Livestock Management and Gendered Decision-Making in Rural Cambodia

Agricultural households tend, around the world, to have gendered divisions of work depending on a range of historical, practical, cultural and geographic factors. Once the issue of who does what in the household is determined, it tends to remain that way and this means it is difficult to introduce development-positive changes in the household in the absence of a moment of change. This paper investigates whether there are opportunities for such change in the case of livestock management in Cambodia. A total of 200 interviews were conducted in four rural areas of Cambodia using a specially designed questionnaire. The extent and spread of livestock ownership was investigated together with the issue of who in the household takes responsibility for different aspects of that management. It is found that there is some limited scope for introducing change in households through changing the opportunities for livestock agriculture in Cambodia.