CABI envisions a world in which women, youth and marginalized communities are included in agriculture, and become key to ensuring equity, increasing participation in agribusiness, and reducing youth unemployment; promoting livelihood improvement; increasing production and reducing poverty. CABI’s Medium-Term Strategy (2023-25) pursuing five major goals:

1. Improve the food security and livelihoods of smallholder communities

2. Help communities adapt to the impacts of climate change

3. Reduce inequality through better opportunities for rural women and youth

4. Safeguard biodiversity and support the sustainable use of natural resources

5. Increase the reach, application, and impact of science in agriculture and the environment.

The strategy covers each of these goals in turn, setting out the problem we seek to address; our relevant expertise; what we will do; and how we will know if we have been successful, with top-level indicators for each goal to provide a framework for measuring our impact. CABI’s priorities are determined by its 49 Member Countries, and the Medium-Term Strategy was shaped by extensive consultation with those Members and other CABI stakeholders (Mid-term Strategy 2022-25).

PlantwisePlus is a global programme, led by CABI, that contributes to improving the incomes and livelihoods of smallholder farmers by helping them apply sustainable approaches to crop production, leading to safer and higher-quality food in domestic markets. The programme builds on and enhances work done under the programmes Plantwise and Action on Invasives, but also introduces new elements to address gaps and opportunities identified through the lessons learned from implementing those programmes. Interventions under PlantwisePlus contribute to three “impact pathways”: (i) pest preparedness, (ii) pesticide risk reduction and (iii) farmer advisory. To respond to the needs of farmers and the systems that support them, PlantwisePlus will help countries predict, prevent, and prepare for plant health threats, thereby reducing crop losses. This will be achieved by addressing the key remaining challenges identified through the Plantwise and Action on Invasives programmes, thus supporting countries and farmers to produce the required quantity and quality of food in a changing climate.
The PlantwisePlus ambition is to reach 75 million smallholder farmers in 26 low- and lower-middle-income countries to become more resilient to climate change and to be able to access higher value domestic markets for their products, over the next 7 years.

In 2024, the programme is initiating activities aimed at supporting the identification and implementation of opportunities for pesticide risk reduction through the promotion of alternative climate- and gender-sensitive plant protection approaches with stakeholders at all levels.

CABI envisions a world in which women, and youth and marginalised communities are included in agriculture, and become key to ensuring equity, increasing participation in agribusiness, and reducing youth unemployment; promoting livelihood improvement; increasing production and reducing poverty. CABI’s Medium-Term Strategy (2023-25) pursuing five major goals: 1. Improve the food security and livelihoods of smallholder communities 2. Help communities adapt to the impacts of climate change 3. Reduce inequality through better opportunities for rural women and youth 4. Safeguard biodiversity and support the sustainable use of natural resources 5. Increase the reach, application, and impact of science in agriculture and the environment. The strategy covers each of these goals in turn, setting out the problem we seek to address; our relevant expertise; what we will do; and how we will know if we have been successful, with top-level indicators for each goal to provide a framework for judging our impact. CABI’s priorities are determined by its 49 Member Countries, and the Medium-Term Strategy was shaped by extensive consultation with those Members and other CABI stakeholders (Mid-term Strategy 2022-25).

Rationale
In Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, there is frequent use of pesticides in potato farming systems to control major insect pests such as cutworms, psyllids, lygus bugs, leaf miners, aphids, and armyworms (Okonya and Kroschel, 2016; Okonya et al., 2019a). Gender roles can be influenced by social, political, and economic factors and can significantly impact how individuals, communities, and societies approach pest control activities. For instance, a recent study1 shows that men apply the chemicals in the field usually without any personal protective equipment, while women fetch the water for mixing the pesticides, and wash the clothes worn during the pesticide application. However, women are often not invited to participate in training about the safe use and handling of pesticides organised by extension workers, who are often men. As a result, women are exposed to the negative effects of pesticides as they frequently do not know about the toxicity levels of the different chemicals being used and the related impacts on health as well as the environment. If women are more aware of the hazards, they are better able to protect themselves and influence their husbands/partner to adopt safe practices around pesticide application.

Women, men, and youth farmers often play different roles in agricultural production, and they possess different levels of knowledge about, and involvement in, pest and disease management practices2. Despite gender and age differences, pest and disease management research and training often target “farmers,” neglecting the specific gendered needs of women, men, and youth as well as the gender and age power relationships within households and communities. Such oversight is particularly important since providing gender and age-appropriate support to women and men farmers helps to increase the adoption of appropriate crop protection technologies and practices, reduce farmers’ exposure to pesticides, and improve environmental quality. While a gender perspective is increasingly recognised in the field of agricultural extension and training, it is often insufficiently considered by agronomists and crop protection experts, who are focused on bio-technical solutions and pay little attention to social-economic factors and power relations among farmers in the field and off the field.

The control of pests and diseases has increasingly become important for these crops, not only to improve productivity in the face of climate change but also to improve the quality of crops readied for measures are available to address these concerns, such as: pesticide application; cultural, biological, and mechanical control methods; the use of disease-resistant varieties of crops; botanicals; clean seed; crop rotation; mulching; intercropping; and timely planting. To facilitate the adoption of those control methods, it is critical to explore farmers’ perceptions, experiences, and practices from a gender perspective.
Women, men, and youth from the same community often perceive pests in diverse ways. Men and women adopt different control methods which are in line with their gender roles and their age. For example, in general men practice early planting to prevent infestation as they oversee ploughing, while women spend their time in the field hunting the pests and killing them as they are responsible for routine management. Additionally, men may be perceived as having more technical knowledge, while women’s knowledge of local practices and ecological indicators is regularly undervalued. This limits women’s participation in agriculture and pest management. This therefore means that understanding women’s and men’s knowledge of pests and pest control methods is important in addressing their concerns and providing appropriate practices in response to gender-related understandings and practices.

Considering gender and age in research on pests and diseases is increasingly important a more efficient approach to increasing the adoption of crop protection technologies and practices by women, men, and youth farmers according to their roles, knowledge, and capacities is required. However, this task is often assigned to social scientists in isolation from agronomists. and crop protectionists. Meanwhile, agronomists and crop protectionists often struggle to understand how taking a gender perspective could enrich their research.

In general, female farmers own fewer tools than men. Labour saving equipment, however, has a different effect on smallholders looking for labour saving devices than on hired labourers. For women who farm their own plots, innovative technologies may reduce drudgery and increase productivity; but for female hired labourers, labour saving devices may mean the loss of employment and income. Also, where decisions about investment in equipment are made by husbands, investment in labour saving technologies for women is often a low priority. Eliminating restrictive gender roles can play a significant role in addressing gender barriers in pest and disease management by offering sustainable and inclusive solutions that align with the specific needs and circumstances of women in agriculture.

Refer to the detailed TOR https://www.cabi.org/about-cabi/our-policies/requests-for-proposals/