Women Livestock Managers in the Third World: a focus on technical

Review of development efforts aimed at women in livestock production

It is a common observation that after almost two decades of calling for the involvement of women in development, women continue to be ignored in livestock projects. With the recent trend aimed at increasing people’s participation in development planning and implementation, women’s roles are becoming more prominent (Safilios-Rothschild 1983). This chapter focuses on development projects, and their expected and unexpected impacts on women as livestock managers. The analysis rests on three aspects: the development process, the appropriateness of technical packages, and training and education programmes for women.

Appropriateness of the development process

Projects in general appear to be more oriented towards demonstrating new husbandry techniques to interested individuals, who are usually men, than in improving and adapting the techniques to the division of labour that already exists in the community. As a result, women are commonly forgotten in these projects. Because poultry farms, collection centres, ranches, etc., in the developed countries are usually run by men, it is taken for granted that the same would occur in the developing countries (Oxby 1983).

In four restocking projects in Kenya (OXFAM), women were able to obtain livestock only if they had a male relative or son to support them. The project ignored most divorced and widowed women. Although, traditionally, men were expected to give part of the livestock to their ex-wives, due to the high rate of divorce among the Boran very few men complied with this condition. The projects concluded that women should be allowed to participate directly in the programme, as they show the same level of knowledge of livestock husbandry as men, but their need is often greater (Fry n.d.). In Niger, women were included only belatedly in a restocking scheme (Scott & Gormley 1980).

Group ranches or ‘block grazing’ has been attempted in various countries, including Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania, but in almost all cases, the planners failed to understand the fundamental importance of reciprocity and alliances between groups of pastoralists in maintaining viable production units in ecologically fragile and variable areas. If anything, the experience has been negative because it has fostered range wars and a mad rush for privatization and expropriation of rangelands (Oxby 1985; Galaty 1988). The effect on women has been negative. Women were not allowed to become members of the group ranches and, instead, became unpaid workers taking care of their husbands’ livestock (Talle 1988; Kipuri 1989; Kipuri 1991). With the increasing exodus of men, women could not exert control over land use and ownership, or decision-making and governance within the group ranches.

Several projects in Kenya are experimenting with training villagers to be animal health workers (also known as paravets, community animal health workers or community animal first aid workers). Some examples are the Kamujini Farmer’s Center in Meru District, Kenya Freedom from Hunger Council in Baringo District, Utooni Development Project in Machakos District and the OXFAM project in Samburu District. In most of the projects, only men were chosen to be trained. A few projects trained women, but only in poultry diseases. An evaluation of the projects attributed their success to the participatory nature of their activities and to their ability to train independent local workers who were effectively monitored and supported by government services (for medicines, vaccination campaigns and referrals on serious cases). The evaluation also concluded that women were more heavily involved in the management of ruminants than was previously thought, and that, consequently, their participation in the training programme should be increased.

Projects promoting supplementary feed and improved pastures will not necessarily lead to increased milk off-take in areas where men control the milking, because men consider meat production a higher priority than milk production (Waters-Bayer 1988).

In Ecuador, a study of development projects has shown inadequate consideration of women’s roles in livestock production – similar to the situation in Africa (Hess 1986). In a 1985 drinking water project in Bolivia, initiated to improve health through the provision of potable water, committees were set up to manage the programme, but there were virtually no women on the committees. Similarly, women were excluded from participation in a land rehabilitation project, and only widows could claim part of the land that had been rehabilitated (de Schulze & Sostres 1990).

An IFAD project in Bolivia aimed at raising the incomes of smallholders through credit and technical assistance failed adequately to reach women because of limitations in the project’s design (e.g., there was a lack of female extension workers, women were not specifically mentioned as beneficiaries and few loans were extended to women for livestock activities). However, the project was successful in assisting women in making and marketing handicrafts by creating group workshops, even though more work was required in training women in self-management of group enterprises (de Schulze & Sostres 1990).

In a project promoting leucaena in the Philippines, village men were contacted because the project was designed with the understanding that leucaena should be used for large ruminants. However, because feed for pigs was scarcer than that for cattle, the beneficiaries decided to use the leucaena for pigs, which were managed by women. Unfortunately, as a result, some pregnant sows aborted. This problem could have been avoided had project staff discussed the decision with the villagers. In so doing they could have identified the major feed constraints. By contrast, in Thailand, a dairy project that gave women credit to purchase dairy cows was successful because men were prepared to take on women’s work in the fields. In addition, the project emphasized extension and training of women (Rao 1990).

In Nepal, where population pressure is causing environmental destruction, the Ghorepani project has succeeded in involving women in development planning by appointing a women’s liaison officer, who has been very active in encouraging participation in planning, implementation and evaluation of activities.

These and other experiences show that preliminary studies undertaken during the development process must routinely analyse gender roles, taking into account that gender relations and ideologies can work against the equal participation of men and women in development, and therefore consider separate structures. Women very often have their own forms of organization, managerial competence and commercial acumen that can be tapped (Bruggeman 1991).

