ABSTRACT
This tale of the domestication of pearl millet in Tharaka exemplifies the special role women play as skilled farmers and keepers of agrobiodiversity and globally under-represented crops (Abdelali-Martini et al., 2008; Gittinger, Chernick, Horenstein, and Saito, 1990; Gladwin, Thomson, Peterson, and Anderson, 2001; Gurung and Gurung, 2002). The maintenance of seed is central to women’s role as food producers (Howard, 2003; World Bank, FAO, and IFAD, 2009) and, furthermore, the freedom (of men and women) to partake in informal seed systems is paramount to the livelihoods of smallholder farming households in Kenya (Muthoni and Nyamongo, 2008; Sperling and McGuire, 2010). Our chapter presents one case of the aforementioned role of women focused in Tharaka, Kenya, where female farmers are keystone keepers and producers of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) and pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) grain and seed and related food products.
