Nchanji Eileen Bogweh

The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT

Common bean forms a significant part of the diet in Africa and hence plays a critical role in human nutrition. In order to promote it, this study was designed to investigate the effects of fully substituting eggs with bean milk on the physical, nutritional and organoleptic properties of biscuits made with cassava flour. Replacement of egg by bean m...

A range of studies have highlighted the negative impacts of Covid-19 disruptions on incomes, food and nutrition security among rural agricultural communities in developing countries. However, knowledge of how such disruptions affect different categories of small-scale farmers in Sub-Sahara Africa is lacking. We used a mixed-method approach to colle...

Feminist scholars and activists have drawn attention to the importance of women’s land rights, and studies focused on irrigation have explored the gendered relationships between land and water rights. Yet little of this work has focused on the relationship between land and water rights for domestic and productive purposesmore broadly.Within rural c...

Successful outcomes for agri-food systems and the communities that rely on them are dependent on a whole range of factors and situations. Innovative technologies must align with these to stand any chance of achieving the goal of healthy, equitable, resilient and sustainable systems. These interventions can be better understood and applied using so-...

Links between land tenure and food and nutritional insecurity are receiving increased attention. Nevertheless, urban and periurban dwellers face challenges in accessing land to produce food for subsistence and sale. An ethnographic study and food and nutrition insecurity survey were conducted between October 2013 and November 2014 in Tamale, Northe...

Climate change poses a significant threat to various sectors, including agriculture,affecting men and women unevenly. Although gender-based perceptions of climate change have been studied, there remains a gap in understanding how these perceptions influence the adoption of adaptation strategies among men and women smallholder farmers in the product...

Biofortified beans are being promoted in Burundi to solve malnutrition issues among rural households. The study was conducted in Muyinga and Gasorwe communes, where biofortified bean varieties were disseminated. This study aims to understand gender roles and practices in households and farms and how these roles and practices influence participation...

Background Vegetables and fruits are highly recommended in diets because of their nutritional importance. Among those, leguminous vegetables are more important, for low-income countries, because of their protein, mineral contents and potential to increase food security and income. In Benin, snap beans ( Phaseolus vulgaris L. ) are the most consumed...

Rice is the main staple for more than half of the world’s population. In Ghana, rice is the fastest growing food commodity, and it is consumed by almost every household. However, yields continue to be low, as the pace of adoption of new varieties is low. The low rate of adoption has been attributed to failure of modern breeding to incorporate prefe...

The adoption and use of climate-smart agricultural practices are critical for improving the productivity and sustainability of smallholder farming systems. However, the gendered dimensions of access to and use of climate-smart agriculture in common bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.) production remain unexplored among smallholder farmers in Burundi. A mi...

Persistent food insecurity in the global south has triggered calls for sustainable development worldwide. Moreover, more than a quarter of the world's population suffers from micronutrient deficiencies or hidden hunger. The population bulge, declining soil fertility and inadequate/inappropriate use of farm inputs in Sub-Saharan Africa place it in a...

While most of the literature on park management and nature conservation has focused on the negative implications for local people’s livelihoods, fewer studies have empirically analysed local people’s strategies in responding to these policies and renegotiating their position to continue their traditional livelihoods using their traditional knowledg...

Women are involved in bean production and marketing, but their contribution is often invisible. This study is interested in understanding gender gaps in bean production, marketing. and decision-making powers over income and sales. A mixed method was used to collect survey data from 332 fanning households and qualitative data from focus group discus...

Vegetable cultivation is a survival strategy for the urban population, especially with the increasing population, urbanization, and high unemployment rate. For decades, men have practiced vegetable cultivation in Tamale's metropolitan city, with women being involved at the last node of the value chain – marketing. Women are known as market queens,...

Agriculture is amongst the vulnerable sectors to climate change and its associated impacts. Most women are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change than men. Climate Smart Agriculture ensures increased productivity thereby enabling food security, income security and wealth creation amongst the farming households. A study was carried out to...

Gender is an integral part of bean breeding initiatives and provides the platform through which plant breeding should be implemented. Gender-sensitive breeding offers a clear focus on addressing gender gap in agriculture by considering different traits preferred by both men and women (Nchanji et al., 2021b). Through the gender lens, critical elemen...

