Theme: Gender equality, youth and social inclusion

Gender and other social differences such as age, wealth and ethnicity, have an enormous influence upon the success of agricultural interventions. To ensure equitable impacts and benefits to rural people, CIMMYT emphasizes inclusive research and development interventions. Starting with the collection of data on gender and social differences, efforts are underway to address these gaps and ensure equitable adoption of technologies and practice. This includes working towards gender-equitable control of productive assets and resources; technologies that reduce women’s labor; and improved capacity of women and youth to participate in decision-making.

Participatory approaches to gender in agricultural development

Written by on March 8, 2016. Posted in Features. 318 Comments on Participatory approaches to gender in agricultural development

When designing and implementing agricultural development projects, it is difficult to ensure that they are responsive to gender dynamics. For Mulunesh Tsegaye, a gender specialist attached to two projects working on the areas of nutrition and mechanization in Ethiopia, participatory approaches are the best way forward.

“I have lived and worked with communities. If you want to help a community, they know best how to do things for themselves. There are also issues of sustainability when you are not there forever. You need to make communities own what has been done in an effective participatory approach,” she said.

Maize dish prepared with QPM maize with cook Amina Ibrahim at NuME field day, Sayo village, Dano district. Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT

Including both men and women

The CIMMYT-led Nutritious Maize for Ethiopia (NuME) project uses demonstrations, field days, cooking demonstrations and messaging to encourage farmers to adopt and use improved quality protein maize (QPM) varieties, bred to contain the essential amino acids lysine and tryptophan that are usually lacking in maize-based diets. The Ethiopian government adopted a plan to plant QPM on 200,000 hectares by 2015-2017.

NuME’s project staff, and donor Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), are highly committed to gender-based approaches, meaning that Mulunesh’s initial role was to finalize the gender equality strategy and support implementation with partners.

By involving partners in an action planning workshop, Mulunesh helped them to follow a less technical and more gender-aware approach, for example by taking women’s time constraints into account when organizing events.

This involved introducing some challenging ideas. Due to men’s role as breadwinners and decision-makers in Ethiopian society, Mulunesh suggested inviting men to learn about better nutrition in the household in order to avoid perpetuating stereotypes about the gender division of labor.

“For a project to be gender-sensitive, nutrition education should not focus only on women but also on men to be practical. Of course, there were times when the project’s stakeholders resisted some of my ideas. They even questioned me: ‘How can we even ask men farmers to cook?’”

Now, men are always invited to nutrition education events, and are also presented in educational videos as active partners, even if they are not themselves cooking.

“Nutrition is a community and public health issue,” said Mulunesh. “Public involves both men and women, when you go down to the family level you have both husbands and wives. You cannot talk about nutrition separately from decision-making and access to resources.”

Faxuma Adam harvests green maize Sidameika Tura village, Arsi Negele Photo: Peter Lowe/ CIMMYT: Empowering men and women through mechanization

The Farm Power and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification (FACASI) project is involved in researching new technologies that can be used to mechanize farming at smaller scales. Introducing mechanization will likely alter who performs different tasks or ultimately benefits, meaning that a gender-sensitive approach is crucial.

Again, Mulunesh takes the participation perspective. “One of the issues of introducing mechanization is inclusiveness. You need to include women as co-designers from the beginning so that it will be easier for them to participate in their operation.”

“In general, the farmers tell us that almost every agricultural task involves both men and women. Plowing is mostly done by oxen operated by men, but recently, especially where there are female-headed households, women are plowing and it is becoming more acceptable. There are even recent findings from Southern Ethiopia that women may be considered attractive if they plow!”

Women and men are both involved to some extent with land preparation, planting, weeding, harvesting or helping with threshing. However, women do not just help in farming, they also cook, transport the food long distances for the men working in the farm, and also take care of children and cattle.

A study by the Dutch Royal Tropical Institute, Gender Matters in Farm Power, has already drawn some conclusions about gender relations in farm power that are being used as indicators for the gender performance of the mechanization project.

These indicators are important to track how labor activities change with the introduction of mechanization. “My main concern is that in most cases, when a job traditionally considered the role of women gets mechanized, becomes easier or highly paid, it is immediately taken over by men, which would imply a lot in terms of control over assets and income,” said Mulunesh.

Front row, from left to right: Mulunesh Tsegaye, FACASI gender and agriculture specialist; Katrine Danielsen KIT; Elizabeth Mukewa consultant; Mahlet Mariam, consultant; and David Kahan CIMMYT, business model specialist. Back row, from left to right: Anouka van Eerdewijk KIT; Lone Badstue CIMMYT strategic leader, gender research and mainstreaming; and Frédéric Baudron, FACASI project leader. Credit: Steffen Schulz/CIMMYT

Community conversations

In order to foster social change and identify the needs of women and vulnerable groups, Mulunesh initiated a community conversation program, based on lines first developed by the United Nations Development Programme. Pilots are ongoing in two districts in the south of Ethiopia; a total of four groups are involved, each of which may include 50-70 participants.

“You need to start piece-by-piece, because there are lots of issues around gender stereotypes, culture and religious issues. It is not that men are not willing to participate; rather it is because they are also victims of the socio-cultural system in place.”

When asked about the situation of women in the community, many people claim that things have already changed; discussions and joint decisions are occurring in the household and women are getting empowered in terms of access to resources. Over the coming year, Mulunesh will compare how information diffuses differently in gender-segregated or gender mixed groups.

FACASI is funded by the Australian International Food Security Research Centre, managed by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research and implemented by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

NuME is funded by DFATD and managed by CIMMYT in collaboration with Ethiopian research institutions, international non-governmental organizations, universities and public and private seed companies in Ethiopia.

Moving beyond agriculture’s gender status quo

Written by on March 8, 2016. Posted in Blogs.

This opinion piece links to a seminar on “Cooperation of CGIARs and academia in sustainable gender + intensification in IAR4D” given at CIMMYT by Margreet van der Burg, Senior University Lecturer/Researcher at Wageningen University, on International Women’s Day, 8 March. Any opinions expressed are her own.

