Last updated December 7, 2004
Women and
Livestock Management in Sindh
By
Nadeem Akmal and
Sajida Taj
Livestock
domestication is being practiced for food, fiber, work power and other
agricultural uses since time immemorial, yet livestock raising is primarily a
subsistence activity to meet household food needs and supplement farm income.
Livestock plays important role in maintaining the livelihoods of the farmers by
providing food, traction power, manure, raw material, cash security, social and
cultural identity, medium of exchange and means of savings and investments.
Unfortunately,
role of public sector for increasing livestock productivity is limited.
Therefore, the private sector is generally encouraged to invest in production,
processing and marketing of livestock and livestock products. The demand for
livestock products is rapidly increasing with rise in population, household
income and change in food tastes and preferences. Although Pakistan ranks fifth
in world milk production yet per capita consumption of milk is far below the
recommended levels. The consumption of milk and meat in Pakistan is estimated at
68.6 liters and 14.5 kgs per annum that do not match with the recommended
dietary allowance (RDA) levels.
Livestock has
emerged as a rapidly growing sub-sector of the economy. It almost achieved the
envisaged targets of eighth five-year plan (1993-98). Meat production increased
by 38 percent with a growth rate of 8.7 % per annum Poultry production grew at
the rate of 22.9 percent and milk production increased by 6.5 % per annum. There
seems to be a steady shift in the growth of agriculture from traditional crop
sector to livestock and horticultural crops. The livestock sector has achieved
an increase of 21 percent during the last decade. In spite of that increase the
country's meat production system is not keeping pace with the meat requirements
of the rapidly increasing population. Malnutrition and protein deficiency are
widespread and visible both in urban and rural areas. Because of this scenario,
Pakistan along with 17 other developing countries has been declared by World
Trade Organization (WTO) as a net food deficit country. The country is also not
self sufficient in milk production and huge amount of valuable foreign exchange
is spent to import milk and milk products in spite of the fact that Pakistan
ranks fifth in the world milk production. It is expected that with the present
population growth rate of 2.6 percent and rising per capita income levels, the
demand for milk and milk products is likely to further increase.
Since 1970s
researchers are becoming more conscious to investigate whether women and men are
benefited equally from economic development or not and due to that approach,
gender issues in agriculture have become an important subject of inquiry. Gender
is a socio-economic variable, which is being used to analyze assigned roles,
responsibilities, constraints, opportunities and incentives of people involved
in agriculture. Gender roles and responsibilities in agricultural production
systems vary from region to region according to culture, religion and
socio-economic conditions. It is presumed that crop and livestock production
activities are carried out both by men and women. Issues surrounding gender
roles and responsibilities such as their participation in various production
activities, access and control over resources, income and expenditure patterns
identified and their implications for gender roles have not been properly
understood. Unless these roles and responsibilities are correctly understood it
is not possible to suggest appropriate measures to make gender role more
effective in livestock production and management.
Gender and
Development Programme at National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), Islamabad
is making efforts to highlight gender issues as an important component/ issue in
agricultural research. Therefore many research studies have been conducted to
understand gender roles and responsibilities in crop and livestock production
systems. A study conducted in Khairpur district of Sindh has provided an
opportunity to better understand gender role in livestock rearing. The study
reconfirmed that livestock has immense importance in rural economy. Although
livestock rearing has a great potential to generate income yet it is not being
properly exploited.
In the study,
each household was rearing livestock upto 5.4 animal units (a.u.) comprising of
buffalo (1.89 a.u.) , cow (1.08 a.u.), young stock (1.2 a.u.) and small
ruminants (1.0 a.u.).
Although it is a
common practice to give livestock to a women in dowry in interior Sindh yet the
norms of the society are restricting livestock rearing as income generating
activity. Even in this era not to sell milk is a taboo and selling of it brings
disrespect to the family. Until the selling of milk remains a taboo, the rural
households can not harvest the full benefits of livestock rearing.
On an average an
amount of Rs. 2145 is added to the income of a household from the sale of large
ruminants whereas the sale of small animals contributes Rs. 1497 per annum.
Milk, milk products and poultry also bring some money. Unfortunately, selling
milk brings disrespect to the family. The majority of the households do not sell
milk however, a few families have started taking it as income generating
activity.
As compared to
crop production the participation of rural women in livestock related activities
is much higher. Majority of the females are engaged in fodder cutting, watering,
cleaning of animals and their sheds etc. Milking the animals and milk processing
have also been attributed to the women folks. Manure collection, preparing dung
cakes and the maintenance of animal sheds are also the exclusive activities of
rural women. In a nutshell, except grazing women are involved in almost all
livestock related activities starting from fodder cutting to milk processing.
However, the level of involvement varies from one activity to the other.
Females are not
only consulted but have a major role in decision making for livestock- rearing
and related activities. Females are the ones who decide about the number of
poultry birds and the size of the herd to be reared. Decisions regarding selling
poultry products and animals are also undertaken in consultation with women.
They are also mainly responsible for making decisions regarding animal
vaccination. However, their involvement in decisions regarding use of artificial
insemination for animal breeding, area allocation to fodder crop and use of
improved fodder varieties was found very low.
It has been concluded that until the selling of milk remains a taboo the rural folk can not gain full benefits of livestock rearing. Planned and sustained efforts are required to bring change in their belief/cultural pattern. To ensure gender equity and equality it is vital to devise such mechanism that could ensure equal access and availability to institutional credit for livestock production. Reorientation of extension is highly required. It needs to be gender sensitive having the potential to provide equal access to males as well as females. Moreover, the issues surrounding ownership of livestock, access to resources and benefits, allocation of livestock, its products and incomes and their implications for gender roles, equity and household welfare require further research using appropriate conceptual and cultural framework.
