Factors Affecting Women’s Participation in Livestock Management Activities: A Case of Punjab-Pakistan

Existing literature in social sciences, on agriculture, livestock, gender, socio-cultural dynamics, and rural demographics provides a solid background to construct a list of factors that predict and provide information on the existence of a relationship between women’s participation in livestock management and production related activities and social, economic, cultural, familial, and livestock related factors. The present study has analyzed factors influencing women’s level of participation in livestock management activities in Punjab province of Pakistan. Primary data was collected from three agro-climatic regions of Punjab. A multi-stage sampling technique was adopted to gather the information. The information collected from 360 farm households were processed and analyzed by using multiple regression and factor analysis. In the regression analyses, the identified main factors (in decreasing order in terms of variance explained by R2) were respectively: participation of family labor (variance explained = 56.70%), various aspects of women’s status (= 16.10%), livestock related factors (= 11.30%), and economic factors (= 10.50%). The value of the coefficient of determination (R2) of the regression model (including all 30 factors) was 0.675. Factor analysis summarized the originally 30 variables (participatory indicators) into 11 factors, which accounted for 66.617% of the total variance explained. The results signify the need for micro-level (targeting rural families) and gender analysis in livestock farming. The findings also advocates for choosing gendered approach (with major participation of women) for a successful implementation of the agricultural development programs in the province of Punjab. In addition, increasing women's participation in livestock management and production has positive implications for improving overall family’s health, education, and income.