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Agropastoral Production Systems, Intra-household Resource
Allocation and Household Member's Domains

ABSTRACT

The agropastoral production system in San José Llanga has recently been undergoing a change as more families have begun to incorporate daily enterprises with their traditional sheep/crop production systems. With the introduction of PIL (privately run para-statal dairy units) in 1989, the Bolivian government has actively recruited families throughout the Altiplano into dairy production with incentives such as credit and technical assistance. The main advantage to farmers is that dairy production provides a readily available, and much needed, source of daily cash income.

This paper documents how dairy production affects both the supply of labor and the distribution of cash income within the family household system as a result of the shift in agricultural production. The methodology used was case studies and analysis. Five families were chosen based on their familial and agricultural structure to illustrate the effect of dairy production.

The case-study results describe how men, women and children have well-delineated work areas among the three sub-systems (sheep, dairy and crops), but there may be some crossover due to the effects of seasonal labor shortages. Also, it was concluded that when dairy is not a cash activity, families may engage in other sources of household income such as off-farm employment (usually the male head of household), and working for other community members in exchange for wages (usually the females) .

Men and women share many of the short-term decision making concerning their agricultural sub-systems, but when off-farm employment is a factor, the wife takes over decision making. Long-term decisions concerning the dairy enterprise are usually governed by the husband.

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