Sustainable Agropastoral Systems on Marginal Lands-Bolivia

II Research (continued)

Activity III: Social Mapping of the Communities: land, labor , gender and age.

a. The Social and Agro-Pastoral Calendar in San José Llanga

Problem Statement and Approach

Understanding the timing of agropastoral and social activities is necessary to determine the exiting constraints and opportunities for interventions. The Synthesis Activity of the Agropastoral Component identified the need to integrate research various discrete research activities undertaken in San José Llanga to develop a calendar for this Agropastoral system. Dr. Markowitz is integrating the findings for the synthesis.

Progress

People in San José Llanga manage a yearly production calendar that involves the close integration of three distinct schedules: the social/festival cycle, cultivation, and ruminant production. In the semi-arid Altiplano community, producers contend each year with climatic uncertainties: rain falls too late or not at all, killer frosts may occur on any night. Comunarios use their knowledge and experience to adjust their production routines to these vicissitudes, and timing accordingly varies from year to year. With this caveat, summarized here are each of the three schedules, based on data collected by SR-CRSP researchers over the course of two years of fieldwork, mid-1992 through mid-1994. Emphasized are the potato and sheep production sectors, and the division of labor by age and sex. Since juvenile participation plays a critical role in household labor allocation strategies, the involvement and relative ability of children in pastoral tasks are described. More details of the latter are presented under Gender and Animal Husbandry.

The Festival/Social Cycle

An early methodological lesson was the understanding that people mark time by local holidays. Several important festivals serve as reference points for activities, and also require expenditures of time and cash, usually occasioning the sale of a sheep. These include: The National Day on August 6; All Saints Day on November 1; the Fiesta of San José on December 24th; the Fiesta de Reyes on January 6th; Carnival in mid-February; Easter or Pascua; the Fiesta of San Juan on June 24. A second, secular social cycle is the school calendar. Given the importance of children's labor, this is an important consideration in household planning. Formally, the school year commences in mid-February and continues until the third week in June. Students then break until early July and return to classes through the beginning of December. An additional obligation for the household labor force is taking part in community projects. In recent years, the success of community leaders in securing institutional support for improving community infrastructure have placed heavy demands on the time of adults. More routine participation involves an annual 9-10 days dedicated to community maintenance. Typically adult men carry out these duties but female household heads or older teenage children may also take on the tasks. Men also assume the ten or so rotating positions of community authority and exercise public leadership in community meetings, local planning, and relationships with external institutions. The higher profile of males in community and political activities is just one aspect of the division of labor by sex and age.

The Allocation of Labor by Gender and Age

Women and men work together in agricultural and ruminant production, either sharing in immediate tasks, or taking on different activities within the production cycle. Overall, household distribution of labor is flexible within San José, with few tasks performed exclusively by males or females. Nonetheless strong gender differences in orientation and responsibilities are evident especially in domestic, commercial and political, and finally, livestock management realms. Women household heads assume an important managerial role is directing the activities of the juvenile labor force. Small children run errands, feed chickens, wash dishes, peel potatoes, look after toddlers and assist their parents and older siblings. By 4 or 5, children begin to accompany their mothers and big sisters tending sheep. The allocation of cattle and sheep care tasks to youngsters over 6 must is organized around the school schedule. By the age of 8 or 9 a child can help a lot in nearly all cropping and animal care activities.

The Agro-Pastoral Production Cycle

Potatoes The common pattern of crop rotation in San José involves a three year cycle of potato, quinoa and barley. While producers may vary the second and third year crops, they always commence with potatoes. Consequently potato cultivation requires greater labor input in tilling and cleaning the field. The first step, plowing or roturar takes place either in late summer, or just before planting in early spring. Cleaning the field requires approximately 10 person days (Sherbourne et al. ).

A staggered sowing schedule helps farmers avert the risks of frost. Three distinct periods are recognized within the spring planting season, and people adjust their planting schedule to the presence or absence of early rains and the forecasts they draw from the moon, stars, and feral fauna (Huanca). It takes two (Sherbourne et al.) or three (Lizárraga et al.) people four days to plant a field of one hectare (assuming a parcel size of one hectare). In sowing and harvest a series of steps take place, that commence in December or January, depending on the timing of planting. Farmers mound dirt up (aporcar) around the base of the plant, a step requiring four person days and weeding, omitted by some, is also performed at this time by one person working for six days (Lizárraga et al.). After weeding, some producers fertilize the crops with urea, a morning's work for two people (Sherbourne et al.). Fumigation is undertaken in the second part of January, and sometimes repeated as late as the third week in February. In 1992-93, 86.6% of producers fumigated their fields (Huanca) to avoid la polilla de la papa ("phthorimaea opercullella").

