As part of activities under the Accelerated Breeding (ABI) and Market Intelligence and Product Profiling (MIPPI) initiatives, IITA–CGIAR, in conjunction with the Accelerated Varietal Improvement and Seed Delivery of Legumes and Cereals in Africa (AVISA), AFRICA YAM and NEXTGEN Cassava Project, organized a three-day Gender-Responsive Breeding training. The training, held at IITA headquarters from 21 to 23 September, enlightened plant breeders from IITA and partner organizations on the need for and ways to include gender-responsive approaches in breeding programs. Gender Specialist Martina Cavicchioli, Gender Research Post-Doctoral Fellow Millicent Liani, and HarvestPlus Cassava Breeder Elizabeth Parkes anchored the training.
In his opening speech, Head of IITA Breeding, John Derera, mentioned that the training is occurring at a good time when plant breeding is experiencing transformation through breeding modernization programs in the One CGIAR. IITA East Africa Hub Director Leena Tripathi also stated that promoting gender in breeding makes adopting products easy, as the preference of both men and women are considered.