As part of activities under the Accelerated Breeding (ABI) and Market Intelligence and Product Profiling (MIPPI) initiatives, IITA–CGIAR, in conjunction with the Accelerated Varietal Improvement and Seed Delivery of Legumes and Cereals in Africa (AVISA), AFRICA YAM and NEXTGEN Cassava Project, organized a three-day Gender-Responsive Breeding training. The training, held at IITA headquarters from 21 to 23 September, enlightened plant breeders from IITA and partner organizations on the need for and ways to include gender-responsive approaches in breeding programs. Gender Specialist Martina Cavicchioli, Gender Research Post-Doctoral Fellow Millicent Liani, and HarvestPlus Cassava Breeder Elizabeth Parkes anchored the training.
In his opening speech, Head of IITA Breeding, John Derera, mentioned that the training is occurring at a good time when plant breeding is experiencing transformation through breeding modernization programs in the One CGIAR. IITA East Africa Hub Director Leena Tripathi also stated that promoting gender in breeding makes adopting products easy, as the preference of both men and women are considered.
Head of IITA Capacity Development Office, Zainatou Soré, highlighted IITA’s work in incorporating gender in all its activities, adding that the training aligns with the Institute’s vision. Deputy Director General for Corporate Services, Hilde Koper, intimated that considering more women in farming would result in more female scientists and more female breeders for gender balance.
In his presentation, Head of NEXTGEN Cassava Breeding Project, Chiedozie Egesi, spoke on the importance of gender inclusion in breeding activities as part of the NEXTGEN project. He noted that five new cassava varieties have been released in Nigeria for the first time based on gender-responsive breeding, using market intelligence tools. Cassava Breeder Peter Kulakow stressed the importance of social inclusiveness and gender in breeding to prioritize the social impact of public breeding. IITA Senior Scientist and Gender Specialist, Steven Cole, added that integrating gender into crop breeding helps breed products that reach more users and creates better social impact. “New products can now be better designed and modified to benefit all consumers—diverse groups of people,” he said.
Speaking on Gender Concepts and Awareness, Liani emphasized gender integration versus gender mainstreaming to help breeders understand gender-responsive breeding. She added that gender is not limited to men and women but covers the whole diversity of people and roles in agriculture, including marginalized groups. Associate Social and Gender Scientist Béla Teeken and Cavicchioli taught participants to set breeding objectives by determining who they are breeding for and the required preferred traits among various users along the value chain to ensure product adoption and social impact.
Teeken also spoke about “Gender Up” while listing Gender-Responsive Tools and Applications. He explained that the tool identifies gender and other relevant diversities among innovation users for more successful and inclusive scaling of agricultural innovations. He also stressed the importance and potential of participatory methods to assess knowledge of diverse crop users, such as participatory processing and the Tricot citizen science on-farm testing method recently used in cassava breeding and promising in measuring genetic gain in farmers’ fields.
Presenting on Trait Prioritization among users and social impact, Senior Research Associate Olamide Olaosebikan and Senior Research Supervisor Bello Abolore advised breeders to see farmers and processors as partners in research and result validation. Olaosebikan explained that this enhances the participation and feedback quality to inform breeding, while Abolore noted the need for researchers to give feedback to participants and partners in research communities.
Cassava Seed Systems Specialist Mercy Diebiru-Ojo spoke on gender dynamics in seed systems. She highlighted the key gendered concepts for seed system outcome and explained the strategies the cassava team used to drive women’s participation. A major strategy she mentioned was collaborating with an organization to support 20 women with land, stems, and farm management. “Sixty people became cassava seed entrepreneurs, and 58% were women,” she said.
Participants were engaged in practical sessions to understand the need for applying the intersectionality lens in research to accommodate diverse groups. They also had group discussions on ways to improve breeding strategies for various crops using gender-responsive approaches. Head of IITA Genetic Resources Center, Michael Abberton, awarded certificates to participants at the end of the training.
Contributed by Ochuwa Favour Daramola
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