Families will start harvesting small quantities of potatoes as early as February for daily consumption. Most families begin to harvest in earnest in early April, after Easter, and continue through mid-May. Late heavy rains result in the tubers rotting and becoming infested with worms, so harvest can become an urgent matter. However, the pace of work depends largely on the family labor force. Adults with children older than eight or nine can devote themselves full-time to the harvest since the youngsters can take on herding duties, and can complete the harvest within a month. For families with less assistance, the harvest can linger up to three months (Sherbourne et al.) and these farmers are most likely to result to hired labor. Lizárraga et al. report a that a total of 24 person days is necessary for the harvest. After potatoes are hauled back to the homestead, usually carried in small loads by donkey, they are sorted into seed potatoes, those to be used for chuño, and those for household consumption. Chuño is processed by women and children in June, when the freezing nights and bright clear days allow rapid desiccation of the tuber. The procedure takes two to five nights.

Other Crops Cultivation of forage and the other food crops involves planting and harvest, and again these tasks are shared by women and men. Food crops in approximate order of importance - quinoa, barley, faba beans, wheat, canihua, and peas - are planted between September and November (some families do report planting beans in August) and harvested between late March and May). The planting of such annual forage crops as barley, oats and wheat takes place in December and January, and these are cut in April and May, with hay making extending into June. The perennial alfalfa is cut in December and February, and if irrigated may be cut for a third time in April.

Labor and the Pastoral Cycle While many men are skilled shepherds, and are aware of flock and range conditions, women household heads monitor range lands and decide each morning, given the caliber of the available shepherd(s) where to take the sheep. As managers of this production sector they make most of the decisions about the timing of activities and the allocation of significant sheep products. They perform, along with their children, most of the daily and seasonal sheep husbandry, and determine when and how to proceed with these activities. They also independently decide when to sell animals, how to dispose of the income, and predominate in making decisions about such by-products as wool, hides and dung. Sales of live animals, wool, hides and cheese are usually carried out by women who use the revenues to purchase family food.

In contrast, care and management of cattle tends to be much more the purview of men. Despite the involvement of women and girls in milking and herding, men play the major role in management and marketing. Women are in charge of cheese-making but say their husbands are the ones who determine the allocation of milk revenues. Much of this money is reinvested into the dairy sector to buy feed supplements for cattle and forage seed. While couples discuss whether to sell a cow, this major transaction is physically handled by the man who takes the animal to market and uses the proceeds for savings, to invest in off-farm activities, and in over half the cases, to cover production costs, either new cattle, or other inputs for the livestock sector (Espejo and Jetté). Further, men wear the public face of commercial dairying through their membership in the community's dairy association.

From about the age of 6 up through late adolescence, children make an important contribution to ruminant production. Teen-aged girls are skilled at tending both sheep and cattle, and since few females in the community study beyond the 8th grade, by the age of 15 most can dedicate themselves full-time to production and domestic chores (even though this is not necessarily their preference). The ability and knowledge of young women enables them to fill in for either of their parents in the (male) realm of cattle or (female) domain of sheep. In contrast, their brothers are likely to not even be present in the community. Census data shows a ratio of approximately 2:1 in the number of females to males between 14 and 25 years of age. Young men migrate at much higher rates for a number of reasons: to attend secondary school, to enter military service and to migrate to learn a trade or enter business. The relatively few male adolescents residing within San José strongly prefer to herd cattle over sheep.

Children between the ages of 10 and 14 can independently herd both animal species in the CADES(fallow fields) and CANAPAS (native range lands) but their full-time participation is limited by the school schedule. Details are described under Age and Animal Husbandry.

Seasonal variation in herding activities. (This is also reported under Age and Gender in Small Ruminant Husbandry)

Spring. During this season (September December), herders lead sheep the longest distances through the low-lying native ranges in search of remaining vegetation. Female household heads, and to lesser extent their older daughters, take the flock to the most distant sections of the CANAPAS where some danger of predation by foxes exists. During this time alfalfa residues are also a common feed source, although most of the observed households first graze cattle, then sheep in these plots. Part-way through this season grazing is restricted, since from mid-October until mid-December the community enjoins grazing animals in fallow fields of the cropping area to give grasses there a chance to sprout. With planting and school in sessions, demands on household labor are high, requiring that all children share in herding, switching off flocks at mid-day as necessary and pasturing all day on the weekends.

