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.

CIMMYT promotes the role of women in agriculture at Pakistan maize conference

Written by on June 12, 2014. Posted in News.

By AbduRahman Beshir and Imtiaz Muhammad/CIMMYT

Dr. Imtiaz Muhammad, CIMMYT country representative for Pakistan, urged academics to encourage women to pursue agricultural careers during his keynote speech at a maize conference 3 May at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad-Pakistan.

Dr. AbduRahman Beshir, right, accepting an honor shield on behalf of CIMMYT staff.

“Why are women not competing for jobs in the field of agriculture, despite the relatively good numbers of women in the university?” he asked. He mentioned a recent example from the CIMMYT-Pakistan office, which advertised local vacancies for maize, wheat and agronomy positions but was unable to find qualified women candidates with relevant experience. He emphasized the role of women in Pakistan’s agricultural sector and said failing them is tantamount to failing half the country’s population.

The conference, organized by the university’s Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, drew 150 participants from public and private maize research and development institutions, including multinational companies and academia, for an update on recent trends in maize production.

Dr. AbduRahman Beshir, a maize improvement and seed systems specialist at CIMMYT-Pakistan, spoke about CIMMYT’s activities to enhance productivity and promote maize excellence in Pakistan. He encouraged public and private institutions to test and use CIMMYT maize germplasm in order to fast-track the deployment of improved maize varieties.

Participants expressed appreciation for CIMMYT’s recent efforts to bring maize excellence back to Pakistan and enthusiasm for partnering with the organization. CIMMYT staff received an honor shield during the closing ceremony.

Integrating gender in post-harvest management

Written by on June 4, 2014. Posted in News.

By Wandera Ojanji/CIMMYT

The Effective Grain Storage for Sustainable Livelihoods of African Farmers Project (EGSP) Phase II is conducting a study to help understand gender dynamics in maize post-harvest management in Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The results of the study, Gender Analysis for Maize Post Harvest Management, will guide the project implementation team to develop a strategy that will ensure equitable processes and outcomes for men and women farmers in target communities.

Maureen Shuma, a research assistant with the study leads a discussion with female participants in Shamva, Zimbabwe.
Photos: Wandera Ojanji

Vongai Kandiwa, CIMMYT gender specialist and the study team leader, spoke of the need to understand how cultural norms such as gender roles and rights influence patterns of access to and control of the metal silos, Super Grainbags and other resources. “The study will help the project team to develop a better understanding of the communities in which EGSP II is implemented. It will also help improve the team’s capacity to develop strategies to foster gender equality and anticipate unintended negative outcomes for particular groups in communities,” Vongai said.

Vongai said the study will help the project team in four ways: First, at the household level, a gender analysis will reveal the roles that men, women and youth play in post-harvest management, as well as technology preferences, aspirations and constraints.

Vongai Kandiwa (left), CIMMYT gender specialist, and Sunungurai Chingarande, the study team leader for Zimbabwe, lead a focus group discussion with men.

Second, a gender analysis at the technology design level will help the project team to understand metal silo artisans’ capacity to develop and implement strategies that ensure both business growth and equitable access across different social groups, including women.

Third, CIMMYT collaborates with many partners such as NGOs in disseminating and testing improved post-harvest technologies. A gender analysis will reveal evidence on the capacity of partners to carry out gender-responsive technology and information dissemination activities.

Lastly, the study will reveal existing knowledge and knowledge gaps on gender in post-harvest management and how they might be filled.

The gender analysis study draws on survey data as well as qualitative data. Part of the qualitative data is collected through sex-disaggregated focus group discussions. Vongai said those discussions open up possibilities and space for amplifying women’s voices because issues of post-harvest, especially grain management and control, are inherently influenced by household power relations. Moreover, technology preferences are seldom gender-neutral.

EGSP-II (2012-2016) builds on the previous phase (2008-2011) and aims to improve food security and reduce the vulnerability of resource-poor farmers – particularly women – in Eastern and Southern Africa through the dissemination of effective grain storage technology. The project is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and will help smallholder farmers in Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe acquire more than 16,000 metal silos and 24,000 Super Grainbags, which will reduce grain losses from storage pests.

