Key Gender and Livelihood Issues in Livestock Production, Management and Marketing

Jemimah NjukiTeam Leader: Poverty, Gender and Impact

FAO-ILRI Workshop on Integrating Gender in Livestock Projects and Programs, ILRI, Addis Ababa, 22-25 November 2011

Key Gender and Livestock Issues

• Livestock’s contribution to household assets

• Livestock’s contribution to income

• Patterns of livestock ownership• Men and Women’s role in

livestock keeping• Access to services, information

and technologies• Men and Women’s

participation in livestock markets

• Links between gender, livestock, food security, nutrition and health

Livestock as an Asset

Livestock as an asset?

Livestock, especially small stock, form a critical rung on the asset ladder out of poverty

Livestock are among the few assets women can own

Livestock are “productive” assets; livestock and their products contribute to food and income security

Livestock as a social asset..

Contribution of livestock to household assets

• Livestock an important asset contributing 55% of the total asset index for all households (52.7% male headed households and 68% for female headed households) in Kenya

• Similar trends in Tanzania, with livestock contributing to 69% of all households asset index, and 68% and 75% for male and female headed households respectively.

Household Type

Total HH index

Total livestock index

Kenya Male-headed 97.14 51.28

Female-headed 43.07 29.31

Total 83.35 45.67

Tanzania Male-headed 105.6 72.2

Female-headed 49.9 37.6

Total 95.7 66

Total domestic and livestock

index

% of livestock to total index

Kenya Men 41.01 21.5

Women 16.68 22.5

Joint 60.35 36

Tanzania Men 41.80 46.6

Women 11.42 18.3

Joint 58.47 24.2

• Within male headed households, women held 10.2% and 13.9% of the total domestic and livestock assets in Tanzania and Kenya respectively.

• For women, this represented 22.5% and 18.3% of the non land asset index under their ownership

• Gender asset disparity of 0.27 in Tanzania and 0.41 in Kenya. This does not take into account jointly held assets

Household ownership of livestock – Male and Female headed households

• Local chickens and dairy cows were the most commonly owned livestock species in Kenya

• In Tanzania, local chicken, goats and pigs were the most common species• There were no big differences in proportion of male and female headed

households owning different species.

  Male-headed

Female-headed

 

Livestock Mean Mean T-statistic

Bee Hives 3.71 3 0.966Dairy Cattle 2.64 2.08 2.074**Exotic chicken (Broilers)

187 14 2.487**

Exotic chicken (Layers)

56.32 11.4 2.26**

Goats 6.15 4.64 0.752Local chicken 13.43 8.98 1.859**Other cattle 2.47 2.75 -0.182Pigs 6.33 5.5 0.195Sheep 4.06 3.28 1.011

• Female headed households had significantly smaller numbers of cattle, chicken (local, improved) compared to their male counterparts

• Similar results in Tanzania

Livestock holdings in male and female headed households

Kenya

Kenya  Men and women in male headed

households

Men Women Joint

Bee Hives 3.8 1.3 3.5Dairy Cattle 3.0 1.5 2.6Exotic (Broilers) 8.0 350.0 191.0

Exotic (Layers) 70.0 56.5 48.3

Goats 11.2 3.9 4.7Local chicken

19.1 15.7 9.9

Other cattle 1.7 1.0 2.7Pigs 5.7 - 7.0Sheep 4.4 2.3 3.8

TanzaniaMen and women in male headed households

Livestock type Men women Jointly

Bee Hives 7.8 3.0 21.3Dairy Cattle 3.5 4.0 6.1

Exotic chicken (Broilers)

258.0 156.7 100.0

Exotic chicken (Layers)

200.0 - 346.5

Goats 8.6 3.4 8.9Local chicken 22.8 39.7 23.3Other cattle 9.1 2.0 5.4Pigs 4.0 2.4 4.1Sheep 5.2 6.0 6.3

Livestock ownership: Men and women within male headed households

In the two countries, women had lower numbers of every livestock species than men in male headed households with the exception of chicken in Kenya and Tanzania and Dairy in Tanzania.

