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Non-PR, IFPRI3; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; ISI; DCA; Capacity Strengthening, Natural Resources and Resilience (NRR); Transformation Strategies, This study investigated the trait preferences for cassava in the context of climate change and conflict stressors among value-chain actors in Nigeria to strengthen social inclusion and the community-resilience outcomes from breeding programs. Multi-stage sampling procedures were used to select and interview male and female value-chain participants in the Osun, Benue and Abia States. The results indicated that farmers preferred cassava traits such as drought tolerance, early bulking, multiple-product use and in-ground storability to strengthen resilience. Climate change and challenges related to social change shaped the response strategies from both genders, and influenced trait preferences, including the early re-emergence of cassava leaves, stems that had ratooning potential, and especially the root milking that was important among female respondents. The major response strategies employed by men included frequent farm visits to prevent theft and engaging in non-agricultural livelihoods. Those employed by women included backyard farming, early harvesting, having preferences for food with fewer processing steps, and depending on remittances. The resilience capacity was higher for men than for women due to their better access to assets, as well as their abilities to relocate their farms and out-migrate in search of other livelihoods. Considering gendered cassava traits, and enhancing their resilience and response strategies, can complement efforts to make breeding more socially inclusive, resilient, and anticipatory to future challenges created by climate and related social changes.

This perspective describes the opportunities and challenges of data-driven approaches for crop diversity management (genebanks and breeding) in the context of agricultural research for sustainable development in the Global South. Data-driven approaches build on larger volumes of data and flexible analyses that link different datasets across domains and disciplines. This can lead to more information-rich management of crop diversity, which can address the complex interactions between crop diversity, production environments, and socioeconomic heterogeneity and help to deliver more suitable portfolios of crop diversity to users with highly diverse demands. We describe recent efforts that illustrate the potential of data-driven approaches for crop diversity management. A continued investment in this area should fill remaining gaps and seize opportunities, including i) supporting genebanks to play a more active role in linking with farmers using data-driven approaches; ii) designing low-cost, appropriate technologies for phenotyping; iii) generating more and better gender and socioeconomic data; iv) designing information products to facilitate decision-making; and v) building more capacity in data science. Broad, well-coordinated policies and investments are needed to avoid fragmentation of such capacities and achieve coherence between domains and disciplines so that crop diversity management systems can become more effective in delivering benefits to farmers, consumers, and other users of crop diversity.

Gender is integral to agricultural innovation. Yet, gender relations, social inclusion, power, and agency often remain an afterthought in agricultural innovation processes. Using crop improvement examples, this talk critically explores gender in agricultural innovation and design, including frameworks and approaches for inclusive design, innovative tools and methods that integrate gender research, and how intrahousehold dynamics shape crop trait preferences, varietal adoption and seed systems.

Cassava breeding programs in Uganda do not currently select materials based on flour making quality, explaining in part the low adoption rates of many released varieties. In this study, we describe end user trait preferences, processing qualities and physicochemical properties of cassava flour. We found that higher proportion of women than men showed preference for most attributes of cassava flour quality evaluated in this study. Preference for color was 66% and 52% among women and men, respectively, while that for stickiness of Kwon was 26% (women) and 15% (men). Ease of peeling and stickiness of Kwon were key processing traits. Heap fermented flour had higher pasting temperatures, but lower viscosities than sun‐dried flour, and had lower amylose content compared to fresh root starch. The results demonstrate the importance of gender sensitive participatory evaluation of breeding materials, in tandem with physicochemical evaluation during selection of best possible candidate breeding lines.

Within communities in Osun and Imo States of Nigeria, farmer‐processors grew and processed a diverse set of improved and landrace cassava varieties into the locally popular foods, gari, eba and fufu. Local and 15 main varieties were grown in a 'mother and baby trials' design in each state. Mother trials with three replications were processed by farmer‐processors renown in their community for their processing skills. Baby trials were managed and processed by other farmer‐processors. The objective was to identify food quality criteria to inform demand‐led breeding to benefit users, especially women, given their key roles in processing. Farmer‐processors evaluated the overall quality of fresh roots and derived food products through pairwise comparisons. Improved varieties had higher fresh and dry root yield. Overall, landraces ranked first for quality of gari and eba, but several improved varieties were also appreciated for good quality. Landraces in Osun had higher gari yield and a higher swelling power compared to improved varieties. Colour (browning), bulk density, swelling power, solubility and water absorption capacity were the criteria most related to food product ranking by farmer‐processors. Evaluation of varieties under farmer‐processors' conditions is crucial for providing guidance to breeders on critical selection criteria.