b'There wasnt a lot of positive repre- the importance of womens work in agri-sentation for a young Mexican in centralculture, not only for womens contributions Kentucky agriculture, so I had to lookto family food security and income, but globally pretty early on for role models. also as actors in seed selection, pest and Two of those role models were activistdisease control and managing soil fertility Cesar Chavez (who founded the founded three characteristics that link to breed-the National Farm Workers Association,ers efforts in developing new varieties, which would go on to become the Unitedshe said. Farm Workers) and Norman Borlaug,Take, for example, the relationship whose work with CIMMYT in Mexico ledbetween gender equality and nutrition. to the Green Revolution. New biofortified varieties may be devel- Texas A&Ms Fabian Leon says Leon was drawn to sorghum partly dueoped and intended for home consumptionhis Chicano identity is inextricably to the fact it can serve subsistence farmersto improve food security and householdconnected to his work as a plant breeder. while also scaling up commercially withnutrition. But in Rwanda, high-iron bean mechanization.varieties also turned out to be higher yield-He says despite his success finding hising and have become a lucrative cash crop. way into plant breeding, many barriersAs a result, womens activities in bean exist which make crop and agriculturalproduction processing and trading are sciences a hard sell for young brown kidschanging. Some have joined coopera-to buy into, he says. tives that have helped them to maintain Nevertheless, Chicanx and Nativedecision-making control over seed selec-American people have some of thetion and sales. We also have to adopt proudest agricultural traditions and willgood practices to get young men and undoubtedly persist in our sphere. Plantwomen more involved in crop research, breeders have to be ready to welcomefor example, supporting them as students those backgrounds and adapt with them.and hiring them as researchers. Research We have to remember that we owe ourprograms can deliberately seek out youngActivist Cesar Chavez founded major crops to indigenous people first, andagri-entrepreneurs as input suppliers orthe National Farm Workers not modern breeding techniques. seed distributors, Rubin said.Association, which would go on to become the United Farm Workers. Our goal is to carry out new research Inclusivity that deliberately gives attention to these The importance of inclusivity in plantthemes and considers the needs of end breeding was made evident at this yearsusers in research programs. Considering NAPB meeting in work being carriedpotential tradeoffs early in the product out by the Innovation Lab for Cropdevelopment process can increase adop-Improvement (ICLI) at Cornell. ICLItion while also ensuring the goal of do no equips National Agricultural Researchharm. Were confident that this work will Institutes with the power to define theirlead to important outputs and ultimately unique goals and drive advancement inhelped to change how crop improvement crop improvement to reduce malnutrition,research is conducted.hunger and provide equitable benefits to women and youth. Breaking Barriers Statistician Diego Jarquin was Deborah Rubin works with ICLI andReaching as many people as possible inawarded the 2020 NAPB Early co-founded Cultural Practice LLC, whichorder to transform the discipline of cropCareer Scientist Award. works with international developmentimprovement can be challenging but is actors to build healthier, more prosperoushappening more and more thanks to societies. Rubin is working with ILCI topeople like Borlaug scholar Catherine analyze the cross-cutting themes of genderDanmaigona Clement. Shes a Ph.D can-equality, youth engagement, nutrition anddidate in the plant breeding program at resilience in the field of crop improve- Texas A&M University working on cotton ment, which she emphasises is not thebreeding, genetics and genomics.same thing as plant breeding. She obtained her undergraduate degree We have to recognize researchersin Nigeria and has experienced firsthand who sought to systematically identifythe difficulty students have understanding preferences of smallholder farmers and tobasic concepts and data analysis processes. incorporate that information into breed- Oftentimes students pay for their dataBorlaug Scholar Catherine ing efforts. Other pioneering researchersanalysis to be done and even when this isDanmaigona Clement.deserve credit for explicitly recognizingcarried out, there is no guarantee that the 48GERMINATION.CANOVEMBER 2021'