Agricultural change is part of historical change and cannot be separated from social change processes. Therefore, we have to commit to also include women and others who were largely overlooked in agriculture in the past. We cannot live without agricultural produce; we would all die without food. Changes in agriculture will affect us all in various ways and on different scales. It is all our very interest. For research on agricultural innovation this implies in my view that we need to be determined in addressing and carefully integrating human social change processes into it from step one till the very end.

Taking part in processes of change is taking part in development. My take on development is that we commit ourselves to consciously work together towards inclusive development, meaning optimizing opportunities for all while valuing diversity and acknowledging we are all part of these change processes, albeit not from the same social positions. Therefore, to me, development definitely includes the support to increasing opportunities and chances for groups of people who historically have been becoming largely invisible and not heard nor adequately represented.

In most societies, women’s opportunities and chances are more limited than men’s, even where equal rights laws are in place. Deeply rooted mindsets and bodily ingrained routines we have all been learning as young children, make us feel most comfortable when we can operate without having to question them. We often see this around us, especially when confronted with life-changing circumstances, such as sudden poverty, war, migration and climate change. We are poorly prepared to try alternative options, may get worn out and even lose our sense of purpose. It takes a conscious and concerted effort to question and modify those immediate responses.

But we can all learn much more from unfamiliar “others” than we often do now. Praising being outstanding through exclusivity or privilege in opposition to “others” does not support change processes; but sharing and facilitating do. If we all are prepared to see, listen and together investigate how and why “differences” based on gender and other social dimensions work out, we can combine insights and move forward in ways most can profit from. “Deviants,” for instance, can help to point out sharply where societies fail, and can lead to better diagnostics. “Others” who mostly have no vested interest in the status quo, can become important agents of change in processes where a lot of bridging is needed to negotiate change.

In many societies, women are predominantly defined as “others,” as opposed to men. If we support women in voicing their perspectives, this will shed new light on change processes from various angles and scales. Within the large group of women, there are also differences. Some women might be in a better position to act as change agents within the social dynamics at stake. In many societies, young women get exposure to “others” — for instance, through education — and can become change agen

ts if the elder community members and they themselves work on bridging differences in a respectful way. Men can stand up as allies and help bridging differences to their fellows. Integrating these gender — social dynamics of change into international agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) will be a challenging task in the coming years for not only women’s, but everyone’s benefit. I am very pleased to have and take my share!

A granny’s boundless resilience and strength, a pillar for women maize farmers

Written by on March 7, 2016. Posted in Features. 57 Comments on A granny’s boundless resilience and strength, a pillar for women maize farmers

Purity has journeyed with women farmers in her village for last three years helping them access land to plant food for their families. Photo: B.Wawa/CIMMYT. — Purity has journeyed with women farmers in her village for last three years helping them access land to plant food for their families.
Photo: B.Wawa/CIMMYT.

NAIROBI, Kenya — Purity Wanjiku lives in Mirera village in Naivasha County, about 90 kilometers from Nairobi. Like most women in her village, for years she has depended on farming to meet her family’s basic needs, mainly through selling banana flour and maize.
Having farmed for 40 years, the 68-year old mother of 10 – and grandmother of 20 – is not just a guru in agricultural matters but has been a pillar for women in her village who depend on her land to grow food for their families.

Wanjiku owns a six-acre farm, which she describes as too big to grow food just for her husband and youngest son. Her other children are adults and have their own homes; the youngest is currently a college student. With all this land at her disposal, Wanjiku leases out part of it to seven women neighbors who farm it to grow food for their families.

“I only plant on a one-acre plot, which is enough to grow food for my family and extra to sell,” Wanjiku said. The seven women join forces to pay her US$400 (KES 4000) each to access five acres for the full planting and harvesting seasons.
Maize is among the important crops Wanjiku and her neighbors grow. And though she has seen good years in maize farming, Wanjiku confessed that the last three years have been most difficult because of the outbreak of Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN) that has devastated farmers in the Naivasha area. “Before the disease struck, I used to harvest a minimum of 50 bags of 90 kilograms from one acre. But now the harvest has really gone down,”she said.

However, regardless of the MLN menace and huge losses, Wanjiku’s resilience and commitment to keep planting maize is admirable. This resilience has inspired the seven women farming her land, who also plant maize despite the very high risk of losing their crop to MLN. They all remain optimistic that a lasting solution to MLN will be found through research being conducted at the MLN screening site, just five kilometers away from Wanjiku’s farm.

Most of these women prefer maize over other crops because it can be consumed in different forms, as flour, roasted, boiled or cooked with beans or other crops.

“Regardless of the little maize we harvest from the farm, it becomes a precious commodity, because of the many ways we consume it even in little amounts,” Wanjiku added.
If this resilience is anything to go by, then women farmers in Africa are pillars of the transformation Africa is searching for to address food security, which is marred by an array of constraints ranging from climate change, low fertility soils, insect pests and other stresses.

Their involvement in the production, post-harvest storage and processing of maize contributes directly to the maize economy in Africa, and is therefore a key contributor to a stronger food system at the household, national and continental levels.

CIMMYT has for the past 50 years prioritized gender as essential for enhancing agricultural growth and food security for smallholders. It continues to address gender equality and equity to bridge the gap between men and women so that women can play bigger roles in farming and food production.

Q+A: Ignore preconceptions, stake claim on science, CIMMYT’s Natalia Palacios tells women, girls

Written by on February 25, 2016. Posted in News. 59 Comments on Q+A: Ignore preconceptions, stake claim on science, CIMMYT’s Natalia Palacios tells women, girls

CIMMYT scientist Natalia Palacios pinpoints discrimination as the main hurdle to gender balance in science. Photographer: Alfonso Cortés Arredondo/ CIMMYT — CIMMYT scientist Natalia Palacios pinpoints discrimination as the main hurdle to gender balance in science. Photo: Alfonso Cortés Arredondo/ CIMMYT

