Gender roles in livestock management and their implication for poverty reduction in rural Toba Tek Singh, Punjab-Pakistan.

摘要

The present study was designed to measure the role of livestock in poverty reduction in the rural areas of the Punjab province. For present study, district Toba Tek Singh was selected due to its central location in the Punjab Province and a sample of 600 small farmers was taken from three Tehsils of the district. A majority (58.0%) of the farmers of the sample area reported that livestock was their first choice to augment their income while 27 percent and 11 percent of the farmers put livestock at a second or third place respectively. In other words a very huge majority (96.0%) of the farmers recognized the role of livestock in poverty reduction. The results depicted that crops & livestock combination was the main source of respondent's income and sharing about 69 percent of total income. As the women's involvement in various livestock related activities increased, the proportion of income from this source also increased and subsequently poverty reduced. The poor and non-poor farmers comparison showed that the reduction in poverty among the small farmers was significantly related to the livestock keeping in conjunction with crop growing.