Gender Involvement in Crop Production and Livestock Related Activities in Chitwan and Lamjung District of Nepal

— A study was carried out during 2019 with the aim to access gender involvement in crop production and livestock sector. Two hundred and forty (240) smallholder farmers were selected randomly, 120 smallholder farmers each from Chitwan and Lamjung district of Nepal. Findings revealed that the gender involvement in most of the activities on crop production and livestock is dominated by joint participation of both male and female. However, in terms of technology adoption and control over land resources, status of female participation was quite low compared to male. Thus it is recommended to bring equal involvement of both male and female in all aspects of production and resources control.


INTRODUCTION
Nepal being an Agrarian country, agriculture production accounts for around 24.26% of total GDP and about threequarters of the population work in agriculture sector of Nepal (MoAD, 2019). Socially constructed relationship between men and women in a society is referred as 'Gender' (Eagly , 1987). Gender role refers to how men and women should think, act and feel according to the existing norms and traditions in our society (Groverman and Gurung , 2001). Gender roles are highly influenced by the interactions between individuals and their social, historical and economic environments (West and Zimmerman , 1987). Strong relationship exists between gender and agricultural activities in the Nepalese household (Bajracharya, 1994;Devkota and Pyakuryal, 2006). Gender roles are dynamic and changing as per the societal change (Devkota, 2010). This study aims to access gender involvement in crop production and livestock sector at the household of Chitwan and Lamjung district.

II. METHODOLOGY
The study was carried out in Chitwan and Lamjung district of Nepal during 2019. Smallholders constitute more than 50% of Nepalese farmers, cultivating less than 0.5 ha per household (CBS, 2011). Hence, to get the knowledge of the dominant workforce, all smallholder farmers constituted the population of the study. One hundred and twenty (120) farmers were selected randomly from each district. Information was largely collected through FGD, KII and face to face interview schedule conducted using pre-tested questionnaire with household head. Frequency was used to interpret the findings of the study.

Gender involvement in crop production related activities
Both men and women were involved in the activities related to crop production (Table 2). However, the degree, level, and stage of gender participation in various activities related to the crop productionvaried from one to other. Some of the activities were predominantly done by male, some by female and some of them were done by both male and female. In agricultural activities such as buying of seeds, land preparation, planting and sowing, there was major involvement of both the gender, which was 55.83%, 52.5%, 50% and 50% respectively. In contrast to that, activities such as tilling and weeding were dominantly handled by female member. There was involvement of only 15% male in postharvest operation which was very low as compared to female involvement (42.5%). However, financial and decision making activities such as selling of land, leasing of land and adoption of technology were mainly handled by male member of the household which includes 68.33%, 68.33% and 65.83% male involvement respectively.

Gender involvement in livestock related activities
In contrast to the crop production, there was found to be higher involvement of both the gender in most of the livestock related activities (Table 3). Activities such as fodder collection, watering to the animals and overall management were carried by women in greater extent compared to the male, however, there was no such significance difference in frequencies. Male participation was found to be higher in decision making activities such as adoption of technology. Only 16.67% female own full decision making power for technology adoption whereas 63.33% male hold full power in decision making. Activities such as milking of animals and grazing were also dominated equally by both the genders which accounts for 45.84% and 44.17% frequency respectively.

IV. DISCUSSION
There was found to be varied involvement of male and female in different activities related to crop production. Greater time and effort demanding task such as land preparation, sowing and harvesting were done by involvement of both the gender. Zewdu et al. (2016) reported that males were found to be more involved in ploughing and harvesting of horticultural crop. But this was found quiet different in our study. Although tillage is considered to be extremely laborious job, it was performed by involvement of women to greater extent. Olowa and Olowa (2015) found that women are more involved in weeding, watering, transplanting and harvesting. Similarly, there was greater involvement of women in activities such as weeding, harvesting and post-harvest operation. There was greater involvement of male in adoption and decision making task such as selling of land family being household head. Zewdu et al. (2016) also revealed that men are the heads of households and are the principal decision-makers in most of the household however it might involve some consultation with women.
The patriarchal system is seen to be accelerating factor for domination of male over female. In case of livestock related activities, there was greater involvement of both the gender. Feed preparation, fodder collection, watering and other management related activities of livestock was performed jointly regardless of gender whereas male involvement was found to be higher in technology adoption related decision. But in case of selling of produce and animals, involvements were made jointly.

V. CONCLUSION
Findings of this study revealed that gender involvement in most of the activities on crop production and livestock is not single domination of either male or female, but towards joint participation of both. However, access of female in terms of technology adoption and control over land resources were quite low compared to male. Thus, it is suggested that, implementing program and policies which would bring equal involvement of both male and female in all aspects of production and resources control will be helpful.