Interventions targeted at women need to consider women’s available time, not just for new activities, but also for participating in meetings and committees. When asked, women often request training in sewing, nutrition and other home-based skills, rather than in animal husbandry or other production skills. But this is frequently more a result of their social conditioning than of a personal choice (de Schulze & Sostres 1990). An understanding of the social context must also include an awareness of the impact of targeting women in the community. In some cases, it may lead to conflicts within the community, particularly when men’s entrenched interests are threatened (de Schulze & Sostres 1990).

Women’s groups

In many countries it has been found that it is more acceptable to work with women’s groups rather than with individual women, as in Nepal (Chaney, E. 1988). This is often the only way for poor women to obtain sufficient resources (material, capital and labour) to initiate activities. The group approach with women has been tried in various projects, including those in northern Togo (sheep), the Sudan (poultry), Senegal and Kenya (sheep, goats and milk processing), Zanzibar (poultry), India and Kenya (dairy), Nepal (goat-raising), India (dairy), and Sri Lanka and Bangladesh (chickens), and has been successful in involving women in the decision-making aspects and in giving poor women an alternative to poverty (Finney 1988).

As noted above, water is an important consideration for women who are constantly using the resource for domestic and livestock needs. Water points, such as wells, are also focal points for women’s social networking. Where women or women’s groups have been given the responsibility for managing water sources, they have done so successfully. When they are trained in management and repair, water points often work more efficiently than when the responsibility depends on a technician living some distance away.

Women’s groups are an important part of African society. For example, the Umoja groups in Kenya are very active in agriculture and trade (Noble & Nolan 1983a). In 1984, there were more than 16 000 registered women’s groups in Kenya, most of them engaged in some form of livestock production for profit. However, they face problems procuring feed as a result of shortages and high costs, and in some cases cultural prejudices against women’s having livestock, as is the case with the Pusu people (DeVries 1990). In addition, "in most areas women do not have grazing grounds and must depend on the goodwill of men to allow their animals to graze. Some women’s groups lose many animals since they lack modern knowledge of animal diseases" (Mbeo 1989).

In many areas women are organized or have reserve capital that they can invest, but need a little push from outside, such as a matching grant or loan, training in marketing and so forth. The exact form of the help must be evaluated very closely by a project, in order to avoid undertraining or destroying local initiatives. As mentioned earlier, sometimes when women’s activities become successful, men start to take control. This can be avoided if discussions are held between men and women before the initiation of planned activities under a project to allow gains for both men and women through project design and delivery (Finney 1988).

Although the group approach is often the best solution for most rural women, it may not be so in all cases. For example, among the Fulani of northern Nigeria, women have traditionally dominated the dairy production and marketing system. Women work on an individual basis, although they may forge socio-economic ties with other women, and as a result, projects promoting milk cooperatives have not been successful (Waters-Bayer 1992).

Similarly, cooperative efforts in Kenya among the Rendille transhumant women met with resistance. Women did not see the need for cooperatives, nor could they agree on leadership. In addition, they did not like the frequent arguments that ensued, something that was foreign to their culture (Abu Bodie 1979).

Rimalbe women, former slaves of the Fulani, do not think that they canwork on an equal basis with the Fulani women; they fear the latter will try to use their higher status against them. By contrast, Mossi women are much more organized, and traditionally the wives who head the lineage known as paquiema are informal leaders who are able to influence the other wives (Henderson 1980) and are consequently effective in working within a group context.

IFAD’s experience with delivery mechanisms of technical, financial and training services has shown that very often ministries of women’s affairs and national women in development (WID) units are weak and have limited outreach capability. In addition, there is little integration with other ministries that provide technical inputs. In addition to strengthening these ministries, incorporation of local NGOs is a promising approach, but there can be managerial complications and implementation delays resulting from disagreements on approach.. While NGOs can and do perform useful roles, they should not be considered a panacea for success. The process can be improved by careful selection of NGOs, limiting the numbers involved, and by agreements on division of responsibilities, flow of funds and other administrative aspects. Monitoring of NGOs by the beneficiaries concerned is also important in ensuring effective transfer. However, these arrangements should be seen as temporary, since the community needs to develop long-term self-reliance, especially through managerial training and skills development (IFAD 1991c).

Credit

Aside from problems associated with gaining access to technical and material inputs, the greatest hindrance to women’s taking on income-generating activities, whether on or off-farm, has been the lack of financial capital. Small-scale credit, provided on soft terms, has been shown to be very effective in helping individual or groups of women.

IFAD’s emphasis has been on resolving the problems of access to financial services for women through individual or group production credit. Between 1984 and 1990, a total of 25 IFAD projects targeted poor rural women by providing them with the means of obtaining credit (IFAD 1991c). Several IFAD women’s credit projects target livestock production. Some of these are the Production Credit for Rural Women, the Second Small Farmers’ Development Project, the Small Farmers’ Agricultural Credit Project and the Grameen Bank Phase III (IFAD 1991c). One shortcoming of IFAD’s programme of livestock development for women has been that it has concentrated on providing credit in farming communities and not in pastoral ones, and more funds have been channelled to Asia than elsewhere.

