Leaving no one behind: how women seize control of wheat-maize technologies in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is strongly committed to the "leave no one behind" principle of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. However, social norms and institutional biases in agricultural organisations can prevent indigenous peoples and women from participating in wheat-maize innovation processes, as they rarely meet the requisite criteria: sufficient land, social capital or formal education. The GENNOVATE (Enabling Gender Equality in Agricultural and Environmental Innovation) research initiative in Bangladesh shows that indigenous Santal women are obtaining access to and benefiting from wheat-maize innovations, enabling low-income Muslim women to benefit as well.

Le Bangladesh est fortement attaché au principe que personne ne soit « laissé pour compte ¼, l'un des Objectifs de développement durable de l'ONU. Cependant, certaines normes sociales et biais institutionnels au sein de organisations agricoles empêchent parfois les Autochtones et les femmes de prendre part à des processus d'innovations relatives à la culture du maïs et du blé, car ils répondent rarement aux critères requis : terres suffisantes, capital social ou éducation formelle. Au Bangladesh, l'initiative de recherche GENNOVATE (Promouvoir l'égalité de genre dans l'innovation agricole et environnementale) montre que les femmes autochtones du Santal obtiennent accès aux « innovations blé-maïs ¼ et en bénéficient, ce qui permet également aux femmes musulmanes à faible revenu d'en bénéficier.

From Working in the Wheat Field to Managing Wheat: Women Innovators in Nepal.

There is very little research on women in wheat in Nepal, and wheat is still considered a 'man's crop'. Consequently, extension services rarely target women, and women are not considered as innovators. However, research conducted in the Terai plains in 2014/15 shows that women are innovating in wheat to the extent that wheat farming is experiencing a shift from feminisation of agricultural labour towards women taking control over decision-making. Processes accounting for this include male outmigration, non-governmental organisation (NGO) work on promoting women's equality which has developed women's confidence, individual support from extension agents and strong cooperation between women to foster each other's 'innovation journeys'. Women who lived in seclusion 10 years ago are receiving recognition within their families and communities. This article provides recommendations for researchers, rural advisory services and other partners to bring their work in alignment with the realities of women wheat innovators.

Gender and agricultural innovation in Oromia region, Ethiopia: from innovator to tempered radical.

Tempered radicals are change agents who experience the dominant culture as a violation of the integrity and authenticity of their personal values and beliefs. They seek to move forward whilst challenging the status quo. Does the concept provide a useful analytic lens through which the strategies of women and men farmer innovators, who are 'doing things differently' in agriculture, can be interpreted? What are their strategies for turning ambivalence and tension to their advantage? The paper uses research data derived from two wheat-growing communities in Oromia Region, Ethiopia, an area characterized by generally restrictive gendered norms and a technology transfer extension system. The findings demonstrate that women and men innovators actively interrogate and contest gender norms and extension narratives. Whilst both women and men innovators face considerable challenges, women, in particular, are precariously located 'outsiders within,' negotiating carefully between norm and sanction. Although the findings are drawn from a small sample, they have implications for interventions aiming to support agricultural innovation processes which support women's, as well as men's, innovatory practice. The framework facilitates a useful understanding of how farmer innovators operate and in particular, significant differences in how women and men interrogate, negotiate and align themselves with competing narratives.