Studies highlight the varietal impact on women’s labor in root and tuber crop processing

1 March 2024

Two recent studies address the effect of different varieties on how laborious it is to process roots and tuber crops into the various important food products in Sub-Saharan Africa. The studies were carried out as part of the complementary Nextgen and RTB foods projects that continued in the RTB breeding investment project.

Despite the vital role of women in agriculture and post-harvest activities, there has been minimal focus on the influence of varietal differences on processing and the labor and drudgery involved. The studies emphasize the potential of breeding to avoid a negative impact on women's processing burden. The studies show major varietal differences in the processing labor needed across RTB crops.

The first study focused mainly on cassava, combining data from IITA and NRCRI in Nigeria and the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin. It assessed the amount of labor involved in the different processing steps of gari. It evaluated the effects of genetic differences among varieties on the processor's workload, particularly comparing newly bred and traditional varieties. The study aims to guide breeders toward determining underlying traits responsible for varietal differences in required labor so they can be assessed earlier in the breeding process.

Cassava processing is complex, involving many processing steps, of which peeling and toasting of gari appear to be the most laborious and challenging, posing serious health hazards and making the work drudgery-prone for women processors who perform the majority of processing activities. Therefore, the selection of any variety by breeders that slows down this already challenging work should be avoided.

The study found a strong varietal effect on labor requirement, productivity, and thus possible perceived drudgery within processing operations by women, highlighting the pertinence of the issue. Furthermore, the weight women carry from one processing step to another varied enormously between varieties. Some varieties demanded three times the mass of fresh roots to produce the same quantity of gari.
Another finding was that cassava genotypes with easy-peel removal can reduce product waste and labor. Ease of peel was very strongly related to root shape and root size but did not explain all the differences.

The second study looked at processing productivity in Nigeria and Cameroon, assessed the same set of varieties in both countries, equally investigated the processing productivity, and defined a drudgery index: the final food product yield divided by the total processing time.

This study confirmed that varieties showed significant variation in processing speed and productivity. Importantly, it identified varieties that had the ideal combination of good field yield, high food product yield, and good food product quality as evaluated by the women processors. This indicates that these traits can be combined, and thus, such a combination can be targeted by breeders.

A key finding was that varietal differences in processing productivity and drudgery index were much larger in the Cameroon location, suggesting that the processing methods there-pressing methods and fermentation time-cause these varietal differences to matter more.

Notably, in Cameroon, people use traditional wooden presses that exercise less pressure when pressing the grated cassava pulp. This could indicate that varietal differences might matter more for those people with fewer resources. This makes processing productivity crucial in addressing social impact according to the five impact areas formulated by the CGIAR.

The studies emphasize the importance of integrating processors' working conditions (especially their processing productivity), perceptions, and trait preferences into variety selection and trait prioritization within the breeding process to develop new varieties that concertedly address yield, food product yield, food product quality, and labor requirements and the related drudgery.

Contributed by Favour Ochuwa Daramola

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