7 The role of gender in community forestry and agroforestry in Pakistan - Mamoona Wali Muhammad^[7]

ABSTRACT

The study was designed to identify gender role in community/agroforestry practices in Haripur District, NWFP, Pakistan, and pinpoint perceptions of growing trees on communes/farmlands. Analysis of data revealed that trees grown are based on perceived benefits by the rural communities themselves. The Forest Department and on-going projects in the area do influence the choice of species for plantation. However, rural people also keep in view the intangible benefits in addition to commonly perceived benefits. The analysis also indicated that rural people plant trees irrespective of consequential effects on crop production and do not consider environmentalist issues. Moreover, it was revealed that afforestation activities on farmlands are independent of the number of female or male adults in the household. The trees on communal lands or uncultivated areas are mostly grown by male community members and these lands are the major source of grazing lands for the livestock. Tree species preferences varied between females and males of the household but decision-making which has been with the males affected the females’ choices. Farmers are growing traditional as well as some exotic species. Eucalyptus species have better survival and resist grazing and browsing pressure. However, farmers are determined to continue with the present traditional practices to meet their demands. Out of the trees planted, Dalbergia sissoo, Melia azedarach and Morus alba are worth mentioning as these are sources of income for the rural communities, particularly the women. The area under study has great potential for fruit trees that fetch higher prices as compared with forest trees.

INTRODUCTION

Women in Pakistan have been working in agriculture and agroforestry to fulfill their families’ needs but men and children share this burden also. Therefore, a gender perspective to these issues is required to emphasize the relations between men and women and existing relationships within their social and natural norms. In a rural society women and men generally perform distinct roles in the development of different agroforestry systems with clear understanding of rights and responsibilities. Gender does not concern women alone, it involves the roles of both women and men in the fields of production, use, health, welfare, etc.

Socially acceptable involvement of women is possible only when the analysis of gender role in forestry development is fully understood. However, while using natural resources women and men behave differently. They have different practices and distribution of work in utilizing the natural resources. The role of women in forestry in Pakistan is just beginning to be appreciated and analysed. Many women are involved in the raising of trees on farmlands and around their houses to meet basic needs. Socio-cultural attitudes often do not permit open involvement of women in agroforestry activities but due to socio-cultural and economic changes over the years, more and more women are taking active part in the management of their wood/farm resources.

Keeping in mind the effective but limited availability of gender segregated information on forestry in the country, a study was undertaken in Haripur District, NWFP, Pakistan, with the following objectives:

• to comprehend the gender role in different agroforestry practices;

• to determine problems and constraints related to each gender performance in existing agroforestry practices;

• to suggest better strategies for successful implementation of agroforestry practices by obtaining gender segregated information for rural development.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

The perceptions of gender in rural communities are manifested in daily life through gestures, rites and practices. Different groups, depending on local and ethnic characteristics, are complex gender systems at the social and historical levels. Gender perceptions of indigenous and colonist communities in the Peruvian Amazon region are not much different from those seen in many other cultures. The men are regarded as planners, thinkers and decision-makers and women as acceptors of decisions and guardians of the children and customs. For example, in many indigenous groups men manage the economic resources even if income results from the sale of goods produced by women. As a result, men and women often place different values on various forest resources. The first concern of women may be to find sufficient forest products to meet the subsistence needs of their families while that of men may be to obtain forest products for sale.

Women are the dominant farmers in mountain areas; their experience, knowledge, management and even labour in the forests and fields are ignored by the predominantly male-oriented research and extension staff. There are very few female professionals in the related fields to challenge the existing stereotypes. These pioneering women face immense barriers in their efforts to bring extension services to female farmers (Gurung 1999).

Studying the participation of women in Pakistan, Anwar (1998) reported that Pakistani women besides being involved with their household chores and other socio-cultural responsibilities also perform agricultural and related activities. Rural women by and large are ignorant, tradition bound, unskilled and use out-dated practices of living. Despite social, cultural and political limitations, the women, particularly the rural women, play a very effective role in various subsectors of the economy. A rural woman in Pakistan works for 12-16 hours a day on farm, off-farm and at home activities throughout the year. She participates in most of the field operations including sowing, weeding, tending, harvesting, storage of crops, fodder collection, livestock management, fetching water from the far flung areas, cooking, fuel collection, washing/cleaning and caring of children, etc. She assists her husband in various farm operations at the farm as well as off the farm.

Mamoona (1991 a,b) found good responses from the women when she examined their activities in the Forestry Planning and Development Project in the subdivision of Taxila. Women were involved in establishing fuelwood and fodder species plantations on their farmlands around their homes in Taxila Pakist. Initially seven ladies of the area started raising tube and bed nurseries. In many developing countries, women are involved mostly in thinning, pruning, cleaning, and weeding operations in the areas of agoforestry. In field activities their major role is raising crops on farms and establishing plantation on community lands.