Zambia maize technicians learn about new breeding tools

Written by on April 28, 2014. Posted in News.

By Peter Setimela/CIMMYT

Regular training sessions are a key component of capacity building for partners CIMMYT works with in breeding and seed systems. On 24-27 March, 28 maize technicians, including 10 women, participated in a week-long training program at the Natural Resources Development College (NRDC) in Lusaka, Zambia. A joint seed systems, breeding and seed business development team from the CIMMYT-Southern Africa Regional Office in Harare and staff from the Zambia Research Institute (ZARI) conducted the training.

CIMMYT breeder Cosmos Magorokosho explains pollination to participants at the Zambian Agricultural Research Institute in Lusaka. Photo: Peter Setimela

The participants were drawn from selected seed companies and various government units in the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA). The course was supported by two CIMMYT projects, Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) and Sustainable Intensification of Maize- Legume Systems for the Eastern Province of Zambia (SIMLEZA), in collaboration with ZARI. The training gave the participants insights into key processes in germplasm development using conventional and molecular tools, variety testing and release, seed production and seed business development. Emphasis was given to new phenotyping tools, the importance of trial uniformity and good agronomic management. Course organizers include Kambamba Mwansa, Zambian maize coordinator, and Franscico Miti from ZARI, the MoA and CIMMYT’s Peter Setimela, Cosmos Magorokosho, Kennedy Lweya, Zaman-Allah Mainassara and Obert Randi.

The art of seeding hope

Written by on April 19, 2014. Posted in Features.

María Concepción Castro

In March, CIMMYT celebrated International Women’s Day and lauded the efforts of many. At CIMMYT, we are lucky to work with outstanding female colleagues. Perla Chávez Dulanto, associate scientist for the Global Wheat Program’s (GWP) physiology team, which is led by Matthew Reynolds, is one of those colleagues.

Chávez came to CIMMYT in 2012, inspired by the legacy of Dr. Norman Borlaug, who she describes as “a man who devoted his life and his science to help the poorest but was guided by his heart —a characteristic feature of great scientists and true human beings.” She was also motivated by the opportunity to be part of an interdisciplinary group working to improve food security and livelihoods. After earning a BSc in agricultural engineering at La Molina National Agricultural University in Lima, Peru, she worked for large-scale farm export enterprises and agribusiness, nongovernmental organizations and education-extension institutions. Yet Chávez, who is inspired by the landscapes she admired during her childhood, wanted to develop good crops for poor farmers.

“Though I was raised in Lima, my mother was from Chancay, a coastal city nearby and the largest provider of field crop commodities to Lima. From Chancay, you could see endless maize and potato crop fields with long rows almost reaching the beaches, listen to birds tweet and see whales or sea lions jumping into the water far beyond,” Chávez said. She knew she needed to learn about soil, physics, ecology, pathology and animal life. Chávez has had enough contact with farmers, both wealthy and poor, to realize there are large differences between their livelihoods. Peru produces wheat, barley and sorghum in mountainous areas. Wheat is important to smallholder and subsistence farmers but yields are only 2 to 3 tons per hectare due to the lack of improved materials and the prevalence of pests, disease damage and abiotic stresses like drought. Chávez said Peru and the Andean region could benefit from research, motivating her to continue with science.

She earned a master’s degree in entomology with complementary studies in integrated pest management and horticulture at La Molina and the Wageningen Agricultural University (WAU), The Netherlands. She earned a Ph.D. from the University of the Balearic Islands, Spain, and conducted research for the International Potato Center (CIP) in Peru on a project using remote sensing to detect biotic and abiotic stresses in potatoes. Chávez worked at CIP for eight years, where she had the opportunity to travel across Peru.

Chávez brings this expertise to the wheat physiology group and she says she is lucky for the support of her GWP colleagues. During her tenure at CIMMYT she has organized two courses on plant physiology for national staff at Ciudad Obregón, and edited and coordinated the English-Spanish translation of the manuals Fitomejoramiento Fisiológico volumen I y volumen II. She has also supported Amor Yahyaoui and Pawan Singh during field days in Toluca and coordinated visits by students and children at Ciudad Obregón.

