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WORKING GROUP ON ANIMAL PRODUCTION
Chairman: Ms Angelina Munoz-
Rapporteur: Ms Irene Whalen
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ORGANIZATION OF REPORT
I. Introduction and overview
II. Ownership of and access to land
a. landless women
b. land legislation
c. agrarian reform
d. resettlement programs
III. Animal extension services
a. animal care/training
b. reaching rural women
IV. Agricultural organizations and institutions
a. credit
b. marketing
1) processing and sale of animals and animal products
2) training
3) prices
c. insurance
d. monitoring and evaluation of projects
V. Research, application and approaches to women and animal production
a. farming systems as a framework for analysis
b. development and appropriate technologies
c. nutritional linkages
d. additional data required
e. actions required
VI. Institutional linkages (international and national)
a. women's bureaus/cells within MOA
b. funding
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SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS
Report 15
1. Development projects should take account of the situation prevailing in the
country:
government's policies
traditions
development activities already under way.
2. Projects should aim to integrate the whole family (men and women).
3. Try to reduce dependence on financial and technical resources by encouraging the
population to participate in the production of animal feed (maize, fodder, etc.).
4. Whatever the development project, the aspirations and requirements of the
population should be taken into account before effective action is taken.
5. Assist in the training of multi-purpose extension personnel (agriculture, zootechny,
basic animal health care).
6. Training in villages could be improved by providing technical and financial
assistance to women rural motivators and could be rounded off, wherever possible, by the
mass media in village centres.
7. Train cattle farmers to vaccinate their animals (e.g., chickens against Newcastle
disease).
8. Promote traditional livestock farming where, with a little effort, productivity
could be increased at no extra cost.
9. Training in handling of meats for marketing (hygiene, etc.).
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WORKING GROUP ON ANIMAL PRODUCTION
DRAFT
Recommendations
Project Design and Implementation
On project design and implementation it is necessary that whatever mechanisms em-
ployed must be aimed at strengthening the existing governments' machinery so as to
best provide for those activities aimed at women only at both planning and implementation
level as it may be extremely expensive and time consuming to establish specific units
manned by women to service women farmers. This will avoid the unfortunate situation
within which projects specially tailored for rural women tend to be ignored by relevant
technical ministries resulting in the failure of such projects.
Credit
The very cardinal limitation of the lack of the necessary collateral for the pur-
pose of procurement of loans from the conventional loaning agencies, i.e., commercial
banks and institutional credit agencies, makes it necessary for the establishment of an
alternative machinery specially tailored to meet the credit needs of the rural women.
Such a machinery should of necessity side-step the requirements of collaterals for
the purpose of loan procurement of rural women, and should make provisions for the
handling of small quantities of monetary requirements that are more relevant to the
needs of rural women. The type of activity undertaken and the nature of the production
line involved should for example determine the credit worthiness and the repayment
schedules to be advanced while the anticipated product may serve for the purpose of
loan security, so long as a specific marketing channel and payment system is incor-
porated to adequately service the women.
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DRAFT
RECOMMENDATIONS ANIMAL PRODUCTION
Marketing
A need exists for a great deal of research to establish the effect of ready market
outlets to nutritional status and the food security position at the farm level, with a
view to incorporating possible safeguards within project proposals to ensure that the
family unit needs are catered for before the relevant produce is marketed.
The National food security policies must also be reflected at the basic family unit
level, and not be limited to the national level only.
Provisions should be instituted which provide for the possibility of women receiving
the returns from their production so as to promote the link between incentive and
productivity for the purpose of increased productivity.
Extension and Training Programmes
Extension and training programmes should be adapted to the women. Attention should
be paid to the complete role the woman plays in the household )see Chavanji). In all
levels of the training more women experts should be involved and stimulated to do so.
On the basic level one or two women (or a team) should have a more extensive training in:
management and nutrition of young animals;
hygienical producing and processing of milk (products);
veterinary and information on vaccination, treatment against parasites, etc.;
storage and marketing of the products.
These women should be paid. Preferably single women should be asked since they have
more freedom of movement. They should be given the necessary incentives and be directly
linked to preferably female technical experts, to work as intermediairs.
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DRAFT
RECOMMENDATIONS ANIMAL PRODUCTION
In genera] more data should be collected, especially what the women in the villages
see as the most important constraints.
Large scale programmes and very advanced techniques like cross-bred promoting are
not useful to small farmers.
More cooperation between the several divisions of national and international insti-
tutions is needed.
