Abstract:
Anthropologist. In collaboration with the Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Rwanda (TSAR), Dr. Sperling conducted a pilot study bringing women bean experts on station to evaluate 15 varieties of beans. This is at a stage earlier than the usual on-farm testing of 2-5 more finished varieties. In discussions with station agronomists, the women bean experts cited a number of attributes other than yield that they found attractive in the experimental varieties they viewed. Women were invited to take two or three varieties home and plant them according to their own experimental methods and including a local check