Agricultural research is also a woman’s business

The essentials

The representation of women is a key pillar of gender equality. This series of photos shows women working in tandem and the impact of their research on agronomy and forestry in the global South. 

Dietary diversity in Laos

Bounthanom Bouahom (left) and Alissia Lourme-Ruiz (right) focus on the diets of rural families in Laos, where 30% of children suffer from chronic malnutrition. They are both involved in the NSAE project (Nutrition Sensitive Agroecology), which is aimed at improving dietary diversity for rural populations through agroecology.

Bounthanom Bouahom is Director of the Rural Economy and Climate Change Adaptation Research Centre at NAFRI, the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute of Laos. She is a geographer and development sociologist.

Alissia Lourme-Ruiz is an economist at CIRAD. She is a specialist in food systems and her work explores gender issues and the conditions for improving nutrition.

The two researchers conducted surveys with rural families to understand the obstacles to a more diverse diet. Most of the diets reported by participants consist of rice, meat and leafy vegetables. However, they lack fruit, vegetables, oilseeds and legumes. The villages studied are isolated and a long way from cities and markets. Food there is based on a combination of home production, market purchases and products from foraging, hunting and fishing, which provide different foods at different times of the year. 

The NSAE project is based on both scientific data and local knowledge. Tools have been developed to work with communities, enabling them to identify the challenges they face day-to-day as well as solutions to access a healthier, more diverse diet. The tools used include games, maps and forum theatre. This participatory approach helps to identify future interventions in food consumption, production and supply, according to local needs.

The researchers also used participatory photography, or “photovoice”. This approach gives a voice to people who are often overlooked or under-represented in public or media spaces, allowing them to express themselves through photography. Specifically, the research team trained villagers in photography, enabling them to represent their food issues with their own vision, story and experience. In the photo below, a villager illustrates a typical cold snap between January and March, which can kill off many fruit trees.

“Some years, the cold (1-2 degrees) kills fruit trees like banana, orange, lemon and mango.” 

“We don’t have any vegetables to eat because the worms eat them. In this photo, this Chinese cabbage from my garden is going to die.”

Around 30 of these photos will be part of an exhibition in the villages to discuss the problems identified. A travelling exhibition will also move to Ponsavanh, the regional capital of Xienkhouang, and to the capital of Laos, Vientiane, to inform the policy dialogue and to support programmes on food systems and agroecology for nutrition.

The goal for the researchers is to enable the communities to come up with their own solutions that can be implemented in their daily lives. Agroecology offers many possibilities in this regard, particularly at the agronomic level: choosing species that are more resistant to cold or diseases, as well as using intercropping with legumes, compost or mulching. 

“I can’t buy fruit and vegetables in the village.”

Beyond the agronomic aspects, some solutions will be organizational. These could focus on improving access or connectivity, such as through collaborative systems for group orders or sharing modes of transportation to bring fresh products into the villages.

“I have to look after my child and I can’t spend so much time cooking.”

Other solutions will need to focus on improving resources and empowering women, who often have the main responsibility for feeding and caring for their families. Community support groups for young child care could be set up to ease workloads for women, who are often torn between farming, foraging, cooking and caregiving duties. This would also improve the development of young children while limiting their exposure to chemical inputs in the fields or to fine particles from cooking smoke.

Find out more about the NSAE project

Assessing biomass production in Senegal

Louise Leroux and Adama Lo are remote sensing specialists who focus on the use of satellite imagery to monitor agricultural and pastoral areas. They are developing biomass estimation models for the Sahel. One specializes in cereal crops and the other in forage.

In Senegal, the production and spatial and temporal distribution of biomass are crucial to guide decision-making on the management of agricultural land and livestock. The two researchers worked together as part of the FATIMA project, financed by the European Space Agency, the goal of which was to develop models to estimate forage quality based on satellite imagery.

Louise Leroux is a researcher at CIRAD, a geographer by training and a specialist in remote sensing applied to agricultural monitoring in tropical contexts. After spending six years at the Centre de Suivi Ecologique (CSE – Ecological Monitoring Centre) in Dakar, she is now based at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nairobi, Kenya.

Adama Lo is an agricultural engineer and a graduate of Hassan II Agronomic and Veterinary Institute in Morocco. She is currently completing her PhD at Iba Der Thiam University in Thiès, Senegal. Her research focuses on modelling biomass and forage quality using satellite data in Senegalese rangelands. She is currently based at the Centre de Suivi Ecologique in Dakar.

Pastoralism plays a key role in the economy of the Sahelian countries. However, population growth and the impacts of climate change have increased pressure on natural rangelands, leading to shortfalls in both the quantity and quality of forage biomass available for livestock.