The cost of extending small individual loans and their associated risks make direct lending to smallholders financially unviable for large institutions. The most common solution is still the viable one: a bank acts as a ‘wholesale’ agency, making aggregate loans to approved village-level ‘retail’ institutions (NGOs, etc.) for on-lending. In Pakistan, an innovative approach was designed where the wives of male mobile credit officers were employed in order to bring credit to village women (Stephens 1990). In other countries, experience has shown that the administration and delivery of loans to rural women would be better handled by government extension agents or NGOs. For poor and landless pastoralists, some of whom can be women, it may be necessary to develop separate loan conditions, such as reducing the required down payment to less than 15% of the value of the purchased asset (in the case of in-kind loans), providing a repayment holiday until the asset starts to generate income, and accepting livestock as equal to land assets for loan collateral.

Appropriateness of technical packages

Of the various technical packages introduced for livestock development, some have been inappropriate and some, while appropriate, have nevertheless increased women’s workloads. Most technological innovations to intensify livestock production at the household level invariably increase women’s workloads, especially for feed, and the cleaning of pens (Okali & Sumberg 1986; Morton 1990). In several projects, for example in Malawi (Spring 1983), intensification is controlled by men, while women who do the extra work and do not get any assistance from extension agents or access to income. The introduction of draught animals and ozonization has, in many places, led to the marginalization of women, such as in northwest Cameroon, where the oxen were used on only men’s fields, requiring extra help from women in those fields, and a subsequent reduction in women’s farmland by 50% (Bruchhaus 1984). A similar example is from Zambia (Sutherland 1988). The Kenyan strategy of encouraging zero grazing in the highlands has resulted in an increased workload for the collection of animal feed. In addition, women often have to wait hours for the milk collection lorry. In such a case, cooperative cool boxes may be useful for keeping the milk and rationalizing the milk collection system.

Even good intentions can sometimes backfire. In Ethiopia, appropriate technologies for hay collection and stacking and for water cisterns were expected to reduce women’s workloads among the pastoral Borana. A subsequent study carried out on project impact found only a slight difference in workloads, but other important benefits were recorded, such as greater overall water availability for livestock and incremental hay production, resulting in higher feed intake by calves. There was strong interest in the project from the beneficiaries, but it was probably not related to any lessening in the overall workload (Coppock 1992).

Participatory research is needed to identify production bottlenecks and to develop techniques that reduce women’s workloads while at the same time increasing their productivity. For example, among the Fulani and Mossi tribes, women are willing to take on extra activities (the wives generally take turns doing domestic chores), however, water collection has been identified as a time-consuming activity, and efforts to lessen the drudgery and time needed in water-carrying are needed before additional activities can be taken on by women of these tribes (Henderson 1980).

In order for livestock intensification to be worthwhile, it must be accompanied by measures to reduce women’s workloads in other areas and assist them in securing their rights to produce. In addition, these strategies increase the need for technical knowledge and services, such as veterinary care, proper handling of the milk, artificial insemination, etc., which should be made available directly to women.

The appropriate technical package must consider long-term aspects such as security of ownership, land tenure and marketing. Poor women, shareholders or tenants often do not own land on which to produce their crops or on which to install sheds and dips. In designing development projects, designers must determine the economic viability and rate of return of the project to women in particular, including parameters reflecting local conditions. It is also important to consider incorporating transport to markets or other outlets into a project’s design, and taking it into account in the economic analysis (Safilios-Rothschild 1983).

Awareness of cultural norms and practices is essential. For example, some technologies are gender specific. In Burundi, men tend to manage the cross-breeding of livestock, even if they have never before formerly attempted the techniques (Schorry-Klinger 1990). In Brazil, the Vacaria project has established a demonstration farm run by two young women (one a veterinary surgeon). The farm uses new low-external-input technologies for cropping, gardening, fruit growing, animal husbandry and agroforestry. Initially the farm drew criticism from men who didn’t think that women should run a project in a traditionally male-dominated domain. However, the farm turned out to be so successful that local peasants requested advice and training from the project. A similar result was found in the Lorestan project in Iran, which started up in 1974 and continues today, despite encountering some initial prejudices (Dankelman & Davidson 1988).

Ruminants

Goat-raising is often included as an activity in projects for women because goats are less complex and more efficient than cattle. Dairy goats can have a comparative advantage over cattle in milk production, but only in small units for home production, where they require a smaller investment and a limited feed base, and therefore involve a lower level of risk. Goats show much higher fecundity in the tropics than do cattle.

If goats were given the same diet as cattle, they would not be able to convert it into calories as efficiently as do cattle; cattle have a larger-capacity digestive tract in relation to their requirements. The advantage of goats, however, is that they are able to convert coarse vegetable feeds into calories (Gonzalo de la Fuente & Augusto Juarez 1983). Goats have a greater capacity to consume roughage and need less water than sheep (Owen & Ndosa 1983). In studies in India, goats utilized high-grade clover hay better than did cattle, sheep or buffalo, and both goats and buffalo fared better on poor-quality grass than did sheepor cattle (Sharma, Murdia & Rajaura 1983).

A study of high-potential areas in Kenya showed that dairy goats and dairy cattle were much more profitable at the small-farm level than were dual-purpose sheep. The study also found that in the medium-potential zones, goats bred for their meat, angora goats and fine wool sheep were all profitable. In the semi-arid zones (with rainfall levels of 600-900 mm a year) small stock bred for their meat potential all showed good returns. In the drier zones (with rainfall of less than 600 mm a year) such small stock were also more profitable than cattle (De Boer, Job & Maundu 1983).

