Hale Ann Tufan: At the nexus of gender equality and agricultural research

Changing and challenging crop breeding methods

Tufan’s research program is charting new paths in the collection, synthesis and reaction to data. By developing, testing and implementing new methodologies, Tufan seeks to better understand how agricultural innovations are designed and why they are adopted.

This approach broadens the scope of what’s possible in plant breeding. Tufan and her colleagues are looking not only at trait preferences in terms of men versus women, but also the complex, intersecting social identities that shape experiences and influence decisions around agriculture — and how these in turn should help shape how new crop varieties are designed.

“An intervention that may work for some women may not for others” Tufan says.

Researchers may inadvertently reinforce race, class, ethnic or religious divides if they are not careful to intentionally consider intersecting identities of women, Tufan adds. She takes what she calls a gender+ analysis as a central focus of large-scale agricultural research for development projects at Cornell with funding from diverse donors across multiple continents. 

At NextGen Cassava, together with partners IITA and NRCRI in Nigeria, TARI in Tanzania and NaCRRI in Uganda, Tufan and the Survey Division team are breaking down research silos by integrating data sets between plant breeders, economists and gender specialists.

“By bringing together multidisciplinary data sets, we can start making informed decisions and really target crop breeding products and technologies that meet diverse needs,” Tufan says.

In the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement, Tufan works with a collaborative team of interdisciplinary researchers to focus priority setting for National Agricultural Research Institutes in Costa Rica, Haiti, Senegal, Malawi and Uganda. The priority setting team supports NARI partners to assess their breeding priorities, challenge their assumptions, perform engaged research and ultimately prioritize the impact they want to make through crop improvement.

As gender research lead of the newly launched Feed the Future Insect-resistant Eggplant Partnership, Tufan is exploring whether biotechnology products equitably benefit women, men, and young people within households that adopt these technologies in Bangladesh. Looking beyond household level income benefits, the study examines the effects of adoption of Bt eggplant on women’s empowerment, using existing and new data from the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index.

Influencing mindsets

It is not enough, Tufan says, to develop methods and approaches if those advances aren’t valued or utilized — a scenario repeated again and again in agricultural research for development. Convincing researchers and institutions to think critically about their approaches to designing, developing and scaling crop breeding innovations is critical. Innovation is a gendered construct and does not automatically benefit everyone equally, Tufan explains.

Communicating, bridging and brokering disciplines is a central tenet of Tufan’s approach. As a molecular biologist with crop breeding experience by training and practice who is deeply engaged with social scientists and gender research, Tufan is in a unique position to act as a translator and bridge gaps between disciplines, and form new transdisciplinary paths.

“Plant breeders must understand that social problems are complex, and their plants are embedded in these systems,” Tufan says. “I see my role as showing plant breeding teams that they have a role to play to positively impact gender equality outcomes, and elevating the importance and critical role of gender focused research and researchers to do so.” 

The Gender-Responsive Researchers Equipped for Agricultural Transformation (GREAT) project seeks to do just that. Since its inception in 2016, Tufan and colleagues at Makerere University in Uganda have trained nearly 300 researchers from institutions across sub-Saharan Africa in gender-responsive research design and implementation. With an original goal to shift mindsets about the relationship between agricultural development and gender, GREAT has become a global leader in promoting inclusive agricultural systems through its courses on perceptions, tools and outcomes.

Catalyzing a mindset shift is one of the best parts of her job, Tufan says. “It is incredibly rewarding to see leaders and researchers shift their perceptions, especially knowing that the repercussions come in the form of long-term impact on equitable food systems.”

As she leads by example, Tufan has gained a reputation for challenging institutional power structures. It’s a dynamic that scientists should embrace, she says.

“Researchers are in a unique position to encourage uncomfortable conversations, especially with people in positions of power,” Tufan says.

“Making change is upsetting, uncomfortable. Change is hard, and comes with anxiety and questioning and resistance, but those are signs we are on the right track.”

Tufan is expanding her research on team power dynamics, starting with the Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement. “Collaborative research must be aware of who has a voice and agency, and how those power dynamics affect partnerships,” she says. This new line of research has potential to not only hold a mirror to crop breeding researchers, institutions, and donors, but also holds promise to develop better ways of structuring research processes to be more equitable.

“The uncomfortable truth is that gender equality goals can only be attained by challenging power structures, and in doing so, moving beyond safe discussions around gender equality.”

Kelly Merchan is a communications specialist in the Department of Global Development in the College of Agriculture and Life Scienes.