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Discrimination in the science sector remains a significant challenge to achieving gender balance in education and professional research, said a top maize researcher.
“Unfortunately there is still discrimination, from the education level to the professional environment, and therefore there are still some areas that are largely dominated by men,” said Natalia Palacios, maize nutrition quality specialist at the Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
Gender balance is essential in science as it provides a range of perspectives that contribute to better solutions, Palacios said. She has been fascinated by nature and its workings since girlhood growing up in a small farming town in Colombia. Putting this fascination into action proved the possibilities a career in science could have, she said.
“I grew up in a very small farming town and I was always exposed to small farmers and agriculture. But it was when I did my undergrad internship at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia that I realized the scope of potential contributing through science and agriculture has.”
However, a U.N. study conducted in 14 countries indicates that woman and girls remain underrepresented in scientific fields. The probability for female students graduating with a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree in a science-related field are 19, 8 and 2 percent respectively, while the percentages of male students are 37, 18 and 6, it said.
In an effort to address gender disparity, in December, U.N. member states adopted a resolution to establish an annual international day to mark the crucial role women and girls play in science and technological communities celebrated for the first time on Feb. 11 this year. The aim of the International Day for Women and Girls in Science is to further the access of women and girls and their participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, training and research activities.
Palacios pursued her passion for science by studying microbiology at Andes University in Bogota, Colombia, continuing with doctoral studies in plant biochemistry at University of East Anglia and the John Innes Center in Norwich, England. She completed two postdoctoral degrees at the University of Dublin and at the Max Planck Institute for molecular plant physiology in Germany.
She has worked as nutritional quality specialist at CIMMYT since 2005 and is currently head of the maize nutritional quality laboratory. Her main focus is the development of maize germplasm with high nutritional quality, including high-quality protein maize, high zinc and high pro-vitamin A maize. This includes assessment of nutritional quality of food products and phenotyping of genetic diversity for nutritional, end-use quality and culinary quality of maize.
She has more than 40 journal articles published, seven book chapters and more than 10 science magazines and brochures.
Palacios shared her views on women and girls in the science sector in the following interview.
Q: Why is it important to have more woman and girls studying as well as working in scientific fields?
Having women and girls in science is as equally as important as having men – you can’t have one without the other. We all have the same potential and we all can contribute to solve problems in science. Whether it’s women, men, people from different cultural backgrounds, each have their own unique and different perspective and all of them contribute to creating better solutions when they work together.
Q: What challenges do women and girls face with regard to science today?
Unfortunately there is still discrimination, from the education level to the professional environment, and therefore there are still some areas that are largely dominated by men. There are still many pre-conceptual ideas that people uses to generalize the sexes. For example, the perception may be that women have less flexibility or that men are better working in the field. We just have to be open, hold back judgments and refrain from using one-size-fits-all methodologies, you will be surprised how wrong some of those paradigms can be. Let’s not close the doors due to gender before giving people the opportunity to prove themselves.
Q. How does your research improve the lives of women and girls in the developing world?
I am part of a team working on developing maize with enhanced nutritional, end-use and culinary quality. I hope this research will lead to better diets and greater opportunities for everyone. However, our research is significantly important for mothers, who are more prone to malnutrition as their diets rely on only staple crops, which has a negative impact on their children. Malnutrition has an impact on their ability to study or work and limits their life opportunities. By ensuring that the end-use and culinary quality of maize is high, we expect to ease the process of cooking or processing it at home and for small-scale enterprises and create new income opportunities. This way, people can save time and money that then can be used for education and other more rewarding activities.
I also try to take any opportunity to encourage youth and women that have a passion for science to follow it and contribute to society based on their passion.
Q: What is your advice to young aspiring female scientists?
To follow dreams and aspirations. Keep working hard, believe in yourself and pursue the passion for science. Gender or cultural background should not limit such a passion.

CIMMYT scientist Sarah Hearne talks about gender equality in science. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés Arredondo/ CIMMYT)

Q+A: How women and girls can succeed in science, according to CIMMYT’s Sarah Hearne

Written by Matthew O'Leary on February 25, 2016. Posted in News. 58 Comments on Q+A: How women and girls can succeed in science, according to CIMMYT’s Sarah Hearne

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Scientific change requires innovation and the best solutions emerge when a wide range of perspectives have been considered, if you don’t have representation from half of the population the scope for innovation is narrowed, said a leading molecular geneticist on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

“Women often look at problems from a different angle from men – not better, just different – and like men we have a different gender perspective – all perspectives are valid and of value,” said Sarah Hearne, who leads the maize component of the Seeds of Discovery project at the International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement.

Her passion for science began in girlhood, stemming from a curiosity about how things work.

“I loved experimenting and figuring out how and why things happen; I used to dissect my grandma’s fish when they died to try to work out why they were floating in the tank – I was six at the time,” she said. “Thankfully my parents weren’t horrified by this and over the years my requests for microscopes, chemistry sets and supplies of organs to dissect were realized by Santa and the village butcher.”

Not all girls receive such encouragement. A study conducted in 14 countries found the probability for female students graduating with a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree in a science-related field are 19, 8 and 2 percent respectively, while the percentages of male students are 37, 18 and 6, according to the United Nations.

In response, in December, U.N. member states adopted a resolution to establish an annual international day to mark the crucial role women and girls play in science and technological communities celebrated for the first time on Feb. 11 this year. The aim is to further the access of women and girls and their participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, training and research activities.

She kicked off her career in adulthood by earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Plant Science at the University of Manchester and a doctoral degree at the University of Sheffield where she focused on work based across the University of Sheffield, the John Innes Center and Syngenta. Since graduating she has worked at two CGIAR centers in Latin America and East and West Africa.

She currently works with CIMMYT in the Seeds of Discovery project where she develops and applies tools to identify and enable the use of the valuable genetic variation present in genebanks for the benefit of farmers and consumers around the world.

She shared her views on women and girls in science in the following interview.

Q: Why is it important to have an increased number of woman and girls studying as well as working in scientific fields?

Girls rock!

Half the population is female but in science careers we are underrepresented, this imbalance becomes increasingly acute as you move up in career structures towards positions of more decision making.

Gender-balanced companies tend to have higher profitability and rank higher in terms of institutional health. This translates to the non-profit sector – impact instead of profitability is the measure of success. More women are needed in scientific research and development at all levels of organizations. This ideal requires a gender-balanced pool of potential applicants – something that is hard to obtain when women are underrepresented in sciences from school to university.

Q: What inspired you to follow a career in science and agriculture?

