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Conference paper - Peer-reviewed, 2004

Leverging genetic diversity for community based development of cassava

Karltun Linley Chiwona, Jiggins Janice

Abstract

Governments in Malawi have favoured maize: cassava is known as the poor man’s crop. Research with farmers in Domasi and Mulanje on Participatory Varietal Selection of cassava varieties reveals three kinds of displacement: (i) civil society actors and community-based organisations are taking the place of failing state agencies; (ii) traditional leadership and authority are giving way to a more varied and less gender-biased power dynamic as HIV/AIDs impacts household composition and gender relations; (iii) in conditions of chronic food and income insecurity the theft of fresh roots from the fields, and pre-emptive harvesting, is prevalent; this leads to immediate hunger and income loss, and a shortage of planting stems at the onset of the single rainy season, leading to repeated genetic erosion. These displacements have opened the social space for farmers to leverage their cassava-based knowledge and expertise into the development of higher value-added activities, new products, and profitable niche markets. Re-negotiation of gender roles and status is on-going, as evidenced, for instance, by re-valuation of gendered varietal preferences, knowledge, and skills, and by the initiatives women are taking to build civil society and human capacity around cassava at the community level

Published in


Publisher: International Society of Ethnobotany

Conference

International Society of Ethnobotany

      SLU Authors

    • Karltun, Linley Chiwona

      • Department of Rural Development and Agroecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Agricultural Science

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/7463