How do women gain and maintain control over livestock?

• Women are less likely than men to acquire animals in the marketplace.

• Threats:– Drought and disease– Dissolution of the household– Commercialization?

Means of acquisition of livestock by women

• Despite other evidence, across species, the main means of livestock acquisition by women was through purchase

• In Tanzania, overall, about 50% of livestock owned by women was through purchase

• For, goats, other cattle and local chicken, born into the herd was a common source for women

Livestock as a source of income

Contribution of livestock to household cash income

• Livestock contributed 35% of cash income in Tanzania and 55% in Kenya

• Contributed more to income in female headed households than male headed households

• Variation in contribution by income quartile across the 2 countries

Men and Women’s Roles in Livestock Keeping

• Women provide a large share of the labor in livestock keeping, especially in mixed systems and poor households

• Women’s priorities and constraints are often, but not always, different from men’s

Women’s role in livestock keeping

• Women often control products even where they don’t control animals

• For example, women often control some or all milk even if they can’t decide where the cow is grazed or whether it is sold.

0

10

20

30

40

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60

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Morning Milk Evening Milk

% h

ou

sheo

lds

Male Female Mixed

Roles

• Division of rights and responsibilities affects incentive and ability to adopt new technologies and practices to increase production and productivity.

• We need to understand this better to develop appropriate technologies and design more effective interventions.

Access to services, information and technologies

Participation & registration in Cooperatives -Few dairy farmers registered in Cooperative

Very few women participated in Cooperatives- None in Uganda - 27% of registered

members in Kenya

Men and Women’s Participation in Livestock Markets

Women’s participation in markets

• Sale of livestock and livestock products are often an important source of income for women

• Men and women face different constraints in marketing

• Women are more likely to sell in informal, local markets

• Women’s marketing costs are often higher than men’s:– Information—women face higher costs, but

groups can help– Most often have to pay male intermediaries

Who mainly sold livestock and livestock products?

• High participation of women in sale of livestock products (eggs and milk) and very low participation in sale of livestock (cattle, sheep, goats)

• Differentiation between ownership and management. Even in cases where women do not own the livestock, they are involved in the sale of products but not the sale of the livestock itself

Common markets accessed by men and women-Tanzania

Common markets accessed by men and women

• Most commonly sold to markets by women were sales at farm gate to other farmers or traders (for chicken, eggs, milk and honey)

• Women rarely made sales to city markets, or delivered to shops, collection centres or chilling plants ( milk)

• Men made more deliveries to shops/ hotels /kiosks and other outlets

• In Kenya women had more options for markets than in Tanzania

• Chicken, eggs and milk had more market options than products such as honey

Income management by men, women in male headed households

• In Kenya, low income management by women across species and products

• In Tanzania, more income from chicken, milk and honey managed by women compared to Kenya

Variation in income share depending on where sold

• Women managed a higher income share when product was sold at farm gate compared to when sold at village markets or delivered to traders

• Differences less clear for sales of sheep, goats and cattle due to ownership patterns

Variation in income share depending on who sold

• When women sold (physically or did the transaction), they managed a higher income share (for both products and species)

Gender, Livestock, Nutrition and Health

Gender, Livestock, and Nutrition

"Even small additional amounts of meat and milk can provide the same level of nutrients, protein, and calories to the poor that a large and diverse amount of vegetables and cereals could provide”

“The Cow Turns Green,” Newsweek, September 7, 2009

• Livestock ownership alone is not sufficient to ensure consumption of animal source foods (ASF)

• Women play a key role in household choices about food consumption, dietary quality, and intra-household allocation.

• Women’s status is key to making good choices here

Women, Livestock and Health

• Many important diseases are zoonotic, and food safety can be a major issue with animal source foods

• A gendered risk assessment found:– Women’s higher exposure to high-risk activities such

as feeding, milking, and cleaning of livestock– Women and men exposed to different diseases, by

species– Women much more exposed to food-borne diseases

because of role in food and by-product processing, food preparation, and selling ready to eat

.