“I am happy to do collaborative research within GWP and CIMMYT as a whole, which involves breeders, pathologists, physiologists, conservation agriculture experts and more,” Chávez said. “If we all work together we can move faster to discover and select genotypes with a very good combination of characteristics. Those genotypes — after several steps — can be released for farmers. We can make an impact on people’s lives.” Chávez will soon start a new stage in her life when she becomes a mother in May. She looks forward to sharing some of her other talents, such as drawing, painting and sculpture, with her baby boy.

International Women’s Day 2014: “Equality for women is progress for all”

Written by on March 10, 2014. Posted in Blogs.

Nearly 40 years after the United Nations established March 8 as International Women’s Day, we have seen great progress in achieving equality for women – there is greater parity in primary education between boys and girls, maternal mortality has declined by around two-thirds and 4 of every 10 jobs in the non-agricultural sector are held by a woman. However, despite a push through the Millennium Development Goals, gender equality and the empowerment of women still have not been achieved. Women continue to face discrimination in access to economic assets, work, education, health care and political participation. As a result, women are more likely to live in poverty, have less access to finance and information and fewer opportunities to break free from this cycle, especially in agricultural sectors.

At CIMMYT, we are working hard to close the gender gap and generate gains in agricultural output, food security, economic growth and social welfare. Across our projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, CIMMYT actively seeks women’s participation in breeding and seed sector development, the value chain and agricultural mechanization. CIMMYT is working to integrate gender into the project design cycle and into project implementation. Both the CGIAR Research Programs on MAIZE and WHEAT have an approved gender integration strategy and in 2014 and 2015 all CRPs will jointly conduct a cross-gender study.

Women are the backbone of the rural economy in the developing world; they constitute much of the agricultural labor force but receive only a fraction of the land, financial credit and training compared to men. The gender gap in agriculture imposes costs not only on women themselves, but on their families, society and the sector as a whole. The FAO estimates that if women had access to the same resources as men they could increase yield on their farms by 20 to 30 percent and would spend this additional income on improving the health, nutrition and education outcomes of their children. If women had equal access to resources, agricultural production in developing countries would be 2.5 to 4 percent greater, feeding up to 150 million more people.

These are important achievements, but the job is not yet done and CIMMYT must place even more emphasis on gender and diversity. Promoting equal access to resources, improving gender awareness in CIMMYT projects and involving women in decision-making at all levels can help to close the gender gap in agriculture. This March, let us look for new avenues to empower women and think about how our interventions empower men and women alike.

International Women’s Day:
How it all Started
In 1908, 15,000 women took to the streets demanding better working conditions, shorter working hours and better pay as part of a garment workers’ strike in New York City. Inspired by these events, International Women’s Day was first celebrated in 1911 with more than 1 million men and women attending rallies across Europe. By World War I, International Women’s Day became a tool for protest. In 1917, Russian women began a strike for “bread and peace,” demanding an end to food shortages and an end to the war. They initiated the February Revolution, the first of two Russian revolutions. The women’s protest started on March 8. Since it was born out of the socialist movement, International Women’s Day was subsequently celebrated chiefly in communist and socialist countries. However, in 1977 the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring March 8 a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.

For more information:

http://www.internationalwomensday.com/

http://www.un.org/en/events/womensday/history.shtml

http://www.genderinag.org/content/gender-agriculture-sourcebook

Female-friendly seeder to boost conservation agriculture in Africa

Written by on October 31, 2013. Posted in News.

By Frédéric Baudron/CIMMYT

A lightweight seeder designed for conservation agriculture could help households headed by women in eastern and southern Africa to adopt the technology. CIMMYT’s Farm Mechanization and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification (FACASI) project is addressing declining farm power by delivering small mechanization to farmers. Femalerun households are particularly labor-constrained. They often don’t own or are not permitted to use draft animals and are among the last to access land preparation services, which severely affects yield.