Kabraji and Zuberi (1991) reported that women play a major role in the management and conservation of depletable forest resources. More programmes and developmental agencies are acknowledging and promoting the participation of women in forestry activities. In the rural development programme there is now a special need for extensionists with a basic level of forestry skill who can advise on nursery establishment, energy plantations, fruit or fodder trees for family compounds and all other areas which are closer to the concern of women at village level.

In Pakistan, like in other countries, women play an important role in forestry. Rural women play a major role in many developmental activities by creating awareness and so their participation in forestry is growing. A need has arisen to train women as extension workers with basic forestry knowledge. Happily, women have started to take up forestry profession as several women from the Agha Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) and the Integrated Rural Development Project (IRDP), Mardan, were trained in nursery techniques at the Pakistan Forest Institute, Peshawar. Several women organizations have established village nurseries and orchard plantations in AKRSP and their earnings from these activities are spent on the welfare of women. Other projects are also paying attention to women’s involvement. The Suketar Watershed Management Project is encouraging women’s involvement in the context of watershed management. Women have to be involved in the control of grazing activities and planting trees on private land. Women interest groups (WIG) have been formed to grow trees in the saline soils in Punjab.

In 1988, at IUCN’s suggestion and in response to the need expressed by various forestry projects, two short courses were held at the Pakistan Forest Institute for the women field officers. Eleven women participated from the AKRSP, Pak-German IRDP and Austrian Relief Agency. In 1991, another short course sponsored by the Norwegian Refugee Council was held in which six women from Afghan refugee camps participated. As a result of these activities, 70 courtyard nurseries have been established by women in Afghan refugee camps which raised more than 100 000 seedlings. Courtyard nurseries have also been set up by the women in Mardan under the Pakistan-German IRDP (Kabraji and Zuberi 1991).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Physical features of the area

Haripur district is situated at about 610 m above sea-level with a total area of 1725 km². It is surrounded by mountains, a piece of land adorned with streams, springs, rivers, lakes, gardens, lush green plains and meadows. Geographically Haripur district is divisible into four regions: Maidan-e-Hazara, consists of a plain; Chhachh (Maidan-e-Khari) which lies in the west of Haripur City is submerged under the reservoir of the Tarbela Dam; Khanpur Punjkahta is a well-watered plain. The soil of the district is dissected loess or dissected piedmont plains having silty loam or silty clay loam textures respectively. The climate of Haripur district is hot in summer and cold in winter with high temperatures recorded in June and July. The coldest months are December and January. Rain falls in July, August, December and January.

Forestry. A major part of Haripur District consists of mountainous ranges but there are good prospects for afforestation besides natural forest. Management and protection of these forests are under the jurisdiction of the Forest Department. The area covered by forests turns out to be hardly one-fourth of the total area of the district. Forests are usually divided into four categories, viz. reserved forests, Guzara forests, protected forests and resumed land. The common trees are shisham (Dalbergia sissoo), toot (Morus abla), phulai (Acacia modesta), beri (Zizyphus jujuba) and kiker (Acacia nilotica).

Fuelwood. More than three-fourths (78.8 percent) of housing units use wood as cooking fuel in their houses while 14.2 percent use gas for this purpose. Around 3 percent use kerosene oil and the remaining 3.9 percent of housing units use other sources of cooking fuel in their houses.

Agriculture. Agriculture, being the most significant economic parameter, is the main source of income for a major portion of the population. The land of the district is suitable, almost uniformly, for growth of crops, vegetables, fruit and tobacco. Wheat and maize are major crops followed by sugarcane, barely and millet. Apart from these crops, a great variety of vegetables are grown in the rural areas of the district. Farming is the common occupation of the population living in the rural areas. Agricultural produce is brought from far-flung areas of the district to the city market and also almost all the crops and especially vegetables are exported to other parts of the country. There exists a network of roads in the whole district which provides logistic facility to the farmers enabling them to take their yields to big markets.

Horticulture. The main fruits grown in the district are orange, peach, plum, pear and mango. Haripur has a special reputation for loquat. The variety of loquat grown in the district may be found only in China and Japan and is not only scarcely found in other parts of the country, but very rare all over the world. This unique fruit ripens in April and lasts till the end of May. Another specialty of Haripur is a variety of orange known locally as red-blood Malta, which is grown in Khanpur. Its quality and taste attract customers from local as well as international markets. Lychee, originally a Chinese fruit, is also grown in Haripur district.

Methodology

To study the gender role in agroforestry system, visits were made to many NGOs and international organizations which implement projects to promote agroforestry systems as part of the rural development programme. The IUCN office at Peshawar was contacted to identify relevant NGOs and areas where agroforestry practices are being introduced to the farmers. The areas selected were where SUNGI and other NGOs are working for community development.

