ICRISAT emphasizes technologies that especially benefit women, both to promote greater social equity and to accelerate agricultural development. The focus on women also cultivates the future, because they are the primary caretakers of the children who will shape it.

Women lead. One could hardly find a better example than Maria Kaherero. Maria became interested in the farmer-participatory varietal selection approach that led to the highly successful 1989 release of ‘Okashana 1’ millet in Namibia. She took seed back to her own farm and grew it to naturally cross with local landraces, producing a genetic mixture from which she began selecting types for her own needs. The Maria Kaherero Composite remains a prime gene pool used widely across southern Africa to this day - proven by comparative tests run recently against breeders’ own populations.

Women drive. Enthusiastic women farmers in Zimbabwe are pushing ICRISAT researchers to accelerate the transfer of new water conservation and crop management techniques. Mrs. Moyo of Tsholotsho is one of the prime movers in participatory natural resource management trials that ICRISAT began in recent years. She is especially interested in modified tied ridging to reduce runoff losses, along with other treatments.

Women pioneer. Women farmers are also becoming pioneers as millet seed producers and marketers, helping to spread new varieties and overcome the sorghum and millet seed supply bottleneck in the country. ICRISAT is encouraging this effort together with Zimbabwe’s national research system, a nongovernmental organization (Commutech), and a private seed company (SeedCo), through special project support provided by USAID.

Women innovate. ICRISAT scientists have found that women’s associations such as the ‘Ivuso’ in Kenya’s drought-prone Makindu district are ready innovators - they experiment, share ideas, and put them to use. They are actively promoting improved varieties of pigeonpea after ICRISAT researchers showed them its potential as a food and cash crop.

Green pigeonpea seeds (harvested as a fresh vegetable before maturing) are a popular food in Kenya and beyond, and have become an important source of income for these women. Short-duration varieties like ICPL 87091 developed by KARI and ICRISAT mature early, reaching the market before the rest and fetching premium prices.

The women learned how to use the dry (mature) pigeonpea grain by milling it into the form of Indian dhal or split pea, during a visit to India facilitated by ICRISAT. They even carried back a traditional Indian grinding stone, or ‘chakki’, to copy for manufacture in Kenya.

Women care. It may seem an unlikely connection, but pigeonpea has helped the Ivusu women make a real difference in the lives of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. They use it to help feed and fund an orphanage that they founded, the Children’s Center in Makindu, Kenya.

The orphanage has to survive on its own resources, so the receipts from sales of pigeonpea, especially the high-value green peas, have been vital in keeping it afloat. Furthermore, the women report that pigeonpea consumption (both green and dhal) has markedly improved the children’s health.

It is clear that pigeonpea is more than just nutrition; in Makindu, it fuels hope. And hope is the fire that feeds the Grey to Green Revolution.