eChapters

1. Context

Women play a critical role in agriculture, and agriculture continues to remain the major livelihood strategy for women as well as millions of small, marginal and poor farming households in India. Despite this, farm women lack access to extension services as extension programmes rarely identify women as an integral client. Farm women and men have differential needs for knowledge, information, technology and skills as often they are involved in different activities spread over time and cropping seasons. Besides these, men and women farmers have differential access to assets, information, markets, credits, and other services that are necessary for using new knowledge, technologies and skills. Ignoring women while delivering services and technologies creates a gap as many of the agricultural operations are performed by women only.

It is estimated that if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20-30 per cent (FAO, 2011). Yields on plots managed by women are lower than those managed by men, as they do not have the same access to inputs. If they did, their yields would go up, they would produce more, and overall agricultural production would increase. It isn’t merely about enhancing productivity but also about being fair and equitable. Women are a significant part of the agricultural workforce and they deserve to be consulted prior to formulation of agricultural development plans and policies. SDG 5 on Gender Equality “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” is closely aligned to this aspect. Moreover, enhanced access to services can help women grow more food, have more say in the family, and could potentially lead to more income and food in women’s hands-leading to better food security and nutrition for the entire family as they are the major caregivers in the family.

1. Introduction

There is a global evidence of deterioration of nutrition and food security condition following the Pandemic and subsequent economiclockdown (Summerton, 2020; Laborde et al., 2020). In India, the status of nutrition and food security has been a matter of concern for decades. India scored an alarming rankof 102 out of 116 countries in Global Hunger Index (IFPRI, 2019). The problem has also been a gendered one, with an abysmally higher proportion of malnourishment and hunger in women and children in India. As per NFHS 4 (2015-16), every second woman in reproductive age in India was suffering from anaemia, two in five children were suffering from stunting and every tenth child in India was suffering from acute malnourishment (IIPS, 2017). It is not difficult to imagine that this existing malnutrition-crisis has only worsened in the post-lockdown period. There is a consensus among academicians, policy makers and planners that the nutrition crisis needs to be linked to gender-based exclusions & vulnerabilities (Quisumbing et al., 2020). This chapter attempts to discuss some of these complicacies of food-nutrition-gender linkages to put forth gender advocacy for food & nutrition policies.

Evidence of linkages between gender and nutrition are there althoughit is difficult to establish precise empirical connect. Also, the pathways through which gender influences nutrition and food security are multiple and complex. Food/nutrition-policy, therefore, has a long way to go till it is gender-informed. To begin with, the understanding of the concept of gender is limited at the policy-level. Moreover, most of the nutrition-food related policies in India have not mainstreamed gender or are working ina gender-specific manner rather than redistributive manner¹.

It is in this pretext the chapter reviewed the available evidence on gender-nutrition linkages to put forth an argument not only in favour of gender-aware nutrition policies, but also to guide as to how Gender should be integrated. The chapter is structured in five sections with sections that discusses the concept, i.e., importance of context in policy-level for conceptualising gender-needs. This is followed by a review of existing work from a Gender Needs framework and selected empirical evidence from recent primary study of the author are also presented as another separate section. The relevance of reviewing gender-nutrition linkage after COVID19 Pandemic also find place in the chapter. Finally the summary concludes the discussion on gender advocacy in nutrition.

1. Introduction

For a proper understanding and analysis of women’s position in India’s rural economy, we require adequate and good quality data. This chapter examines the limitations of gender-disaggregated data on the rural economy of India with respect to three aspects: the ownership of land and other assets, participation in the rural workforce, and women’s share of agricultural incomes and earnings. In approaching the need for better data on gender, the following features of gender statistics as identified by UN organisations should be kept in mind (Corner undated)

1. Emergence and history of the concept of gender in development

In a chronological point of view it was the period of late 1960s to mid1970s that marked a turning point in development that saw the emergence of gender as an issue of concern. It was during this period that many important publications on psychology of women and gender roles started its manifestation. However, the recurring theme in most of these publications focussed the white male bias in research and research interpretation. Yet, these research publications served as a platform for a thorough discussion of the biological and social factors that contributed to the understanding of psychology of women. The book entitled, The Development of Sex Differences, edited by Maccoby (1966), can be seen as a pivotal moment in the field of gender psychology. The book with several chapters that lay the foundations of children’s gender development focused on theories of gender development. The publication of the book Man and Women, Boy and Girl in the 1970s put forth an advanced theory about gender identity and suggested that social factors played a more significant role in gender identity and gender roles. This sparked the debate of nature - nurture issues which are still significant to this very date. It’s during the same decade that scholars started to challenge the conceptualisations of masculinity and femininity and migrate from the unidimensional simplistic models of bipolar opposites.

