“Men Are in Front at Eating Time, but Not When It Comes to Rearing the Chicken”: Unpacking the Gendered Benefits and Costs of Livestock Ownership in Kenya

Abstract

Our findings suggest that livestock ownership requires significant investments of household time and labor, which disproportionately burden women. Prevailing gender inequalities may therefore constrain the net benefit of livestock ownership for many women and their households in some contexts. Livestock development programs must assess both program benefits and costs at multiple levels to ensure that women's participation in livestock production leads to improved individual and household outcomes.

Small‐scale egg production centres increase children's egg consumption in rural Zambia

“…Instead, smallholders demonstrated a strong preference for leaving eggs from village chickens to hatch, increasing flock sizes, and allowing them to more readily sell birds as needed (Dumas et al, ). This phenomenon has been reported elsewhere (de Bruyn et al, ; Dumas et al, ; Gueye, ; Olney, Vicheka, Kro, & Chakriya, ) and is a major limitation to the use of village poultry as a tool for increasing egg availability and consumption. Additionally, there is an emerging concern that free‐ranging poultry can negatively affect child nutrition outcomes by exposing them to zoonotic pathogens that cause clinical disease (e.g., diarrhoea; Zambrano, Levy, Menezes, & Freeman, ) or environmental enteric dysfunction (Gelli et al, ; George, Oldja, Biswas, Perin, Lee, Ahmed, et al, ; George, Oldja, Biswas, Perin, Lee, Kosek, et al, ; Headey & Hirvonen, ; Marquis et al, ; Ngure et al, ).…”

“…Third—perhaps most importantly—as a means of offsetting high flock mortality, smallholders have repeatedly demonstrated a preference for allowing eggs from village chickens to hatch rather than consuming them at home (de Bruyn et al, ; Dumas et al, ; Dumas et al, ; Gueye, ; Olney et al, ). The multipurpose utility of poultry (as a source of food, income, and resilience in the face of shocks) requires a daily cost–benefit analysis on the part of the smallholder, who must weight the many demands of their household in the face of limited resources (Pell & Kristjanson, ).…”

Household water insecurity is strongly associated with food insecurity: Evidence from 27 sites in low‐ and middle‐income countries

“…Additionally, animals are an important source of protein and calories and serve as a source of assets that buffer against shocks to the household economy; animals are therefore integral to household food security, particularly in rural areas of lower income countries (Dumas et al, ; Freeman, Kaitibie, Moyo, & Perry, ; Reynolds, Wulster‐Radcliffe, Aaron, & Davis, ). Animals, however, require water directly and indirectly through their feed requirements.…”

Family poultry: Multiple roles, systems, challenges, and options for sustainable contributions to household nutrition security through a planetary health lens

“…Extensively and semi‐intensively raised poultry are generally owned and managed by women and children and are often essential elements of female‐headed households (Bagnol, ). In many regions of the world and unlike other livestock species, women have the possibility of making the decision to sell and/or consume poultry meat and eggs without need to formally negotiate with their husband/partner (Dumas et al, ). This happens often in a situation in which poultry, especially chickens, are one of the only assets over which women have some degree of relative control.…”

“…This happens often in a situation in which poultry, especially chickens, are one of the only assets over which women have some degree of relative control. For this reason, chickens play an important role in women's economy and women's capacity to carry out her responsibility of caring for home and family issues (Bagnol, , ; de Bruyn, Wong, Bagnol, Pengelly, & Alders, ; Dumas et al, ). Chickens are often considered the petty cash, that is, the smallest financial reserve, of the household, as they are sold to solve regular needs such as buying school materials, uniforms, or paying fees; going to the hospital.…”