Gender and management of crop diversity in The Gambia

It is sometimes argued that women play a more important role in seed and diversity management than men,and that women have greater abilities in managing crop diversity. In The Gambia, men and women also havethe belief that women are better in managing and identifying varieties than men. This article focuses on therole of gender in farmer management of crop diversity in two crops, rice which is cultivated by women andpearl millet which is cultivated by men. First a historical overview is given of the role of gender in farming.The management of crop diversity in rice and millet and gendered knowledge in The Gambia is described indetail. Lastly, a grouping experiment with rice panicles and millet spikes is described. The article shows thatclear differences exist between the farming practices of men and women, and these are based on a complexinterplay of socio-economic and agro-ecological factors. But the differences in seed selection practices ofmen and women are small, and those differences that exist can best be explained by a complex of agro-ecological factors and rice and millet characteristics. The grouping experiment showed no significantdifferences in the way men and women grouped rice panicles and millet spikes. Together these findingssuggest that the supposedly better skills of women in crop variety management are related to their genderidentity rather than to any biological differences. Instead of taking the supposedly strong skills of women inseed and variety management as a starting point for agricultural development, it is better to understand theunderlying mechanism that keep women in disadvantaged positions in rural societies and to try to changethese mechanisms for their benefit.