Agricultural technology and innovation are seldom, if ever, neutral. They may further entrench or help challenge unequal gender norms and relations. However, while studies demonstrate the ways in which agricultural technologies can benefit women, women have often not been consulted during technological innovation. Consequently, their voices, needs...

The past decades have seen the implementation of several multi-national maize and common bean cultivar development projects in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, the impacts of these projects on income generation and food and nutrition security have not been adequately interrogated and documented. This chapter provides a synthesis of some of the pa...

Seed is critical to food security as the first link in the food value chain (Galiè 2013) and can be a powerful agent of change (Reddy et al. 2007). Similarly, women’s empowerment and gender equality are key to food and nutrition security (Agarwal 2018). The interplay between the two is becoming increasingly important: socioeconomic and gender diffe...

Participatory variety selection (PVS) is the selection of new varieties among fixed lines by farmers under different target environments. It is increasingly being used to select and promote new crop breeding materials in most African countries. A gender-responsive PVS tool was piloted in Embu and Nakuru in the first and second cropping seasons of 2...

The common bean is a nutrient-dense food empirically known to have beneficial effects on human health. Many studies have looked at the effects of “pulses” on different health issues, providing general overviews of the importance of each pulse in health studies. This study systematically reviews and provides meta-analyses of the effect of bean extra...

The pandemic has disrupted input supply systems in almost all countries studied, causing low use of yield enhancing techologies such as improved seed and inorganic fertilizer. Measures put in place to curb transmission of the deadly virus have created labour shortages of workers at farm level and business level leading to higher labour prices. The...

The COVID 19 pandemic was a two-edged sword; it exacerbated the already inefficient agri-food system but, in doing that, made us reflect, rethink possible and sustainable solutions to address SDG’s 1, 2, 11, and 5. A lot has been written on the immediate effect of the pandemic on different crops/animals and nodes of the value chain. In this chapter...

Concerns about the implications of COVID-19 on agriculture and food security in Sub-Saharan Africa abound. Containment measures in response to the pandemic have markedly different outcomes depending on the degree of enforcement of the measures and the existing vulnerabilities pre-COVID. In this descriptive study, we document the possible impacts of...

The CGIAR crop improvement (CI) programs, unlike commercial CI programs, which are mainly geared to profit though meeting farmers' needs, are charged with meeting multiple objectives with target populations that include both farmers and the community at large. We compiled the opinions from more than thirty experts in the private and public sector o...

Background The notion of leisure became pronounced more than 20 years ago when women who worked on or out of the farm came home to a “second shift,” which entailed domestic work and childcare. This gap continues today not only between men and women but also among women and men. Women's challenges in terms of their leisure arise out of or are shaped...

Despite fears that sub-Sahara Africa would be severely impacted by COVID-19, the implications of the pandemic on sustainable production and consumption have not been studied in detail. Notwithstanding, implications vary depending on country, region, and strictness of coronavirus containment measures. Thus, the impact of COVID-19 on food and nutriti...

We highlight how integrating gender in our breeding activities is important for participatory varietal selection. It was developed with information collected during participatory varietal selection, especially those conducted for the different NUA bean varieties released. Information from stakeholder meetings with grain traders, seed companies, and...

Precooked bean products have the potential of bridging the common bean demand and consumption gap in Kenya. However, sensory evaluation of novel precooked processed products has been inadequate in determining acceptability. This study assessed the sensory evaluation of precooked bean snacks by 269 rural consumers in Machakos County of Kenya. Descri...

Background Navy bean is an important legume crop in Zimbabwe. Although its production in Zimbabwe is limited by multiple constraints including biotic, abiotic and socio-economic, there is no documented evidence. Thus, this study aimed at identifying farmers’ production constraints, preferred traits and cultivars of navy bean, and strategies used to...

Biofortification is a process through which the nutritional value – vitamins or minerals of a food crop is enhanced through conventional breeding. Through biofortification, vitamins and minerals such as iron, zinc, provitamin A etc. are enhanced. Eleven high iron and zinc beans have been released in Cameroon after a recent nutritional screening of...

The outbreak of coronavirus was expected to adversely affect African countries more than any other region in the world. This assertion was based on the existing conditions in sub-Saharan Africa that exposed the region to the dire consequences of the pandemic. Previously existing underlying conditions that affected the food system include a high dep...

