This poster was presented by Hellen Opie (National Agricultural Research Organization), as part of the Annual Scientific Conference hosted by the University of Canberra and co-sponsored by the University of Canberra, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research. The event took place on April 2-4, 2019 in Canberra, Australia. Read more: https://www.canberra.edu.au/research/faculty-research-centres/aisc/seeds-of-change and https://gender.cgiar.org/annual-conference-2019/

1. Gender differentiation of farmers’ knowledge, trait preferences and
it’s impacts on sorghum and finger millet seed systems of Uganda
Opie, Hellen*1; Anguria, Paul¹; Kalule Okello, David¹; Sebatta, Christopher² ; Njuguna-Mungai, Esther³
1National Agricultural Research Organization- National Semi-Arid Resources Research Institute, P.O Box 56, Soroti, Uganda
2College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Makerere University Kampala, P.O Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda
3International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics-Kenya, P.O Box 39063, Nairobi, Kenya
Corresponding author: hellenop@gmail.com; h.opie@naro.go.ug
Introduction
In Sub Saharan Africa, both women and men play
an important role in managing the seed grown by
their households (GRAIN & AFSA, 2018). They
tend to have distinct knowledge and preferences for
choosing seeds/varieties; a result of their unique
gender roles (World Bank, FAO, IFAD, 2009). They
often select seeds associated with preferred ‘traits’.
For sustainable and equitable benefits from
farming, mainstreaming gender has been of utmost
importance in research projects in Sub Saharan
Africa. A study to understand farmers’ status of
knowledge on the sorghum and finger millet
varieties grown as well as their associated traits
was carried out in North and East Uganda. The
main objective was to establish the existing gender
disparity of farmers’ knowledge levels about
sorghum and finger millet seeds, important traits
farmers look and seed/variety change behavior at
the farm. We also. planned to investigate if there is
a correlation between the knowledge and adoption
decision and if/how it intersects with gender
identities.
Materials and methods
Using a mixed methods approach, both qualitative
and quantitative data were collected from four
districts in Northern and Eastern Uganda. A
qualitative study was designed using a vignette
based on a life of married couple in the community
that was presented to men and women farmers to
guide in-depth discussions on knowledge,
decisions, seed choice, important varietal traits
associated with the selected varieties, as well as
seed/variety replacement decisions and behavior.
Men and women farmers of different ages (youth
below 25 years, mature between 26 and 49, and
seniors above 50years) were interviewed through a
series of 48 Focus Group Discussions. Quantitative
data was randomly collected from 280 (55%
women) sorghum producing households and 180
(54% women) households for finger millet using a
semi-structured questionnaire
● It takes on average 6-8 years for both women and
men farmers of both crops to become aware of
released varieties indicating a communication
gap.
● Women take a much shorter time of 1 to 2 years
to adopt improved sorghum and finger millet
varieties once they become aware of them.
● Correlation analysis reveals a significant positive
correlation between awareness of varieties and
adoption by women farmers especially
● Earliness, high yield, drought tolerance,
resistance to storage pests and culinary traits
such as sweet taste are of importance to both
men and women farmers.
● Traits that are related to processing of grains are
of importance to women farmers
● Men are more concerned about economic value
derived from the crop and will choose a variety
that has an established market outlet
Seed/Variety replacement behavior
● Men and Women farmers are aware that after
some time, seed/variety needs to be replaced
(especially for improved varieties)
● Evidenced by loss of uniformity in seed size,
color and poor yields.
● Replacement is attributed to seed stock losses,
existence of market demand, poor yield
performance and availability of seed
● In practice, seed replacement is not often done
unless there is a total loss of the seed/variety
Recommendation and
Conclusion
● Breeding and seed systems programs need to
● Understand the gendered preferences of farmers
so as to guide varietal development and
● Design gendered communication models for
effective dissemination of variety information to
enhance adoption.
Literature cited
GRAIN and AFSA, 2018: The real seeds
producers: Small-scale farmers save, use, share
and enhance the seed diversity of the crops that
feed Africa. https://www.grain.org/e/6035
The World Bank, Food and Agriculture
Organization, and International Fund for
Agricultural Development., 2009: Gender in
agriculture sourcebook. p.cm. ISBN
978-0-8213-7587-7 — ISBN 978-0-8213-7588-4
(electronic)
Acknowledgments:
The study is based on research work carried out
with financial support from the CGIAR
Collaborative Platform for Gender Research and
the Tropical Legumes III project. We also
acknowledge the support of our colleagues and
partners highlighted below:
Results
Farmer knowledge of sorghum and finger millet
seeds/varieties
Gender distribution of farmers that have no
information on improved sorghum varieties
Seremi 2(F. Millet)
Pese 1(F. Millet)
Serena
Sekedo
Epuripuri
Seso 3
Seso 2
Seso 1
Narosorg 1
Male Female
0 20 40 60 80
NASOROG1
SESO1
SESO2
SESO3
Epuripuri
Sekedo
Serena
Pese1(F.M)
Seremi2(F.M)
Varieties/ year of release
2016 2011 2011 2011 1995 1990 1990 1996 2011
No (%)
Yes (%)
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Percentage.
Farmer Knowledge of Improved sorghum variety information
Sorghum
High yield
Early maturity
Easy to thresh
Easy to gring
Sweet taste
Not itch when threshing
Less chaff
Flour quality
(swelling characteristic)
size of grain
Marketability
Resistane to striga
Drought tolerance
Pest and disease resistance
Finger millet
Flour quality
(swelling ability)
Bright red color
(market trait)
Brewing quality
Easy to thresh
Less chaff
Early maturity
Shatter resistance
Trait Sex Scale of
ImportanceWomen Men
Important
Important
Important
Important
Important
Important
Important
Important
Very Important
Very Important
Very Important
Very Important
Very Important
Very Important
Very Important
Very Important
Very Important
Very Important
Very Important
Very Important
Time between variety release and First awareness
Time between variety release and First adoption
Time between variety Awareness and First adoption
Time between variety release and First awareness
Time between variety release and Time adoption
Time between variety Awareness and First adoption
Men Women
P-valueMean
8.05
5.60
2.01
6.50
1.00
1.00
7.52
7.50
3.57
7.50
7.00
1.82
0.62
0.07
0.01
0.89
0.42
0.25
Figure 2: A woman threshing and separating
sorghum seed from the chaff
Figure 1: Finger millet and sorghum crops
Most farmers do not have sufficient knowledge of improved sorghum
varieties.
Women farmers are the most less informed about the improved
varieties compared to men
Information access and adoption of improved varieties
Farmer preferred traits for sorghum and finger millet