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

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The focus on intrahousehold allocation of resources was based on a working hypothesis that the introduction of new enterprises into a production system will have a differential impact on individual family members if distinct gender domains exist. This required an intrahousehold perspective. The allocation of family labor, sources and uses of household income, and decision making within the household were analyzed with both case studies and a formal survey. Households were stratified based on the level of dairy production for the analysis. Comparisons were also made between adopters and non-adopters of dairy.

Analysis of the data confirms some hypotheses and refutes others. A first finding is that there is a high degree of variability around the mean of resources and incomes analyzed, reflecting on the dynamics of population, quality of resources, and therefore on enterprise mix and sources of income. Study of expenditures showed that sheep income was used for food and school supplies, purchases made by the FHH. Other studies supported our findings in terms of complementarity of cattle production, specifically with improved sheep as a result of forage production (Yazman et al, 1995). Other resources may be constraining cattle adoption, among them labor (Table 8 shows labor access to be larger among adopters), and access to land appropriate for forages production. Our sample showed distance as an additional factor in sales of milk. The population from EspRritu Willq=i did not show up in the group of adopters. This zone is furthest from the PIL building, and has more native grazing lands than forage lands (Illanes, 1995; Yazman et al, 1995). This study found that investments in cattle improvements are financed with cattle sales, but was unable to establish the causes of the original accumulation of capital. That sheep production subsidizes the dairy enterprise providing investment capital for the purchase of improved cattle breeds was not directly proved. Espejo (1994) on the other hand found that sheep are important in the process of accumulation of wealth.

The introduction of dairy production would compete with resources available for sheep production would manifest as substitution with other activities. Dairy appears to be an add-on enterprise (Table 8) resulting in increased labor activities by FHH and older female children as a result of milking (Table 2 and Table 9). This, combined with the fact that those families that have dairy cows also have the larger average income from sheep, indicates a complementarity in the use of some resources like forage and the type of sheep being raised. In labor it means the activity will compete with others and therefore will be adopted if women (heads or young) are available (Table 9). We were unable to determine control of the long-term decisions on herd dynamics. MHH conducted the sales and breeding of cattle, but wives participated in the discussions. The MHH also migrated seasonally. Cattle imposed more pressure on the household's land and labor resources, especially on the labor of women and children in the presence of male out migration.

The study found that income from milk sales are used for household goods, though we did not determine control and use of this income. Credits provided by PIL for cattle and forage seed inputs are discounted directly from the milk revenue. The study was not able to identify whether or not control and use of dairy income was the domain of male or female head of household, though the income was reportedly spent for daily needs. Therefore the hypothesis on the reduction of food purchases with the introduction of dairy was rejected.

There is separate use and control of income, which indicates that theoretical models that include bargaining and non-pooled income should be selected for further analysis of the data. Income generated from sheep production activities consistently was used for household needs, while dairy cattle products are used for daily cash needs (through milk savings) or large investments (cattle sales). There is distinct gender domain by economic enterprise: sheep are the domain of women, and cattle (especially sales and breeding) the domain of men. Subsistence crop production was a shared activity, and the products were mainly directly consumed by the family. Those families with no sales to PIL are characterized by other forms of market integration, particularly in association with temporary migration to generate off-farm income.

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