However, in Kenya, when the farm size was larger than 1.6 ha and the farmer had access to credit and inputs, keeping dairy cows was more rewarding than keeping dairy goats. But on smaller farms, without similar inputs, dairy goats were less risky and more profitable than dairy cows in an intensive system (Stotz 1983; Safilios-Rothschild 1983). Integrating goat production into farming systems in the humid zones of Africa and supplementing diets with crop residues and hay showed interesting returns for smallholders in Nigeria (Omaliko & Mecha 1983). In Rajasthan, India, a study found that goats were more profitable than sheep because of the former’s higher fertility and lower mortality (Swain, Jain & Acharya 1983).

Goats probably can contribute more to improving the lives of small farmers and landless peasants in the Developing World than any other animal, yet they are not used extensively. Part of the problem is the low prestige attached to them, which means not only less investment in goats, but also less demand in the market for goat meat and milk. As a farmer’s operation expands and with increasing prosperity, people tend to prefer to invest in cattle or sheep rather than goats.

Goats are often blamed for contributing to desertification – an unfounded bias that needs to be changed (Gilles 1983). After all, it is not the goat that causes desertification but the goat owner who fails to control the animal. One dairy goat project in Honduras was successful in getting women to raise goats for income and as a means of improving nutrition, even though the men were sceptical and blamed goats for desertification. However, the project proved so successful, that it served as a positive example for other villages, which took up goat breeding with the help of the first generation of trained women (Urquiza 1983).

There are similar success stories in Mexico, Indonesia, Malaysia and parts of Africa and the Caribbean. An FAO-sponsored project in Jordan gave two Shami goats, a male goat and a sack of fodder to women, who then repaid 75% of the cost in 37 monthly cash instalments. Training courses on subjects covering goat production and other topics (human health and hygiene, childcare, etc.) were organized in village schools for the participants. After one year, 50 women had participated and the project was deemed successful, but one of the recommendations was to encourage women’s groups and cooperatives to help commercialize the activities.

With the help of a woman extension/trainer, a women’s cooperative in Honduras invested in dairy goats, and after eight months reduced children’s malnutrition symptoms from 90% to 14%, in addition to increasing the family income by about 10% (Zawada 1990).

Milk collection centres, whether cooperatively run by women or run privately, have been tried in many countries as a means of enhancing milk production and integrating the pastoral system into the national economy. Experience has shown that the development of milk collection centres must be able to prevent two potential problems: (i) the increase in the workloads of women and the competition for land, if women are being encouraged to produce fodder for their animals; (ii) the increase in the workloads and wasting of women’s time if transport networks to collection centres are inefficient. Policies and legislation to promote and stimulate the creation of support services (transport, credit, marketing information) are also needed (IFAD 1991a).

Another technological idea has been to control mating to concentrate births of small stock during the rainy season, when forage is plentiful. Although this makes technical sense, there are several problems. First, women often do not have the time or labour to spend controlling mating because it usually coincides with the period of peak labour demand for crops. Second, in areas where dairy goats are kept, spreading births throughout the year ensures year-round milk availability for the household.

The International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) has been experimenting with two other innovations for semi-humid and humid zones of Africa: integrated alley farming, where browse trees and shrubs are intercropped with cereals and food crops, and pruned regularly to provide fodder as a supplement for stall-fed small ruminants. The second innovation is the intensive feed garden approach, where a small plot of land (about 200-500 m² is planted with fodder trees and grasses, and managed intensively with periodic applications of manure, bedding and refused feed from the confined animals (Okali & Sumberg 1986). In areas where men control extensive farmland, such as Yorubaland in Nigeria, it will probably be the men who will benefit from the first model, while women benefit from the second, if there is no labour constraint.

Women may be more interested in biogas operations than might men, because they are close to the input (manure) and output (use in cooking). Experiences in India and Kenya’s highlands are very promising. However, biogas may not work in areas where there is not enough manure (few livestock), water or labour. Credit may be required to install the biogas plants.

Another promising approach is in Peru, where Community Research Special Programme (SR-CRSP) staff are working on developing effective variations of local medicinal remedies, illustrating the usefulness of using ethnoscientific research in development efforts (McCorckle et al. 1987). The same methods should be applied in the fields of animal husbandry and range and feed management to develop locally adapted systems.

In the last five years, a large number of training and extension programmes have been proposed or implemented in Africa to test the efficacy and outreach of decentralized teams of paravets, or community animal health workers (CAHW) as they have been called (e.g., the Rangeland Development Project in Ethiopia, the OXFAM project in southern Sudan, the Niger Range and Livestock Project, the Ishtirak project in Chad, and the paravet project in the Central African Republic). It has been found that CAHWs provide a necessary grass-roots link, and with adequate supervision can become very effective in daily care and vaccination campaigns (McCorckle & Mathias-Mundy 1992). Experience with training CAHWs has shown the need to expand the training programme to include: business management (where paravets are expected to purchase medicines from the profits they generate); education on the value and, wherever possible, the effectiveness of traditional veterinary systems; the use of alternative drugs; the legal restrictions upon certain drugs; the dangers of misuse of antibiotics; and the role of improved livestock management in control and prevention of disease. There is also a need to allow women to participate in the training, not just for poultry and minor animals, but also for ruminants. Monitoring and supervision of the trainees and integrating the actions of the trainees with other related livestock extension services are essential elements of ensuring the programme’s success.