This work examined the determinants of the adoption of improved Irish potato technologies by farmers in three divisions of the Western Region of Cameroon. Data were collected from 170 farmers from 14 villages in our study area using a mixed-method approach—structured questionnaires, focus group discussion, key informant interviews, and participator...

Although agriculture is the backbone of the African economy, it has faced considerable challenges in the past sixty years. Africa has moved from being a self-sufficiency continent before the 1960s, to net food importers, with a handful of countries facing severe food shortages from drought, desertifica- tion, climate change and wars. In this articl...

This study examines the extent of the productivity gap between male and female bean producers, its discriminatory nature and implications for the policymakers in agriculture in Tanza-nia. Generally, women are distinctively "invisible" in agriculture, due to social norms and even from the national agricultural policy perspective. Their discriminatio...

Africa's agriculture and food systems were already grappling with challenges such as climate change and weather variability, pests and disease, and regional conflicts. With rising new cases of COVID 19 propelling various African governments to enforce strict restrictions of varying degrees to curb the spread. Thus, the pandemic posed unprecedented...

Background: Navy bean is an important legume crop in Zimbabwe. Its production is limited by multiple constraints including biotic, abiotic and socio-economic. However, there is no documented participatory research on production status, biotic stress management strategies, farmers’ perceived production, and marketing constraints, and cultivar trait...

Background: Navy bean is an important legume crop in Zimbabwe. Its production is limited by multiple constraints including biotic, abiotic and socio-economic. However, in the major navy bean-production regions of Zimbabwe, there is no recent study documenting biotic stress management strategies, farmers’ perceived production, and marketing constrai...

The introduction of improved varieties of haricot bean has been viewed as a strategy to increase haricot bean production. Thus, recognising the perception of men and women of these varieties can contribute to increase production. The study sought to analyse farmers' perception of improved haricot bean varieties in the West region of Cameroon. A mix...

Men and women farmer participation and choice of variety could guide breeding and drive the adoption of different haricot bean varieties. Thus, understanding how gender influences participation and choice of bean cultivation and marketing is fundamental. The study sought to analyse how socio-cultural norms determine women and men, participation and...

Food systems are integral to a city’s functioning, and the importance of stakeholder participation in urban planning at various scales is increasingly recognised. This chapter therefore analyses the role of participatory processes in urban food system planning. We draw upon data from an ongoing multi-stakeholder planning process in Tamale, Northern...

Food crop production in Cameroon is mainly rain-fed and highly dependent on the climate which has been changing over several decades. Evidence has shown define climatic change taking place in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), manifested in a slow but steady rise in temperatures and a general decline in rainfall. Thus, posing threats to agricultural product...

The call for a bean transformative agenda is led by the Pan-African Bean Alliance (PABRA). It aims to position common bean as a commercial crop, though it is still grown for home consumption. They have designed and put in place gender sensitive interventions aimed at increasing women and youths access to innovative technology, support services, cre...

The socio-cultural, economic and political environment over time has shaped and is still re-shaping gender roles, participation, decision making and benefit sharing in farming households in Africa. The pictures below are a reflection of the labour division by women, men and youths on farm and at the household. Identifying the different roles played...

Common bean, (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) generally grown as a subsistence crop for home consumption is fast becoming a commercial crop sold by farmers for income. The call for bean transformation comes at a time when the population is increasing and the demand for bean grains and bean products is at its highest, especially as it’s being considered a “p...

Vegetable production is practiced in urban and peri-urban settings in many countries, where agricultural lands are decreasing. Farmers need to understand how to manage pests when production is in close proximity to people, especially since they have adopted intensive agricultural practices where more synthetic chemicals are used to control pests. O...

This article uses the example of Tamale, Ghana, to examine urban food system governance, with a focus on food production. Urban and peri-urban agriculture is common in West Africa, and supports food security and livelihoods globally. The analysis is grounded in the notion of everyday governance as a process co-performed by governors and subjects. I...

In sub-Saharan Africa, farming largely takes place on land that is mainly owned and controlled by men. Women have access to land largely through kinship relations that are guided by socio-cultural institutions such as inheritance, marriage, as well as community allocation. Even though agriculture in Africa has often been referred to as a woman’s ac...