The list of all villages was obtained from SUNGI office and 40 respondents were randomly selected from the list. The men and women of the selected farms were interviewed. A questionnaire was used as a tool to obtain the desired data and information. The questionnaire thus structured was pretested and necessary amendments were made according to the answers received from the respondents. Kian, Kag, Dolni and Jama villages were sampled. The data collected in questionnaire form were coded and qualitative and quantitative information was fed to respective columns of the variables. Before making any statistical analysis, the data were grouped to subject them to different statistical tests and arranged with the help of lotus program. The grouping and analysis were performed with the help of SAS statistical package of the computer program. The inferences and results were drawn on the basis of test values and probability generated by the package.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The genderwise distribution of respondents was 40 percent men and 60 percent women. The majority of the population (85 percent) in the study area owned landholdings equal to or less than 80 kanals. Only 15 percent of the sample population had land size above 80 kanals. Most of the respondents had land equal to or less than 20 kanals fit for cultivation. This shows that the area can produce hardly enough food to meet the annual flour demand of the households. Only 5 percent of the population had land equal to or more than 40 kanals, which is considered a suitable size of land for cultivation or for subsistence agriculture.

The majority of the population (50 percent) in the study area had uncultivated land between 21 and 80 kanals, whereas 45 percent owned uncultivated area equal to or less than 20 kanals. Only 5 percent of the population had uncultivated land more than 100 kanals. The maximum uncultivated land owned by the sample population was 130 kanals constituting only 2.5 percent of the total population. It is generally believed that uncultivated lands are mostly used for grazing livestock and growing trees.

Most members of the sample households (65 percent) had education up to the 5th level. Only 35 percent of the household members had education more than the 5th level. The data indicate that the masses are still little educated and cannot clearly perceive the benefits of interventions and development without demonstration. It is therefore very important to introduce any agroforestry practice in a demonstrative way to have effective diffusion.

A major portion of the population (62.5 percent) were found growing 26-100 trees on their farmlands. However, 22.5 percent of the sample population were having only up to 25 trees. Only a small number of respondents (15 percent) were in a position to grow more than 100 trees on their farmlands. The maximum number of trees grown on the farmlands was up to 200 and this was reported by 5 percent of the total respondents.

Most of the population (67.5 percent) were growing tree species on their farmlands. Out of these 95 percent farms had mulberry. The other species commonly found on the farmlands were dhman, olea, Acacia, shisham and Eucalyptus. About 32.5 percent of the sample population were growing more than 5 tree species. Six was the maximum number of tree species found on the farmlands. Fruit tree species were also commonly grown in the area. However, only 25 percent of the respondents were growing fruit trees along with other commonly grown forest trees (Table 1).

The majority of the tree growers of the sample population (95 percent) were growing trees for the purpose of timber, fuelwood, fodder and fruit. However, about 5 percent were growing trees for other purposes.

Table 1. Species planted by the sample households

The analysis showed that 47.5 percent of the population preferred Eucalyptus and shisham followed by fruit trees (42.5 percent). About 35 percent of the total population also preferred Acacia. An equal number of respondents (17.5 percent) preferred tut and dhman on account of their fodder value in addition to other uses. Fifteen percent or less preferred ak, kao and chir in the area (Table 2).

Table 2. Species preferred by sample population

Sixty percent of the male population were putting in up to 3 hours labour daily to carry out agroforestry activities on their farmlands. Nearly the rest (35 percent) had input of 4-5 hours in the agroforestry practices. However, only 5 percent of the total male population were putting in 6 hours effort to undertake agroforestry activities. The sample survey showed that many farmers (55 percent) invest 3 hours labour and 40 percent were putting in 4-5 hours labour to promote agroforestry practices on their farmlands. In rural areas the female population also actively participated in agroforestry activities in addition to household jobs. However, only 5 percent of the female population had to put in labour of 6 hours daily to sustain agroforestry practices.It is generally believed that the working hours for agroforestry practices are greater for men than for women.

The chi-square analysis indicates that relationship between female working hours and male working hours for agroforestry practices is highly significant. In other words both the variables are dependent upon each other. One can easily conclude that in the case of agroforestry both the male and female members of the household had to work for the same duration of time. There is no discrimination on the basis of sex while performing agroforestry related activities (Table 3).

Table 3. Relationship between female vs. male working hours

Chi Square = 25.606
Probability = 0.000

In a traditional society like Pakistan, the males dominate in decision-making for carrying out any productive activity. Analysis revealed that the number of trees planted on farmland is independent of gender. Both the sexes plant trees on their farmlands when they feel that the trees are beneficial for the household. With increasing size of landholding the number of trees grown on farmlands also increases.

