[Role and local knowledge of women on plant-cattle production system in upland areas of South Malang, East Java] [2000]
Winarto, P.S. (Universitas Brawijaya, Malang (Indonesia). Fakultas Ilmu Sosial)
Abstract
How is both the role and local knowledge of women in cattle production in the upland areas was the major problem faced by the research. The role, here, is defined as time allocated by women in the production system. The objectives of this research are measuring the time allocated by women in cattle production system and to document the local knowledge of women on various aspects of cattle production. On the basis of these, it is expected that criterias for the development of technology can be design. The research was executed in Sumberpetung village, in Kalipare district of Malang regency from June 1998 to January 1999. The village was purposively selected based on consideration that 50 percent of the househould in the village kept cattle and cropping patterns that commonly stand as feed resource base in the upland area are present in the village. Data were collected from 22 farm-households that were purposively selected according to criterias: kept one or more cattle, family members are in productive ages (15 to 55 years old) and the house can easily be visited using motor bike. Women in the selected farm-household were deeply interviewed concerning their knowledge on various aspects of cattle production. Time spend by women in various activities, including that of in cattle keeping, was monitored in 10 farm-household by an enumerator from 6 o'clock AM to 6 o'clock PM. The data collected were then codified and classified according to various subjects. Descriptive analysis and content analysis were applied to the data available. It was found that women allocate 98 minutes of their time per day in cattle production activities. Of this 51 percent is used for forage collection and the remaining is used for feeding the cattle. The 98 minutes is about 13.1 percent of the total time spending from 6 AM to 6 PM. In that time interval 64 percent of the time available is used for reproductive activities that essential for the stability and sustainability of the farm-household. Suppose woman has to reallocate time for the operation of a new technology, she would have only 48 minutes for that purpose. Local knowledge on feed, reproduction, health and health treatment aspects of cattle production, even were originated from previous generation, they have economic orientation. These knowledge are not in line with technical criterias commonly employed in the development of technology in the research station. If development of technology will consistently employ bottom-up approach, so: breeding techniques have to consider various components of cattle exterior rather than considering live weight, age or milk production.in the fields of animal health, the use of local available herbs has to be prioritized: in the field of animal nutrition, technology must be developed on the basis of optimizing supplementary effects of different forage types on cattle performance