One has to realize that involving women more in projects doesn't mean extra funds;
it should be seen as a different way of using the same funds to give more gain.
Training
Women because of their multiple role in society require special training programmes
which of necessity ought to be run within the local setting, where women may attend
on a daily basis for a limited number of days, aimed at least disruption of the family
unit.
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ANIMAL PRODUCTION
Part II
General recommendations:
1. That a high level FAO interdivisional committee be established to monitor all
FAO and Investment Centre, livestock and people's participation projects with respect
to the integration of women in these projects. Monitoring should start at the
project design level and include undertaken feasibility studies and continue throughout
the implementation of the project. In view of important information gaps about women's
role in animal production, feasibility studies can provide valuable information.
2. That FAO assists the establishment of a cell on Women in Animal Production
and Marketing at the planning level of Ministries of Agriculture and that governments
allocate sufficient resources for the operation of this cell.
3. That the FAO Animal Production Division recruits animal production and health
staff members with experience with women's livestock projects and/or expertise
in women's role in animal production and marketing.
4. The FAO Women's Division in cooperation with the Agricultural Training Division
develop models for farmer training which are more accessible to women by being
village based, oriented toward practical application and make use of existing
training techniques which are appropriate for illiterate people.
5. In view of practical difficulties encountered in the field placement of young
women agricultural extension workers, it is recommended that FAO tests alternative
models including:
training of adult rural women 35 years and over, female heads of house-
hold and/or the training of husband-wife rural couples to work as a team.
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6. Recommendations regarding women's integration in livestock programmes and
projects and overall rural development programmes do not necessarily imply the necessity
to increase the overall available budget. Instead, there is a need for FAO and
donor agencies to restructure allocational priorities of funds and resources so as to
make available adequate resources.
Part III
The implications of pricing policy for women's participation in animal production
and marketing should be recognized. The implications should be examined of greater
government intervention in the determination of the prices of those animals and
animal products which are presently under women's control, so as to encourage addi-
tional participation of women in those markets by improving their profitability.
(Recommendations to paper)
If, owing to (planned) changes in the production process of dairy products,
changes are also planned in the distribution of the dairy productsefforts should be
made to incorporate the existing traders.
More research is needed into the problems needs, constraints, opportunities
in and priorities of market women. These studies should be product-oriented.
Part IV
Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Extension Policy level
1. In some areas, it is recognized there is limited scope for technical improvement
in the small scale sector which will generate real and attractive economic returns.
In these cases it is recommended extension concentrates a) on the improvement of
living conditions through development of the social infrastructure b) on
securing women's access as producers, users and managers in larger scale enterprises.
2. It is recognized that in the absence of readily available research recommendations
concerning or adaptable to the animals, animals breeds, pastures and fodder crops
maintained by women, extension has a minor role to play. In these cases, the priority
must be appropriate fundamental and adaptive research.
3. It is recognized that in the small scale sectors it is difficult to provide women
access to activities in which men already dominate. It is recommended priority
attention should be given a) to activities in which women predominate already and
b) women's activities/technologies which are new to both men and women.
4. It is recommended that care be taken to avoid a) the transfer of women's debt
lenders
from traditional sources of finance, including money/ to modern institutions or
onor-assisted projects and b) the entrapment of women processors and sellers of
animal products and crafts in declining markets and low-return occupations through
subsidy.
5. The question of costs is best seen 1) in relation to estimates of the gains at
the household or national levels through supporting women, 2) the existing costs borne
by women and their families (health, nutrition, production foregone), 3) in relation
to the ineffectiveness and inefficiency of present resource allocations which could
be better used if attention to women were reflected within existing levels of resource
use.
Field Level: Field Methodologies and Approaches
1. Male and female field staff are better motivated to work with women where job
content and work schedules and performance targets for specific categories of women
have been identified, and agreed to by the men. It is recommended that assistance
be given to develop such guidelines within concrete situations.
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2. In many cases women raise their own capital through, for example, traditional
savings groups. It is recommended extension agents are trained to identify such
mechanisms as vehicles for linking women to institutional savings and credit, where
necessary, and as receivers of seed capital or start-up finance for new activities.
3. In view of women's multiple management roles, it is recommended extension
training be provided at women's place of work and not only at residential training
centres.
4. It is recommended that animal husbandry extension services draw on the lessons of
experience of non-government organizations in providing technical skills and
information to non-literate women (e.g. artificial insemination, milk fat content
testing).