I grew up in Yorkshire, a rural area in the UK, my dad was an agricultural engineer and my mum still runs her own shop. Farming was an integral part of our community and our lives.

I loved science at school and was one of the few who studied chemistry and physics. Indeed, I was the only girl who studied the four sciences on offer. I enjoyed studying biology and environmental science the most, and after leaving school I deliberated whether to study genetics or plant science at university, eventually deciding to do a degree in applied plant science.

I spent my third year at university working with Zeneca – now Syngenta. My fellow interns and I were plunged into the deep end of applied research with very limited supervision; I LOVED IT! I got to research design, test, evaluate and develop tools and resources that mattered to the company and to farmers; my boss was very supportive and he encouraged me to try out some of my more “wacky” ideas…I was allowed to fail and learn from failure, developing better methods as a result. After earning my B.Sc. I applied for Ph.Ds., all the Ph.Ds. I applied for were focused on different aspects of crop improvement – I wanted to work with plant science that had an impact on people’s lives. The Ph.D. I chose was on maize molecular genetics and physiology working on Striga (a parasitic weed endemic to Africa) and drought. My Ph.D. experiences importantly gave me first-hand experience of the hard reality of the precariousness of food and nutritional security across vast swathes of the human population. When completing my Ph.D. I decided I wanted to be able to contribute to food security through research but I didn’t want to do this within a university setting- I thought that was too far from farmers. I came to know CIMMYT through my doctoral research and I have been working in the CGIAR system of agricultural researchers ever since completing my Ph.D.

Q: What challenges do women and girls face with regard to science today?

Perceptions: Women can face direct sexism related to their choice of class/degree/career not being considered gender appropriate, this often has cultural influence so while a girl may be more or less accepted in one culture she is not in another. Role models also pose a challenge. There are few female role models in many areas; those that exist have often sacrificed much personal life to be where they are. This gives a skewed picture to girls in an image-obsessed world where people are expected to be perfect in all aspects of life. Science is still very male dominated, especially agricultural science. Overt and unintentional sexism is rife in many organizations – women can be made to feel like a “token” staff member..

Being assertive and focused is often viewed very negatively when women display this behavior with gender-specific terms being used. I have been called “bossy, bitchy, emotional, aggressive, ice queen, scary, etc.”, my male colleagues exhibiting the same behavior are “driven, focused, tough, go-getters, etc.” I have never heard them being called bossy….

Inequality at home results in inequality in science. Women still tend to bear the brunt of home and childcare activities and this creates real or perceived impacts. Institutions and national governments don’t always help – shared maternity/paternity leave would be a good starting point.

Q: What is your advice to young aspiring female scientists?

Wow, there are lots of wisdom picked up and passed on I could share, here are a few I have found the most useful:

Personal: Check your own prejudice and ensure you treat others in an equal way. I get tired of hearing statements like “men can’t multi-task”… it is as offensive as “women can’t read maps”. If we want equality we have to ensure we model it ourselves.

Work on self-confidence, self-esteem and develop a good, self-depreciating sense of humor. Build a support network to help maintain these things and give you honest feedback. Don’t be afraid to ask questions; ask lots of questions.

Don’t stress about titles, positions or detailed career paths – career paths don’t usually follow a straight or planned path and you discover more fulfilling things on the journey. Give yourself time to explore and discover an area of science you love and are inspired by; believe me it is worth every second invested. Happiness is more important that a title on a business card.

Pick your partners carefully, life is full of surprises and striving for equality shouldn’t stop in the classroom or workplace.

In school/the workplace, do not accept gender loaded statements; “you are bossy” should be quickly but firmly rebuked with “not bossy, simply assertive”. Speak out about gender bias –be it female, male, bi -or trans gender – and enable and support others to speak out. If someone says something that makes you feel uncomfortable, articulate this to them. In addition, I would advise that you should never, ever accept sexual harassment of yourself or others in the workplace. Report it and if needed shout and scream about it. It is a good idea to build a financial/family safety net for yourself so that you have the freedom to leave situations where there is unwillingness of employers to deal with sexual harassment.

Learn to program Python and a bit of Java. Data is getting easier to capture and as a result the volume of data we are processing grows year on year. Having the skills to manipulate and analyze this is increasingly critical – off the shelf solutions no longer work. Being able to program is an increasingly valuable skill and one many girls are not encouraged to explore.

Try to understand the gender climate of the organization you are working for – or want to work for – and seek out allies to navigate and – hopefully – start to influence the climate to a more gender neutral workplace.

Don’t view every decision as having gender bias – sometimes there really isn’t any- you just don’t like the decision.

Apply for jobs even when you don’t meet all of the requirements – if you can do half of the things well and can learn the others then apply- nothing ventured nothing gained (and few candidates, male or female, tick all of the boxes).

Learn how to negotiate and try not to enter a situation in which you are unaware of the facts about what you are arguing for. Women often feel uncomfortable to negotiate salaries – you feel worse when you realize a male colleague doing the same job is being paid more.

Don’t let anyone shout at you, and don’t let anyone talk over you – calmly, quietly, and privately explain how you want to be treated – if the shouting continues walk away from the situation.

Consider family issues whether you have a family or not; do you need to send an urgent request to someone at 5pm on a Friday? -This helps all colleagues – men have families too and we all need work-life balance.

Inaugural Paula Kantor Award recognizes work on agriculture, gender, improved diets

Written by on January 14, 2016. Posted in Features. 54 Comments on Inaugural Paula Kantor Award recognizes work on agriculture, gender, improved diets

El BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Post-doctoral fellow Soumya Gupta is the winner of the inaugural Paula Kantor Award for Excellence in Field Research, the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) announced on Thursday.

Gupta was recognized for research that “systematically and empirically assesses the empowerment of women in India as it relates to agricultural determinants and nutritional outcomes,” the group said in a statement.

The ICRW praised Gupta’s doctoral research at Cornell University for revealing that when women are empowered, they are better positioned to make their own choices in agriculture and help influence their own nutritional outcomes.

Gupta’s research showed that while diversification of production systems and diets is an important pathway to improved nutrition, the outcome is conditional on women’s status, the statement said.

Gupta found that empowered women tend to have better access to diet diversity and improved iron status.

