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How can research and innovation better respond to the diverse needs and concerns of smallholder farmers in the Global South? There is widespread agreement on the importance of including smallholder voices in shaping research agendas, technology design, and policy-making. Yet what this inclusion should look like—and who can legitimately speak on behalf of smallholders—is far from settled.

My research explores these questions in the context of crop genome editing initiatives aimed at smallholder farmers in the Global South. In this setting, claims to represent smallholder interests are often highly politicized, with scientists, civil society organizations, and government actors advancing competing narratives about who speaks for smallholders and whose interests should guide innovation.

Drawing on theories of democratization and political representation in science and technology, I study how smallholders are—or are claimed to be—represented in the development and governance of genome editing. Together with my supervisors—Prof. dr. Ellen Moors, Dr. Koen Beumer and Dr. Marcel Proveniers, who bring expertise in science and technology studies, transition studies, and plant biotechnology—I aim to develop new insights and tools for assessing how marginalized perspectives can be more meaningfully included in research and innovation.