Women comprise half of the rural population. And the livestock sector offers tremendous opportunities for improving household incomes through women’s participation.

But the livestock sector needs stronger institutional support for more credit and upgrading women’s livestock farming skills.

Livestock is an important sub-sector of the agricultural economy and contributes close to 50 per cent of the agriculture income and 10.6 per cent of the GDP. By strengthening and expanding micro-credit support programmes, encouraging private sector participation and targeting rural women’s role in livestock management, the lot of rural women can be improved

The women have suffered because their role in rural economy has never been fully appreciated. Micro studies reveal that women undertake a wide range of activities at the farms and at home. Their involvement in farm work especially in the post-harvest operations is enormous. After the harvest, drying, cleaning and storage of grains are the exclusive responsibilities of women.

Their contribution is also significant in the preparation of seed, collection of farmyard manure, weeding, harvesting etc. Similarly, livestock management has always been considered to be the sole responsibility of women. For the peasant women, the farm manure is important as a source of fuel and as a source to augment the family income. Around 25 to 30 per cent of rural women are engaged in income and expenditure decisions of the household.

Livestock rearing is largely a woman’s job. And according to estimates, the time devoted by them in livestock related activities range from three to five hours per day. Women take responsibility for cutting fodder, cleaning sheds, milking dairy animals, processing animal products and looking after the health of the herd.

A rural woman in Punjab works almost 15 hours a day, spending about 5-6 hours in caring for livestock. Women involved in rearing livestock and poultry look after all its aspects and are responsible for about 60 to 80 per cent of feeding and milking of dairy animals with the exception of herding and marketing, since these tasks require going away from home.

Livestock provides jobs not only to men but also to 50 per cent of women of their family in the agriculture sector.

Extension agencies admit that women, as heads of household and manager of livestock, have great potential as agents of change in farming communities. They can boost animal production if properly trained and motivated. In order to increase the per animal production, it is imperative that rural women should be counseled to follow best practices for livestock health and production particularly feeding, breeding, housing and disease control measures.

Any effort for alleviation of poverty without active participation of women is destined to fail. Unless women are allowed to exploit their potential, the rural scene will remain unchanged. Though women are an integral part of the country’s economy, their share in economic benefits, opportunities and access to resources is not commensurate with their efforts.

If women are provided easy access to micro-credit and livestock-related trainings through available windows such as Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF), Rural Support Programmes (RSP), First Women Bank (FWB), Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) and Khushali Bank (KB), they can lead the country to progress.

Rural support programmes (RSP) have been taken up by the government to promote the much needed link between the rural women and livestock rearing. The rural women have some access to credit facilities and professional advice for capacity-building.

The credit facilities offered to women through through female MCO will enable them to supplement their income by better utilising their labour inputs. Through concerted efforts, women can be pulled out of poverty trap.The main challenges faced by women folk are non-compatible tools/technologies to manage crop and livestock production activities, poor health and dietary condition, low literacy level and burden of multiple roles. To reduce their suffering and to make them more productive, properly designed research and development efforts are required. It is recommended that the government should take further steps to provide on-site training to enhance their skills for the management of animals as well as birds.

The areas of improved feeding, management, vaccination and processing of dairy products need to be addressed more effectively. Livestock and dairy development department should launch more development schemes focusing on the socio-economic development of women folk. The women trained in livestock production activities will help increase milk and meat production at national level and raise household incomes.