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

V. COMPARISONS AND CONTRASTS (continued)

Household Characteristics

The case studies were developed to provide "snapshots" of representative family types in San José Llanga. Their specific characteristics and circumstances were chosen to show how labor and decision making domains are allocated among the different agricultural enterprises in the community. Although the case studies share generalized patterns of labor allocation and decision making among enterprises, they also have unique characteristics.

Family "1" is a young family with five girls under the age of ten. The family is concerned with their children's education, therefore, they have made plans to leave the community in the coming year and live in Patacamaya. Their child labor force is somewhat limited, but the children help during peak labor demand periods associated with planting and harvesting of crops.

Family "2" is an older family with four children, ages five through fifteen. Throughout much of the year the husband worked and lived outside of the village to earn money for his family. He returned home to help during planting and harvesting months. The child labor force is strong and can be used during peak labor months.

Family "3" is a young family with four boys under the age of six. The family has secured land in another area and is planning to move next year. Because the children are so young, their capacity for assisting the parents is limited. The family hires outside labor to assist during peak labor demand periods.

Family "4" is a middle-aged family with six children, ages three months to twelve years. The husband lives in San José with the family, but works out of the community until late in the afternoon. The wife and children do most of the daily tasks. The child labor force is strong because of the varying age groups. The parents utilize this labor force during peak demand periods.

Family "5" is an older family with seven children, but only three of them live in San José. The family is very committed to their children's education, therefore most of the income is allocated towards their children's living and educational expenses in the city. The child labor force is strong, but not always utilized. When the children are in school, the parents do not require them to assist with agricultural or household chores except in the morning and late afternoon.

Sources of Cash and Sales Activities

From the information obtained in the case studies, it could be said that families generally do not sell crops, but they do sell sheep, cattle, and livestock products. Unless the crop year is particularly good or the family plants a surplus of a certain crop, there are not many exceptions to this trend. Most families grow just enough crops to feed themselves and their livestock and do not have the resources (land, labor, or capital) to plant more. Many families must also cope with the harsh environment that affect their crops and must find ways to compensate for those problems when they arise. For example, family "2" planted forage barley to harvest for their cattle during the winter months when forage is scarce. However, early frosts in January ruined part of the forage crop so the family was forced to harvest part of the barley seed crop early to store for later use by the cattle. Frost and insect attacks were the major factors in ruining three of the five families' quinoa crops, showing that families must learn to cope with these conditions and work around them.

Of the five families, only family "3" sold and plans to sell more crops at the market in Patacamaya. The crops they sell are potatoes, quinoa, barley, and canawa. The husband was responsible for the transport and sale of crops to Patacamaya. The other families responded that they harvested just enough crops for their families' consumption, and in many cases, they were concerned they will need to buy more before the end of the year.

Most of the families rely on selling sheep and sheep products to obtain cash to cover other expenses. All case study families sold live sheep and at least one other sheep product. Three of the five families sold manure, wool, and hides. Manure was collected and sold to an independent buyer who frequently travels to San José to purchase manure from families. The women usually took charge of the transport and sale of live sheep to market. The money was commonly spent on household goods (food and clothing). Wool and hides, when they were available, were taken by a family member going to Patacamaya for the market.

All of the case study families sold live cattle at the market and at least three families sold a cattle product as well. The two cattle products, manure and milk, were sold in San José Llanga, whereas the live cattle were always sold at the Patacamaya market. Only two of the five families sold cattle manure to the same independent buyer that bought sheep manure. Most families use the manure as a fuel source and therefore, unless they have a lot of cattle or are willing to collect it from other areas, they usually only have enough for their own use.

The husband was generally in charge of the transport and sale of live cattle to market, therefore he was in a good position to control the money afterwards. The overall usage of that money was allocated towards farm expenses (seed, fertilizer, renting land), saved to purchase land, or to cover moving expenses for those families that were leaving the community.

At the beginning of the case study period, only two of the five families sold milk to PIL on a regular basis. During the middle of the study period, one more family began to sell as well. All three families needed money and considered sales to PIL to be a fast and reliable source of income. The husband collected the money, but it is important to point out that they received it outside of a market setting. Being in San José, it is not possible to spend it right away, therefore the husband may not have maintained direct control of the money. One other point to note is that those families delivering milk to PIL had crossbred or improved dairy cattle. The two families that did not deliver milk did not own any improved breeds, so possibly it was not worth the time to milk the cow and deprive the calf of an already low milk yield.

Labor Allocations Among the Different Enterprises

Generalized trends in labor allocation within agricultural enterprises can be discerned from the case study information. Based on this, it appears that men manage the dairy enterprise, women manage the sheep enterprise, and both manage the crop enterprise. Children are used in all three, depending on the need for labor at a particular time. There are differences between families in different circumstances, but the labor allocations, when observed on a daily basis, generally follow these patterns.

These generalizations are not to say that men and women do not cross over into each other's domain or that they each take full responsibility for the decision-making within that enterprise. It has already been shown within each case study, that each couple has certain task-specific and task-sharing activities for each enterprise. There is some degree of specialization by gender for agricultural tasks developed in the family unit.

Consider first the generalized working patterns within the crop enterprise. Men and women work side by side to plant, care for, and harvest the crops produced by the family. Men usually are responsible for controlling the cattle driven plow, while women follow behind planting seeds and spreading fertilizer. With few exceptions, the other phases of crop production; cleaning the land, covering the plant base, weeding, fertilizing, fumigating, and harvesting are accomplished by the couple together.

