Rural Women’s Involvement for Livestock Raising in Pakistan

Abstract

Pakistan’s primary industry is agriculture, which is divided into a number of subsectors including livestock, agricultural production, forestry, and fisheries. Livestock production contributes more to agriculture overall than any other sub-sector. The production of livestock accounts for 58.55% of agricultural output and 11.61% of the nation’s GDP. Although the agricultural sector’s share has decreased by 0.19% over the past few years, the livestock industry is booming, growing at a rate of 3.63%. Keeping in mind the significance of the livestock sector, this study was conducted in 2023 with a focus on the contribution of Pakistani female farmers to the production of animals. In many nations, including Pakistan, women are essential to the care of cattle. They carry out a variety of livestock management tasks, such as cutting fodder, watering and feeding animals, cleaning animal pens, and milking. In order to ascertain the involvement of women in livestock husbandry, a survey was carried out in the area of Dera Ghazi Khan. A well-structured questionnaire was utilized to collect data from female respondents during face-to-face interviews, a random selection approach was employed to choose a sample of 100 livestock farm homes from the research area. To gauge the level of women’s participation, a composite score was created, and factors influencing women’s participation in cattle farming were identified using statistical methods. The findings show that women dominated practically all farming operations in the chosen area.