Addressing gendered varietal and trait preferences in West African maize.

Maize is the most important cereal in Sub Saharan Africa; however, yields are significantly lower than those possible with improvements in cultivars and management. Maize breeding programs need to produce material with improved resistance to increasing environmental stresses and incorporate the man and women farmer preferred traits that relate to yield, postharvest, nutritional, and processing qualities. This research uses gender-disaggregated data recorded during participatory on-farm maize trials by the Stress Tolerant Maize Program conducted in agroecological zones of Benin, Nigeria and Mali) to identify men and women farmer's expressed varietal and trait preferences in order to evaluate plant breeding strategy.