“I could not imagine a more deserving researcher upon which to bestow the honor of the inaugural Paula Kantor Award,” said ICRW President Sarah Degnan Kambou. “Dr. Gupta’s work truly embodies the spirit and passion that Paula brought to her work every day. I see so many parallels between the important work that Paula was doing to better integrate gender into agriculture and rural development and Dr. Gupta’s field research.”

This is the first year that ICRW bestowed the award, which was designed to honor the legacy of the group’s former colleague Paula Kantor who died at age 46 in the aftermath of a Taliban attack in Pakistan last year.

At the time of her death, the prolific gender and development specialist was working at the Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) on a project focused on understanding the role of gender in the livelihoods of people in major wheat-growing areas of Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Pakistan.

Kantor was widely recognized in the international development community as an established and respected professional and writer, who pushed the realms of gender research to engage men more effectively. She published more than a dozen peer-reviewed academic publications, 10 peer-reviewed monographs and briefs, 15 other publications and 10 conference papers during her lifetime.

“I am honored to be the first recipient of the Paula Kantor Award,” Gupta said. “There is a great need for better data (and metrics) in the field of agriculture, nutrition and women’s empowerment. In light of that, the Paula Kantor Award acknowledges the importance of gathering primary data for evidence-based research.”

“At the same time the award also recognizes the tremendous effort that goes into designing a field-based data collection activity that is methodologically robust, contextually relevant, and ethically sound,” she said.

“I am inspired by Paula’s work and life, and with this award look forward to continuing my research on the linkages between nutrition and agriculture with a focus on women’s empowerment, and contributing to policy reform in a meaningful way.”

Gupta will receive the award at ICRW’s 40th Anniversary celebration in New Delhi, India on January 20th.

Gupta will receive a commemorative plaque and the opportunity to meet with organizations, government officials, leaders of non-governmental organizations, and others in Delhi to discuss her work and the importance of understanding the connections between women’s empowerment, agricultural practices and nutritional outcomes.

CIMMYT team wins CCAFS recognition

Written by on December 22, 2015. Posted in News.

On 29 April, CIMMYT had a double reason to celebrate, picking up the award for “Best gender paper” and “Best science paper” (along with Bioversity), at the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) Science Conference in Copenhagen. The conference was part of a series of CCAFS meetings held from 29 April – 02 May, and was attended by various CIMMYT staff.

The best gender paper, titled ‘Adoption of Agricultural Technologies in Kenya: How Does Gender Matter?’ and co-authored by Simon Wagura Ndiritu, Menale Kassie and Bekele Shiferaw, highlighted the differences between technologies adopted on female- and male-managed farm plots in Kenya. They found that whilst there were gender differences in the adoption of technologies such as the use of animal manure, soil and water conservation, other differences in the use of chemical fertilizers and improved seed may stem from the varying levels of access to resources for men and women, rather than gender itself. “This recognition inspires me to put more effort to produce more quality research that will bring excellent distinction to CIMMYT and myself,” said Kassie, while Ndiritu said “it is an encouragement to a young scientist,” adding that he is looking forward to having the paper published.

The winning science paper, ‘Assessing the vulnerability of traditional maize seed systems in Mexico to climate change’, was authored by David Hodson (FAO), and Mauricio Bellon (Bioversity) and Jonathan Hellin from CIMMYT. With climate change models predicting significant impacts in Mexico and Central America, particularly during the maize growing season (May – October), the paper assessed the capacity of traditional maize seed systems to provide farmers with appropriate genetic material, under the anticipated agro-ecological conditions. Their results indicated that whilst most farmers will have easy access to appropriate seed in the future, those in the highlands will be more vulnerable to climate change and are likely to have to source seed from outside their traditional supplies, entailing significant additional costs and changes to the traditional supply chain.

To share the good news, the Socioeconomics program hosted a get-together with the team in Nairobi, Kenya. During the cake cutting ceremony, the best gender paper award was dedicated to women farmers from Embu and Kakamega in Kenya’s Eastern and Western Provinces, where the data was collected. The Nairobi team also took the opportunity to initiate monthly seminars in order to share research findings hosted by the Global Maize Program and the Socioeconomics program and promote regular interaction among the team. The program directors, Bekele Shiferaw and B. M. Prasanna nominated Dan Makumbi, Hugo De Groote, Sika Gbegbelegbe, Fred Kanampiu, and Sarah Kibera, to form the organizing committee for the seminars.

Gender bias may limit uptake of climate-smart farm practices, study shows

Written by on December 8, 2015. Posted in News. 67 Comments on Gender bias may limit uptake of climate-smart farm practices, study shows

A smallholder farmer in Embu, Kenya prepares a maize plot for planting. CIMMYT/file

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Farmer education programs that fail to address traditional gender roles may sideline women, limiting their use of conservation agriculture techniques, which can boost their ability to adapt to climate change, a new research paper states.

Conservation agriculture involves minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and the use of crop rotation to simultaneously maintain and boost yields, increase profits and protect the environment. It contributes to improved soil function and quality, which can improve resilience to climate variability.

Although some scientists believe that such techniques have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration, which can help mitigate the impact of global warming, it is important to note that the potential benefits of certain aspects of conservation agriculture — particularly not tilling the soil — have been overstated, write the authors of the study from the International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT) and the Research Program on Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

Titled “Gender and conservation agriculture in east and southern Africa: towards a research agenda,” the paper discusses the lack of research conducted into interactions between conservation agriculture use and gender. It proposes a research agenda that will better understand how African farming systems remain strongly stratified by gender.

Despite an increase of women smallholder farmers throughout sub-Saharan Africa – one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change worldwide – agricultural service suppliers and policymakers remain “locked into the conceptual norm of the primary farmer as male,” said co-author Clare Stirling, a senior scientist in the Sustainable Intensification Program at CIMMYT.

“The ability of women-led households, or male-headed households with women as primary farmers, to adopt conservation agriculture may be compromised if government policies, extension systems and other actors continue to design interventions and target information and training around the conceptual norm of the male-headed household,” Stirling said, adding that a gender-sensitive approach should become part of mainstream research.