5. Animal husbandry services which are responsible for credit should draw on the
lessons of non-government organizations and project'banks' in using alternative
forms of collateral (e.g. group guaranteed repayment; repayment in kind under revolving
fund arrangements; institutionalized repayment at point of sale through organized
marketing of animal products).
6. Where extension should be reaching women as operators, it is recommended particular
attention is given to the timing and location of meetings, demonstrations etc. to
ensure these are convenient and in practice accessible to women.
7. It is recommended greater extension attention be paid to the marketing and
trading of animal products by women (e.g. provision of advice/technology to improve and
standardise quality; improved terms of access through wholesaling; diversification
of market outlets; provision of market information direct to women).
8. Where delivery of inputs is a problem, greater use be made of strategically placed
women as delivery channels for input supply (women traders, itinerant market women,
animal product crafts women).
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9. It is recommended that the communication of information be adjusted to take
account of women's communication networks and women's exclusion from orpractical
access s to public networks or male-controlled communication channels.
10. In identifying the target clientele for extension, women's roles should be
identified and explicitly represented in the recruitment of extension contacts
and recruitment to contact groups.
11. In recognition that women's accumulated experience and observation of their animals
is a valuable and non-substitutable knowledge base, it is recommended that extension-
research linkage mechanisms be tested to feed women's knowledge into animal and vete-
rinary research programmes.
12. Veterinary extension services should draw on the lessons of non-government
experience in the use of female paraprofessional basic animal health workers and
incorporate training of such cadres and the supply of animal 'first aid kits' into
their programmes. These cadres' work in some respects would be analogous to tra-
ditional Booth Attendants in the Health Sector and Pump Attendants in the Water Sector
and important lessons might be drawn from experience in these sectors. Extension
should, where necessary, incorporate basic money management, functional accountancy
training for women producers and processors, taking note that suitable materials for
working with non-literates now exist in these subjects.
FAO
1. It is recommended that FAO develop internal mechanisms to ensure that extension
assistance to other sectors (e.g. agriculture) does not unintentionally destroy women's
access to grazing, fodder or water (e.g. through promotion of chemical weed control where
weeds and crop residues are used for fodder and grazing) or that alternative prevision
is made.
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2. FAO should encourage the appointment of female/male counterpart teams to
initiate a learning experience for both female and male field staff and decision-
makers.
3. It is recommended that FAO's animal husbandry and livestock departments strongly
support the appointment of female members to all project planning, identification,
evaluation and advisory missions, both as technical experts and as advisors on women's
incorporation.
4. FAO should also encourage the recruitment of female associate experts in all
technical fields, including livestock extension.
5. It is recommended that the FAO phase out support for 'Women's Officer' posts in
animal extension and other technical livestock departments as long as it widens its
recruitment of women through affirmative action regarding technical posts.
6. All FAO's statistics relating to the livestock sector wherever possible should
be disaggregated by gender; all new data gathering should seek disaggretated information;
assistance should be provided to livestock and animal husbandry departments to redesign
their statistics and survey forms to reflect and capture women's participation.
7. FAO should make use of the guidelines already suggested in its own technical reports
on the participation of women in the livestock sectors.
Level of Extension Organisation
1. It is recommended that affirmative action be supported in the recruitment of women
to decision-making levels. Although the supply of appropriately qualified women varies
from country to country, evidence suggests that in most countries more women are available
pro-oritonaly than are recruited. The demonstration of the career opportunities would
also encourage more women to seek qualification in animal husbandry and veterinary science.
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2. As posts fall vacant, it is recommended that more women are recruited as
extension field staff and supervisors, trainers, research workers and survey staff
more in proportion to women's participation in livestock and animal production/processing
etc.
3. It is recommended that extension services be assisted to experiment with alternative
patterns of deployment of female staff in the field, to overcome practical problems -
where these occur in accommodation, mobility and modesty (e.g. all female or mixed
field teams; sharing of accommodation with women from other departments; visible/public
endorsement of the women as professionals on placement in the field; joint discussions
with male colleagues of such issues during in-service training etc.).
4. All the data entered in extension reporting forms and the statistical information
generated, requested or supplied by extension departments should be disaggregated by
gender.
5. All the educational statistics kept by or supplied to extension training centres
should be disaggregated by gender.
6. Case studies should be commissioned to assist animal husbandry and veterinary
extension services to evaluate in their own case the structural/organizational options
for orienting their work to take more account of women's contribution (e.g. senior
women's adviser; women's officers within livestock sector planning apparatus action -
oriented commissioned research programme as a service input to higher executive and
administrative cadres; adoption of new monitoring and evaluation criteria).
