1. Rasheed Sulaiman V
Centre for Research on Innovation & Science Policy
ISARC, Varnasi
11 June 2019
10 THINGS WE LEARNED
Gender Responsiveness & IRRI Varietal Dissemination
2. Lessons from:
• Assessment of institutional innovations
to promote women led informal seed
systems (2018)
• Reflection and learning from STRV
promotion in Odisha (2019)
4. Partners vary with respect to their committeemen to
addressing gender: Partner selection is important
DoA
SAUs/
ICAR
NRLM
NGOs
mandated
to work
with
women
Function
/Activity
Belief/
Value
5. It is not the dissemination
approach per se, but how it
is implemented and through
whom makes the real
difference
2
6. IRRI and its partners used a wide range of varietal promotion
approaches: but when used with women collectives it had
greater impact
• Distribution of seeds
• Trainings (SRI, line
sowing, seed treatment
• Training on QSP
• Cluster Demonstrations
• Head to Head trials
• Videos/Films
• Newsletters
• Crop Cafeteria
• Farmers
• SHGs
• Seed grower groups
• Seed based FPOs
• Community seed banks
• Village organisations
• Federations
• FPOs
• Seed Dealers
7. 3 Women have significantly
benefitted from varietal
dissemination wherever
they were targeted
8. Benefits of gender responsive
varietal dissemination
• Enhanced access to
quality seeds
• Reduced cost of
production
• Boosted income from sale
of seeds
• Enhanced confidence as
entrepreneurs
• Increase in knowledge on
selection of seeds, seed
production, improved
ways of seed storage
9. 4 Involvement in the seed
value chain has enhanced
drudgery of women
10. Women seed producers need access to appropriate small
machinery to reduce drudgery and reduce the time spent in
the field
Not enough work on small
farm mechanisation is
happening (need a sound
review)
However in Nepal, small
machines are being used for
grading/packing etc by
women seed producers
Need to explore custom hiring
of small machinery
12. Women participation have been poor when not targeted
Women participation has been generally poor in
STRV promotion in Odisha by IRRI-DoA in
Odisha, though some of the NGO partners
have compensated for this to some extent.
14. New opportunities also bring new challenges
• Establishment of market
linkages
• Development of business
plans
• Reliable cash
flows/working capital
• Continued availability of
foundation seeds
• Diversification to
production of other seeds
15. 7
• Monitoring & Evaluation
(M&E) and Learning has
been generally very week
16. Weak ME&L mechanisms have constrained the
programme from getting its due credit
Need to document:
• impact/success stories
• Good Practices
Promote cross learning
Not sure if the baseline data (not merely
farmer data, but also village adoption
profile) was collected or used
effectively
The potential of media was never used
or used very rarely
17. 8 Several other actors exists in the
Rice Innovation System at all
levels, but they are not
effectively used everywhere
18. Many other actors who can add value to the IRRI varietal
dissemination remains unaware
• Identify actors first
• Need mechanisms for
structured interactions
with other actors at the
district level
• Perhaps a platform has
to be established for rice
stakeholders and its
meetings need to be
facilitated and financed
19. 9 Post- project sustainability issues
have never got the needed
attention
20. Post project, many initiatives sustain at a lower
capacity
Government is a key player in scaling up
But relationship building with
bureaucracy has been difficult
(people change, priorities too)
Need to find ways of engaging the state
government agencies from the very
beginning and perhaps more creative
ways of engaging them needs to be
found out
22. Undertaking gender responsive varietal uptake
is important.......
Equally important is learning on how to do this
better?
More focus on:
• Partner selection
• M&E
• Knowledge Management &
• Policy Engagement