Poultry

Poultry are small, have the ability to forage for themselves and naturally gravitate around the house. They are one of the most vital resources of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Many cities in developing countries possess more chickens than people. For the most poverty stricken, bony birds may be the only source of meat during much of a lifetime. Adapted poultry include: pigeon, quail, muscovy (a native of South-American rainforests), guinea fowl and turkey. Poultry and small animals can be of major interest to rural women, particularly poor women. Eggs, chicken meat and rabbit meat cook faster than traditional pulses, which is important where fuel wood is in short supply (Chale & Carloni 1981). Chicken manure can be used as fertilizer for household gardens, although it is difficult to collect and apply.

In most countries, the problem with the current system of poultry production is that a woman has to wait several days before she can accumulate enough eggs to sell in the marketplace. By that time, the eggs may no longer be fresh, and will be rejected by the buyer. In addition animal health measures for small numbers of animals are often more time-consuming than for large ones. For example, just catching and bringing the chickens in for vaccinations can be a taxing job. One solution is to have either higher-productivity poultry (breed or nutrition) or women working in groups.

Large-scale intensive poultry operations involving high feed-conversions and high-laying performances are appropriate for urban or peri-urban areas, where quality inputs are available and demand for products is high. These operations are successful only if all ingredients are there: credit, group activity, veterinary services, ready markets, transport, etc.

Although poultry production technologies for large-scale operations are readily available, they are not always of use to rural women. Some of the more promising research now concentrates on developing low-external-input technologies. For example chickens and ducks can be incubated without electricity using the Chinese rice husk incubation system, where duck eggs, which radiate more heat, are strategically placed between chicken eggs and insulated with traditional materials. The system allows one person to handle 1 000 eggs per setting (Attfield 1990).

A project in Egypt that introduced broiler production has greatly improved the genetic potential of the local species, contributed to the eradication of endemic poultry diseases and established a healthy link among rural women, extension and the veterinary authorities. Higher production can also be obtained with improved nutrition, housing, husbandry and veterinary care of local breeds. But other measures, such as the provision of simple machinery such as bailers, choppers, and animal sprayers, would also prove helpful (Badr 1992).

Other small animals and micro-breeds

Apart from small and large ruminants and poultry, there are many other promising livestock and other species, such as swine, rabbits, cane-rats, alpacas, silk worms and honey bees. A study by BOSTID (1983) examined many other Asian animals unfamiliar to international animal science, such as yaks, mithan, tamaraw, kouprey and several pig species.

Captive rabbits have been popular as food since ancient Roman times and earlier. Rabbit-rearing has been well established in Europe and China, and there are now many such new projects in developing countries. Rabbit production is suitable for landless women, but in Africa it poses problems of cost (for the feed) and lack of familiarity by the consumer.

Many rodents have been or can be domesticated. These include guinea pigs, cane rats and other potentially tameable, clean-living species, such as agouti, the capybara paca and viscacha of South America, grasscutters and the giant rat of West Africa. Researchers are now learning to raise these species in captivity. A project in Benin has been experimenting with the cane rat as an alternative source of low-cost protein in West Africa. The wild cane rat is already in high demand locally. The raising of the cane rat requires the same type of materials as the raising of rabbits, the cane rat is relatively easy to feed and it commands a higher price per kilogram of live weight than cattle, pigs or small ruminants. However, the cane rat costs more to raise than poultry, has wasteful feeding habits and is proving difficult to domesticate. More research is being done to increase the economic viability of the system of raising cane rats, in particular research on domestication, housing and feeds (Babtist & Mensah 1986).

Other potential micro-livestock are the blue duiker, a rabbit-sized antelope from southern and central Africa, and the iguanas of the Caribbean and Latin America (which are so popular they have been hunted almost to extinction).

Micro-breeds or small breeds of cattle, sheep, goats and pigs are very common in many parts of the Developing World. Hardy and less than half the average size, they include the mini-Brahman cow of Mexico, which is only 60 cm tall and weighs 140 kg; the southern Sudan dwarf sheep, which can weigh as little as 11 kg; and the Terai goat of Nepal, which weighs less than 12 kg (BOSTID 1988).

In general, small species tend to expand the food base and use more alternative resources (e.g., kitchen wastes, industry by-products, fibrous wastes) than large species. Some collect feeds that otherwise would be wasted (e.g. bees gather pollen, poultry feed on seeds and insects). A diverse portfolio of several small animals results in more efficient use of all the resources available and complementarity rather than competition among livestock in a homestead. Although small breeds require proportionately higher inputs of food, they also grow proportionately faster, and are therefore important in times of famine or as a commercial enterprise. Some micro-livestock, such as the capybara in the Latin American lowlands, survive in areas where other livestock cannot, while some dwarf species of cattle, sheep, goats and pigs are tolerant to trypanosomiasis. Some micro-species can be raised in urban areas, and are better able to survive than large animals.

