Sammanfattning

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

Publicerad i

Utgivare: International Society of Ethnobotany

Konferens

International Society of Ethnobotany

SLU författare

• Karltun, Linley Chiwona

  • Institutionen för landsbygdsutveckling och agroekologi, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

UKÄ forskningsämne

Jordbruksvetenskap


Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

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