1.1 Background
1.2 Objectives
1.3 Hypotheses
1.4 Approach
It is nearly three decades since (1970) called into question if women and men benefited equally from economic development. Since then, gender issues in agriculture have become an important subject of inquiry. Gender is a socio-economic variable used to analyse roles, responsibilities, constraints, opportunities and incentives of people involved in agriculture (Poats 1991). However, the focus of the debate and empirical research has primarily been on the role of women in crop production to the virtual exclusion of their roles and those of men and children in livestock farming. For example, Ashby (1999) examines the dimension of poverty and the relationship between gender and poverty of rural people in developing countries. Although mention is made of the different roles, rights and resources men and women have in society as important determinants to the nature and scope of poverty, emphasis is laid only on women, with minimal attention given to men and children, and the focus is almost exclusively on the individual rather than on individuals as members of a family. Whereas women undertake major responsibilities in agricultural production (most of which go unrecognised in employment records—especially for subsistence, in addition to performing household chores and reproductive activities and deserves the necessary attention) focusing on women only may not be the appropriate approach towards improving the welfare of the poor families, in developing countries.
The few studies that have been undertaken to examine the gender division of labour and responsibilities in ruminant production systems in developing countries show that men, women and children participate in varying degrees in animal husbandry. Some of the ruminant livestock production activities include: herding, milking, processing of milk, selling milk and dairy products, care of calves, pregnant and injured animals, collection and transportation of animal feed, feeding and watering animals, cleaning of animal sheds and processing of cow dung for use as fuel. Raising ruminants requires a labour contribution from all family members. The specific participation of women, men and children in animal husbandry varies across regions depending on the farming systems and socio-economic factors such as religion, culture, development gradient etc. Gender roles are further influenced by the environmental and demographic characteristics and the type of animals kept. These variations make it impossible to generalise about gender roles in ruminant livestock production systems in developing countries. Gender dimensions in ruminant livestock production systems have to be considered within particular production systems, socio-economic and socio-cultural environments.
Development is a process that allows people to improve their livelihoods. Livestock development is therefore concerned with enabling farmers to use livestock as a means of improving the well-being of their families. Livestock development planners generally focus on how to increase production for the market. This can be achieved only if development activities and policies assist smallholder livestock keepers, who make production decisions, meet their own primary objectives, which may not always be production for the market. Livestock policies made and projects initiated on the basis of inappropriate assumptions about the aims of the livestock keepers and how resources and benefits are allocated within the household, may result in limited success. The effects of livestock development on the well-being of different family members, particularly women and children, are being debated in the development literature ( 1986; Quisumbing 1998) and are of great concern to policy makers and researchers.
Intra-household nutrition security is a concern in the literature on food security. Attention is generally given to women and children, the more vulnerable members of poor households, because such households sometimes discriminate among its members in distributing food. Generally such discrimination may prevail under conditions of inadequate food supply and there may be specific reasons for discrimination. For example, household members performing energy-intensive tasks in certain seasons may require, and be given, a higher share of the limited food supply. Such discrimination usually declines and disappears when there is enough food. The problem of intra-household nutrition security is not specific to livestock production systems. However, the ownership of ruminant livestock may have an impact on the nutritional status of children in developing countries, because of the specific nutritional benefits of animal origin food on child growth (Sigman et al. 1991; Grosse 1998b). The effect of livestock on child nutrition is therefore given special attention in this review.
The objectives of this review are to:
In reviewing these aspects of ruminant livestock production systems, an attempt is made to bring out what is known and unknown about the gender dimension in livestock production. It is hoped that such information will guide research, development priorities and strategies to increase ruminant livestock productivity and enhance the well-being of all its keepers.
The following hypotheses are examined with available literature:
Gender analysis and case studies are among the approaches used for analysing intra-household dimensions within ruminant livestock production systems of developing countries. Application of gender analysis tools to agricultural research is changing the way production problems are identified, and the way division of labour and nature of farmer participation are understood ( 1991). Feldstein and Poats (1989) indicate that incorporating gender as an analytical variable in the agricultural development equation is necessary and can contribute to better science. Gender analysis can provide information needed for—and predict effects associated with—development of livestock production systems. The information needed includes: (a) knowledge of current practices, nutrition, healthcare, management etc.; (b) timing and intensity of labour for different activities; and (c) resources, benefits and constraints. Gender analysis provides this information by asking the following questions:
The review begins with a discussion of the important roles of ruminant livestock in smallholder livelihood systems in developing countries. This is followed by a brief overview of the ruminant livestock productions systems of developing countries. The subsequent sections present gender dimensions in different ruminant livestock production systems, constraints to the effective contribution of women in ruminant livestock production systems and the effects of ruminant farming on the nutritional status of children. There are two case studies showing how gender concerns are included in research to improve smallholder ruminant livestock systems and finally a note on a possible framework for gender analysis in livestock technology and research.
