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In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), maize alone provides an estimated one third of the mean caloric intake and in 2006, accounted for 21% of all harvested food crops, making it the single most important food crop in the region. In addition, maize is also used as feedgrain and fodder, adding to its importance in integrated smallholder farming systems in SSA. In general, women are the main producers of staple crops such as maize. Understanding the gender dimensions of maize is particularly challenging because maize is used as both a subsistence and cash crop, and may be considered either a male or female crop depending on farmer circumstances and how the particular variety is promoted. This brief provides an overview of the role of women in maize production, and provides a framework for analyzing barriers to women and technology’s impact on women throughout the cropping cycle. We find that lower access to factors such as extension access, education level, land, and labor contribute to female’s lower rate of maize technology adoption. Understanding women’s disproportionate access to resources and how improved technology may change allocation of resources should help project developers improve both women’s and men’s productivity.
In the last half century, the increased opportunity cost of women’s time in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has led to remarkable growth in the consumption of wheat and other easy-to-prepare staples. Wheat tends to be grown and processed on a large scale in SSA. Ethiopia (SSA’s largest producer of wheat) is the exception, where smallholders are responsible for 76% of total production. This brief provides an overview of the role of women in wheat production, and provides a framework for analyzing technology’s impact on women throughout the cropping cycle. We find that many constraints exist to adoption of improved wheat varieties by women. A review of improved wheat variety adoption in the developing world found that it takes 5-10 years after breeding to the release and another 5-10 years for full adoption, but this length of time has been found to be reduced with the use of participatory breeding, varietal selection, and gender analysis. By including women in every stage of development and planning of new technologies, programs can become more aware of the needs of targeted women and therefore, increase adoption rates and improve the productivity of men and women in wheat farming.