“Overall, normative conceptualizations of ‘farmers’ can result in inappropriate targeting and ineffective messaging,” she said.

There is almost no understanding of how gender relations in smallholder agriculture – particularly with regard to decision-making over technology adoption, roles and responsibilities for specific farm tasks – may influence the likelihood of adopting conservation agriculture techniques, the paper states.

The costs and benefits of conservation agriculture adoption to women themselves — in terms of income, labor deployment, contributions to food and nutrition security and relative decision making power at household and community level, remain largely unknown.

In sub-Saharan Africa, about 30 percent of the population is undernourished, and the area has the highest projections for population growth by 2050, the paper states, adding that a projected 2 degree temperature increase related to global warming is likely to be accompanied by reduced rainfall and increased variability of weather patterns.

These factors will put pressure on agricultural systems that are largely small scale, low input, rain fed and already struggling to feed the population, according to the report. Cereal yields in the region are low and stagnant, averaging 1.3 tons per hectare, compared with 3 tons per hectare in the developing world overall.

Women and men typically take on distinctive, sex-segregated roles, responsibilities and tasks in agricultural production systems. While men and women may have different rights and responsibilities for different crops and livestock products, women are typically responsible for household tasks and caring roles.

“Women more than men are involved in a zero sum game, a closed system in which time or energy devoted to any new effort must be diverted from another activity,” the report states. Access to land, which in many sub-Saharan African countries is managed under customary law, or a patchwork of statutory and customary laws – is also complex and under-researched in terms of understanding the associations between gender, decisions about land management and the willingness of farmers to engage in conservation agriculture or indeed any new intervention that involves a delay in returns, according to the paper.

African maize farmers get support to mitigate impact of poor soils

Written by on December 3, 2015. Posted in Features.

NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) – As the global community marks World Soil Day, African smallholder farmers are contending with low yields due to low-fertility soils prevalent in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa. This situation has affected the food security of over 300 million people in the region who depend on maize as their staple food.

For the majority of these smallholder farmers, access to inputs like fertilizers to boost soil productivity has been restricted due to their high cost. The reality is that in Africa fertilizers cost up to six times more than in any other continent.

As a result, nearly three quarters (about 70 percent) of eastern and southern Africa’s maize is grown without fertilizers. As the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and partners work to give farmers a partial solution to this enor

mous challenge, efforts must be intensified to protect and maintain soil resources for sustainable development in Africa and the globe.

The Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS) Project addresses the problem of low nitrogen in soils. Smallholder farmers can expect to harvest up to 25 percent more from new maize varieties developed by the IMAS project.

These varieties are nitrogen use efficient (NUE), which means they utilize more efficiently the small amount of fertilizer that farmers can afford to apply (typically less than 20 kilograms per hectare) compared to varieties currently on the market. The IMAS project is a public-private partnership involving CIMMYT, the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, South Africa’s Agricultural Research Council and DuPont Pioneer.

In two years – between 2014 and 2015 – 21 NUE hybrids were successfully released in Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. In addition, IMAS helped to increase seed production and distribution of three existing NUE varieties. According to Michael Olsen, IMAS Project Leader, these varieties are expected to reach approximately 84,000 farmers.

“Giving smallholder farmers practical solutions within their environmental conditions is a sustainable means to not only preserve soil resources but address key challenges in maize farming, which is a major livelihood for millions in Africa,” Olsen said.

Many of the released NUE hybrids carry additional traits that are important in the region, such as tolerance to drought and maize lethal necrosis, a devastating viral disease that is new in the region. Donasiana Limo, a farmer from Olkalili village in northern Tanzania, attests to the good performance of HB513, a drought-tolerant and NUE variety he planted during the main cropping season between January and March 2015.

“I did not do much to prepare my land because the rains came very late and ended early. With no fertilizer and failed rains, I did not expect to harvest the seven bags of 50 kilograms from eight kilograms of HB513 seed,” Donasiana said.

“If I had time to prepare my land and added fertilizer, the harvest would have been so much more.”

Many more farmers from this remote village have benefited immensely from HB513, including Valeria Pantaleo.

Sustainable solutions for African farmers need to be addressed during World Soil Day deliberations. Efforts to facilitate smallholders’ access to inputs like fertilizers are critical. In addition, to help arrest further soil deterioration emphasis must be placed on adopting correct agronomic practices and appropriate crop varieties available on the market that are well suited to different soil management systems.

Policymakers must formulate strategies for adopting universal practices that maintain soil resources and are adapted to farming environments across Africa. Kenya has already set the pace for maize breeding in Africa by including performance in low-nitrogen soils as a special prerequisite for maize variety release, a step that will help enhance healthy soils in Africa if adopted by other regulatory agencies.

Links for more information

Update on the IMAS Project
Follow the IMAS conversation on Twitter during #WorldSoilDay via #IMASPro #NUEmaize
Global Soil Week 2015
International Year of Soils 2015
World Soil Day
CIMMYT maize research

For information, please contact: Michael Olsen: IMAS Project Leader| Brenda Wawa: Media Contact

CIMMYT encourages women farmers in Pakistan to grow their own wheat

Written by on November 27, 2015. Posted in News.

Woman farmer receiving wheat seed at the festival. Photo: Amina Nasim Khan

Farmers, students, scientists, and researchers showed keen interest in new agricultural technologies and practices offered by CIMMYT at the women farmers’ festival organized by Lok Sanjh Foundation at the National Agriculture Research Centre (NARC), Islamabad, Pakistan, on 11 November 2015.

At the festival, CIMMYT showcased high yielding wheat varieties that are resistant to rust, especially Ug99, as well as biofortified and normal yellow and white maize varieties, and information on conservation agriculture.

CIMMYT encourages farmers young and old, men and women, to grow their own wheat for a food secure world. As part of CIMMYT’s mandate to ensure food security, 2,500 smallholder farmers received seed of Faisalabad-08, Punjab-11, Pakistan-13, and NARC-11, wheat varieties that are resistant to rust, including Ug99, at the festival. Seerat Asghar, Federal Secretary, Ministry of National Food Security and Research, Imtiaz Muhammad, CIMMYT country representative, and Nazim Ali, USAID Pakistan representative, distributed the seed.