Summer. In mid-December the community officially prohibits grazing in large sections of the pasture zone to allow forage species there time to recuperate. January and February are the peak times for grazing both sheep and cattle in the agricultural areas. Women say that the rainy season is the most difficult time to herd. The muddy ground makes walking more difficult and the herding day is long with livestock grazing more than during the dry months. It takes two shepherds (usually a mother and young child) to keep sheep out of cultivated fields.

Autumn. As the rains cease in March, herding becomes technically easier but the demands on households increase with as the harvest intensifies. Comunarios say that after Easter comes one of the busiest periods, with potatoes, beans and quinoa ready to harvest, and forage crops to cut. Both sheep and cattle are grazed in crop residues from the recent harvest and in the natural pastures. March also brings the most important of two lambing periods with consequent labor demands. Since the young lambs cannot keep up with the rest of the flock, the shepherd either carries them, or the ewes with lambs are pastured separately.

Winter. The end of the post-harvest processing brings the period that comunarios think of as the "easiest time of year." Sheep are grazed in the natural pastures but long searches for forage are not yet necessary. And, without agricultural chores, those men who have not departed for seasonal wage labor have more free time and assume a larger part of animal care. Thus the demands of school attendance engenders fewer contradictions over the time and availability of children. Female household heads, assisted in the afternoon by younger children, perform most of the sheep herding while older teenagers tend cattle.

c. Gender roles, livestock production and intra-household allocation of productive resources: Food and Nutrition in San José Llanga

Problem Statement and Approach

SR-CRSP research in Bolivia, with its focus on household production strategies in a high risk environment, aims to contribute to the development of policies and technologies that improve the welfare of families in the region. In this context, it is important to understand the roles of agricultural products in providing people with an acceptable level of nutrition. An important and sometimes neglected linkage in systems research is the relationship between the consumption and commercialization of food products and the physical well-being of the producers themselves. A fundamental question in assessing the sustainability of a production system is the degree to which farmers or herders may meet their nutritional needs with their own crops or animal products, or the income these generate. An evaluation of nutritional status offers a way to address this question by providing measurements of physical well-being that can be expressed in terms that allow comparisons with other populations. Such information can also aid researchers, extensionists and farmers in identifying elements of the production system that would benefit from modification and in refining the criteria for technology selection.

A technical report (prepared in Spanish and English) by Murillo and Markowitz present the findings of this study. This report provides a profile of health conditions, dietary patterns and the nutritional status of small children (birth through five years) in two agropastoral communities, one of them is San José Llanga. Young children are important to study because of their physiological vulnerability to perturbations in food supply, and the relationship between malnutrition and child morbidity. Data on household health and nutrition are placed within the contexts of national and regional conditions, trends, and policies. Food production and procurement, and dietary practices in San José are described to clarify the interactions between subsistence production, cash cropping and human well being.

Findings

The study was carried out by collaborating researcher, nutritionist Lic. Carmen Murillo Quiroga during August and September of 1993 with the support of the SR-CRSP Small Grants Program. This technical report (Murillo and Markowitz) synthesizes, interprets, and elaborates on data from the original document entitled "Diagnostico de la Situación Alimentaria Nutricional en Cinco Comunidades de la Provincia Aroma".

(Murillo and Markowitz, 1995)

As Table 1 shows better than 70% of the households receive at least 90% of their daily caloric requirements from the average family diet. Most calories consumed come from the heavy carbohydrate base afforded by home-grown tubers, chenopods and cereals, and purchased bread, noodles, rice and sugar. It should be noted that the tables used in calculating the caloric requirements are based on the population of Bolivia as a whole, and would therefore include rates for individuals who do not live in the cold, hypoxic highlands nor daily carry out strenuous farm work. Most households (71.9%) consume sufficient quantities of protein in the form of lamb, eggs, milk, seasonal cheese and occasional chicken and jerked meat (charqui). Locally produced carbohydrates - tubers, chenopods and barley - also contain more protein (and minerals and vitamins) than imported rice and noodles. Only a quarter of the households studied take in the requisite 60 grams of fat a day. A high fat diet is important in meeting the energetic demands placed by hard physical labor in the cold, Altiplano environment.

(Murillo and Markowitz, 1995)

Table 2 presents the nutritional status of children under 5 years of age. Weight for height captures an individual's nutritional status at the moment of study. Thus a low weight indicates some degree of current wasting. It can also reflect a recent bout of diarrhea or other illness that resulted in weight loss. Five children (11.9%) registered some degree of acute malnutrition and most (85.7%) fall in a normal range. The timing of the study however raises troubling questions. Research was carried out August and September, four to five months after the peak of harvest in what people considered to be an adequate production year (1992-93), although little surplus was generated for sale. While little data exists to date on the seasonality of consumption in San José, reports from other Andean communities suggest that late winter is not yet a "hungry time"; rather, accounts point to the rainy pre-harvest months as the period when household food supplies fall lowest . This suggests that children's nutritional status could decline further as the year progresses.