It is commonly observed that education helps to arrive at feasible decision-making during any undertaking. The analysis of data indicated that the number of educated persons per household has statistically significant relationship with the number of trees planted on farmland. It is generally believed that males take part more actively in outdoor afforestation activities. But the analysis shows that the afforestation activities or number of trees grown on farmland is independent on the number of adult males in the household. It is also generally believed that females take less active part in outdoor afforestation activities due to social constraints. But the afforestation activities or number of trees grown on farmland is not dependent on the number of adult females in the household.

The number of trees planted is independent of gender. In other words households do carry out tree planting or protection irrespective of sex. One can safely conclude that male and female members of the household perform different operations jointly or independently as per demand of the job. The data indicated no relationship between the number of trees grown and benefits perceived. In other words the farmers are keeping in view intangible benefits in addition to commonly perceived tangible benefits.

Traditionally people grow shisham, melia, tut and fruit trees in addition to naturally regenerated trees in the study area. However, tree intervention projects have also promoted planting of fast-growing species such as Eucalyptus in the study area. But the people are not interested to replant. Fruit trees being of great commercial value are highly preferred than the forest tree species in the study area.

It is a common perception that people having more trees on their farmlands can take the risk of introducing new and fast-growing species on their farmlands. The chi-square analysis of total number of trees on farmland versus Eucalyptus trees grown indicated the relationship (5.00) is highly significant (0.025). One can safely infer that people having less trees on their farmland cannot take the risk of planting Eucalyptus trees. The analysis proved that planting of Eucalyptus on farmlands has no relationship with the education level of the respondent, as the chi-square value is lower than the value of significance.

Scientists have observed a higher degree of allelopathy in Eucalyptus. This is one of the major reasons used against Eucalyptus for environmental plantation. The data revealed that the relationship between Eucalyptus planting and loss in gross production is highly independent. Therefore it can safely be concluded that the intolerable allelopathic effect of Eucalyptus as advocated by scientists and environmentalists is not considered by the farmer while choosing Eucalyptus.

The cultivated land is the most prized portion of land for a farmer. He endeavours to put this land under cash crops at all costs. The analysis showed that the relationship between the nature of benefits and cultivated land size is statistically significant.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Keeping in view the findings of the survey, personal field observations and informal discussions with the local community leaders and professionals, it is concluded that agroforestry in Haripur District envisages a sustainable land management system to increase the overall yield of land. It combines the production of crops, including tree crops and forest plants simultaneously or sequentially on the same unit of land and applies management practices that are compatible with the cultural practices of the local population. The social needs of food, fuel and fertilizers are obtained through integrated management, based on site-specific functions of agroforestry.

Agroforestry in the study area is also practised to provide employment and other opportunities for the rural people associated with forests. Agroforestry has recently become popular in rainfed areas, as it can be one of the cheapest sources of conservation. The data revealed that the afforestation activities or the number of trees grown on farmland is not dependent on the number of adult females in the household.

The study concludes that traditionally people grow shisham, bakain, tut and fruit trees in addition to naturally regenerated species in the area. However, tree intervention by the projects has also promoted planting of fast-growing species such as Eucalyptus. The study revealed that people are not interested to replant Eucalyptus on farmlands. But fruit trees being of great commercial value are highly preferred than the forest tree species. The analysis proved that planting of Eucalyptus on farmlands has no relationship with the education level of the respondents. One can confidently deduce that the introduction of Eucalyptus trees on farmland does not require school education as generally believed by tree promoters.

One can safely argue that the benefits perceived by the farmer after persuasion of the project have influenced the choice of tree species for planting on farmlands. The observations made during the study also revealed that future prospects of fruit-tree culture in the area might be better. Farmers keeping in view the intangible benefits in addition to the commonly perceived tangible benefits undertake tree planting.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author is grateful to the staffs of SUNGI Development Foundation (stationed in Haripur) and the IUCN Sarhad Office, Peshawar, who actively participated during the data collection phase. Logistical and secretarial support provided by the IUCN Sarhad office, Peshawar, is also greatly acknowledged.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anwar-ul-Haq, M. 1998. Local participation in development planning. A strategy for improving the situation of Pakistani rural women. Rural women in Pakistan farming systems research. Proceedings of the Workshop on Role of Rural Women in Farming Systems Research, p. 46. 12-14 January 1998, Islamabad, Pakistan. Agricultural Research Council.

Gurung, J.D. 1999. Women, children and well-being in the mountains of the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region. Unasylva 50(196): 12-16.

Kabraji, Aban, M. & Zuberi, S. 1991. Training of female extension forestry workers in forestry activities. Employment of women in forestry in Pakistan. Proceedings of ILO/PFI Workshop, pp. 40-48. Geneva, International Labour Office.

Mamoona, W.M. 1991a. Quarterly report, Forestry Planning and Development Project. Islamabad, Pakistan, GOP/USAID, Winrock International.

Mamoona, W.M. 1991b. WID activities in social forestry project. Paper presented at the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K.