The team collected farmer information for future follow-up on the wheat varieties’ performance and yield improvement. More than 60% of the recipients were women farmers from the Pothwar region of Punjab province, including Chakwal, Fateh Jang, Gujar Khan, and Rawalpindi, Mardan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and Islamabad.

Seed distribution ceremony during the women farmers’ festival. Photo: Amina Nasim Khan.

New findings on gender gap in conservation agriculture

Written by on November 26, 2015. Posted in Features. 1 Comment on New findings on gender gap in conservation agriculture

Belita Maleko, a farmer in Nkhotakota, central Malawi, sowed cowpea as an intercrop in one of her maize plots, grown under conservation agriculture principles. (Photo: T. Samson/CIMMYT)

Despite wide-ranging, in-depth conservation agriculture studies conducted over many years, almost none consider gender and gender relations as a factor that may explain low adoption rates, according to the recently published paper “Gender and conservation agriculture in East and Southern Africa: towards a research agenda.”

The paper examines research to date on the interactions between conservation agriculture interventions – meaning minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotation that can simultaneously boost yields, increase profits and protect the environment – and gender in East and Southern Africa and sets out a research agenda based on gaps observed. Given the increasing interest in conservation agriculture due to climate change impacts in the region, the authors also argue that greater attention to gender is needed in order to ensure successful interventions. The following Q&A with one of the study’s authors, Clare Stirling, CIMMYT Senior Scientist with the Sustainable Intensification Program based in Wales, UK, details the study’s findings and what is needed to ensure gender is included in future conservation agriculture interventions.

Q: How do conservation agriculture practices interact with gender?

A: There are many known and unknown ways in which conservation agriculture interacts with gender and the purpose of this paper is to review the evidence and identify gaps that exist. conservation agriculture is knowledge-intensive and can also be labor-intensive and, along with many soil improvement technologies, involves long-term investment with delayed returns. This clearly has important implications for women, as their ability to invest will depend on many factors such as entitlements, access to information, and their ability to act upon it.

If we take labor requirements as an example – many studies highlight labor shortages as a constraint to the adoption of conservation agriculture, particularly when zero tillage is not complemented by the application of herbicides. Without herbicide use, conservation agriculture techniques for land preparation increase weeding over and above plowing and ridging by as much as three times in maize production. In East and Southern Africa, this burden falls largely on women as weeding is largely a woman’s task. Studies conducted in several countries show that where (frequently subsidized) herbicides have been used, the release of women and children from weeding tasks results in multiple benefits, including more children attending school and more time for women to engage in income-generation activities.

Q: Why has gender been left out of many conservation agriculture studies to date?

A: I am not sure that this is a question that should be posed specifically in relation to conservation agriculture but could be asked of agronomic research in general. Things are improving, but I would suggest that the reason has been that gender is a challenging and complex issue that takes many of us out of our comfort zone both professionally and perhaps personally. It requires an interdisciplinary approach and a set of skills that many agricultural research centers simply have too limited a supply of and I include in this a critical mass of female research staff of sufficient seniority. Without this critical mass of gender expertise, agronomic research will continue to be designed and implemented according to the “male agronomist” norm.

Q: What impact has this had on conservation agriculture adoption in East and Southern Africa?

A: lncreased feminization of labor in smallholder agriculture has resulted in major changes in the roles and responsibilities of women in rural Africa, but still agricultural service suppliers and the wider policy environment in general remain locked into the conceptual norm of the primary farmer being male. This inevitably results in inappropriate targeting of research, extension services, and policy, and logic would tell us that it has also contributed to low adoption rates of conservation agriculture.

As the paper explains, the new norm of the “female primary farmer” has not resulted in their widespread recognition as such by external agencies or indeed within their communities. The ability of women-led households, or male-headed households with women as primary farmers, to adopt conservation agriculture may be compromised if government policies, extension systems, and other actors continue to design interventions around the conceptual norm of the male-headed household. This needs to change.

The paper summarizes the gender-related questions that remain to be addressed with regard to conservation agriculture, and there are many. There are overarching questions relating to intra-household decisions making, access to services, and labor. In addition, there are many more questions relating to specific aspects of conservation agriculture, such as the impacts of minimum tillage and weeding on labor; opportunity costs and how increased requirements are met; opportunities, constraints, and trade-offs of conservation agriculture-based crop diversification; and the tailoring of conservation agriculture-based information and training to women farmers.

Q: Moving forward, how can researchers address the gender gaps in conservation agriculture in their studies?

A: Gender-sensitive research needs to be mainstreamed into projects. In order to achieve this, we need more multidisciplinary teams including both male and female researchers of similar seniority. While there is a decent body of gender research on the socioeconomic aspects of agricultural technologies such as barriers to uptake and extension services, it seems that there is still a large gap in gender-sensitive agronomic research. What are the implications for gender of increased weeding, need for planting basins, crop diversification, and residue retention? All very basic questions that still need answering. So moving forward, we need more research that involves gender specialists working closely with agronomists on the design, implementation, evaluation, and scaling out of conservation agriculture-based practices.

Paula Kantor Award nominees must show gender research success in India

Written by on November 12, 2015. Posted in News. 650 Comments on Paula Kantor Award nominees must show gender research success in India

A farmer at work weeding in a maize field close to the Pusa site of the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), in the Indian state of Bihar. CIMMYT/M. DeFreese

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — A new award recognizes contributions to the livelihoods and economic empowerment of women made by a former giant in the field of international gender research.

The inaugural Paula Kantor Award for Excellence in Field Research, to be given to a young female researcher of Indian origin, aims to recognize outstanding achievements in the field of gender and empowerment of women and girls in India.

Kantor, a gender and development specialist working with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), died tragically on May 13 at age 46, in the aftermath of a Taliban attack on a hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan.

She formerly worked as senior rural development specialist at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). The non-profit organization initiated the award to acknowledge Kantor’s 20 years of experience in executing policy research and programmatic work related to integrating gender into agriculture and rural development.

“Dr Kantor’s work was largely driven by her desire and passion to improve lives in the global south, especially those of women and girls,” ICRW said in a statement issued to solicit nominations.