Some limitations associated with micro-stock are their need for higher protein content in their diets. They also frequently make greater demands in terms of labour time, although they can generally be cared for by children and older people. Micro-stock are easy prey to predators. Difficulty finding ready markets, the negative attitudes of consumers to new species and some countries’ laws protecting wildlife or requiring strict meat and veterinary standards may also pose problems.

Honey bees are raised almost everywhere, and honey is a high-valued product that requires little processing and can be stored and transported easily. Innovations in equipment and techniques have improved beekeeping in the tropics (Proceedings1985). Currently, bees are raised largely by men, but some women, such as the Kenyan Somali of Mandera District, have shown interest in this activity.

Silk production has long been a major activity in East Asia. Recently it is being transferred to other regions. For example, a few projects in Egypt are promoting it as an income-generating activity with considerable success (Loza 1992).

Milk production

As already noted, milk production is often the major activity of women livestock managers. Most techniques for its improvement have concentrated on intensification of production through improved breeds, zero grazing, etc. As has been shown, such technologies usually increase women’s workloads and sometimes lead to men’s taking over the revenues derived from milk sales. Of greater interest to rural women is the development of more appropriate processing technologies, such as churns, cheese-making equipment and fresh milk preservation.

In the fifties, hand churns were successfully and extensively introduced to Maasai women (Jacobs 1978, cited in Homewood & Rodgers 1991), but they have since disappeared. Part of the problem is that the heavy dependence on fresh milk in the Maasai diet, and the generally low level of milk production, did not leave much surplus for processing. However, the Maasai are now much more dependent on cereals than before (at least 60% are now agropastoral), and appropriate technologies to enhance milk production could well lead to a renewed interest in hand churns.

Artificial insemination (AI) is valuable as a means of increasing the fertility of large ruminants and thereby enhancing milk production. But the costs of AI are prohibitively high for poor and middle-class farmers. In addition, its value for sheep and goats has yet to be established.

Biotechnology

There are various promising biotechnologies for developing countries that are currently in the research and development phase. One is embryo transfer, where the ova from high-quality female animals fertilized by high-quality males are transplanted into the wombs of the local species. The ova are stored in liquid nitrogen and are relatively easy to transport. The International Laboratory for Livestock Research on Animal Disease (ILRAD) successfully tested the system in 1983, using embryos from N’dama cattle transplanted into Boran cattle to enhance trypanosomiasis resistance in the high-milking Boran cattle. The advantages of the system are that the newborn acquires the new mother’s immunity to local diseases through the womb and milk, and is able to adapt to the harsh environment from the beginning. This has particular advantages over the importation of breeds. In 1984, the average cost was estimated at 250 pounds sterling per embryo (air freighted from Europe), with a 50% likelihood of a successful birth.

Trials with pig embryos have proven more difficult because the embryo cannot be kept for more than 36 hours, and the oestrous cycles of the donor and recipient females must be synchronized precisely.

The high cost of embryo transfer, and the external inputs required, make this technology inappropriate for most rural situations. It can be of interest, however, to capital-intensive, large-scale operations, including peri-urban systems.

Another innovative biotechnology is enhancement of the growth hormones of animals with microbial cells, assuming increased feed resources are available. With such a technology, the genes of a high-growth animal are inserted in a microbe that modifies and produces more cells, which are then inserted in the recipient animal. Tests with chickens have shown a 15% increase in body growth, and tests with cattle have shown a 41% increase in milk production. Currently, the technique requires daily injections of the modified hormone, but it will soon be ready as an implant. The costs of applying the technique in a developing country are not yet known.

Biotechnology can also be used to prevent certain diseases in animals. For example, existing vaccines against foot and mouth disease are difficult to store, and must be adapted to the particular strain of virus found in different regions. Biotechnology researchers have isolated a protein responsible for producing antibodies, and are close to manufacturing a much more effective vaccine. Similarly, researchers at ILRAD have used monoclonal antibodies in an effort to neutralize the parasite responsible for East Coast fever, and are working toward the production of a vaccine against the disease. Both efforts would greatly enhance the smallholder’s capacity to maintain an economically viable livestock production system (Sasson 1986).

Although biotechnology appears suitable for Developing World use, the current costs and managerial and logistical requirements are prohibitive for an average rural smallholder, especially women.

Training and extension of women

The ownership of and trade in livestock are usually considered to be in the male domain, even though women provide much of the labour and expertise that makes them profitable. Extension and technical training therefore is usually given to the former and not the latter. This prevailing attitude is the result of two main factors: a gender bias on the part of extensionists and rural communities, and illiteracy among women.

Surveys show that women in all countries are interested in learning new techniques and ideas. However, they are disadvantaged not only because government extensionists rarely reach them, but also because they have very little access to credit and other inputs. Often the language of project documents affects the outcome: in a project in Egypt, ‘agricultural development’ is meant to target men, but not excluding women as beneficiaries, whereas ‘rural development’ is meant to include activities that especially target women.

