She scatters the seed rather than planting in rows. Once a farmer has tested the variety pure, she tries it on a couple of other fields in mixtures with other bean varieties, to see where it grows best. The need for a gender perspective If women are predominant managers of PGR, then we have to look into ways in which they specifically may be affected by or implicated in those processes that are clearly contributing to genetic erosion. Gender relations themselves are changing, along with women s incentives and management practices, which in turn are affecting biodiversity management. For example, in the Peruvian Andes, Zimmerer showed that the feminization of agriculture due to male migration is leading to increasing demands on women s labour, which affects women s cropping systems and leads to a decrease in the varieties they manage.
Women also substitute exotic varieties to save labour.
When land becomes privatized or enclosed, many women lose access to the forests and fields that are their source of wild plants, as is occurring in India and Nepal. Additionally, when men turn to cash cropping or extensive livestock production, women often lose access to fallow fields where they could produce or gather traditional varieties, as is especially evident over much of Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Some efforts are currently underway to change this situation and there is evidence that shifts are occurring. However, this does not explain why many researchers and practitioners, including many who focus on farmer-based conservation and indigenous rights, continue to neglect gender relations in their work. Most of them still target only male farmers, and ignore the importance of women s domestic activities, home gardens, and off-farm gathering activities.