To ensure the sustainability of rangelands and to increase the resilience of pastoral communities, more effective management is required. This management first entails the regular monitoring of forage biomass.

The Centre de Suivi Ecologique in Dakar has already developed tools to assess biomass at the end of the rainy season. However, during the dry season, which lasts around nine months, operational tools to assess the quantity and quality of forage are still lacking.

The dry season is characterized by transhumance and often by a shortage of pastoral resources.

The biomass estimation models being developed by Adama Lo and Louise Leroux thus help to strengthen the monitoring system for forage production in Senegal. This information will have a significant impact on forage balance calculations, as well as on the overall resilience of pastoralism in the face of climate change.

Modelling tools can be used to set up early warning systems in case of a rapid decline in forage quantity or quality during the dry season.

As part of her doctoral work, Adama Lo built biomass production maps at the scale of Senegal, using satellite data. She also developed forage quality maps based on data from NIR (near-infrared spectroscopy). These maps are valuable decision-making tools for the Senegalese government, allowing them to easily identify the most sensitive areas and more effectively direct pastoral systems. 

Community forests in Guatemala

Marie Ange Ngo Bieng (centre) and Teresita Chinchilla (second from right) study community-based forest management practices in Guatemala. As part of the FFEM ConForMa project, they are working with people living in the Selva Maya, the second-largest tropical rainforest in Latin America. 

Marie Ange Ngo Bieng is a forest ecologist at CIRAD. She is currently based in Guatemala City, the capital of Guatemala, where she works as an associate scientist at CATIE.

Teresita Chinchilla is a qualified archaeologist and is currently Technical Director of the Association of Forest Communities of Petén (ACOFOP).

ACOFOP brings together 24 community-based forest organizations, representing 15 000 direct beneficiaries from 55 local and indigenous communities. In total, nearly 3 000 families are thus represented, with 11 forest concessions that protect a total of 424 308 hectares. The ACOFOP logo encapsulates the goal of this collective management model with its slogan: “We are the forests forever”.

Guatemala, like all of Latin America, is facing alarming forest loss. In 2016, 33% of the country was covered in forest, compared to 44% in 1990. From 2016 to 2020, 149 000 hectares were lost, particularly due to forest fires. 

Tropical forest loss is a global emergency. Between 2010 and 2020, FAO estimates that an average of 13 million hectares were lost annually, mostly in the tropics. This loss is equivalent to a football pitch every two seconds. 

The ConForMa project is implemented within the Maya Biosphere Reserve (RBM), established in 1990 and managed by the National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP). The reserve covers approximately two million hectares, or 20% of the total area of Guatemala The two colleagues are studying community-based forest management there as a means of conserving as well as jointly and sustainably managing forests and forest resources.

As part of the ConForMa project, the two colleagues will contribute between 2025 and 2028 to the implementation of an innovative community-based management system that addresses ecological, social and climate-related challenges. Both Marie Ange Ngo Bieng and Teresita Chinchilla stress that the communities that depend on forest ecosystems are also best placed to protect them.

The Maya Biosphere Reserve is an emblematic example of community forest concessions. This area is home to many endemic species, including endangered species such as the jaguar and the tapir. The forest also holds immense cultural heritage and is filled with temples, buildings and artefacts from the Maya civilization. Above all, the reserve is a pioneering and successful model of collaborative forest management, supported by ACOFOP since the 1990s. 

The core of the collaboration between CIRAD and ACOFOP is to compile indigenous, local and scientific knowledge in order to reduce the growing pressures on forest ecosystems and their populations. These pressures are mainly due to rapid land-use changes caused by agricultural pressure, land insecurity and climate change.

Marie Ange Ngo Bieng and Teresita Chinchilla therefore work directly with the communities, monitoring forest ecosystems within community concessions, or facilitating workshops to understand the obstacles and opportunities for innovative management approaches.

As stressed by Teresita Chinchilla, the question of tropical forest conservation is urgent and essential, not just for the ecosystems themselves, but especially for the people who depend on them. “If you don’t want to protect ecosystems that are vital for their biodiversity, for their associated ecosystem services or for their role in climate mitigation, then do it because the livelihoods of local and indigenous populations are threatened. Do it out of solidarity with people who, like all of us, depend on the tropical forests.”

Marie Ange Ngo Bieng: “I am glad to be working alongside these strong people who, despite being marginalized, are managing to conserve their forest lands. Their age-old interaction with these forest ecosystems gives me hope for all the other marginalized tropical populations, who are reduced to modern servitude on their own lands. I am particularly thinking of the Pygmy people, who are indigenous to my home country, and who are today excluded from forest planning and policies”.