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COMMUNITY CASE STUDY article

Front. Sociol.
Sec. Gender, Sex and Sexualities
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2024.1258723
This article is part of the Research Topic Gender Intentional Crop Breeding: From Integration To Institutional Innovation View all 23 articles

Examining gendered cassava trait preferences through commercial seed business: A case study of IITA GoSeed and Umudike seeds in Nigeria

Provisionally accepted
Durodola S. Owoade Durodola S. Owoade 1*Ismail Rabbi Ismail Rabbi 1Olajide Razak Olajide Razak 2Nwanze Olamide Nwanze Olamide 1Bello Abolore Bello Abolore 3Elohor M. Diebiru-Ojo Elohor M. Diebiru-Ojo 4Jeffery W. Bentley Jeffery W. Bentley 5Elizabeth Parkes Elizabeth Parkes 4Hale Tufan Hale Tufan 6Peter Kulakow Peter Kulakow 1Béla Teeken Béla Teeken 1*
  • 1 International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria
  • 2 University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo, Nigeria
  • 3 International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), ibadan, Nigeria
  • 4 International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan. Nigeria, Ibadan, Nigeria
  • 5 Other, Casilla, Bolivia
  • 6 College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study focuses on how apart from research, commercial seed initiatives, and practices, aimed at the promotion and sale of improved varieties, identified gendered trait preferences of cassava users along the value chain. Since 2015, the public cassava breeding program in Nigeria, led by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in collaboration with the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) has carried out various research studies to determine gendered trait preferences by different cassava users along the whole value chain. These studies inform which crop users the cassava breeding programs targets, the traits to select, and the definition of product profiles considering gender. IITA (IITA GoSeed) and NRCRI (Umudike Seeds) have engaged cassava seed users who validated the findings of the previous studies. Feedback from this system through seed demand, and sales is therefore valuable for breeders. Therefore, this study focused on documenting a case study of how IITA GoSeed and Umudike Seeds commercial initiatives, aimed at the promotion and sale of improved varieties, identified additional gendered user preferences. A total of six key informant interviews were conducted with IITA GoSeed and Umudike staff. Furthermore reports and sales data shared by the two companies were assessed. We found that traits such as plant architecture which suppresses weed (branched stems with widespread canopy) and food processing suitability were confirmed as important gendered traits, while ratooning ability (allowing to cut stems from an existing plant without the plant being affected much) and sweet taste of tubers which can be eaten boiled without elaborate processing, are new gendered traits identified by the two companies. IITA GoSeeds and Umudike Seeds identified that the variety TME419 has the highest sales records among men and women with more recently released varieties gradually becoming more popular and their branched soil covering or umbrella shape seems to be an important value added and gendered trait. Our findings illustrate that the upcoming commercial seed market demand for different varieties coupled with integrated action research can capture emerging trends among cassava seed and root producers, to guide breeding efforts which is particularly important as breeding is a future investment.

    Keywords: methodology, Formal analysis, Writing -review & editing. Béla Teeken: Conceptualization, supervision, Validation, Writingoriginal draft, Writing -review & editing. Olamide Olaosebikan: Supervision, Writing -review & editing. Durodola Sakirat Owoade: Conceptualization

    Received: 14 Jul 2023; Accepted: 26 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Owoade, Rabbi, Razak, Olamide, Abolore, Diebiru-Ojo, Bentley, Parkes, Tufan, Kulakow and Teeken. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Durodola S. Owoade, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria
    Béla Teeken, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.