Gendered milk production in Ibanda district Western Uganda
Abstract
Men and women in Uganda play a very important role in milk production, especially on a small scale but most of the women can only access livestock by virtue of relationship to their fathers, husbands or even sons. Despite the active participation of women in milk production, they often face a number of gender-based constraints and challenges like lack of ownership rights and control over resources like land and dairy animals which greatly affects their participation in milk production.
The main objective for this research included establishing the gender roles in milk production; this addressed the following, perception of men and women regarding the activities in milk production, reasons for few women farmers involved in production and factors that are limiting them.
Results from the findings showed that gender roles in milk production are unevenly distributed from land preparation, planting forage, cutting forage, weeding, cleaning the shed, milking, record keeping and deworming whereby hired labor did most of the work compared to the wives, husbands and children. The study further investigated the factors causing difference in decision making and challenges faced by both men and women in milk production, cultural norms and religious teachings were major causes of difference in decision making over the control and access of resources, while domestic work over load and expensive dairy technology were major causes of challenges faced by both men and women in milk production.. There are various gender constraints involved in milk production that were noted these included, Limited skills to do the dairy activities, high interest rates on credit, and unreliable electricity among others. The research concluded that for an increase in milk production, gender roles should be evenly distributed.