Urban farming takes advantage of its proximity to market, transport and other urban infrastructure to provide food for the city and sustain the livelihoods of urban and peri-urban dwellers. It is an agricultural activity which employs more than 50% of the local urban population with positive and negative impacts on local and national development. U...

The objective of this volume is to bring together research that focuses on productive cultivation in urban spaces from around the world and to place these empirics in a theoretical context to provide cohesion. Despite the seeming convergence in practice, the literatures on urban agriculture in the Global North (GN) and the Global South (GS) remain...

Urban vegetable production is an intensive agricultural strategy through which urban dwellers secure income and improve their livelihoods. An ethnographic study was conducted in Tamale, Northern Ghana, to understand whether vegetable gardening was a sustainable form of intensification. The study used an updated version of the Food and Agricultural...

According to Zeeuw and Drechsel (2015) food systems comprise food production, processing, distribution, consumption and waste management. Food systems are dynamic due to the ever changing socio-political and economic environments in which they operate. This dynamic nature of food systems has led to the complexity and ambiguity of food governance sy...

Solidarity in a competing world — fair use of resources.

Purpose This chapter uses a feminist political ecology perspective to demonstrate how gender interacts with access to land as a re/productive resource in Tamale, a rapidly urbanizing city in West Africa. The study gives insight into the strategies that vulnerable groups employ to gain access to resources. Methodology/approach An ethnographic fiel...

Urban food system governance is especially complex, comprising of a dense configuration of heterogeneous interacting individuals, organisations and institutions. We conceptualise this governance as a process. Within it, multiple state, customary, civil society and vernacular institutions, with different objectives, interact as they attempt to exert...

ABSTRACT: Non-governmental organizations (NGO) have become quite prominent in the field of international development in recent decades. Even though, NGO have taken the centre stage in the fight against poverty, social injustice and human rights most are considered weak due to their dependence on funding from government and international aid bodies....

The International Women’s Day Celebration started as a socialist political movement, which fought for women’s right to vote and better working conditions. Over the years this movement has fought for education, health, poverty, political integration, violence, armed conflict and the aspirations of the girl child.In Cameroon presently, the perception...

Urban and peri-urban agriculture are dynamic niche activities that take advantage of urban connectivity and a complex socio-political environment. It has been advocated by many researchers as a means to improve food security. Vegetable production, a strand of urban agriculture, doubles as a source of food and income for many urban dwellers, especia...

Food insecurity is a global problem particularly prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. Here, urban agriculture has rarely been formalized and institutional conflict often threatens the possibilities for it to contribute to food security. Yet this case study finds that in Tamale, northern Ghana, conflict between institutions has inadvertently led to inno...

the key role women play in generating extra revenue and buffer food crisis in view of enhancing household’s welfare is crucial and worthy of notice. Based on this, new technologies aimed at enhancing farming efficiency should be channeled to these groups. Though classified as vulnerable, women contribution to rural household livelihood cannot be ov...

In Tamale, Northern Ghana, as in many West African cities, vegetable cultivation serves as means of income generation and food security. However, scarce resources mean urban vegetable farmers contest strategic assets, particularly the land that this paper focuses on. In urban Tamale, urbanization has accelerated land sales. Here, the traditional ru...

Dry season vegetable cultivation provides urban dwellers in Tamale, with an opportunity to produce food and generate income. They have high profit margins due to close proximity to markets and transport. Farming is carried out in open spaces around lowlands were there are wells, gutters, dugouts, streams and drains. This paper explores why cabbage...

Vegetable cultivation needs the combination of the hand and tools, and increasingly mechanization. This paper explores how this happens in urban agriculture in Tamale, Northern Ghana. Here, farmers grow vegetables such as okra, amaranthus, cabbage, jute mallow, lettuce, cowpea leaves and pepper for subsistence and/or commercial purposes. In this co...

Farmers in the Northern Region of Ghana face the problem of severe soil degradation, which has led to a reduction of agricultural productivity and increased food insecurity. An absence of organic matter in the soil results in high vulnerability leading to soil erosion, poor nutrient retention in the soil and low water-holding capacity of the soil....

Resilience is the ability to absorb shocks without an entire system change. Farmers develop adaption mechanisms that enhance their resilience to sudden changes that occur in their dynamic environment. We describe some examples of farmers’ practice that illustrate how they have developed resilience to climate variability. We focus on vegetable farme...