Technical packages for livestock development need to consider any extra demands they make on women's time and labour.
Most rural women carry a heavy workload. Where women are involved in livestock production, marketing and product processing, such duties can take up many hours a day - especially when, as in most agropastoral and transhumant systems, women have complete responsibility for animals kept near the homestead. A 1994 IFAD study points out that managing these animals can in some ways be more difficult than taking care of camels and cattle, since women often have to spend hours collecting and storing fodder, bringing water for the animals and cleaning pens. Furthermore, most 'improvements' designed to intensify the livestock production system, such as zero-grazing (not allowing herds to go out into pasture, but instead bringing fodder to them in a cut-and-carry feeding system), fodder production and improved breeds, have increased women's livestock-related workloads. Rarely are these workload implications taken into account in assessing the appropriateness of new technology.
Among the Wodaabe Fulani of Niger, women spend some 2 900 hours a year in livestock production activities. A study in Pakistan found that women spend an average of 6.5 hours per day caring for animals and processing produce. On the minifundia (small peasant landholdings) in Peru, another study found that women spend 38 hours per week caring for cattle. This is, of course, in addition to their other crop-related and household responsibilities.
Outmigration of men (especially in Latin America and Asia) or displacement of the pastoral household (particularly in Africa) often increases women's work both in crop and livestock production. In agropastoral systems, if women can hire herders when men are away or pool their animals with another herd, their workloads will not increase substantially. But, as the study points out, there are few instances of this. Often the remittances received from absent men are not enough to permit the hiring of labour, and women end up taking on tasks that were previously men's in addition to their regular responsibilities.
The IFAD study also points out that increases in women's
workloads also frequently occur as a result of technical innovations in
livestock development, especially when these measures intensify livestock
production at the household level. It is fairly common for men to
decide on intensification, while it is the women who end up doing the
extra work -- usually without access to extension services or other sources
of needed information.
In the highlands of Kenya, it was found that improved cattle breeds and
a strategy of zero-grazing increased women's workloads because women had
to spend more time collecting animal feed.
Milk collection centres, run either cooperatively by women or on a private basis, have been tried in a number of countries as a means of enhancing milk production. However, as the IFAD study points out, these can add to women's work and increase competition for land if women have to produce fodder for their animals. Women often also end up wasting a great deal of time if the transport networks to collection centres are inefficient, resulting in their having to wait many hours for the milk collection truck.
Another technological innovation that sounds good in theory is controlled mating of small stock during the rainy season when forage is plentiful. A problem arises, however, because women often are too busy to control mating, particularly since this time of the year usually coincides with peak demand for their labour in crop production. Therefore, while the approach makes technical sense, it can prove unrealizable.
As their workloads increase, women may even be forced to take short cuts in traditional animal and range management strategies. They will tend to cut back on those requiring additional time and effort, such as taking animals to distant pastures or splitting herds.
Workload issues and the ability to combine livestock management with their other responsibilities are also important considerations in women's choice of livestock enterprises. For these reasons, women find poultry a more attractive choice than rabbits, which take more time to care for. Women may chose to take out loans for types of livestock that take less time, even though they know these livestock will be less profitable than other more time-consuming alternatives. Where fuel is scarce and the livestock is used primarily for family food, women may also consider cooking time: eggs, chicken and rabbit meat cook fairly fast.
Because of their heavy workloads, women are particularly interested in time-saving opportunities and technologies. Hand churns and cheese-making equipment can potentially save hours spent on animal product processing. During the 1950s, hand churns were successfully and extensively introduced to Maasai women; they have also proven popular elsewhere. Cooperating among themselves and relegating some of the lighter jobs to the elderly or children are other coping strategies adopted by women. .
It is important for development initiatives to consider how technological innovations will affect women's workloads. This is not just a question of avoiding negative impact on women. If the women responsible for the work involved do not have enough time available, they may not adopt the innovation.
Adapted from
M. Niamir-Fuller, Women Livestock Managers in the Third World: Focus on Technical Issues Related to Gender Roles in Livestock Production, Staff Working Paper 18, Rome: IFAD, December 1994.
