Week 1 Training: Makerere University

Gender-responsive research design:

1. Self realization, conceptual clarity, and interdisciplinarity

2. Methodology: qualitative and quantitative

3. Research question and case study

4. Impact assessment and participatory methods

Field Work Phase: Participant Field Sites

Gender-responsive research application

5. Research planning and field data collection

Week 2 Training: Makerere University

Gender-responsive research analysis; gender-responsive research communication; gender-responsive research community building

6. Data analysis and reporting

7. Communication to policymakers and the communities

8. Institutional transformation

9. Community of Practice

This project focuses on ways and means of establishing efficient, sustainable seed systems for an important but neglected staple crop in Burkina Faso, groundnut. Such seed systems will provide farmers with a reliable supply and a range of choices of quality seed, well adapted to local conditions. The project will adopt participatory and interdisciplinary approaches, in close partnership with farmer organisations, non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders of the groundnut industry to select varieties that suit current and future needs, such as food and cash. Capacity of farmer groups – with higher focus on women farmers – will be strengthened in groundnut production, seed production techniques, monitoring seed quality, prediction of demand, and marketing.

Donor Agencies: Australia Awards / the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID)

The Tropical Legumes III project (TLIII) is a major international initiative partnering the International International Crops Research Institute for the SemiArid Tropics (ICRISAT), the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), eight African or Indian national/state, and other partners, to develop improved cultivars of common bean, cowpea, chickpea and groundnut and deliver their seed at scale to small-holders in Gates Foundation-focus geographies. In Burkina Faso this project aims to create varieties with a more complete character profile for resistance, while ensuring that they are adapted to the socio-economic conditions of the producers.

Donor Agencies: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

This project covers different areas of bean research activities in Burundi, such as breeding, seed system, socio-economy (market aspect), nutrition and gender. Breeding activities are carried out on-station under plant population development and screening, and on-farms under participatory variety selection. Seed system activities are carried out in collaboration with seed producers, farmer’s organization and NGOs, and several categories of seed (pre-basic, basic, certified and quality declared seed) are being produced. Socioeconomic activities are carried out through impact assessments, surveys and linkage of farmers with markets, especially by empowering the whole value chain. Several business platforms have been created in different zones of production, commercialization and consumption hubs. Nutrition activities include developing high iron bean varieties and producing bean-based products such as mandazi, biscuits, bean flour and purée. Work is also being done under community crèches where vulnerable people, especially young children, are assisted. Gender activities are carried out by integrating different categories in research development activities.

Donor Agencies: The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) / the Pan African Bean Research Alliance (PABRA)

The primary objective of the project is to improve incomes and livelihoods of rural communities in selected target districts in Ghana through increased production and utilization of legumes. Over 36,000 households are involved in legume production in Ghana, with cowpea being the second most important grain legume. The project seeks to develop improved cowpea varieties through farmerparticipatory variety selection, seed multiplication and training of farmers and agricultural extension agents on best practices in soybean production. The project involves germplasm collection in collaboration with National Agricultural System trials; on-farm trials alongside farmers’ own varieties; and training of extension agents including a “training-the-trainer” approach. It also includes seed multiplication and demonstration through field days, demonstration fields, the community seed system and seed companies.

Donor Agencies: The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – Ghana (CSIR) / the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) / Seed Co., Ltd. / RMG Ghana, Ltd.

The Tropical Legumes III project (TLIII) is a major international initiative partnering the International International Crops Research Institute for the SemiArid Tropics (ICRISAT), the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), eight African or Indian national/state, and other partners, to develop improved cultivars of common bean, cowpea, chickpea and groundnut and deliver their seed at scale to small-holders in Gates Foundation-focus geographies. The objective of the TLIII project in Ghana is to enhance the competitiveness of cowpea for increased income and nutritional security for smallholder farmers in the dry lands of Ghana, and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in drought-prone areas through enhanced cowpea production and productivity using integrated breeding methods (conventional, molecular and gender responsive).

