Gender, Livestock and Household Peasant Production: Dairy and Diversification in Crop-Livestock Systems of an Andean Community

METHODS

Study Area
SAN JOSÉ LLANGA Peasant Community

San José Llanga is an agropastoral peasant community located 116 kilometers south of the city of La Paz (Bolivia's major city), in the Province of Aroma Department of La Paz. The city is located in the Central Altiplano. The closest town is Patacamaya, 16 kilometers away and can be reached by a dirt road. San José has six human settlements called zones: Calunimaya, Sabilani, Barrio, T'holathia, Incamaya y Espíritu Willq'i. The community extension is 7,200 hectares of land, 3,475 hectares of native grasses for grazing, 2,568 hectares for cropping, 391 hectares for cultivated forages, 65 hectares of irrigated land and 701 hectares of urban centers, rivers, roads, and non agricultural land (Massy, 1994).

San José Llanga is at an elevation of 3,725 and 3786 meters above sea level (Washington-Allen, 1994). The origin is semi-arid with mean annual precipitation, between 1943 and 1990 at Patacamaya Research Station of 402 millimeters with a coefficient of variation of 31%, and a mean annual temperature of 10.4 degrees Celcius. Precipitation also varies within the year with very low rainfall from April through August. Rain may start in September and last through March. Disturbance events in the region include droughts with a 45% frequency, El Niño Southern Oscillation from 2 to 7 years, floods from 2 to 7 years, frosts from June through March (80% frequency), hail (3% frequency) and high winds from July to October (Washington-Allen 1994).

The agropastoral production system in SJL combines sheep and dairy herding on natural rangeland with crop production. Besides being a means to store wealth, the livestock generate cash, food, and other goods for the family, such as fiber and manure for crop production. The crops generate cash, food for the family, and forage for the livestock. Several varieties of food and forages are planted in small parcels of land. Fallow agricultural land and crop residue are important supplements to grazing (Yazman et al., 1995). Crop production in SJL is time-consuming, arduous and requires hand labor of all family members old enough to participate. If drought occurs, families may buy crops for consumption as well as seed stock (Huanca, 1995).

Most families have sheep and cattle and own at least one burro for work purposes (Espejo, 1994). Sheep production has been common in the zone since the colonial period; children learn production techniques from their parents. In the 1960s, extension workers introduced new breeds of sheep to improve both meat and wool production. Crossing these with the native breeds produces animals that inherit good meat characteristics and better wool production characteristics. Most farmers in the village have at least a few crossbred or improved animals in their herds.

Although cattle have been in the village for almost as long as sheep, in the past they served primarily as draft animals. With the introduction of Fomento Lechero (FL) (an extension program that organizes production and milk delivery) in 1989, dairy production began to evolve into the forefront. The recent construction of a road from Patacamaya to SJL (with the support of PAC, a peasant development program supported by an N60 a non-government organization) created favorable conditions for households to become involved in dairy production through agreements with the parastatal dairy program, PIL (Planta de Industrializacion Lechera). PIL sends a truck to SJL each morning to collect the milk.

Since its arrival, Fomento Lechero extension researchers have been working with community members to expand their dairy herd to include new breeds of cattle (Illanes, 1994). The two most popular breeds to improve milk production are Holstein and Brown Swiss. Cross-breeding with the existing native species has also been done to improve milk yields. Most farmers own at least one crossbred animal in their dairy enterprise. Households in the community have quickly adopted dairying; by 1992-1993, a significant number of households in SJL were selling milk to PIL. Thus, the FL program combined with the construction a road to SJL, has led to significantly higher levels of market integration for families in SJL.

Data Collection

Two approaches were used for data collection, the case studies and a formal questionnaire. The procedures were different but the goal was the same; to develop an understanding of the problems.

Case Studies. These had two purposes, the first to develop an understanding of the household production system, intra-household relations regarding the resources and labor allocation processes, production processes for crops and livestock, and to identify varying forms of social relations. A second purpose was to use this information to identify variables that were included in a questionnaire to measure income and productive activities in this peasant community.

Case studies were developed through structured, open-ended interviews. This included description of production processes and terminology, allocation of labor, sources of cash and in-kind income, income domains, and patterns of surplus investment. Five families from different zones As noted before, San Jose Llanga is divided in six zones, Barrio, Calunimaya, Espiritu Willq'i, Inkamaya, Sabilani, T'olathia. were chosen based on degree of household involvement with PIL. Two families sold milk, one sold it at the end of the year, and two families did not sell, though all had cattle. The factors considered in the selection of the five families included the number of dairy cattle and sheep, milk sales to PIL, and willingness to work with the research project. The objective was to include a large variability in the families, thereby obtaining a picture of diverse peasant production systems. They were chosen from an SR-CRSP census that listed the characteristics of each household. The expectation was to cover small, medium, and large producers according to herd size, but this was not achieved (Development of the case studies is presented in Sherbourne et al., 1995). Nevertheless, demographic characteristics are very distinct as well as level of income, important factors in explaining strategies for household production. The characteristics of the households, resources and activities are presented in Table 1. There is variation in the property of land resources, sheep numbers, purpose of cattle production and interests in migrating.

Source: Case Studies Information, 1993. C: has crop land M: male FG: female grandmother R: rented land Cr:criollo
Ff: has crop fallow F: female D: dairy breed P: has of pasture land
+ parenthesis indicates number of children by sex unable to work.
* numerator # animals owned denominator # of animals herded.

The case study interviews began at the end of February 1993, and continued through mid-April. Approximately one week was spent with each family. The husband and wife were interviewed separately. The bulk of the information came from the women, and these interviews were usually done while herding the sheep, except on two occasions when the women herded cattle or both sheep and cattle together. Interviews with the men usually took place while herding cattle or harvesting crops, and were used to obtain data for those questions or topics that women could not answer or where the information given seamed ambiguous.

Formal questionnaire. Formulation of the questionnaire began after initial analysis of the case studies. The purpose was to measure the economic importance of dairying in the peasant household systems of San José Llanga, interaction with other economic enterprises, effects on income diversification, and economic well-being of the adopters. Quantitative information on demographic characteristics of the families, land and livestock resources, production and use, and income generation by enterprise, including off-farm income was collected. The sample frame was constructed in mid-May. Of the ninety-four families living in SJL at the time, forty-five families were randomly selected.

The questionnaire was administered in Aymara and Spanish. This is important because women are less prone to be bilingual, speaking mainly Aymara. It was formally field tested and revised twice, with participation of three case study families. The formal survey took place between mid-June and the end of July, 1993. Both heads of household were interviewed together, with an average length per questionnaire of one hour. Field work for the study was completed in August, 1993.

SR-CRSP University of Missouri http://www.ssu.missouri.edu/ssu/srcrsp 961008