Training
1. It is recommended that trainers at the producer/processor level be recruited from
men and women with real practical experience and familiarity with women's tasks.
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2. Trainers at higher levels should at least have undergone a period of field
placement, carrying out day to day the work of female producers/processors/labourers.
3. In view of women's historic educational disadvantages and standards of literacy,
it is recommended more consideration be given to a) the development of information
and extension materials usable by women and b) the introduction of informal education
methods at training centres.
4. Recruitment into extension programmes and training courses at residential centres
should be based on who exactly does what work within the subject to be taught.
5. Recruitment into entry training programmes for extension officers should include
consideration of proven work experience and tested capacity as a substitute for paper
qualifications so that women's present disadvantage in schooling does not form an
insuperable barrier.
6. Support should be given to study tours a) for female producers/processors and
b) extension trainers and c) extension managers, to widen their understanding, expose
them to alternative options, and develop women's access to the public domain.
7. Training of trainers should include exercises to assist women to increase their
self-confidence and self-image.
8. Training of trainers should incorporate training in production support skills
such as basic correspondence, administrative filing, and decision-making skills
training for women.
9. Trainers should also be trained to advise women on access skills eg. self-mobility
(how and where to catch buses etc.); the opening times and formalities of government
offices; access procedures for institutional credit and marketing, where such production
support training is required.
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10. Greater attention should be paid in inservice training to the commercial
processing of the animal products locally under women's management.
11. The curricula of Farmer Training Centres, Institutes, Agricultural and Veterinary
Colleges and all higher level livestock and veterinary training institutions should be
changed to include detailed and explicit local information on women's roles and work with
animals, pasture maintenance, animal products and marketing; the relationship between male
and female work in the livestock sector; and the implications for the household economy.
12. Colleges and higher level extension training departments should be assisted to
develop students' field studies, practical training and faculty research to capture the
basic data, develop the theoretical understanding, and evaluate the options for effective
and efficient action.
Part V
1. Land for Feed and Pasture
It is a misleading premise that"land is a crucial point in animal production, if
there is no land, there are no cattle",
My experience and recommendation is that land and cattle ownership need not go
together for helping rural women in fighting their poverty in India and other developing
countries, majority of poor rural women being landless agriculture labourers, are the
really deserving people, to get cattle loan. Being landless is their misfortune and
not a crime. Hence, all efforts of FAO should be directed to strengthen landless rural
women for steady, non-agriculture source of income generation.
For fodder, feed and pastures, the Dairy should give actual extension services
by delivering cattle-feed at highly subsidized rates to landless cattle raisers.
Again, our landless agriculture labourers do .ean their wagesin terms of green fodder
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from their farmer-employers, their landlessness should not come in way of their cattle-
development credit services.
2. Agrarian reforms are aimed at assisting the rural poor to own land; but rich farmers
are too smart to give away and declare a lot of their fertile land to government:
they have already disposed and distributed their land to relatives before the land Act:
so it has not benefitted rural landless. Agrarian reforms could not benefit poor women
who haven't acquired even two acres of "surplus" land, under Agrarian reforms, nor the
cash assistance to cultivate land; In a given value system of rural social structure,
land does not belong to women; neither cattle, norjewellery nor house, nor agriculture
income belongs to them. They have no control over their reproductive role also.
So green revolution has failed them.
3. So far as dairy development and women are concerned, T recommend as follows:
a) Cattle Care Training 80% of cattle care and milk production work is done by
women. Hence 80% of the trainers training inputs and dairy programmes must be women-
directed;
1. Instead of month long residential training programme, short term three days
cattle-care, veterinary service camps with regular two months' interval, in-village
and out-station programmes do help them.
2. Non-verbal, oral, audio-visual training material for training will help
cattle-holders and milk producers. Direct exposures to dairies, poultry farms, fishery
processing centres and agriculture University farms these out-station study tours must
be integrated in the training. Our experience of 600 women trainees proved how it
changed their poor self-perception radically: Next phase could take couples' tours.
3. Support services like creches, functional literacy, simple accountancy, functional
banking social securities must be provided to cattle raisers.
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4. Unless reasonably encouraging milk-price is steadily given to small milk
producers and animal producers, they will keep on selling products to private
traders and money lenders; thus perpetuating their exploitation, women will lose
faith in white revolution.