Contributions of Carl Gustav Jung (originally Karl Gustav Jung) also had a great role in this migration. Carl Jung’s school of analytical psychology, proposed the concepts of anima and animus. These were part of his theory called collective unconscious which suggests that every woman has an unconscious masculine realm known as animus and every man has an unconscious feminine side known as anima. He postulated that this personal unconscious symbolized prototypical masculine or feminine principles and not an aggregate of either father or mother. It had the potential to transcend to the personal psyche and influence the behavior.

Threats

There are sixteen threat factors have been identified from Indian mangroves (Kathiresan 2010). However, habitat conversion for agriculture and aquaculture activities, environmental pollution by upstream anthropogenic activities, Climate change processes (e.g. sea level rise; increasing frequency of cylones, etc.) are the major threat factors for mangroves. Mangroves are able to cope up with short-term oscillations and long-term fluctuations of climatic conditions, but the consequences of global climate change, such as increased extreme events, will have unprecedented effects on biota and threaten the resilience and recovery potential of the ecosystems (Harris et al. 2018; Sippo et al. 2018). Despite conservation measures, the mangroves still experience an annual loss of 0.2-0.7% during 2000-2012 and they remain the most threatened ecosystem of the world (Hamilton and Casey 2016).

Mangrove forests are ecologically significant and economically important (Kathiresan 2018). They provide ecosystem services worth at least US$ 1.6 billion each year and support coastal livelihoods worldwide (Costanza et al. 1997). They serve as the nursery, feeding and breeding grounds for crabs, prawns, molluscs, finfish, birds, reptiles and mammals. A large amount of global fish catches (up to 80%) is dependent on mangroves, thereby ensuring the food security of coastal people (Ellison 2008). The mangroves provide firewood, timber, cattle feed, honey, medicines and tourism development. They protect groundwater aquifers from seepage of seawater, thereby ensuring water security for coastal population. Mangrove forests remove coastal pollution particularly toxic heavy metals. They offer coastal protection against the fiery effects of natural calamities such as tsunami, storm surges, cyclone and floods (Kathiresan and Bingham 2001; Kathiresan and Qasim 2005; Kathiresan and Rajendran 2005). The potential of mangroves in carbon capture and sequestration is remarkable in mitigating the impacts of global warming and climate change (Kathiresan et al. 2013, 2014).

West Bengal

In West Bengal, mangroves are present in Sundarbans, the large deltaic complex of three major rivers, the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna, and 62% of total area is shared by Bangladesh and 38% by India. The Sundarban Biosphere Reserve (SBR), at the confluence of the Bay of Bengal covering an area of 9,630 km², lies between 21°40′N and 22°40′N latitudes and 88°03′E and 89°07′E longitudes, spreading in districts of South and North 24-Parganas in West Bengal, India. The major portion of SBR is designated as Reserve Forest, covering nearly 4260 km² and the area under mangrove vegetation is 2112 km² (FSI 2019). Compared to 2017 assessment there has been a decrease of 2 km² area of mangroves. The mangroves and their associates in the SBR exhibit great generic and species diversity and it is abode to rare and highly endangered flora and fauna, as well as, the only mangrove-tiger (Royal Bengal Tiger - Panthera Tigris tigris) kingdom in the world. Recognizing importance and uniqueness, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared the Indian part of Sundarbans as a ‘World Heritage Site’ in 1987, and also designated the ‘Sundarban Biosphere Reserve’ under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) program in 2001. Recently, Sundarbans has been declared as a Ramasar Site, considering ecological significance. Totally 33 true mangrove species belonging to 21 genera and 13 families have been identified in Indian Sundarbans. Among the mangrove species listed, Rhizophora apiculata, Bruguiera parviflora, Ceriops decandra, Kandelia candel, Aglaia cucullata, Excoecaria indica, Xylocarpus moluccensis, Xylocarpus granatum, Heritiera fomes, Scyphiphora hydrophyllacea, Brownlowia tersa, Nypa fruticans, Acanthus volubilis, Dolichandrone spathacea and Phoenix paludosa are under serious threat in Sundarbans (Kathiresan 2008; Gopal and Chauhan 2006). Particularly Heritiera fomes (locally called Sundari, from which Sundarbans derives its name), Nypa fruticans and Phoenix paludosa are declining rapidly due to the reduction of freshwater input (Gopal and Chauhan 2006).