Height for age measurements (Table 3) reflect chronic nutritional deficiencies. Extended periods of insufficient intake in the past can result in small stature or stunting. The data here indicate that half the children have suffered some degree of malnutrition over time. Weight for age is an effective measure for screening populations to detect malnutrition. The data in this study show that 43% of the sampled children have low weights for their age (Murillo and Markowitz). All these indicate that while relatively few children suffer acute malnutrition, nearly half the youngsters are thin and short for their age, suggesting past episodes of nutritional stress. In 1995-1996 this will be correlated with wealth variables that include sheep and cattle owned.

(Murillo and Markowitz, 1995)

b. Age and Gender in Small Ruminant Husbandry

Problem Statement and Approach.

The study of activities and perspectives of young women in small ruminant husbandry in San Jose Llanga provides us with a detailed account of the way sheep herding is carried out according to age and sex of the herder and to the season. It also provides insights into the role of women in this agropastoral system. Paredes provides information on this from her research. The technical demands of sheep husbandry vary seasonally with forage conditions. Household must organize animal care around concurrent demands in agricultural cycle and around the availability of labor. While many men are skilled shepherds, and are aware of flock and range conditions, women household heads monitor range lands and decide each morning, given the caliber of the available shepherd(s) where to take the sheep. They perform, along with their children, most of the daily of sheep husbandry and determine when and how to proceed with these activities. Their decision domain includes rent of additional range land, sales of sheep (which does not exclude that they consult their husband at times), how to allocate income, and decisions about by- products such as wool, hides and dung. Women generally use sheep revenues to purchase family food; in October, they may earmark part of it to invest in potato cultivation (tractor rental and purchase of fertilizers).

In contrast, care and management of cattle tends to be much more the purview of men. Despite the involvement of women and girls in herding, milking and cheese-making, men play the major role in management and marketing. Further, men wear the public face of commercial dairying through their membership in the community's dairy association. However, according to the great majority of the women interviewed, no sales of cows is consummated without consulting them. As "treasurer" of the household men control the major part of the money obtained from sales of many commodities.

Progress

Child herding is widespread in both Andean pastoral and agropastoral systems, and in San José absorbs the labor of children from about the age of 6 up through adolescence. Teen-aged girls, in contrast to their younger sisters and brothers, are considered by their parents to be skilled at tending both sheep and cattle. Since very few women in the community study beyond the 8th grade, most at age 15 can dedicate full-time to production and domestic chores. They know how to herd, how long to stay in each area and can control the sheep in difficult settings, and prevent them from invading a neighbor's field. By their mid-teens girls can lead cattle into green alfalfa plots. This ability is critical for independent herding since a cow can be dangerously affected from ingestion of too much green alfalfa. However girls in this group do not monitor grazing as carefully as their mothers, nor micro-manage the sheep movements as judiciously. The best herders are those who begin to herd early, move frequently from one type of range land to another, and provide water to the animals several times during the day. These herders also manage to control sheep movements in each range area in order to ration the grazing.

While little boys accompany their mothers and sisters to herd sheep, as they enter mid-teens this takes on a stigma of "girls work" to be avoided. Adolescent males (when they live in the community) only help with cattle grazing, considering themselves as vaqueros (cowboy) as opposed to ovejeros (sheep herder). Notions of appropriate male and female tasks seem most pronounced during adolescence, and then recede after marriage. Children between the ages of 10 and 14 can independently herd both animal species in the fallow fields and rangelands, but their full- time participation is limited by school schedule. Moreover at this age, they have simply not yet acquired all the skills and knowledge necessary to make decisions about flock management nor handle herding in all areas. Before they depart with the livestock their parents explain carefully the day's grazing route. Both parents determine which child will carry out which tasks, depending on range conditions, agricultural demands, and their own labor obligations. While a child of this age herds competently, there are several tendencies limiting the quality of animal care. Most concretely the children cannot take animals into green alfalfa patches, and a parent or older sibling will meet with them for this phase of grazing livestock. Herding amidst other forage crops also poses a challenge since it is difficult to keep the sheep from running into neighboring plots. The children often become distracted, searching for wild fruit, and arguing with younger siblings. Finally children of this age are not as attuned to the sheep's feeding behavior a older herders, and do not notice if the animals have satisfied their appetite and thirst.

