State of the Knowledge for Gender in Breeding: Case Studies for Practitioners

Debates around gender-responsive agricultural research, particularly plant and animal breeding, invariably circulate around similar topics: the recognition that considering gender is important to developing varieties that lead to equitable benefits, coupled with questions around an evidence base that proves this point. This synthesis seeks to compile available cases from two workshops organized by the CGIAR Gender and Agriculture Research Network: “Gender, Breeding and Genomics” (18–21 October 2016) and “Innovation in Gender-Responsive Breeding” (5–7 October 2017). What is particularly compelling about these cases is that they not only provide evidence that men and women have different trait preferences; access to resources; or opportunities to engage in production, processing, and marketing of diverse commodities. They also illustrate steps taken by breeding programs to address these issues. These steps range from incorporating “cooking time” as a must-have trait in bean breeding to creating opportunities for maize seed production and sale for women; from changing the structure of matooke breeding programs to add participatory processing for food quality, new breeding targets for adaptation, to nutrient poor soils in sorghum. These are powerful illustrations and positive examples that documenting differences is a means to an end—the real focus should be on change.