CGIAR Gender News

Integrating gender in plant health research and action in Southeast Asia

Thoeun harvests corn from her farm in Cambodia.
Thoeun harvests corn from her farm in Cambodia. 
Photo Credit: Chhor Sokunthea/World Bank.

Pests and diseases destroy between 20 and 40 percent of crops globally, which makes plant health management critical for improving food and nutrition security and facilitating income growth.

Interdisciplinary research and regional collaboration in Southeast Asia are already contributing to better control of transboundary plant pests and diseases in a changing climate, but making on-farm management more inclusive, and thereby effective, will be key to success.

In Southeast Asia, household members work collectively, and women play hidden but significant roles as household financial managers and decision-makers. Yet their roles are often undervalued or underrecognized in both research and extension work, and their needs are often not incorporated into agricultural technology development and innovation design.

That’s why the CGIAR Plant Health Initiative collaborated with the Association of Southeastern Asian Nations (ASEAN) Fall Army Worm (FAW) Action Plan’s Women as IPM leaders program to organize a regional gender workshop on 6-8 December in Bali, Indonesia with the following six objectives: