Breeding for impact: perspectives on gender-responsive cassava breeding in Nigeria

Abstract

Crop breeding for improved varieties, able to withstand climatic variability, pests and diseases, as well as to meet food and market demands, has the potential to greatly improve the livelihoods of rural smallholders. However, the development of new varieties alone is not enough; they must also be demanded and cultivated by smallholder farmers. Increasingly participatory methods have allowed farmers to play a greater role in the decision-making process shaping the crop breeding agenda. Nevertheless, gender-specific preferences for traits, including cooking and processing characteristics, are often not determined until the final stages of variety evaluation or release, and even then, seldom prioritized – impacting adoption rates. Using the case study of cassava in Nigeria, this research aimed to analyze researchers’ perspectives on gender-responsive breeding, as well as the extent to which integrating women’s needs into the dissemination and marketing process can have a positive impact on empowerment pathways. The literature review and key informant interviews suggest that engaging both women and men regarding new cassava variety traits, and accounting for their differentiated needs and preferences in “product profiles”, has the potential to better meet farmers’ demands and thus, increase adoption rates of released varieties. Further research and collaboration are required to systematically develop product profiles that are gender-specific to enable inclusive agricultural transformation.

Keywords:

• Cassava
• gender-responsive
• product profiles
• end-user trait preferences
• priority setting
• inclusive agricultural transformation

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to all interview participants who shared their knowledge and experience with breeding efforts; your candor and generosity in time made this review possible. Special thanks go to the RTBfoods project coordinated by the Natural Resources Institute based at the University of Greenwich, for introducing me to this topic and inspiring me to pursue further research in the field.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. Furthermore, this article reflects the personal opinion and work of the author, and not of the affiliated institution.

Notes

1 Garri is a granular flour produced by peeling, grating and pressing the tuberous roots of cassava into dry edible granules, which can be eaten as a snack, or pounded into fine flour for other dishes. It serves as a major staple food across West Africa.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hanna Ewell

Hanna Ewell is currently Junior Advisor for Monitoring & Evaluation in the Fund for International Agricultural Research (FIA) at the German Development Corporation (GIZ) in Bonn, Germany. She received an MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she focused on the nexus of gender, agriculture and development policy.