Livestock production and human nutrition? What do we know?

Figure. Hypothesized causal linkages between livestock keeping and human nutrition and health outcomes among the poor (adapted from Nicholson et al., 2003). ASF = animal-source food; HH = household (Randolph et al. 2007)

Animalsowned

Humannutritional

(growth) status

Human healthstatus

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Probability ofzoonotic disease

Animalproduction

Food cropproduction

Food crop sales

Animal &product sales

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+ +

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-

HHIncome

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Dietaryintake

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Level of care/feedingbehavior

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Labor allocatedto livestock

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-

Labor demands on(female) caregiver

Total labordemands

+

+

Healthinputs

+

Food croppurchases

ASF purchases

HH cropconsumption

HH ASFconsumption

+

+

+

+

+

Chronicdisease risk +

-

Land allocationto feed

Traction, nutrientcycling

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Environmental toxinconcentration

-

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test

test

Food-bornediseases

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Watercontamination

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Its complex!

Direct Nutrition Benefits

Intermediate determinants of child nutritional status

Breast Feeding and weaning practices Food intake patterns and practices (diet

diversity and food frequencies) Intra-household food allocation Nutrition knowledge, attitudes and

practices

Intensification and Household Consumption

• Key indicators– Proportion of milk kept for consumption from total

production – Proportion of evening milk kept for consumption

Emerging Advanced

Mean daily milk production, in liters 3.2 10.8

Mean daily milk consumption, in liters 2.0 4.9

Proportion of households keeping all of evening milk for consumption

93.5 74.2

GENDER, LIVESTOCK AND FOOD SECURITY

Livestock and food security: Calculated variables• Household/Individual dietary diversity score (HDDS/IDDS)

– Takes a value of 0-1 and is measured based on a 24 hour recall– Can also be used to calculate proportion of households consuming at

least one animal source food per day

• Food consumption score– Based on consumption of food groups– Each food group is weighted– Contribution of meat, fish and milk to the food consumption score

• Months of adequate household food provisioning (MAHFP)-

– Measured over a 12 month recall period

Women’s ownership of livestock and food security

Tanzania HDDS MIHFP

women own

livestock

women do not own

livestockT-values

women own

livestock

women do not own

livestockT-values

Dairy cattle 0.69 0.55 1.44** 11 8.77 3.67 **Exotic chicken 0.58 0.55 2.8 *** 11.5 8.77 5.08*Local chicken 0.63 0.55 0.92 8.84 8.67 0.416Goats 0.51 0.56 0.35 8.5 8.83 0.51

• Women’s ownership of dairy cattle and chicken influenced HDDS in both Kenya and Tanzania

• In Kenya ownership of local chicken and goats also influenced HDDS

Kenya HDDS MIHFP

women own

livestock

women do not own

livestock

t-values women own

livestock

women do not own

livestock

t-values

Dairy cattle 0.73 0.65 3.105*** 4.3 5.8 2.272**

Exotic chicken 0.82 0.66 4.376*** 3.7 5.5 1.689

Local chicken 0.71 0.66 2.118** 5.3 5.4 0.242

Goats 0.61 0.69 2.564** 5.1 5.4 0.403

Household Economics

Changes in income and income share generated by dairy activities

Income expenditure on food

Allocation of milk production to own consumption vs sale

Gender mediated interventions

Changes in women’s roles with introduction /intensification of livestock production especially in terms of time allocation (care giver time)

Decision making in relation to use of milk and income allocation

Expenditure patterns-food and health input purchases

Access to training, nutrition information, livestock assets

Impact of Dairy on Primary Caregiver’s Time:Time spent on daily activities over intensification levels

Average Time Spent on Daily Activities (in minutes)

No Cow Emerging Advanced

Childcare Activities 201.0 227.5 219.4

Income Generating Activities

281.9 283.9 275.5

Cattle Activities 15.3 112.1 56.9

Public Health

Health related determinants of child nutritional status (healthcare expenditure and health seeking behaviour

Disease risk profiling

Syndromic surveillance

Access to public health services and information