FACASI imported several female-friendly seeders designed by John Morrison, a consultant and adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee. Unlike other commercially available machines, which are bulky, heavy and challenging for women to use, Morrison’s development is a light, singlerow seeder specially designed for operation in non-plowed fields. The seeder is equipped with a residue rake to clear crop residue from the path, a rolling coulter blade to cut any remaining residues in the path, a furrow-opener shank to open a soil slot for seeds and fertilizer and a pressing wheel to help the operator press the soil slot closed.

The seeder performed well during its pre-test last month in Njoro, Kenya, by women, FACASI scientists and John Morisson himself, and later at a demonstration to the CIMMYT Board of Trustees. Thorough field testing will take place next November in Kenya and Tanzania. A business model will also be developed to guarantee access to the technology for women farmers. The proportion of women-headed households is particularly high in eastern and southern Africa (23 percent in Ethiopia, 32 percent in Kenya and 38 percent in Zimbabwe), according to the World Bank. Increasing the power available to these households – through small mechanization and promoting power-saving technology such as conservation agriculture – is one way to close the gender gap.

Trained maize breeders can bring huge benefits to Africa

Written by on October 22, 2013. Posted in News.

By Cosmos Magorokosho/CIMMYT

CIMMYT recently conducted an intensive, three-week course in Kenya for 37 young maize breeders – including 10 women – to provide them the knowledge and skills to use modern breeding methods efficiently in their maize programs. The course included participants from national programs and seed companies in 14 African countries.

Dennis Kyetere, the executive director of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), who officially opened the course, said the smallholder agriculture sector in Africa loses billions of dollars worth of agriculture produce annually. Kyetere said maize breeders have a significant role in reducing these losses and increasing smallholder farmers’ productivity. Courses included refresher sessions on principles of applied maize breeding, statistical data analysis and the use of information technology tools in managing breeding, analyzing data and managing breeding information.

Emphasis was placed on breeding maize for abiotic stress tolerance. Presenters also focused on maize lethal necrosis disease (MLN), including background on the disease in Africa, efforts made to breed for MLN resistance in African germplasm and strategies to prevent the spread of the disease. During the course, a mini-workshop emphasized the application of technologies such as molecular markers, doubled haploids (DH) and transgenics. Course attendees toured the Kenya Agriculture Research Institution’s (KARI) Kiboko field station and Olerai farm.

In Kiboko, participants learned about the practical aspects of drought and low-nitrogen screening and toured the new CIMMYT-KARI DH facility. Participants were encouraged to send their elite breeding populations for DH production. “I have improved my general understanding of maize breeding theory and learned about breeding for drought tolerance,” Dunlop said. “This should speed up selections and make more efficient use of time.” GMP breeders Cosmos Magorokosho, Stephen Mugo and Dan Makumbi organized the course while Catherine Kalungu handled logistics. Participants were sponsored through various GMP projects, including Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA), Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA), Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS), a USAID project, Harvest Plus and the private seed companies Pannar, MozSeed, Zamseed and Seedco.

From Kenya to southern Africa: Effective grain storage crosses borders

Written by on October 21, 2013. Posted in News.

By Wandera Ojanji

Delegates stand with a modified metal silo at a workshop at the Baraka Agricultural College in Molo, Nakuru County, Kenya. Photos: Wandera Ojanji/CIMMYT

Officials from Malawi and Zambia learned about the benefits of effective grain storage for the livelihoods of smallholder farmers during a visit to Kenya from 7 to 12 October. Malawi and Zambia are target countries of CIMMYT’s Effective Grain Storage for Sustainable Livelihoods of African Farmers (EGSP) Phase II Project. EGSP-II (2012-2016) builds on the previous phase (2008-2011) to improve the food security and reduce the vulnerability of resource-poor farmers – particularly women – in eastern and southern Africa through the dissemination of effective grain storage technology. The project is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and will help smallholder farmers in Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe acquire more than 16,000 metal silos, which reduce grain losses from storage pests.

The visiting delegation included officials from ministries of agriculture, the Chitedze Research Station in Malawi, the Zambia Agricultural Research Institute and silo artisans from the two EGSP countries. They were accompanied by implementing counterparts in Kenya from the Catholic Dioceses of Embu and Nakuru and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute.

