Gender and social targeting in plant breeding

Abstract

Gender and social targeting can improve the relevance and effectiveness of plant breeding programs serving resource-poor farmers, traders, processors, and consumers. Currently, information about these clients and their trait preferences is based on small-scale studies which makes it difficult to set breeding priorities at the national or regional level. As a result, their products may not meet their needs, slowing the rate of adoption. We argue that plant breeding for resource-poor farmers, sellers, and processors requires a marketing approach. We show how the Segmenting-Targeting-Positioning (STP) framework from consumer marketing can be adapted for gender and social targeting in these plant breeding programs. We inventory large datasets, identify a minimum dataset of biophysical and socioeconomic variables, and show how these variables can be layered for gender and social targeting at the national level. Finally, we suggest ways to improve the design of gender- and social-targeting studies in order to enhance their relevance for plant breeding programs