In 1975, almost 40 years ago, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) hired Thelma Paris as a research assistant on the social sciences research team. They were naïve, of course, to the fact that over the course of her career Dr. Paris would become a cherished gender specialist within the CGIAR Consortium and in the greater agriculture research for development field.
When Dr. Paris joined IRRI, she had no specific intention of becoming a gender specialist. She began her research studying the interrelationship between agricultural production and human nutrition. It was during the course of collecting food consumption data and anthropometric measures of children of very poor rice farming families that she realized the crucial role of women, both as mothers and as farmers, in ensuring the food and nutrition security of their children – and she’s been researching gender ever since!
At IRRI, Dr. Paris coordinated the Women in Rice Farming Systems (WIRFS) network under the umbrella of the Asian Rice Farming Systems Network (ARFSN). Dr. Paris’ position quickly turned into coordinator for the entire Asian Rice Farming Systems Network (ARFSN). The network is reputable for advancing “the legitimacy and practice of gender analysis in agricultural research” through IRRI and NARES partners with assistance from donors. In 1996, Paris was a co-awardee of the Excellence in Science Award: Outstanding Local Professional, during the 25th CGIAR Anniversary and International Centers’ Week, Washington, D.C. This was the first time the CGIAR Chairman gave excellence awards for research under different categories. Her participation in the award ceremonies gave her an opportunity to secure funding from DANIDA to continue her participatory action research on gender issues and training for women researchers.
When the ARFSN ended in 1997, Dr. Paris pursued her PhD from the School of Social Ecology, University of Western Sydney, Australia. For her doctoral research, she conducted a gender analysis in unfavorable rice environments in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India as part of the Rainfed Lowland Rice Farming Systems Research Project. Through this research, Dr. Paris gained an understanding of the difficulties women face in rice farming and allowed her to start identifying what kind of technologies could be useful.
In 1997, as one of the IRRI delegates, she participated in the CGIAR System-wide Initiative on Participatory Research and Gender Analysis (PRGA). She looked specifically at participatory variety selection and conducted gender analyses on this approach. After she finished her PhD in 2000, she returned to IRRI and was hired as an Affiliate Scientist at the Social Sciences Division to continue working on gender issues including participatory varietal selection (PVS) in unfavorable rice environments in eastern India.
She and rice breeder Gary Atlin worked together on developing the PVS model and started the mother-baby trial protocol, adapted from CIMMYT’s mother-baby trial model. By a stroke of fate, Gary Atlin is now the Senior Program Officer of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) which funds the project “Stress Tolerant Rice for Africa and South Asia (STRASA) conducted in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. This gave Paris an opportunity to lead PVS with gender analysis, as one of the major outputs of several partner institutions. Now PVS with gender analysis is part of the protocol of rice varietal development and dissemination in unfavorable rice environments –which is being followed by several NARES partners in Southeast and SouthAsia. To ensure that women farmers are involved in PVS, Paris systematized the PVS protocol to include gender and imposed a rule that at least 30% of PVS participants needed to be women, a rule that is still upheld in PVS today.
With this protocol, women were given a voice in the selection of criteria for rice crop varieties, which differed from men. Women are often concerned with different traits such as the ability of rice to remain soft after it is cooked, ease of harvesting and threshing. For women who take care of animals, the quality of straw for animal fodder also matters in varietal selection. Dr. Paris along with other researchers at IRRI trained the scientists (dominated by men) on PVS and developed a guidebook to institutionalize PVS and socio-cultural concerns (gender issues) in getting farmers’ feedback on rice varieties
But her role in capacity development did not end there. She developed and ran the Leadership Course for African and Asian Women in Rice Research, Development and Extension where she trained over 100 women. Many of the women she trained are now the focal researchers among NGO and NARES partners. She is also a lecturer on gender issues in rice research and technology development in various technical training courses given by IRRI’s Training Center.
Dr. Paris’ research, conducted in Southeast and South Asia in collaboration with several research partners, has been on:
Strategic Research:
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gender roles and gender relations in stress prone rice environments
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the impact of male labor-outmigration on livelihoods, productivity and on women left behind in rice-based production systems
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climate change and adaptation strategies of men and women
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consequences of specific rice and rice-related technologies on men and women’s livelihoods
Participatory research in rice varietal improvement, crop production and post harvest and large scale technology dissemination:
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empowering women farmers through technologies (production, post harvest) and training (in partnership with agricultural engineers, plant breeders, agronomists, seed specialists)
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providing women farmers access to seeds of stress tolerant varieties and associated improved crop management practices
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providing women farmers access to postharvest and process technologies and training
Dr. Paris predicts that the next big questions to ask will be: “What is the future for women in rice-based agriculture?” Farmers are aging. Men are migrating. And girls are being educated. Will women be farming in the future? In what ways will they contribute and benefit from the on-going and emerging research projects? These are the questions which will be answered in the current Gender Strategy Plan of the Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP), which is led by IRRI in collaboration with AfricaRice and CIAT.
With over 150 research publications, detailing Dr. Paris’ entire research career could be a book in itself. See her list of publications on Google scholar. She has also received a number of awards over her career and has touched many through her research, mentorship, and dedication. She always discusses her research with a big smile on her face, expressing humility, strength and most of all, determination. At the CGIAR Gender and Agriculture Research Network meeting in Montpellier, France last month, participants looked to Thelma for her palpable wisdom of the field; and when Thelma talked, people listened.
“She has built up a very solid reputation where biophysical scientists and more quantitative economists really respect her…she will continue to have a very important role as, what Agnes [Quisumbing from IFPRI] called, a “seasoned” researcher,” says Dr Jennie Dey de Pryck. Jennie started working with Dr. Paris in the mid 1980s, when Jennie was helping IRRI set up its Women in Rice Farming Systems Network. Jennie encouraged Thelma to get involved in gender research and the Network. “Thelma took over the nascent Network and deserves all the credit for making it blossom, not only within IRRI but also through its many partnerships with national researchers in many countries of the region,” says Jennie. “Thelma has for many years played an important role in providing capacity building for researchers in gender issues, and as an intermediary with the senior management and the donors…so a way has to be found to keep her in the system where she can really make a difference not only in GRiSP but also within the CGIAR [gender] network.”
During the Montpellier meetings, Dr. Paris’ career and retirement were celebrated with a beautiful French cake. A few tears were shed. And Dr. Paris, in her humble and poised manner simply said, “I’ve been doing this for many many years, but I don’t want to dwell on my frustrations but rather on how I have succeeded in overcoming my obstacles. I would like all of you to keep on going because we have enormous challenges on the way. I am always here, just call me.” She will retire from IRRI and therefore CGIAR in September this year. She will undoubtedly be missed my many. But her research and passion for the field will remain important legacies long after her retirement.
Read more about Research on Gender and Agriculture in CGIAR.