Event Colloquium Series

INTERFACES Colloquium Series - #15

Dr. Eva Weltzien, Honorary Fellow at the University of Wisconsin spoke about: “Why gender matters for seed system dynamics: case of sorghum in Mali”.

This lecture in the INTERFACES colloquium series on “Sustainable land management in sub‐Saharan Africa: Improving livelihoods through local research” was on 5 December 2024 by Dr. Eva Weltzien and she spoke on: “Why gender matters for seed system dynamics: case of sorghum in Mali”.

Colloquium Series Overview

Location: Online via Zoom
Date: 5th December 2024
Time: 14-15 hrs GMT

Available in en

On 5 December, Dr. Eva Weltzien, Honorary Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, retired sorghum breeder with ICRISAT-Mali, discussed with the participants “Why gender matters for seed system dynamics: case of sorghum in Mali”. She pointed out that suitable seed is crucial for the success of sustainable land management options but not in the focus of the BMBF funded African regional projects or INTERFACES. Hence her contribution could add an important facet to the projects’ efforts.

From her experience with participatory breeding, Dr. Weltzien shared that it is important to understand what rationale small-holder farmers, men and women, have for selecting one cultivar over another. While yield is central, farmers consider also post-harvest and food processing issues such as threshing, storage, decortication losses and cooking qualities and thus focus more on “food yield”, the quantity of meals that can be prepared from the crop until the next harvest. Women are the experts on these grain quality issues. Gender issues also play an important role in determining the soil fertility of different fields.

Fascinating for the audience was the information that women’s fields are often of poorer soil fertility, esp. with regard to P, and that in some instances women have no access to farmyard manure, thus further disadvantaging women over men in crop production. Yet in other experiments it could be shown that women were able to reach better yields than men, possibly because they gave more care to the experimental plots.

Key in a successful breeding programme is a long-term funding security and collaboration amongst many institutions and with farmers as well as integrating various disciplines into the process. The lively discussion led to further information exchange on the role of women and other family groups within the farming “business”, on selection targets, on soil fertility and on collaborative efforts in breeding activities.