VTechWorks staff will be away for the winter holidays starting Tuesday, December 24, 2024, through Wednesday, January 1, 2025, and will not be replying to requests during this time. Thank you for your patience, and happy holidays!

Browsing by Author "Marimo, Pricilla"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Gender Impacts of Molecular-Assisted Breeding: The Case of Insect and Disease Resistant Cassava in Nigeria
    Marimo, Pricilla (Virginia Tech, 2009-05-13)
    Cassava is the main staple crop in Nigeria. Using primary data from four south eastern states in Nigeria, the study assessed the gender impacts of improved cassava varieties. Comparative statistical analysis reveals that total female labor is higher than total male in cassava production, processing and marketing. Women spend more labor days than males for planting, weeding, harvesting, marketing and processing. The total female family labor is higher for adopters of new improved cassava varieties. There is however lower family labor input for both male and female adopters for clearing and plowing which are normally done by men. Significant determinants of female labor supply are number of children in the household, percent of females in the household providing labor on the farm, area under improved cassava varieties and total land area. There is a positive unexpected relationship between total female labor supply and number of children. For each of the decision making variables, there is a significant association between the gender of the spouse and the decision made except for the decision on family labor allocation. Probit results show a significant decrease in the probability that the wife makes the decision for family labor allocation, what inputs to buy and borrowing and traditional cassava income control with adoption. Results indicate that both men and women spend their income on services directly linked to the household's welfare. More than half of the women ranked food as number one.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Why Gender Matters in Breeding: Lessons from Cooking Bananas in Uganda
    Nasirumbi Sanya, Losira; Ssali, Reuben Tendo; Namuddu, Mary Gorreth; Kyotalimye, Miriam; Marimo, Pricilla; Mayanja, Sarah (MDPI, 2023-04-22)
    This study examined the gender-differentiated trait preferences of cooking banana (matooke) for farmers and consumers in Central Uganda to inform banana-breeding strategies. Women and men banana farmers might have differing production objectives, norms, and values which drive decisions on which varieties to adopt and grow. However, breeders rarely consider this in their variety development programs, leading to lost opportunities for equitable breeding. An exploratory sequential mixed-method approach was used to obtain a richer understanding of the trait preferences of women and men, which explains the acceptability of cooking bananas. Consumer preference tests for the candidate banana varieties and released hybrids were also conducted. The results showed that the universal attributes for variety selection were bunch size, taste, resistance to pests and diseases, drought tolerance, food texture/softness, maturity period, and finger size. Men appreciated agronomic and market-related traits, such as tolerance to drought and poor soils, bunch size and compactness, maturity period, and shelf life, while women valued processing and cooking traits such as flavour, food colour, ease of peeling, finger size, and agronomic traits such as plant height. These are plausible attributes for the gender-responsive breeding of bananas. The findings highlight the need to redesign the banana-breeding pipeline and process in Uganda to deliver varieties with attributes desired by women and men along this commodity value chain. A participatory demand-driven and gender-responsive process involving stepwise selection criteria that commences with quality traits followed by production traits while integrating gender-specific preferences should be employed to ensure the acceptability of cooking banana hybrids by women and men end users. This requires integrating different disciplines, including social scientists and gender experts, along the entire breeding process for more inclusive products and equitable outcomes.