Donor Agencies: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The project intends to generate data that would essentially be useful for breeding purposes. The main scope of the study revolves around studying the genetic diversity of soybean germplasm in Kenya. Germplasm was sourced from the Genetic Resource Research Institute (GeRRI), the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), farmers and other institutions that readily provided the germplasm. We will study the diversity of the germplasm through phenotypic and genotypic characterization. This will provide the breeding program with parental material for further breeding activities as well as identify the cultivars already released for licensing. Further from the diversity study, we maintain germplasm as an annual activity and early generation seed for further bulking into certified seed.

Donor Agencies: Korea-Africa Food & Agriculture Cooperation Initiative (KAFACI)

The project is promoting soybean seed production while working with small or medium scale farmers. These are farmers that usually work in farmer groups such as cooperatives or associations. However, good quality certified soybean seed is inaccessible to many smallholder farmers in Malawi, largely due to limited availability in shops and, when available, often unaffordable by many women farmers. Therefore, most farmers – especially women – recycle seed saved from previous harvests, resulting in decreased productivity levels that exacerbate household food and nutrition insecurity. Farmers often perceive recycled seed quality to be equivalent to certified seed for self-pollinated crops. In this study we will therefore conduct a perception study of the improved certified and recycled seed to understand farmer perceptions.

Donor Agencies: The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

The Tropical Legumes III project (TLIII) is a major international initiative partnering the International International Crops Research Institute for the SemiArid Tropics (ICRISAT), the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), eight African or Indian national/state, and other partners, to develop improved cultivars of common bean, cowpea, chickpea and groundnut and deliver their seed at scale to small-holders in Gates Foundationfocus geographies. The primary focus of TLIII in Mali is breeding for striga and drought resistance. The project works in the Segou and Mopti regions, in collaboration with the Institute of Rural Economics (IER), non-governmenal organizations, farmers organizations and seed companies.

Donor Agencies: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The project will allow increased productivity and marketing of peanuts and chicken on small-scale farms through multiplication and dissemination of significant quantities of high-quality peanut seed (newly released varieties); training for farmers to improve their skills and knowledge around seed production, good management practices for peanut production and post-harvest management; indigenous chicken management technologies; and integrated agricultural practices.

Donor Agencies: Korean Program on International Agriculture (KOPIA)

The Tropical Legumes III project (TLIII) is a major international initiative partnering the International International Crops Research Institute for the SemiArid Tropics (ICRISAT), the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), eight African or Indian national/state, and other partners, to develop improved cultivars of common bean, cowpea, chickpea and groundnut and deliver their seed at scale to small-holders in Gates Foundation-focus geographies. This TLIII project is focused gender mainstreaming, sensitizing farmers to address gender inequality in farming to minimize gender gaps (who has access to and control over available resources); assessment on factors contributing to women’s participation in common bean value chain activities; analyzing gender operational structures – planting, weeding, fertilizer application, harvesting, and post-harvest-market technologies – so as to be able to sensitize the available labor saving technologies.

Donor Agencies: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The National Agricultural Research Organizational (NARO) has been able to release five biofortified bean varieties in collaboration with international research organizations. However, with all the efforts invested in developing and releasing these varieties, little is known about their access and adoption by male and female farmers. Therefore, researchers sought to assess the access and adoption of the biofortified beans by men and women farmers in Mubende District, central Uganda. The study will involve 100 randomly selected respondents.

Donor Agencies: National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI)

Bambara groundnuts, considered the third most important food legume after groundnuts and cowpea, have a good balance of important nutrients for humans with protein and carbohydrates making up more than 50% of the grain. Project activities include: (i) surveys to determine the extent of cultivation and constraints associated with Bambara groundnut production in Kabwe district of Zambia; (ii) collection and evaluation of germplasm obtained from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the national gene bank, which identified a number of vigorous and high-yielding accessions which can be introduced for Zambian farmers; (iii) testing accessions for homozygosity to identify a suitable accession which can be exposed to mutagenesis so as to generate variants which will be screened for drought tolerance, levels of antinutritional factors and nodulation potential. In order to improve the possible adoption of varieties that the programme will produce, we intend to involve as many Bambara groundnut stakeholders as possible in selection advancement decisions.

Donor Agencies: Mulungushi University