Decision-making in crop production, such as what and how much to plant, when to start harvest, what should be consumed, sold, or saved as seed, seemed to be jointly determined as well. In three of the five case studies, both the husband and wife were equally informed and were able to provide relatively uniform information, even when asked separately.

In sheep production, tasks that are specific to the woman include herding, milking, and selling; while the couple shares tasks such as shearing, bathing, manure collection, and cutting the newborn females' tails. Also, within the sheep enterprise, children's labor is allocated to help the mother with her specific tasks. Four of the five case study families received help from their children to herd sheep and two of the four families' daughters provide help with milking as well.

Decision-making in sheep production is not easy to analyze. It was generally observed that both the person-specific and the shared tasks seemed to be automatic, with little explicit decision making involved. In other words, there were no questions as to when and how these should be done, because these tasks must be accomplished. The decision-making came into play in the selling of sheep and sheep products. In two of the families that were asked (one with the husband living at home and the other with the husband living in La Paz), the wives responded that they jointly decided when to sell sheep and sheep products. What could be inferred therefore, is that daily and seasonal decision-making concerning routine tasks is gender specific, whereas decision-making in tasks that have long-term effects, such as selling, is done jointly by the couple.

The final enterprise, dairy cattle production, has the same basic breakdown in tasks as sheep production. In the three families where the man lived at home, his specific tasks were herding and selling, while the shared tasks were feeding forage and collecting manure; and of the three families that delivered milk to PIL the wife and/or children were responsible for milking.

In terms of the dairy enterprise, the husband makes most of the decisions that impact the enterprise in the long run. When talking with family "4" (the husband works out of the house each day), the wife replied that it was the husband who decided when to sell to PIL, when to breed, and what type of cattle should be bought. They had both decided, however, when to sell a certain cow. This generalization came from a family where the husband did not attend to many of the daily cattle tasks due to other commitments, and also held true in family "3" in which the husband did not live in San José. Women, in most cases, make daily and seasonal decisions, while men, in all cases, take care of the long-term decisions which affects herd characteristics.

Labor Allocation During Peak Labor Demand Months

The allocation of labor during peak demand months is an important variable that can be studied to show the differences between families according to their life cycle and income level. Because this is a diversified production system, families in San José must be able to allocate their household labor force to crop, sheep, and dairy cattle production. Peak demand periods occur primarily during the planting and harvest seasons. Labor shortages usually happen among the younger families and older families.

Table V-1 shows an agricultural calendar for the families of San José Llanga. As can be seen, the busiest months are September through November, the planting season for seed crops, and March through June, corresponding to the harvest period.

Of the five case study families that were interviewed, only one had a labor shortage during peak demand periods. That family ("3") had the youngest children of all the families, but compensated by hiring workers. For other families, children play a crucial role in production, be it for herding livestock or helping with harvest.

Those with children of different ages that go to school at different times, can generally harvest their crops faster because the children can still herd the livestock during the week. Those with children in the same age group and grade do not get to harvest as much during the weekdays because the children are not available to take care of the livestock.

Conclusions

Do women work more and harder with the introduction of dairy? Women work harder to herd sheep than the men do while herding cattle. Women must always chase sheep in every direction and be on constant guard when grazing near crop areas. Men usually can tether the cows and work on something else at the same time. It is typical for men to harvest alone during the weekday hours with the animals tethered close by. Women also become responsible for the milking. When dairy is not an economic enterprise, other common sources are off-farm income. This results in the female head of household being responsible for all productive activities. When migration (off-farm income) is an activity, women take over most responsibilities, and have domain over short term decisions related to household needs and purchases. The presence of dairy retains men in agriculture, which means a greater labor supply for production.

The families were diverse in their composition and expectations. The two youngest families were planning to leave the community in the year to come. They seem to be the most well endowed through sales of live cattle. There is one very poor family in which the husband works in the city to make money for the family. All cattle are a native breed in this case and are not milked for PIL. The wife harvests crops for another community member in exchange for wages. One family works very hard to support their children's education in the city. They earn money through cattle, milk, and sheep sales to support the children.

When dairy is not a cash activity, another source of household income is off-farm employment. It is usually the male head of household who engages in this activity which results in the female head of household taking care of all agricultural enterprises. More labor is required of her in this situation. When migration (off-farm employment) is part of the economic activities of the household, women take over most of the responsibilities, and have domain over short-term decisions related to household needs and purchases. The selling of sheep and products is of her domain. The presence of the dairy enterprise helps to retain the male head of household in agriculture, which increases the labor supply of the household unit, thus reducing the burden of the female. The addition of this new enterprise requires that women also milk the cows, regardless of whether the male head of household is away or not. Either with migrating or non-migrating male heads of household, the long term decisions of the herd of cattle depend on the male head of household. He always returns to sell or breed the animals.

The case studies show that the dairy enterprise was added to the other enterprises, and increased the mix of activities in agriculture, reducing the need for seasonal out-migration, while simultaneously providing resources for permanent out migration of the households.

Table Key:

CL Clean Land
FE Fertilize
FU Fumigate
H Harvest
HC Harvest for Daily Consumption
MC Make Chuno
MS Market Sheep
P Plant
SB Sheep Birth
SS/B Sheep Shearing & Bathing
T Till

END OF TECHNICAL REPORT 39

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