In India, though women are responsible for calf-rearing, oestrous detection and animal health, traditional rules (such as purdah) do not allow them to talk to a male vet, and their husbands, who know less about the animals, often do not transfer the information they get from the vets to their wives (Hanssen 1983; Rangnekar 1991). A similar situation has been recorded in northern Yemen, where the milk cooperatives were run by men, and in Peru, where training was given to male heads of household despite the fact that many men there migrated for temporary labour (FAO 1983). Other examples come from eastern Turkey and from the Kurds of Turkey (Fitzherbert 1985), Bangladesh (Finney 1988), Mali (Echbal 1981) and Thailand (Stephens 1990). In some cases, the cooperatives require members to own cattle or other property, which effectively excludes women (FAO 1983).

In the Caribbean, women are often overlooked when technical assistance is provided, even though they are involved in cattle management and milk production, simply because they do not conform to the expected stereotype of ‘the farmer’ (FAO 1983).

In both Kenya and Tanzania, a study showed that extension agents visit female-headed households less frequently (Broch-Due 1988; Broch-Due et al. 1981). In Egypt, only one in five rural women with small landholdings was able to meet a (male) extension worker directly; most often women obtained information through television or public meetings, and sometimes from their husbands (Loza 1992, paper).

A newly formed women’s poultry group in Sri Lanka that did not receive adequate training was nearly forced out of business when it bought (at a discount) day-old chicks for egg production that turned out to be cockerels. In some countries women have to be trained to develop a detachment from their animals that is not a natural instinct for mothers. The extensionist of a broiler project in the Philippines despaired of ever seeing one women’s group repay its loan when she found out that the each of the women’s birds had been given a name, and that the women continually postponed the birds’ slaughter (Stephens 1990).

Women should be given adequate training in marketing and should be encouraged to undertake cooperative marketing. As mentioned in Chapter 2, many women around the world are already well versed in the operation of markets and small commercial operations but they need assistance in accessing market information, in controlling the means of production and in gaining access to transport and storage facilities for produce.

An irrigation project in Tanzania has been trying to train women to use draught animals. Problems initially stemmed from a widespread perception that women were not strong enough to handle these large animals (a perception reinforced, perhaps, by the oxen’s becoming nervous whenever women dressed in bright African kangas approached them). However, project staff persevered and succeeded in training women farmers to harness draught animals (Gillings 1992, pers. comm.).

Part of the problem is that women are often illiterate and are not able to compete for training opportunities. Bolivia has a 47% rate of illiteracy among its rural populations, 60% of whom are women (de Schulze & Sostres 1990). The rate of illiteracy is highest among those age cohorts where women have the greatest responsibility for household maintenance (IFAD 1991a). This limits their access to training and extension.

In northern Nigeria, where an increasing number of people are salaried government workers (i.e., receiving regular, monthly incomes), the local Fulani dairywomen have been able to take advantage of this situation by selling milk on credit. However, this necessitated their keeping notebooks and sales records. As a result, the women began to learn basic reading and writing skills in their own homes from their children who had attended several years of school (Waters-Bayer 1992).

Training for women generally needs to be carried out on their farms, since women cannot leave the household for extended periods of time. Such training should also be in the local language, since poor women in particular frequently do not speak a language other than their mother tongue. Moreover, depending on the country, there may be a need for female-only training, extension, credit, etc., in order to enhance women’s status in the eyes of the community and government technicians (FAO 1983).

Mobile extension and training services are a way of reaching remote areas or mobile pastoral communities. In Africa, the Pan African Rinderpest Campaign (PARC) is a mobile vaccination system that has had considerable success in reducing the outbreak of rinderpest. Paraveterinary training in the Central African Republic and the Sudan is now being used as a model for training elsewhere in Africa. Mobile livestock services have also been tried in Asia. In Thailand and the Philippines, mobile dairy extension and training services have increased women’s access to technical training and inputs dramatically (Stephens 1990). The content of technical packages, however, needs to be appropriate to women’s actual needs (see Section 4.2). In general there is very little attention given to research and training of extension agents in smallstock production because such animals (sheep, goats, rabbits, poultry, guinea pigs, etc.) are less ‘prestigious’ than larger animals.

Female extension workers

A study in 46 African countries shows that less than 4% of extension workers who advise women are themselves women. In Asia, the proportion is 7% (FAO 1984), and in some countries, such as Yemen, there are no female extension workers at all (Hamada 1986). This problem is exacerbated in Muslim and some Hindu and Christian cultures, where custom precludes any open learning experience between women and a male non-family member.

Surveys show that women farmers prefer assistance from extensionists of their own sex, but only if the extensionists are very qualified. A good example comes from southern Nigeria, where 59% of owners of sheep and goats are women. The International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) introduced the concept of alley farming using browse trees, and found that only 17% of women participated. The main problem was that male extension agents only contacted men. After a year of employment of a female research associate on the project, women’s participation increased dramatically to 50% of all women (Francis & Attah-Krah 1988).

Ever since the first international conference on women and development, there has been a concerted effort to train more women extension and technical staff. In Muslim countries, training female extension workers has itself encountered some problems, with difficulties arising from taboos against single women travelling alone, or against married women travelling without their husbands. In such cases, women have been assigned to work in areas near the home, or to work and travel in pairs (Oxby 1983). Two projects in Egypt that specifically targeted services at women employed male extension agents and engineers. The reason given was that the mobility of women in that culture was restricted and that their first priority was to their families, and not to their work (Loza 1992, paper). It was only later that female extension workers were employed, but these were trained only in poultry and rabbit-rearing, while their male counterparts were trained in beekeeping, crop and animal production, horticulture, agricultural mechanization, etc. This also reduces the credibility of the female extension workers, who are often then asked questions by village women that fall outside their areas of training.