Distribution of Mangroves in India

Mangrove forests in India are found along the coastline of 9 States and 4 Union Territories (Fig. 5). The mangrove habitats are broadly classified into three namely, Deltaic (Eastern Coast Mangroves), Estuarine & Backwater (Western Coast Mangroves) and Insular mangroves (A & N Islands) (Mandal and Naskar 2008). India has a total mangrove cover of 4975 km²; of which, 57% is present along the east coast (Bay of Bengal); 31% along the west coast (Arabian Sea) and the remaining 12% in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (FSI 2019).

Origin and diversification of Mangroves

Mangroves are quite old, possibly arising just after the first angiosperms (Duke 1992). Based on the fossil evidence and recent molecular studies, it is believed that mangroves originated along the shorelines of ancient Tethys Sea and there was a dispersal along the Tethys seaway westward into the Atlantic and further into the east Pacific (long before the closure of the Panama Isthmus) and eastward into South east Asia and Australia during the Late Cretaceous or early Eocene around 80 million years ago (Duke 2006). Nypa seems to be earliest fossil evidence. However, prior to closure of Tethys sea, around 40-55 million years ago, the mangrove genera - Nypa, Acrostichum, Rhizophora, Avicennia, Pelliciera, Sonneratia, Bruguiera, Ceriops, Heritiera, and Aegiceras - were present around shoreline (Duke 2017). The closure of Tethys Seaway by the mid-Tertiary (34-50 Million years ago) by northward movement of African landmass, created a physical barrier that completely terminated the Atlantic East Pacific (AEP) and Indo-West Pacific (IWP) exchange route, and resulted in subsequent diversifications within the AEP and IWP regions influenced by region-specific events (Ellison et al. 1999; Duke 2006). The plate tectonics and other vicariant events like Pleistocene sea level rise are attributed to the current distribution pattern and disjunct distributions of species within genera. Duke (2017) hypothesised two separate westward dispersal routes in AEP: (i) a southern path along the coasts of West Africa, South America and, (ii) a northern path along the North American east coast, whereas he hypothesised two isolated pathways in IWP towards eastward dispersal: (i) a northern path along the coast to the Middle East, Southeast Asia and, (ii) a southern path along the coasts of East Africa, India, and Australia. Further he noted that collision of India and Australia with Middle East and Southeast Asia respectively, resulted complication in dispersal route. Based on the available records it is presumed that diversification of mangrove plants has largely been driven by three key processes of speciation viz., Allopatric speciation, Peripatric speciation and Parapatric speciation (Duke 2017).

Mangroves Definition

A mangrove is tree, shrub, palm or ground fern, generally exceeding one and a half meter in height that normally grows above mean sea level in the intertidal zone of marine coastal environment and estuarine regions of the tropical and subtropical coastlines (Duke 1992). The mangrove is also defined as assemblages of salt tolerant trees and shrubs. Mangroves are taxonomically heterogenous and more related to environment than terrestrial or aquatic plants.

The term ‘mangroves’ is used to define both a group of plants and a community. To avoid confusion, Macnae (1968) proposed the term ‘mangal’ for the mangrove forest community, and the term ‘mangroves’ for the plants. Other terms for the mangrove forest community are coastal woodland, oceanic rainforest, intertidal forest, tidal forest, blue carbon forest, mangrove forest, and mangrove swamp.

Generally, mangrove species are grouped into two types: Exclusive and Non-Exclusive. The exclusive species are limited to the mangrove habitat, and they are also referred to as strict mangroves, obligate mangroves or true mangroves. The non-exclusive species are mainly distributed in a terrestrial or aquatic habitat, but they also occur in the mangrove habitats and they are referred to as semi-mangroves, back mangroves or mangrove associates. Tansley and Fristch (1905) are the first to introduce the criteria to classify mangrove species into true mangroves and mangrove associates. Tomlinson (1986) used rigid criteria to distinguish true mangroves from mangrove associates. In his criteria, true mangroves possess all or most of the following features:

29.1 Introduction

An environmental factor that interferes with the complete expression of genotypic potential of a crop is called stress. The stresses may be biotic (pathogens, insect-pests, etc.) or abiotic. The main abiotic stresses are drought, mineral deficiency/toxicity and heat or cold. The losses due to abiotic stresses can be minimized by:

Crop management: The degree of stress can be reduced by suitable agronomic/soil management practices, e.g., irrigation to relieve drought stress, soil amendments to reduce salinity.