“She was a prolific researcher who participated in and worked with several initiatives to better the lives and improve livelihoods for women in conflict-prone and terrorist-affected areas.”

The award will be presented to the winner at the ICRW’s 40th anniversary celebrations in New Delhi, India in January. In subsequent years, the award will be open to researchers of all origins and honor research throughout the developing world, the statement said, adding that nominations must be received by December 7.

At the time of her death, she was working on a new CIMMYT research project focused on understanding the role of gender in the livelihoods of people in major wheat-growing areas of Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Pakistan.

“Paula’s death was a massive blow to the entire development community,” said Martin Kropff, director general at CIMMYT. “Through her work she was helping to lift up a segment of the global population facing major threats to food security and gender equality. This award serves to recognize the major role she was playing to help empower men and women to determine their own future.”

Although women play a crucial role in farming and food production, they often face greater constraints in agricultural production than men. Rural women are less likely than men to own land or livestock, adopt new technologies, access credit, financial services, or receive education or extension advice, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Globally, if women had the same access to agricultural production resources as men, they could increase crop yields by up to 30 percent, which would raise total agricultural output in developing countries by as much as 4 percent, reducing the number of hungry people by up to 150 million or 17 percent, FAO statistics show.

For more information on how to nominate candidates for the award, please visit the ICRW website

Un libro que rinde homenaje a las “científicas anónimas” con motivo del Día Internacional de las Mujeres Rurales

Written by on October 12, 2015. Posted in Features.

Jennifer Johnson

EL BATÁN, México, 12 de octubre (CIMMYT) – Las mujeres rurales desempeñan un papel fundamental en aumentar el desarrollo agrícola y rural, mejorar la seguridad alimentaria y erradicar la pobreza rural.

Aportan innumerables beneficios a los sistemas agrícolas en todo el mundo, en todos los niveles de la cadena de valor y, sin embargo, sus contribuciones no suelen ser reconocidas. Este año, con motivo del Día Internacional de las Mujeres Rurales (IDRW) que se celebra el 15 de octubre, el Programa MAÍZ del CGIAR (MAIZE) quiere rendir homenaje a las significativas contribuciones que las mujeres hacen a la agricultura en todo el mundo, compartiendo, en nuestros canales de medios sociales, fotos e historias tomados de nuestro libro titulado “Portraits of Women Working with Maize in Mexico”.

El libro pretende resaltar las aportaciones, a menudo desapercibidas, que hacen las mujeres al bienestar de sus familias, comunidades, países y del mundo por medio de la agricultura.

“Como parte de su énfasis en contribuir a la igualdad y equidad de género en la investigación para el desarrollo, MAÍZ aumentó su inversión para expandir la base de la evidencia en torno a cómo las normas y las relaciones de género se interrelacionan con las prácticas y la innovación agrícolas, y las implicaciones de esto en la investigación y el desarrollo agrícolas”, opina Lone Badstue, líder estratégica de investigación sobre género del CIMMYT, quien trabaja también con el CRP MAÍZ, administrado por el Consorcio de Investigación Agrícola del CGIAR.

“Este documental expande estos esfuerzos al describir el lado a menudo olvidado de la subsistencia basada en el maíz en México, por medio de imágenes y de los testimonios de diferentes mujeres que, en sus propias palabras, narran su vida como agricultoras, amas de casa, artesanas y vendedoras”.

Garantizar la seguridad alimentaria y el sustento de las mujeres rurales es la meta central de muchos de los proyectos y actividades de MAÍZ.

El estudio de género del CRP MAÍZ denominado GENNOVATE, puesto en marcha en 2014, tiene como objetivo integrar diferentes aspectos del género en las actividades de MAÍZ con el fin de servir mejor a las mujeres rurales a medida que vayan adoptando las tecnologías agrícolas.

En 2014, MAÍZ implementó también el proyecto “Gender Matters in Farm Power” (El género sí importa en la mecanización agrícola), que es coordinado por el Instituto Real Tropical (KIT) y que explora las oportunidades para empoderar a hombres y mujeres por medio de mecanización a la escala apropiada. Hay otras actividades que incluyen iniciativas para integrar el género en la selección participativa de variedades, la elaboración de una estrategia para crear sistemas de producción de semilla de maíz e iniciativas para integrar el género en los servicios de asesoría y en el establecimiento de pequeñas empresas(CIMMYT).

La participación de las mujeres rurales es crucial para el éxito del CRP MAÍZ.

Su fe al sembrar nuestras nuevas variedades y aplicar las prácticas agronómicas recomendadas por MAÍZ las convierten en modelos a seguir en sus comunidades, ya que trabajan como “científicas anónimas”. Son ellas las que, con su participación activa, concretan la investigación de MAÍZ en el campo, ensayando sus productos y prácticas agronómicas y determinando si son viables para sus vecinos; son ellas las que preparan el camino para que los pequeños agricultores del mundo utilicen esos productos y prácticas correctamente y se beneficien de ellos.

Su retroalimentación es esencial, ya que no podemos lograr nuestra meta de aumentar de manera sostenible la producción de alimentos para los 900 millones de consumidores de bajos recursos para quienes el maíz es un alimento básico, sin primero cerrar la brecha del género en la agricultura.

Según datos de la FAO, si las mujeres agricultoras tuvieran los mismos derechos y las mismas oportunidades que los hombres, la producción de sus parcelas aumentaría en alrededor de 20 a 30% y sería posible alimentar a 150 millones de personas más en el mundo. Esto hace que las mujeres rurales se encuentren entre nuestros más grandes colaboradores en la lucha por erradicar el hambre y la pobreza.

Les invitamos a que esta semana compartan con nosotros sus propias fotos e historias de mujeres rurales utilizando la etiqueta #IDRW y contribuyan de esta manera al diálogo mundial sobre las “científicas anónimas”. Es una manera de reconocer a nuestras colaboradoras “tras bambalinas”, cuya labor es crucial para el éxito de nuestra investigación y nuestros proyectos, y quienes trabajan todos los días para proteger y promover la seguridad alimentaria mundial: las mujeres rurales.

LIBRO: Portraits of Women Working with Maize in Mexico
http://repository.cimmyt.org/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10883/4478/57042.pdf?sequence=1

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc0opvkPoh4