Female veterinary agents were instrumental in helping women in Kenya, and they were even accepted by men (Chavangi & Hanssen 1983). In Egypt there are many female extension workers. However, they are rarely trained in techniques to improve crop and livestock production, and focus instead on health, hygiene and nutrition. In India, for example, female dairy extension workers have been more effective than men in teaching farmers to improve their methods of hygienic milk production (Stephens 1990).

While the training of female extension workers should be encouraged, the fact remains that in the short and medium terms there will not be enough women extensionists. Therefore, men should also receive training in extension of appropriate technologies tailored to women, and in participatory techniques with women. They should be prepared to train women in a more integrated way, adding managerial, accounting and marketing skills to technical issues (Finney 1988).

Another strategy is to take existing female technicians – those working in the areas of home economics, nutrition, community development, etc., particularly if they are working for the same ministry, and train them in livestock production. This requires considerable intensive re-training. Hiring new female staff and training them in livestock production will entail additional costs to an existing project in terms of housing, training, transportation and the problem of retaining suitably trained women in the field (IFAD 1991c). Such costs need to be adequately budgeted in new projects, and ways must be found to account for them in existing projects.

Professional women

With very few exceptions, women comprise a tiny minority of professional veterinarians and animal husbandry technicians. One exception may be found in Sri Lanka, where women represent almost half of all veterinary students. An 1981 FAO study showed that women made up as little as 2-10% of all participants in regional and national dairy training courses assisted by Rural Dairy Development and Training Centres (Table 2).

Table 2. Percentage of female participants in national, regional and inter-regional dairy training courses assisted by Rural Dairy Development and Training Centres by region, up to January 1981

	Regional courses	National courses
Latin America	5.4	8.5
Asia and the Pacific	3.6	10.7
Africa	2.7	2.9
Near East	2.0	0.2
Interregional courses	2.2

Source: FAO, 1981.

The lowest percentage was in the Near East, followed by Africa, with Latin America, Asia and the Pacific having the highest percentages. The female-to-total ratio of fellowships granted for animal husbandry, or fisheries, forestry and other traditionally male subjects was much lower than for home economics and agricultural extension. Female veterinarians are also rare: a study of universities in 60 countries showed the highest enrolment of women to be 35% (Finland), and the lowest 1% (Pakistan). However, there was no correlation in terms of religion, level of development or centrally planned or free-market system in any of the countries surveyed. It appears that women everywhere are reluctant to enter the field of veterinary science due to existing stereotypes (such as the one noted above: that women cannot handle large animals). However, given that rural women themselves are breaking out of stereotyped roles, it stands to reason that the institutions for higher education should also change.

Finally, at the level of development planning, there are only a few professional women in animal husbandry and related fields. This is partly because of problems associated with the education process, but also because most international organizations do not employ the relatives of staff members, who are often qualified professional women (Oxby 1983). International agencies such as FAO, IFAD and the World Bank need to revise some of their employment rules in order to encourage more women to join their livestock development sector projects and programmes.

Analysis

Despite the rhetoric that encourages both a participatory approach and gender sensitivity, very few projects have actually put these principles into practice. As a result, very little attention has been paid to women’s ITK about or role in livestock production. The provision of technical and financial inputs has rarely reached women’s livestock activities. Extension and research services have concentrated on male-oriented activities or, in the few cases where they have targeted women, the technological packages have had unintended results, such as increasing women’s workloads or causing women to lose control over a product or the income derived from the sale of produce. In addition, extension agents have had limited contact with women, primarily as a result of a traditional gender bias, cultural inhibitions and the lack of female extension agents and professional women in the field of livestock production.

Despite the lack of overall success, certain technical innovations have had small but measurable success in enhancing women’s productivity in livestock or related tasks. Some examples are: ox or buffalo ploughing, chicken feeders and waterers, access to potable water sources, chaff cutters to cut crop residues, hay cutters, fodder racks, water troughs to reduce losses due to spoilage and facilitate feeding, improved supplementary feeds (e.g., adding meat and bonemeal), community animal health workers, improved housing facilities for stall-fed animals, AI for improving local breeds in intensive systems, collectively owned milking machines for cattle, improved techniques for milking small ruminants, milk separators, intercropping, the use of green manure, fallow land rotation with fodder crops to increase fodder production, butane or biogas for cooking, woodlots and alley trees for fuel and fodder, and presses to facilitate dung cake production (used as fuel). The adoption of each innovation has been site specific and has depended on local human and material resources. But the innovations have all had several aspects in common. They all require low external inputs, are small in scale, depend on group effort, and are labour saving.

Although women are involved in many aspects of livestock production, future research and development should concentrate on those areas that show the most promise and are best adapted to the particular situation of women. These include emphasis on goat-raising and the production of ruminant micro-breeds, in milk, milk product and biogas production.

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