Development of resistant cultivars: This offers the cheapest, easiest to apply and most eco-friendly approach to reduce losses due to any stress.

Indirect breeding: Evaluation of materials under stress often helps in identification of a resistant line that may become an important commercial cultivar.

???????Direct breeding: It is deliberate breeding of materials for stress resistance. When a genetically variable material is grown under the stress environment, selection can be based on survival, yield and other traits contributing to stress resistance.

28.1 Introduction

The stress that is caused by biological agents or factors such as diseases, insect-pests and parasitic weeds is called biotic stress. The term disease can be broken into two words: “dis” (means negative, reverse or opposite) and “ease” (means comfort, or freedom from pain or discomfort). Hence, plant disease can be defined as any harmful alteration from the normal functioning of physiological processes. Diseases may be bacterial, fungal or viral. A wide range of insects infests various crop plants. The extent of damage caused to crop plants by various organisms is usually in the order fungi > bacteria > viruses > nematodes = insects. But the relative importance of these organisms varies to a great deal in different crops. Breeding of cultivars resistant to diseases and/or insect-pests is the cheapest, safest and most dependable means of limiting the losses due to them. Resistant cultivars form an important component of integrated management of diseases and insect-pests.

28.2 Breeding for Resistance to Biotic Stresses-Diseases

Agrios (1970) has defined disease as: “Disease is a series of invisible and visible responses of plant cells and tissues to a pathogenic microorganism or an environmental factor that result in adverse changes in form, function or integrity of plant and may lead to partial impairment or death of the plant or its parts.” The organism causing disease is called pathogen, while the plant affected by the disease is called host.

The principles underlying breeding for resistance to diseases are much the same as for other characters, except for one important difference, i.e., the diseases caused by pathogens are the product of interaction between two genetic systems, that of the host and that of the parasite. Both systems are capable of variation and evolution and affect the interaction between host and pathogen. Here the breeder is required to deal with the heritable traits of both the host plant and the pathogens invading it.

27.1 Introduction

Crop improvement depends on genetic variation present in nature or created by hybridization followed by segregation and recombination. Again, gene transfers are possible only from the lines and species that are sexually compatible with the concerned species. Interspecific gene transfers pose many problems, including the loss of F₁ hybrids during embryo development due to abortion of the endosperm in the developing hybrid seeds. Embryo rescue technique was developed to rescue such interspecific hybrid embryos, and it has been widely used for this purpose. It is to be mentioned that embryo rescue can be used only in such cases where sexual hybridization is successful in producing zygotes that begin to develop into embryos.

Besides, the technique of somatic hybridization by protoplast fusion was developed to enable gene transfer from the species that do not produce zygotes on hybridization. This method has been extensively used and some useful lines have been derived. But this method is limited to utilization of genes present in plant species. Again, the results of somatic hybridization are unpredictable since many somatic hybrids fail to regenerate complete plants and the transfer of specific genes or groups of genes depends entirely on chance.

The recombinant DNA technology (also called genetic engineering) has permitted the transfer of genes from any organism into any organism. Besides, chemically synthesized genes can be transferred and integrated into genomes of various organisms to enable the expression of these genes. A gene transferred into an organism by genetic engineering is called a transgene. 

26.1 Introduction

We have already discussed the basics of tissue culture techniques in Chapter 2. Plant tissue culture techniques in combination with recombinant-DNA technology are essential requirements for development of transgenic plants (will be discussed in next chapter). However, tissue culture techniques like anther, pollen, ovule and meristem culture can themselves be used for improvement of different traits or as an aid to conventional breeding methods. In recent years, isolated microspore culture has been preferred as a breeding tool and an experiment system for various genetic manipulations. Besides, using protoplast fusion and hybrid embryo rescue, distant hybridization has been successfully achieved in many crops. Protoplast fusion technique can be used for the transfer of cytoplasmic male sterility from one species to another in very short duration. Somaclonal variation generated during tissue culture can also be utilized for recovery of variants showing disease resistance or other desirable characters.

25.1 Introduction

The method of selection in which a gene/QTL (Quantitative Trait Locus) is selected on the basis of the genotype of the molecular marker (also called DNA marker) linked to this gene/QTL is known as marker-assisted selection (also called marker-aided selection). The idea of marker-assisted selection (MAS) was first advocated by Tanksley (1983). MAS can be used in combination with the conventional breeding methods or novel breeding schemes could be devised to take full advantage of the marker data. MAS has been widely used for introgression of the desired genes and QTLs using backcross programmes.