The tour started in Embu County in eastern Kenya with a visit to the homestead of Gladys Nthiga, a farmer who recently acquired two metals silos with a capacity of 450 kg each. She had not used the silos before but was excited to find technology to protect her harvests from maize weevils and the larger grain borer. “Despite treating my grains with pesticides, I was still losing about nearly half a ton of maize every year,” said Nthiga, whose annual maize harvest averages 1.8 tons. “If what I have been told about the technology is true, then my problems with these pests are over.” Peter Njiiru, the principal of Kierie Secondary School in Embu County, said he purchased a metal silo in June for maize storage and planned to add three more.

The delegation then visited Nakuru County. Grace Githui, the county liaison officer, noted that Nakuru is a primary maize-producing area and experiences high post-harvest losses due to smallholder farmers’ ineffective storage options. “We are very grateful to CIMMYT for introducing the metal silo technology in this area,” Githui said. “The silos’ effectiveness has been demonstrated against weevils and the larger grain borer, the two pests that are responsible for much of the county’s post-harvest losses. The silos provide enormous benefits to the farmers who have adopted them. We are urging widespread adoption and investing heavily to create awareness among farmers.” Maize is a major component of the diet in Kenyan schools.

Paddy Likhayo, an entomologist with KARI, explains to the delegation the on-station demonstration trials at the Nakuru Agricultural Technology Development Center. Photo: Wandera Ojanji/CIMMYT

Jane Obwocha, the deputy principal of Uhuru High School in Nakuru, noted the school avoids purchasing maize in bulk due to heavy losses during storage, a factor she attributed to poor storage facilities. “The metal silo is indeed a timely and critical intervention in maize storage as most schools, just like ours, lack effective storage facilities,” Obwocha said. The delegation also met with members of BOLESA, a group for women living with HIV/AIDS and former commercial sex workers under rehabilitation. The members, drawn from Boror, Lelechwet and Salgaa villages in Nakuru, are using a 900 kg-capacity metal silo acquired last year to store their maize. At Baraka Agricultural College, the delegation saw a new metal silo prototype that facilitates removing the grain stored.

The college has also started creating awareness about the technology and promotes it to farmers from Kenya and other parts of eastern Africa. The visiting delegates were impressed by the adoption of metal silos by farmers, grain dealers, vulnerable people, schools and colleges to protect their grain and avoid purchasing expensive storage chemicals. The visit also helped the delegates identify issues to address for successful project implementation.

A smart solution: agricultural innovation and gender-aware approaches

Written by on October 15, 2013. Posted in Features.

If rural women in developing countries had the same access to land, technology, credit, education and markets as men, their yields could increase by 20 to 30 percent. Estimates show this alone would raise agricultural production in developing countries by 2.5 to 4 percent,¹ which could lift 100 to 150 million people out of hunger. Research also shows that the reduction of gender disparities and the empowerment of women leads to better food and nutrition security for households and significantly strengthens other development outcomes such as child education.^2,3 Yet, more than 1.1 billion women worldwide do not have equal access to land, inputs and extension.

The work of CIMMYT researchers Lone Badstue and Tina Beuchelt focuses on gender relations in wheat and maize-based systems. Aiming to strengthen the linkages between gender equality and nutrition- and climate-smart agricultural technologies, their research is a collaboration between CIMMYT; CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS); and CGIAR Research Program MAIZE. Beuchelt and Badstue won the silver prize for their poster, “Towards nutrition- and climate-smart agriculture: discussing trade-offs from a gender and intragenerational perspective” at the recent Conference on Global Food Security in the Netherlands.

Beuchelt explained it is not always possible to predict how the introduction of new agricultural technologies will affect labor patterns, resource allocation and land allocation between men and women. “To successfully achieve equal access to technologies and benefits from agricultural research for development, we need to be aware of gender and social equity perspectives throughout the whole project cycle,” Beuchelt said. “Starting from the planning and design stage, opportunities and trade-offs of agricultural interventions need to be assessed and addressed.”

