Livestock services factsheet - IFAD

Women livestock keepers: unique
knowledge and special needs
Women produce as much as 80 per cent of the food in most developing
countries. Men’s participation in agriculture, on the other hand, has been
declining in recent years. War and disease have reduced male populations in
rural areas. And men often migrate to towns and cities in search of work.
CONTACTS
Ahmed E. Sidahmed
Technical adviser and focal point
Livestock and Rangeland Systems
Technical Advisory Division, IFAD
Via del Serafico 107
00142 Rome, Italy
Telephone: (39) 0654592455
Fax: (39) 065043463
Email: a.sidahmed@ifad.org
LINKS
Agrodev Canada
www.agrodev.ca
Centre for Research on Globalization
www.globalresearch.ca
Centre for the Study of Sustainable
Agricultural and Livestock
Production Systems
www.cipav.org.co
Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research
www.cgiar.org
DANIDA
www.danida.org
Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations
www.fao.org
Globalization.com
www.globalization.com
Global Livestock (CRSP)
http://glcrsp.ucdavis.edu
International Centre for Agricultural
Research in Dry Areas
www.icarda.cgiar.org
International Food Policy Research Institute
www.ifpri.org
International Livestock Research Institute
www.ilri.cgiar.org
Livestock System Group,
University of Reading
www.livestockdevelopment.org
World Food Programme
www.wfp.org
Contact information
International Fund for Agricultural Development
Via Serafico, 107 – 00142 Rome, Italy
Tel.: +39 06 54591
Fax: +39 06 5043463
E-mail: ifad@ifad.org
www.ifad.org
Women farmers often possess unique knowledge of livestock and tend to shoulder
the primary responsibility for animal care. However, women’s roles in livestock keeping
often depend on regional traditions and taboos. In some cultures, women raise large
animals, in others, they do not work with livestock at all. Some women only process
livestock products or clean the animals’ stalls. Others care for small animals kept near
home, such as goats or chickens. Sometimes a woman’s access to livestock is limited
to her family ties. She might borrow her husband’s donkey to carry water, or use
the milk from his cow to feed her children.
Women livestock keepers also have to struggle with formidable economic
constraints. Women inherit fewer animals than their male relatives, and when they
do own livestock, it is often in name only, and husbands, brothers or sons tend to
control livestock sales and profits. Without collateral, women are often denied credit
and are forced to rely on exploitative village moneylenders.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic has only made matters worse. A woman widowed by AIDS
must often sit by while male relatives step in to claim her deceased husband’s property,
including his livestock. Even when a widow is able to keep her husband’s livestock,
she often finds herself cut off from the financial and agricultural services that were
once available to him.
Development projects can help women become livestock owners and protect their
access to vital services and resources. But much more needs to be done to ensure that
women have the tools they need to be successful livestock keepers. Women in
developing countries are more likely than men to spend the money they earn on their
families’ needs, including school fees, medical care and food for their children. A study
in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Indonesia and South Africa, found that when women in poor
households had control over money and assets, their children were more likely to
be clothed and educated and their girls healthier. Another study found that children
in poor households headed by women had better nutrition than those in poor
households headed by men.
Given the importance of women in agriculture and the vital roles they play in
meeting their families’ needs, particular attention must be given to supporting them
as livestock keepers.
Working together
By working together, about 10 000 herder families sharing common grazing lands in eastern
Morocco have been able to rehabilitate severely degraded rangelands.
Through a USD 47.7 million livestock and pasture development project, sheep herders in the
country’s most important pastoral region formed 44 pastoral cooperatives, which introduced new
rangeland management practices while respecting tribal structures and preserving traditions.
Drought and overgrazing had severely damaged the rangelands. Herds were decimated and
incomes had fallen dramatically. The herders needed to work together if local herding practices
were to change and disaster averted. Through the cooperatives, new practices were introduced,
including range control and respect for use rights. Nearly 14 500 hectares of fodder shrubs were
planted, 60 watering points were repaired or installed, and annual health care was provided for
nearly 900 000 sheep and goats. The introduction of a coordinated grazing rotation system, which
included bans on grazing in certain areas and the fencing of 461 000 hectares of rangeland,
led to increased fodder production and allowed better control of the use of pasture lands.
Despite five years of drought from 1997 to 2001, more than 460 000 hectares of rangeland
were rehabilitated.