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Gender and livestock

Livestock production represents an important means for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and animal rearing on farms can be particularly effective for reducing hunger and poverty. Livestock is the second largest contributor to the global agricultural economy and serves as a vehicle for improving nutrition, food security and rural livelihoods.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) facilitates the participation of large and small livestock producers to sustainably grow the sector; makes safe and quality animal products available; builds inclusive and efficient livestock markets; enhances smallholder resilience and government capacities to prevent and respond to livestock-related emergencies; and supports the adoption of good practices to maintain animal health, welfare and livestock productivity.

Women are the main users and caretakers of locally adapted livestock breeds. They play a major role in conserving livestock diversity as well as in small livestock production, transformation and marketing.

Despite women’s substantial involvement in livestock, customary gender roles are often biased, and rural women face more obstacles than men in accessing the necessary tools, resources and services needed to reach their full potential in the sector.

With some variation in cultures and traditions, the main constraints experienced by women in the livestock sector include:

  • poor access to productive resources and services, such as extension and animal health services, credit, technologies and information;
  • limited participation in decision-making at household, community and local institution levels, preventing them from effectively managing their economic activities;
  • poor control over income and assets, including animal ownership and natural resources (particularly land), limiting their capacity to sell or buy animals, invest in production or processing and respond to family needs;
  • limited access to markets and linkages with main actors along value chains due to women’s low literacy levels and marketing skills, heavy workload and mobility restrictions;
  • higher risk of exposure for  women  to food-borne and zoonotic disease, as they are the primary handlers of raw animal products; 
  • weak recognition of their economic role, as policies and programmes often lack sex-disaggregated data and information on the specific roles and responsibilities women and men have, and the specific constraints they face.

FAO advises governments on livestock sector policies and investments, and provides assistance in developing the skills of small livestock owners, facilitating their access to productive resources, such as land, water and credit. It also works with rural institutions to make extension and veterinary services more responsive to small producers’ needs and better aware of gender-related issues.

In collaboration with ministries of agriculture and livestock, rural organizations and development agencies, FAO implements projects and programmes at country and regional levels, to support women livestock keepers, processors and sellers in different subsectors. It also develops knowledge products and tools that address gender issues in the livestock sector and value chains.

  • Rural women represent two-thirds of the world’s poor livestock keepers and carry out most of the day-to-day farm animal management, processing, marketing and selling of animal produce. Due to sociocultural norms, they have substantially less control over the income generated than men.
  • Women who access and control livestock assets improve the health, education and food security of their households.
  • Investments in livestock improvement and technologies must be gender-sensitive so that women’s constraints can be addressed.

  • Identify and address the main constraints faced by women and men in accessing, controlling and managing livestock and dairy farming.
  • Collect sex- and age-disaggregated data to produce the evidence base for planning and policy-making, and monitor the gender impacts of policies, programmes and investments in the livestock sector.
  • Increase the productive capacity of livestock producers and entrepreneurs (both male and female farmers) by providing equitable access to productive resources, technologies, inputs and services.
  • Engage women in decision-making and provide them with equal control over strategic resources and assets, including natural resources.
  • Enhance the capacity of service providers to deliver services and products that respond to the specific needs and preferences of women operating in the livestock production system.
  • Increase women’s access to financial services and markets by investing in their marketing skills and literacy and by providing financial services tailored to their specific needs and priorities.
  • Invest in occupational health and safety, protecting women from exposure to various health risks.

Female cattle-keepers in Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine were empowered by the FAO project Conservation and development of cattle breeds suitable for milking and meat production, which collected and analyzed sex-disaggregated data as part of a solid assessment of livestock production systems.

Dairy value chains focusing on women’s participation were strengthened by the Enabling women to benefit more equally from agrifood value chains project carried out in Africa and the Near East.

In Afghanistan, FAO helped organize over 20 000 rural women in poultry producers’ groups and provided training, improved pullets and equipment, and access to urban markets. Their poultry enterprises now produce 30 million eggs per year.

FAO worked in Ethiopia to address trypanosomiasis, a livestock disease transmitted by tsetse flies, which affects milk production and the availability of healthy draught animals. The project increased the participation of women farmers by integrating tsetse control with improved mixed farming systems. As a result, 700 000 farmers doubled their milk output, drastically reducing the time spent ploughing and the need for veterinary treatment by 60 percent.

In Gambia, to overcome the limited productivity of small ruminants and poultry due to outbreaks of disease and women’s lack of access to extension services, FAO trained 50 female livestock assistants to deliver extension advice and upgraded animal disease diagnostic laboratories. The project resulted in a reduction of small livestock mortality from disease by 45 percent.

In Lebanon, FAO strengthened the dairy sector to ensure that it continued to be a viable source of livelihood and employment, particularly for women. The project enhanced the livelihood and food security of Lebanese women by providing household dairy production materials and by improving the quality and safety of milk and milk products.

In Mongolia, FAO contributed to inclusive and sustainable development of the rural sector through the generation of quality employment, with a focus on the non-mining sector. FAO also helped enable private sector job creation where Mongolia has potential comparative advantages. Activities included the formation of organized herder groups to supply small-scale dairy processing plants, known as the “Ger Kitchens”, which produced value-added dairy products such as curds and butter, with the active engagement of women.

FAO is implementing a global training programme on gender mainstreaming in the livestock sector to enhance the capacities of practitioners and livestock experts from different organizations and governmental institutions.