Beuchelt added that it can also be difficult to predict whether a new technology will be adopted and who will benefit. Both intended and unintended impacts can occur at the individual, household and community levels.

Male and female stakeholders need to work together to develop solutions to mitigate trade-offs or strengthen gender and social equity impacts. These can include gender-responsive measures (acknowledging and addressing gender disparities) or gender-transformative measures (commitment to bringing about equity in gender relations).

Agricultural research often focuses on technological innovations but does not always consider social disparities or differing effects on men and women. In their paper, Beuchelt and Badstue discuss conservation agriculture and its potential for nutrition- and climate-smart food production and argue for “smart combinations” of technologies and gender aware approaches. The smart combination of technology could include using conservation agriculture (with long-term benefits) and maize-bean intercropping (with short-term benefits) informed by gender analysis.

“It is important to acknowledge the whole complexity of the food system and the linkages between its different elements,” Beuchelt said. “Gender should not be an add-on, but a fully integrated part of the research and development intervention in order to achieve equity for all.”

Promoting biofortified wheat to women in India

Written by on September 24, 2013. Posted in News.

By Arun Joshi/CIMMYT

Chhavi Tiwari of Banaras Hindu University talks with Mirzapur farmersabout biofortified wheat. — Chhavi Tiwari of Banaras Hindu University talks with Mirzapur farmers about biofortified wheat.

Women farmers in India are learning about the benefits of biofortified wheat from CIMMYT and other CGIAR researchers. Scientists met with 106 women on 8 August in the village of Pidkhir, in Mirzapur District of Uttar Pradesh, India, to advocate for the use of biofortified wheat and listen to feedback on nutrition and the impacts of nutritional deficiency on women and children.

The event was part of a program conducted in more than 50 villages in India’s Eastern Gangetic Plains. Collaborators included Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi, Mahamana Krishak Samiti (a farmers’ cooperative in Mirzapur) and CIMMYT’s South Asia office in Kathmandu, Nepal. BHU’s Chhavi Tiwari led the meeting in Pidkhir, which was attended by women of different ages and occupations including farmers, housewives, daily wage workers, government organization workers and school teachers. Other participating scientists included B. Arun, Ramesh Chand and V.K. Mishra from the BHU HarvestPlus wheat team as well as Arun Joshi from CIMMYT.

The HarvestPlus project was started at BHU in 2005 as part of a collaborative effort with the Biofortification Challenge Program (HarvestPlus) at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, the International Food Policy Research Institute and CIMMYT to identify biofortified wheat varieties adapted in South Asia. Five of the participants at the meeting participated in the HarvestPlus trials in Pidkhir that began in 2005 and said they were happy with the wheat variety. “I cannot believe that wheat with high zinc and iron could be grown in our fields in the near future,” said Sursati, a woman working with HarvestPlus wheat throughout the course of the project. Most participants were new to the subject and learned about the importance of biofortified wheat – particularly its importance to the health of women and children. Women also answered a questionnaire on their backgrounds and interests in biofortified wheat. Most were educated through primary school and some were given help by literate peers. Four male farmers from Pidkhir, including Harbans Singh, head of the Mahamana Krishak Cooperative, also facilitated the process.

All of the women were in favor of receiving biofortified wheat developed through the HarvestPlus project. They also expressed their desire to visit and see the BHU research farm, where wheat scientists from the university are conducting research with CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program team. The farmers agreed to advocate for new biofortified wheat varieties and help the BHU team when needed.

Making villages ‘climate smart’

Written by on August 13, 2013. Posted in News.

“Climatic extremes and variability are becoming more frequent and resulting in losses for farmers. This issue cannot be addressed in isolation; it needs collective participation of all stakeholders, at all levels,” stated Clare Stirling, leader of the CIMMYT component of the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) CRP, at a stakeholder consultation on ‘Climate Smart Agricultural Technologies for Smallholder Farmers of Bihar’ held on 22 July 2013.

