Gender Mainstreaming in Sweetpotato Breeding in Uganda: A Case Study

Purpose: In Uganda, sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) is typically a "woman's crop", grown, processed, stored and also mainly consumed by smallholder farmers for food and income. Farmers value sweetpotato for its early maturity, resilience to stresses, and minimal input requirements. However, p...

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Autores principales: Ssali, R.T., Mayanja, S., Nakitto, M., Mutiso, J.M., Tinyiro, S.E., Bayiyana, I., Okello, J.J., Forsythe, L., Magala, D., Yada, B., Mwanga, Robert O.M., Polar, Vivian
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Frontiers Media 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/135440
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author Ssali, R.T.
Mayanja, S.
Nakitto, M.
Mutiso, J.M.
Tinyiro, S.E.
Bayiyana, I.
Okello, J.J.
Forsythe, L.
Magala, D.
Yada, B.
Mwanga, Robert O.M.
Polar, Vivian
author_browse Bayiyana, I.
Forsythe, L.
Magala, D.
Mayanja, S.
Mutiso, J.M.
Mwanga, Robert O.M.
Nakitto, M.
Okello, J.J.
Polar, Vivian
Ssali, R.T.
Tinyiro, S.E.
Yada, B.
author_facet Ssali, R.T.
Mayanja, S.
Nakitto, M.
Mutiso, J.M.
Tinyiro, S.E.
Bayiyana, I.
Okello, J.J.
Forsythe, L.
Magala, D.
Yada, B.
Mwanga, Robert O.M.
Polar, Vivian
author_sort Ssali, R.T.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Purpose: In Uganda, sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) is typically a "woman's crop", grown, processed, stored and also mainly consumed by smallholder farmers for food and income. Farmers value sweetpotato for its early maturity, resilience to stresses, and minimal input requirements. However, productivity remains low despite the effort of breeding programs to introduce new varieties. Low uptake of new varieties is partly attributed to previous focus by breeders on agronomic traits and much less on quality traits and the diverse preferences of men and women in sweetpotato value chains.To address this gap, breeders, food scientists, and social scientists (including gender specialists) systematically mainstreamed gender into the breeding program. This multidisciplinary approach, grounded in examining gender roles and their relationship with varietal and trait preferences, integrated important traits into product profiles.Results: Building on earlier efforts of participatory plant breeding and participatory varietal selection, new interventions showed subtle but important gender differences in preferences. For instance, in a study for the RTBFoods project, women prioritized mealiness, sweetness, firmness and non-fibrous boiled roots. These were further subjected to a rigorous gender analysis using the G+ product profile query tool. The breeding pipelines then incorporated these gender-responsive priority quality traits, prompting the development of standard operating procedures to phenotype these traits. This is a provisional file, not the final typeset article Conclusion: Following an all-inclusive approach coupled with traininig of multidisciplinary teams involving food scientists, breeders, biochemists, gender specialists and social scientists, integration into participatory variety selection in Uganda enabled accentuation of women and men's trait preferences, contributing to clearer breeding targets. The research has positioned sweetpotato breeding to better respond to the varying needs and preferences of the users.
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spelling CGSpace1354402025-12-08T10:29:22Z Gender Mainstreaming in Sweetpotato Breeding in Uganda: A Case Study Ssali, R.T. Mayanja, S. Nakitto, M. Mutiso, J.M. Tinyiro, S.E. Bayiyana, I. Okello, J.J. Forsythe, L. Magala, D. Yada, B. Mwanga, Robert O.M. Polar, Vivian gender plant breeding trait preferences Purpose: In Uganda, sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) is typically a "woman's crop", grown, processed, stored and also mainly consumed by smallholder farmers for food and income. Farmers value sweetpotato for its early maturity, resilience to stresses, and minimal input requirements. However, productivity remains low despite the effort of breeding programs to introduce new varieties. Low uptake of new varieties is partly attributed to previous focus by breeders on agronomic traits and much less on quality traits and the diverse preferences of men and women in sweetpotato value chains.To address this gap, breeders, food scientists, and social scientists (including gender specialists) systematically mainstreamed gender into the breeding program. This multidisciplinary approach, grounded in examining gender roles and their relationship with varietal and trait preferences, integrated important traits into product profiles.Results: Building on earlier efforts of participatory plant breeding and participatory varietal selection, new interventions showed subtle but important gender differences in preferences. For instance, in a study for the RTBFoods project, women prioritized mealiness, sweetness, firmness and non-fibrous boiled roots. These were further subjected to a rigorous gender analysis using the G+ product profile query tool. The breeding pipelines then incorporated these gender-responsive priority quality traits, prompting the development of standard operating procedures to phenotype these traits. This is a provisional file, not the final typeset article Conclusion: Following an all-inclusive approach coupled with traininig of multidisciplinary teams involving food scientists, breeders, biochemists, gender specialists and social scientists, integration into participatory variety selection in Uganda enabled accentuation of women and men's trait preferences, contributing to clearer breeding targets. The research has positioned sweetpotato breeding to better respond to the varying needs and preferences of the users. 2023-12-15 2023-12-15T15:29:22Z 2023-12-15T15:29:22Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/135440 en Open Access Frontiers Media Ssali, R.T.; Mayanja, S.; Nakitto, M.; Mutiso, J.; Tinyiro, S.E.; Bayiyana, I.; Okello, J.J.; Forsythe, L.; Magala, D.; Yada, B.; Mwanga, R.O.M.; Campos, H. 2023. Gender Mainstreaming in Sweetpotato Breeding in Uganda: A Case Study. Frontiers in Sociology. ISSN 2297-7775. 12 p.
spellingShingle gender
plant breeding
trait preferences
Ssali, R.T.
Mayanja, S.
Nakitto, M.
Mutiso, J.M.
Tinyiro, S.E.
Bayiyana, I.
Okello, J.J.
Forsythe, L.
Magala, D.
Yada, B.
Mwanga, Robert O.M.
Polar, Vivian
Gender Mainstreaming in Sweetpotato Breeding in Uganda: A Case Study
title Gender Mainstreaming in Sweetpotato Breeding in Uganda: A Case Study
title_full Gender Mainstreaming in Sweetpotato Breeding in Uganda: A Case Study
title_fullStr Gender Mainstreaming in Sweetpotato Breeding in Uganda: A Case Study
title_full_unstemmed Gender Mainstreaming in Sweetpotato Breeding in Uganda: A Case Study
title_short Gender Mainstreaming in Sweetpotato Breeding in Uganda: A Case Study
title_sort gender mainstreaming in sweetpotato breeding in uganda a case study
topic gender
plant breeding
trait preferences
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/135440
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