLC) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Farmer Dhansa Bhandari (left) sows maize seed while Bikram Daugi (right) ploughs with his oxen in Ramghat, Surkhet, Nepal. (Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT)
Although the conventional wisdom in South Asian rural villages is that men are principally responsible for pulling their families out of poverty, our recent study showed the truth to be more subtle, and more female.
In our new paper we dig into focus groups and individual life stories in a sample of 32 farming villages from five countries of South Asia. Although we asked about both men’s and women’s roles, focus groups of both sexes emphasized men in their responses — whether explaining how families escaped poverty or why they remained poor.
“Women usually cannot bring a big change, but they can assist their men in climbing up,” explains a member of the poor men’s focus group from Ismashal village (a pseudonym) of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The focus group testimonies presented rich examples of the strong influence of gender norms: the social rules that dictate differential roles and conducts for men and women in their society. These norms significantly influenced how local people conceived of movements in and out of poverty in their village and in their own lives.
According to the women’s focus group from Rangpur district in Bangladesh, women “cannot work outside the home for fear of losing their reputation and respect.”
However, in these same communities, men’s and women’s productive roles proved far more variable in the mobility processes of their families than conveyed by the focus groups. We encountered many households with men making irregular or very limited contributions to family maintenance. This happens for a number of reasons, including men’s labor migration, disability, family conflict and separations, aging and death.
What’s more, when sharing their life stories in individual interviews, nearly every woman testified to her own persistent efforts to make a living, cover household expenses, deal with debts, and, when conditions allowed, provide a better life for their families. In fact, our life story sample captured 12 women who testified to making substantial contributions to moving their families out of poverty.
Movers and shakers
We were especially struck by how many of these women “movers” were employing innovative agricultural technologies and practices to expand their production and earnings.
“In 2015, using zero tillage machines I started maize farming, for which I had a great yield and large profit,” reports a 30-year-old woman and mother of two from Matipur, Bangladesh who brought her family out of poverty.
Another 30-year-old mover, a farmer and mother of two from the village of Thool in Nepal, attests to diversification and adoption of improved cultivation practices: “I got training on vegetable farming. In the beginning the agriculture office provided some vegetable seeds as well. And I began to grow vegetables along with cereal crops like wheat, paddy, maize, oats. […] I learnt how to make soil rows.”
Among the women who got ahead, a large majority credited an important man in their life with flouting local customs and directly supporting them to innovate in their agricultural livelihoods and bring their families out of poverty.
Across the “mover” stories, women gained access to family resources which enabled them to step up their livelihood activities. For example, three quarters of the women “movers” spoke of husbands or brothers supporting them to pursue important goals in their lives.
Women’s most important relationship helping them to pursue goals in life: women “movers” (on left) versus “chronic poor” (right).
Sufia, from a village in the Rajshahi district of Bangladesh, describes how she overcame great resistance from her husband to access a farm plot provided by her brother. The plot enabled Sufia to cultivate betel leaves and paddy rice, and with those profits and additional earnings from livestock activities, she purchased more land and diversified into eggplant, chilies and bitter gourd. Sufia’s husband had struggled to maintain the family and shortly after Sufia began to prosper, he suffered a stroke and required years of medical treatments before passing away.
When Sufia reflects on her life, she considers the most important relationship in her life to be with her brother. “Because of him I can now stand on my two feet.”
We also studied women and their families who did not move out of poverty. These “chronic poor” women rarely mentioned accessing innovations or garnering significant benefits from their livelihoods. In these life stories, we find far fewer testimonies about men who financially supported a wife or sister to help her pursue an important goal.
The restrictive normative climate in much of South Asia means that women’s capacity to enable change in their livelihoods is rarely recognized or encouraged by the wider community as a way for a poor family to prosper. Still, the life stories of these “movers” open a window onto the possibilities unlocked when women have opportunities to take on more equitable household roles and are able to access agricultural innovations.
The women movers, and the men who support them, provide insights into pathways of more equitable agricultural change. What we can learn from these experiences holds great potential for programs aiming to relax gender norms, catalyze agricultural innovation, and unlock faster transitions to gender equality and poverty reduction in the region. Nevertheless, challenging social norms can be risky and can result in backlash from family or other community members. To address this, collaborative research models offer promise. These approaches engage researchers and local women and men in action learning to build understanding of and support for inclusive agricultural change. Our research suggests that such interventions, which combine social, institutional and technical dimensions of agricultural innovation, can help diverse types of families to leave poverty behind.
Plant breeding, genetics, math and software development are all stereotypically male fields. For too long, women have been excluded from these fields for social, religious, cultural and “Oh, it’s a boys’ club, I don’t feel welcome” reasons, thus depriving scientific progress of great female minds and ideas.
In light of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we stopped to ask four scientists and leaders at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) why they chose science. Here are some inspiring highlights.
What made you want to become a scientist?
Margaret Bath, Member of the CIMMYT Board of Trustees: “I love food and I love science and math, so I had the opportunity to combine […] three things that I love very much and make a great career out of it. I’m a firm believer in math and science as an enabler for solving complex problems that face our society today.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/B8SFzWyg86c/
Cynthia Ortiz, researcher in CIMMYT’s Genetic Resources Program: “I remember one time when I was watching fireflies. My grandfather approached me and asked me if I understood why they shine and I said ‘no.’ I remember well what he said to me: ‘The world is much more than what we see, hear and feel.’ In that moment, I knew that I wanted to understand more about the things that surround us.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/B8T52Y7nt_r/
What’s the best thing about being a scientist?
Aparna Das, Technical Program Manager in the Global Maize Program, CIMMYT: “The whole idea where I use information, knowledge and technology to generate biological products was very exciting for me. The biggest learning I have had in the 25 years of my career as a plant-breeding scientist […] has been how I can use the vast information, combine it with the present day technological advances and deliver something for the future, which can address the global food crisis problem, which is looming […] in the near future.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/B8Zeau5neHq/
Philomin Juliana, wheat scientist in CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program: “How you can use scientific research to answer lots of different questions and how you can solve […] different problems using math, data analysis. All these are key questions that affect humankind today and how we can design future systems based on our current understanding of systems and also how all these together can help us make a difference in the lives of farmers and the poor.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/B8Z2WTfH-sh/
Are you passionate about science and want more women to get involved? join CIMMYT’s #WhyIChoseScience campaign. Take out your phone, click ‘record’ and share what made you want to become a scientist!