The talks were organized by CIMMYT and BISA, under the aegis of CCAFS, and in collaboration with national research and extension partners such as the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Rajendra Agriculture University, the State Department of Agriculture, and the Government of Bihar; international centers Bioversity International, the International Water Management Institute, and the International Food Policy Research Institute; local NGO and private sector partners; and farmer groups of the Climate Smart Village (CSV) clusters, Vaishali district, Bihar.

The lively discussions included almost 200 participants, including innovative CSV farmers from Bhatthadasi, Rajapakar, and Mukundpur (Vaishali district); agriculture advisors from various Village Panchayats; climate smart farmer groups, research students, and local service providers. M.L. Jat, CIMMYT-CCAFS South Asia Leader, explained the concept of CCAFS CSVs in South Asia, and the key climate smart activities they are implementing for the benefit of smallholder farmers in Bihar’s Vaishali district. Participants visited demonstration plots where R.K. Jat, CIMMYT-BISA Cropping Systems Agronomist, showed how mechanization and conservation agriculture-based management practices are being implemented even on small, fragmented land holdings. By effectively ‘pooling’ their land for operational purposes, farmers have improved efficiency, reduced costs, and established timely crop management even with uncertain rainfall. R.K. Jat also explained the main advantages of the key climate smart interventions such as zero tillage, Direct Seeded Rice (DSR), raised bed planting, residue management, crop diversification, and nutrient management in managing climate risks and optimizing resources for higher profitability for the smallholders.

The active participation of about 80 female farmers allowed for a balanced and varied consultation. All the farmers expressed their concerns regarding climate variability and how it is affecting their livelihoods. They shared their experiences of turning their villages into CSVs, and how the new practices have benefitted them; after planting their wheat under zero till in the winter of 2012-13, farmers were initially skeptical of these changes to age-old practices, but having now reaped higher yields with less input costs, all the farmers have committed to planting under zero tillage next season. DSR has also been recently introduced, and the farmers thought the technology seemed promising in that it would reduce cultivation costs and provide some security under the increasing uncertainties of rainfall and labor shortages. The women farmers praised the intoduction of the ZT machine by CIMMYT under CCAFS. With many men migrating to cities, the women highlighted the reduced labor load with the increased availability of machinery and bed planting of maize and legumes.

I.S. Solanki, IARI Regional Station Head, emphasized the need for farmers to work with scientists in adopting resilient farm technologies and locally-adapted seed. This was reiterated by Stirling: “The concept of CSVs is just one example of making synergies among different programs, investments, institutions, and stakeholders, for adaptation, risk management, and mitigation of climate change effects,” she said.

CIMMYT-CCAFS modeling team discusses gender in Ethiopia

Written by on July 29, 2013. Posted in News.

Exploring the potential for integrating gender at a range of scales in the work of the CIMMYT-CCAFS modeling team, members of the team accompanied by colleagues from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 4 July 2013 for a half-day explanatory CIMMYT-CCAFS Gender and Modeling Workshop. The workshop was organized by gender consultant Cathy Farnworth as part of a wider drive to bring gender into CIMMYT-CCAFS work.

The workshop began with a series of presentations, first of which was by IWMI hydrologist Tracy Baker. Baker focused on ‘Incorporating gender and other perceptions into physically based modeling environments,’ emphasizing that incorporating gender into modeling was part of a wider need to integrate the complexities of human nature into models. Gender incorporation can improve models because women and men use landscapes in different ways, Baker stressed, pointing out Participatory Geographic Information System (PGIS) modeling as one option that may offer insights into gendered uses of landscape. Baker demonstrated gendered uses and perceptions of landscape through a case study of her own work in Kenya, in which she showed that women and men use the same landscape in very different ways.

CIMMYT climate economist Songporne Tongruksawattana discussed ‘Gender issues in farm household modeling’ describing a typical household model and the challenges climate change poses for intra-household decision-making.

CIMMYT’s crop modeler and GIS specialist Kindie Tesfaye presented work on ‘Biophysical and economic modeling at scale,’ conducted by himself, Sika Gbegbelegbe, Uran Chung, and Kai Sonder, and focused on simulating climate change impacts and scenarios and the role of promising technologies at different spatial and temporal scales. He concluded his presentation by listing pertinent questions on the opportunities and challenges of incorporating gender into biophysical and economic modeling.

