ABSTRACT
This chapter presents food-producing and seed-producing traditions at various stages of pearl millet and sorghum, grain, and seed production. It presents a case of the role of women focused in Tharaka, Kenya, where female farmers are keystone keepers and producers of sorghum and pearl millet grain and seed and related food products. In Kenya, the national production of pearl millet and sorghum has been in steady decline since the 1960s, leading to increasing rarity and decreasing consumption of both crops and under-representation in plant-breeding and seed agribusiness, particularly in the private sector. The data presented in the chapter is drawn from a collection of semi-structured interviews and participant observations collected during 14 months of fieldwork in Tharaka. The chapter presents qualitative data detailing women's cultivation, management, trading, processing, and serving of pearl millet and sorghum in Tharaka.