5. For a cluster of villages, a chilling centre to preserve unused,
un-transported milk, is a must.
6. Small cattle-raisers must be taught to convert milk into milk products for
higher income generation. In India the value-added milk products earn fortune to
private traders: why not transfer this skill and kit to poor rural women? It will
free them from dependence on dairy as well give them better, secure market.
7. First Aid training to treat cows, buffalos, hens, etc. is a must not only
to extension workers, but women themselves: Training in veterinary practice with
the simple remedies kit must be made available to cattle-raising women, at door
step. It helps them really controlling the cattle-mortality rate and makes independence
of urban sophisticated structures.
8. Insurance of the small and big animals should really reach women. At present, the
cattle dies, and urban-based insurance officer rarely reaches these to certify death
of the cattle. Women knock the doors of office to office, travel town to town to
get insurance money. But lose it accusing the Development!
My recommendation is,
a) place insurance authority, in the hands of NGO extension women worker;
FAO can pressurize governments to enable women to get insurance without
going through trauma of red tapism.
b) Cost of insurance must be borne by government, bank and dairy collectively
and not by women; They are supplying a vital service to national economy.
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Women's role in animal production should not be seen in isolation forgetting
her other functions, too. In dry seasons she goes to roads and canal construction,
brick plants, in harvest season goes as agricultural worker, when cattle are out to
graze she works as potter and weaver and works as mother too. She is also a vendor,
also a consumer. So a development plan must consider all these aspects of poor rural
women, constantly at work.
Appropriate technology must give direct exposure to women, give listening to
their comments and again redesign the equipment to suit and solve her needs and value
system constraints.
Part VI
According to Director-General's Bulletin 77/57 ofOctober'77 there is a
statement that "Equality between men and women is a guiding principle of the
Organization". Therefore all programmes for farmers whether in plant or animal
production or any other programme made, should include activities for women according
to the work they do with the animals and in a way that the man doesn't feel threatened.
Such a programme has to be planned and implemented within the relevant technical
Ministry and not by the Ministry that handles women affairs. Extension services
in animal production which are designed to reach women in some regions need to
have women technical officers especially veterinary technicians.
Part VII
Recommendations on Appropriate Technology for Women in Food Production
Equal participation of women in management and policy making levels, an important
aspect of which would be to give more accesss of women to education in general, since
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this would greatly facilitate their development and integration into the various
fields of management and production.
2. More financial and logistical support of women from government and international
agencies which could include chanelling of funds according to priorities.
3. Intensification of the links between the grassroots and technical levels, through
extension services such that research technology would actually conform to the needs
of the area and people, and this would include making feasibility studies of intended
projects to its actual acceptability and practicability.
4. Providing specific support services to rural women to be more mobile in the
production processes as for instance support services for working mothers, provisions
for proper compensation for women's labour also taking into account the effects these
would have on the family unit.
5. Provisions for other support services for women such as facilitation of credit
and marketing processes.
6. Projects should be undertaken on a regional and subregional level or
preferably on a country level so as to arrive at more practicable methods of assisting
women.
Part VIII
Policy Issues
If FAO could influence governments at policy making levels to consider the concept
of private participation of professional Veterinary practitioners through the
elimination of subsidies that would allow for the economical changes for services
rendered.
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WORKING PARTY ON ANIMAL PRODUCTION
HOW TO PROMOTE THE PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN FOOD MARKETING AND CREDIT
The participation of women in marketing and credit is closely tied in with their
participation in production. Consequently, it poses mainly legal and economic diffi-
culties:
(1) Ownership by women (of land, cattle, processed agricultural products...),
their associations or peasant associations;
(2) The ability to monitor the product's progress along the commercial circuit
and to benefit from its ultimate sale. If women are to participate effectively
in marketing and credit, and if they and their families are to derive advan-
tages from it, they must have:
control over the means of production (material and financial means,
technical knowledge, etc.);
control of the product in the distribution circuit (marketing).
Therefore, we can make three main recommendations:
(1) Have all projects drawn up by women and with women,
by associating with them in their daily life through detailed field studies.
(2) Inform and train the populations concerned, their leaders (preferably their
own elected ones) as well as project contact agents (particularly women),
by informing them of what was noted in their environments and by exposing
them to skills and techniques not yet mastered by them.
(3) Make the necessary finance and means of action available to women and exten-
sion personnel as a means of furthering the success of the projects,
by setting up a local management committee which will lay down the way in
which funds are to be used, taking into account local conditions.
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