CIMMYT’s agricultural anthropologist Michael Misiko’s work was titled ‘Handling gender issues in agriculture: A tricky balance between biophysical and social facets’, and examined how mechanization in conjunction with the promotion of conservation agriculture (CA) exposes gender relations in farming systems and can lead to both opportunities and new inequalities between women and men. He pointed out that while machines and tools are not gendered and can be used equally by women and men, in practice women are frequently not able to take advantage of machinery. From a purely technical point of view CA should be ideal for women, since it should minimize drudgery, particularly weeding, but in reality women’s tasks are often hard to mechanize due to their intrinsic nature, women’s often small and scattered plots, and because women are not a target priority group for mechanization by extension agents.

The workshop continued with a group discussion led by Baker. Issues raised and discussed included: How to ask the right questions at the right scale? How can we combine PGIS derived maps created by women/men and different ethnic communities? Whose voices are prioritized? Who participates and why? Who decides who participates? Whose reality are you trying to capture?

Participants then discussed ways forward and agreed to create a gender and modeling taskforce and a cross-CGIAR forum for discussion and engagement; they hope to follow up with another, larger-scale, workshop in 2014. Later, CIMMYT-CCAFS modeling team members discussed how to strengthen gender in their work plans.

CIMMYT/CCAFS in India: Gender, action, research

Written by on July 19, 2013. Posted in News.

In June 2013, ML Jat (Global Conservation Agriculture Program) and research teams in Bihar and Haryana, India, welcomed CIMMYT gender specialist Tina Beuchelt and gender consultant Cathy Farnworth to discuss integration of gender perspectives into their daily research routine. The visit was triggered by the request from the CRP on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) to enhance women’s access to and use of agricultural and climate-related services and information (IDO5).

The visit began with discussions held with individual researchers on how to include a gender perspective in their work plans and field experiments, demonstration plots, out-scaling efforts, and surveys. The team visited farmers participating in CIMMYT/CCAFS projects in Bihar and Haryana, where lively small group discussions helped the visitors to gain a deeper understanding of the situation of women and men, their roles and responsibilities, and gender-related constraints existing in their small-scale farming systems. The team met with smallholder and better-off farmers, as well as landless workers and female-headed households to obtain a representative picture of those involved in agriculture in CIMMYT/CCAFS target areas. Men and women were interviewed separately, and CIMMYT staff helped to explain the production systems and the basket of climate-smart farming options currently available, and shared their thoughts on how to respond to specific gender challenges.

Given the varying agro-ecological environments and socioeconomic characteristics of farmers in each state, it was agreed that in order to address IDO5 successfully, new partners, new allies, and new ideas are needed. While the discussions proceeded well, one of the female participants made a timely and heart-felt warning: “You ask us to take risks, but where will you be if we fail?”

The trip culminated with a workshop on “Pathways of gender-equity led climate-smart farming: learning from stakeholders” organized jointly by the Directorate of Wheat Research (DWR), the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), and CIMMYT/CCAFS in Haryana on 7 June 2013. A wonderful mix of male and female farmers; farmer organizations; researchers from ICAR, Haryana Agricultural University, and CGIAR; extension and developmental organizations, including the State Department of Agriculture, NGOs; private sector organizations; and politicians – about 65 participants in total – joined the workshop and contributed with great enthusiasm to discussions on advantages and disadvantages of different climate-smart technologies for women, more effective types of institutional support required to support women etc. Participants then formed small groups to discuss concrete ideas for action to support women in agriculture, which was followed by presentations and discussions in a plenary session chaired by DRW director Indu Sharma.

The workshop was concluded with dinner wherein Suresh Gahalawat, Deputy Director for Agriculture in Karnal at the Government of Haryana, who had showed great enthusiasm regarding the topic during the workshop, announced that: “Gender will become part of the agricultural policies of Haryana”. “To start with, we will include the gender component in all schemes operated in the district,” he added, confirming the importance and success of the workshop.

The Indian research team is strongly committed to integrating gender into their research activities