25.2 Marker-Assisted Backcrossing (MABC)

The backcross programme based on molecular marker is usually called marker-assisted backcrossing (MABC). MABC has three activities: (a) foreground selection, (b) background selection and (c) recombinant selection.

25.2.1 Foreground Selection

The use of molecular marker to select the gene/QTL being introgressed is known as foreground selection. The objective of foreground selection is to select the target gene, i.e., the gene being introgressed, without phenotypic evaluation for the trait governed by the target gene. Foreground selection for a gene/QTL will be highly desirable in a variety of situation, some of which are listed below:

24.1 Introduction

When crosses are made between two different species of a genus or between two different genera, they are known as distant hybridization (also called wide hybridization). It includes both interspecific and intergeneric hybridization. Thomas Fairchild (1717) was the first man to do distant hybridization. He produced a hybrid between two species of Dianthus, viz., D. caryophyllus and D. barbatus (Carnation and Sweet William). Intergeneric hybrid produced by Karpechenko, a Russian scientist, in 1928 is Raphanobarssica. It is the amphidiploid of cross between radish (Raphanus sativus) and cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata). Unfortunately, it had roots like cabbage and leaves like radish. Triticale was produced by Rimpau in 1890 itself. It is an amphidiploid obtained from a cross between wheat and rye (Triticum and Secale). Another example is Saccharum nobilisation involving Saccharum officinarum, S. barberi, S. sinensis, S. spontaneum. Wide hybridization has been used in the genetic improvement of some crops. It is an effective means of transferring desirable genes into cultivated plants from related species and genera.

23.1 Introduction

An organism or individual having more than two basic sets of chromosomes is called polyploid and the condition is known as polyploidy. Polyploidy is an important tool to increase genetic diversity by altering the chromosome number (2x) and consequently the number of genes within a single cell. Polyploidy has been one of the important mechanisms in the evolution of many cultivated crop plants.

23.2 Types of Polyploidy

23.2.1 Autopolyploidy

The condition that arises due to multiplication of the same chromosomes of a single species is known as autopolyploidy (also called ‘simple polyploidy’ or ‘single species polyploidy’). Autopolyploids have generally larger leaves, stem and other vegetative parts and flower, fruit and seeds than their normal diploids.

22.1 Introduction

Mutations are sudden heritable changes in the genotype of an organism. De Vries (1900) for the first time used the term mutation (mutare in Latin means ‘to change’) for the appearance of new types in evening primrose (Oenothera) plant. In 1901 he put forth the idea of producing mutations artificially for use in crop improvement. Alberto Pirovano (1922) was first to use X-rays and ultraviolet rays for inducing mutations in plants, but his work remained unknown. So, Muller (1927) became the first known to induce mutation in Drosophila fly using X-rays. Though Stadler (1928) had started working simultaneously on barley and maize and induced mutations, he was late in reporting mutation due to longer life cycle of these plants compared to Drosophila. Mutation may be gene mutation (the result of change in the nuclear gene or plasma gene) or chromosomal mutation (change in chromosome number, structure or chromosomal aberrations of various types).

21.1 Introduction

There are a number of field, vegetable, fruit and ornamental crops that are cultivated using asexual or vegetative parts such as stems, roots, modified flower etc. This is a heterogeneous group of plants and can be further categorized into four groups for ease in understanding the breeding methods applied to them. They are:

Group 1: Flowerless or Sterile

This group either does not bear flowers or if bears, they are sterile and do not set seed, e.g., ginger, mango ginger, turmeric, garlic, betel, many yams, etc.

Group 2: Apomicts

Apomixis has been reported in over 300 genera. But stable apomixis has been reported only in a few cultivated plants like meadow grass, citrus, mango, raspberry, etc.

Group 3: Flowers but Seed-Set Rare

In this group flowering takes place under specific situations but seed-set is limited, e.g., potato, sweet potato, sugarcane, etc.

20.1 Introduction

A hybrid cultivar (also called hybrid) is the F₁ progeny of a planned cross between inbreds, cultivars, clones or populations. Depending upon the breeding approach, the hybrid cultivar may involve two or more parents. A critical requirement of hybrid production is that the parents are divergent. This divergence is the cause of superior performance of hybrids. The outstanding performance of crops is due to the exploitation of the phenomenon of heterosis (hybrid vigour) which is high when parents are divergent. Much of what we know about heterosis breeding (also called hybrid breeding) came from the work on maize hybrid cultivar development. However, commercial hybrids are now available in many crops including self-pollinated crops.