Tropentag 2022, September 14 - 16, Prague, Germany "Can agroecological farming feed the world? Farmers' and academia's views."

Assessing the significance of women in managing cattle business in eastern Indonesia: implications for technology dissemination

¹University of Mataram, Fac. of Animal Science, Indonesia
²University of New England, Australia

Abstract

In the Indonesian culture, cattle business is usually considered as a male business. Yet, in reality, many women are actively involved in cattle business – from production to marketing and other decision-making activities. However, information on the role and significance of women in cattle business is limited. A survey was conducted in West Nusa Tenggara Province (NTB) Eastern Indonesia to identify roles of women farmers in cattle production, farm business decision making, access to finance and to assess their self confidence to independently manage cattle business. Data were collected through a face-to-face interview of 500 respondents (250 men and 250 women) in 6 districts of NTB. The results show that almost 85% of women are involved in collecting and providing feeds, and taking care of cattle. Women participates in decisions such as determining how much to spend for feeds (40.8%); animal health (39.4%); determining what cattle breed to raise (93.9%) and which cattle to sell (36.6%). Women respondents indicated that almost 56% have access to capital from non-formal lenders and approximately 40% from village cooperatives and none of them has access to bank loan as it has to be approved by their husbands. Women are confident to independently achieve cattle business objectives (57.3%), to deal with difficult tasks (57.2%), to be successful in cattle business (52.1%), to overcome challenges (54.9%) and to conduct multi-tasking (51.6%). The results imply that there is very high active participation by women in cattle farming business in Eastern Indonesia. They have significant role in cattle production, have access to finance and actively participate in farm decision making process and shown and build self-confidence to independently manage the cattle business successfully. Interventions and capacity-building programs targeting women is imperative to accelerate the uptake of technologies aimed at improving the performance of the cattle business.

Keywords: Cattle production, decision making, women participation

Contact Address: Ruth Stella Thei, Mataram University, Agroecotechnology, Jl. majapahit 62, Mataram, Indonesia, e-mail: stellautomoyahoo.co.id