Dairy Management in Manica: Findings and Lessons from a

Gender Assessment in Mozambique

Marinho Nhambeto & Elizabeth Hutchinson 4th November, 2011

Who We Are

- Land O’Lakes, Inc.

US$12 billion agribusiness; 1/3 business is dairy

Second largest cooperative in the U.S.

Founded on principles of integrity, fairness, honesty and respect for individuals

- Land O’Lakes International Development

Division of Land O’Lakes Inc. founded in 1981, leveraging corporate experience and expertise but operates like a not-for-profit (primary funders USAID, USDA)

Our mission is to help farmers around the world improve incomes and quality of life

260+ programs in 76 countries since inception (currently 33 programs in 28 countries)

Project Background

- 3-Year USDA funded Dairy Development FFP project in Manica, Mozambique

Objectives include:

- to rebuild Mozambique’s dairy industry to meet market demand

- to increase incomes for smallholder farmers by participation in a sustainable

dairy value chain

- to increase crop yields through utilization of draft animals for cultivation.

- IFPRI/ILRI-funded GAAP project

Complement the existing FFP project adding gender research component

“Gender, Agriculture, and Assets Research Project”

Activities and Progress

- Mixed methods data collection

Randomly selected household survey (N: 637, with 167 dairy households). Quasi-experimental design surveying both dairy and non-dairy households

15 single-gender focus group discussions

• 5 females with cows; 2 females without cows

• 6 males with cows; 2 males without cows

Enumerators/FGD facilitators were local university students or project/partner staff

• All were trained in multi-day training and participated in pilot test of tools

Challenges and Constraints

- Timing of data collection

Heavy rains made some roads inaccessible so some groups not represented in qualitative findings

- Language barriers

Training documents and data collection tools in Portuguese and English; not all enumerators/facilitators were fluent in all three local languages

- Potential participant bias

Potential for bias in reponses, since dairy households have received asset (dairy cow) from project

Key Findings – Adoption of Technical Assistance

- Women are most frequent adopters of dairy production & management TA.

- Without this project looking specifically at gender differences, we would have never seen these differences.

Table: Percentage of male and female beneficiaries adopting new practices from the

technical assistance (TA) provided

Category of

Technical Assistance

Male Female Totals

Frequency % Frequency % Frequency %

Record keeping 256 84 50 16 306 100

Dairy production and

management 120 47 137 53 257 100

Crop production and

management 248 82 54 18 302 100

Stocking 201 79 53 21 254 100

Dairy market linkages 126 70 54 30 180 100

Crop market linkages 187 81 43 19 230 100

Design of Animal Traction

tools 299 86 47 14 346 100

Key Findings – Household Decision Making

- Overall household decision-making remains unchanged (decision-making done primarily by men).

- With improved dairy cattle and increased involvement in dairy management by women, both men and women report that women are now being consulted with regards to decisions made about dairy businesses.

Key Findings – Employment and Labor

- Job creation in dairy management

283 jobs (207 male/76 female) created in dairy sector outside the household

612 self-employed jobs created at households (324 females/288 males)

- Ownership of dairy cow does not dictate household labor in dairy management

86% of households are male-headed and men own dairy animals.

Women provide 53% of labor (milking, inputs, milk sales); Men 47% of the labor (infrastructure, dairy marketing)

Key Findings – Land Ownership

Key Findings – Incomes and Food Security

- 69.2% of household monthly income from dairy activities

Average Income from crops $37/month + $106/month from dairy

225% increase in income for dairy households

- Nutritional Value of Milk

Household Dietary Diversity Score: 5.9 (baseline value)

Importance of milk for household consumption for improving health status mentioned in all FGDs

Mid-Course Corrections

- Incorporating women in training as paravets and AI technicians

Community identifies women for technical roles/training

- Inclusion of women in cooperative management committees and MCCs

Advocacy, awareness, recommendations for women’s participation as a sustainability measure

- Incorporating findings from this assessment were included in design of proposal submitted to USDA for new FFP project (Phase 2) in Mozambique

Next Steps

- Case study about gender differences in dairy management will occur in Jan-Feb 2012

- Additional data collection with combined approach for final assessment in April-June 2012

Minor modifications/adjustments to data collection tools (survey and FGD guide)

- Learn from this study and make internal use of the methods and findings to guide gender assessments for other agriculture and food security programs

Thank you!

For more information contact:

Marinho Nhambeto: marinho.nhambeto@idd.landolakes.com Lizz Hutchinson: erhutchinson@landolakes.com