The youngest group, children between 6 and 9, are herders in-training. Just beginning to learn the techniques of herding, they easily lose control over the sheep and have trouble keeping the ruminants from scattering and running, especially when leading flocks between range areas. They also tend to become occupied with playing and neglect the animals. Mostly children of this age herd with an older sibling or parent. Normally these youngsters herd alone or with an age-mate, in areas that have already been grazed, with low quality forage, or in fields close to the family's home. Figure 1 shows the types of forage grazed by sheep during each season according to herder age.

Spring (Sep-Nov). At the end of the dry-season, herders must lead sheep the longest distance through the low-lying native range lands in search of remaining. The female household heads, and to a lesser extent their older daughters, take the flock to the most distant sections of the rangelands where some danger of predation by foxes exists. During this time alfalfa in the irrigated sector of the community is also a common feed source, although most of the households first graze cattle, then sheep in these plots. With planting and school in sessions, demands on household labor are high, requiring that all children share in herding, switching off flocks at mid-day as necessary and herding all day on the weekends. The 10 to 14 years old, boys and girls alike, lead the ruminants between different vegetative communities and herd frequently in the gramadales ("Distichlis humilis"). The mothers take on more of the herding in November, until the semester ends or parents pressure school authorities to end the school year.

Summer (Dic-Feb). In mid-December the community prohibits grazing in large sections of the range lands to allow regrowth of forage species. January and February are peak labor demand times for grazing both sheep and cattle in the cropping areas. Even though this pattern reduces traveling distance, the rainy season is the most difficult because of muddy grounds and longer hours of herding. It takes two shepherds to keep sheep off cultivated fields. Sandy fallow fields lack wells, requiring leaving early afternoon to water the sheep. With school vacation demands on adult household labor decrease, and 6 to 9 year olds are free to assist older shepherds. The 10-14 year old children herd all day, and spend a higher proportion of their time tending cattle. The participation of older teenagers is lowest during this season, as they assist in cropping alfalfa, and other household tasks.

Autumn (Mar-May). As the rains cease in March, herding becomes technically easier but the demands on households increase as harvest intensifies. Both sheep and cattle are grazed on crop residues from the recent harvest and in the native ranges. March is the most important of two lambing seasons in the community. For the first month, the young lambs cannot keep up with the rest of the flock. Therefore, the owners of flocks with 65 or more, separate the ewes with lambs from the rest of the sheep and graze them separate. The slow- moving lamb flock is typically grazed close to home, while the other flock grazes on rangelands and crop residues. The relatively simple work of tending the lamb flocks belongs to children between 9 and 11, and to the elders. After the lambs begin grazing at about a month, they need especially green grass to thrive and herders attempt to reserve them patches of forage by encouraging the ewes and lambs to graze on separate sides of the same range land. The young lambs also need to drink plenty water.

Winter (Jun-Aug). The end of the post-harvest processing brings the period that comunarios think of as the "easiest time of year". Sheep are grazed in the natural range land. With the cropping chores over, men present have free time to take over a larger part of animal care. School attendance creates fewer contradictions over the time and availability of children. With the dried up forage and hot sunshine of this season, giving the livestock sufficient water becomes a major concern. This is particularly the case in respect to the new lambs. The second round of lambing occurs in August and herders also have to be vigilant about protecting the newborn lambs from freezing temperatures. Families with plots in the irrigated sector will take livestock there after the beginning of July, when the irrigation canals are cleaned. Comunarios have an opportunity to irrigate and graze cattle on alfalfa, and sheep in nearby fields. People remain in the area for a few days to a week.

The important role of young women as herders in their households is related to social discrimination where women in rural areas have low levels of education. On one hand the weight of sheep herding and domestic responsibilities that girls have to bear does not allow them to study as much as boys, whose function as vaquero is not as demanding. Cows for example can be tethered and left alone for a few hours. As a result, girls' performance at school tend to be inferior and affect decision of who goes on to secondary education.

On the other hand households heads are more reluctant to let teenage daughters study outside the community in order to advance further than grade 8 given their role as herders. There are also safety concerns: in 1994 a young women who was studying in a secondary college of a neighboring community was raped on her way back to San José. Finally, the families fear that daughters living outside the community could get pregnant and/or decide to get married. According to prevailing patterns, women move to live with their future husband's family during at least one year before getting formally married. For the boy's household, the bride represents a very important help in herding and other household chores.

Women expressed divergent opinions on the importance of going to school for them. Some, the elder generally tend to accept the fact that "the man must know more than the woman". Younger women however do not agree. As one of them strongly stated:

"Women must study because when they are married their husband tell them that they do not know anything, they have not studied. He asks her: what have you learned?, and she cannot answer. This is why he controls the woman, criticizing her because she can not even speak well Spanish, and there are fights. For all this it is better that both man and woman study".