Dairying in Malabar: a Venture of the Landowning Based on Women's Work?

Home , Economy of Kerala, Palakkad, Thiruvananthapuram

Ind. Jn. ofAgri. Econ. Vol.57, No.4, Oct-Dec. 2002 Dairying in Malabar: A Venture of the Landowning based on Women's Work?

D. Narayana*

INTRODUCTION India occupies the second place in the production of milk in the world. The strategy adopted to achieve such remarkable growth in milk production has been a replication of the `Anand pattern' of co-operative dairying in other parts of India using the proceeds of European Economic Commission (EEC) dairy surpluses donated to India under the Operation Flood (OF) programme. The Indian dairy co- operative strategy has, however, proved to be fiercely controversial. One of the major criticisms of the strategy has been that too much focus on transforming the production and marketing technology along western lines has led to a situation where the policy 'took care of the dairy animal but not the human beings who own the animal'. Some dairy unions have come forward to set up foundations and trusts to address the development problems of milk producers. The well-known ones are, The Thribhuvandas Foundation' at Anand, Visaka Medical, Educational and Welfare Trust, and Varana Co-operative Society. They mainly focus on health and educational needs of milk producers and employees. These pioneering efforts have inspired other milk unions. The Malabar Regional Co-operative Milk Producers' Union (MRCMPU)2 has recently registered a welfare trust named, Malabar Rural Development Foundation (MRDF). The mission objective of MRDF is to make a sustainable improvement in the quality of life of dairy farmers by undertaking specific interventions. The planning of interventions for the welfare of dairy farmers in the Malabar region by MRDF called for an understanding of them in the larger social context. Do dairy farmers who are members of milk societies belong to the lower income classes? Are they largely poor and landless? If not, then justifying such interventions may be problematic from an equity point of view. Equity demands that the poorer population outside the milk societies also be considered for some of these welfare programmes. Scholarly studies have noted that dairy co-operatives in India have failed to reach the poorer sections of rural society. A recent study of two dairy co-operatives in Gujarat argued that inequality in the ownership of land and widespread illiteracy among scheduled castes and scheduled tribes (SC and ST) prevent them from

* Centre for Development Studies, Prasanthnagar, Ulloor, Thiruvananthapuram-695 011 (Kerala). DAIRYING IN MALABAR: A VENTURE OF THE LANDOWNING BASED ON WOMEN'S WORK? 699

participating in co-operatives (Rawal, undated). In the Kerala context, an earlier study had shown that cattle ownership and dairying is largely confined to the landed: "10% of the households with more than 250 cents of land accounted for 26% of the total cattle population. The distribution of households and cattle population indicated that 56% of households in the first two categories of land size holdings (owning less than 50 cents) accounted for only 28% of the cattle"(George and Nair, 1990, p. 43). Further, the burden of dairying falls heavily on women: "In milking, both males and females participated more or less equally. However, in feeding female participation was much more dominant than male participation. All operations pooled together, about 60 percent of the labour used in cattle keeping was supplied by females"(George and Nair, 1990). Given these findings it should be of interest to investigate whether the Malabar dairy farmers also show the same pattern. In particular, three questions should be of interest: (i) Whether SC/ST have not taken to dairying and are excluded from the membership of milk societies; (ii) Whether the landless and those owning smaller extent of land are not able to take up dairying; and (iii) Whether the burden of dairying activities falls heavily on women in the cattle keeping households. The methodology adopted was one of collecting data through a survey of milk society farmers and non-milk society farmers. The sample households were drawn from two milk societies each in the three districts of Palakkad, Kozhikode and Wayanad in Malabar, north Kerala. The sample households as well as the sample societies were drawn at random from the list available at MRCMPU. There is considerable variation across the six districts of Malabar in terms of population density, composition of population, urbanisation and cropping pattern. The selection of the three districts seeks to capture some of that diversity (Table 1).

TABLE L CHARACTERISTICS OF THE THREE DISTRICTS STUDIED

Item Wayanad Kozhikode Palalckad (1) (2) (3) (4) Population density 1991 (persons/sq. lcm) 315 1,118 532 SC/ST share in population (per cent) 21 7 15 Muslim (per cent) 26 36 25 Christian (per cent) 24 5 4 Average holding size (ha) 0.68 0.26 0.42 Dominant crop Pepper Coconut Paddy Urbanisation (per cent) 3.41 38.34 15.75 Source: Kerala Statistical Institute (2000).

A questionnaire was canvassed on a sample of 50 milk society farmer households (chosen at random from the list of total farmers associated with milk society for the last three years),3 and 50 non-milk society farmer households (adjacent to the member households). The survey was carried out during January 17 to February 23, 2001. The survey is not designed for arriving at estimates of any of the variables. The 700 INDIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

data are used to discern patterns in livelihood and resource profile, socio-economic and work status of milk society farmers (MS farmers) and non-milk society farmers (NMS farmers) in the three districts. The rest of the paper is organised as follows. Section II presents a brief overview of dairy development in Kerala. The section seeks to provide a broad background to the study. Section III discusses the caste, education and economic status of the households. The thrust of this section is on 'placing' the milk society farmers (MS farmers henceforth) on the canvas of the general population. Section IV discusses the crop pattern and cattle ownership by size-class of land holdings. Section V provides an account of the work status of the MS farmers in comparison with the NMS farmers. Section VI analyses dairying and women's work in the sample households in some detail. The last section presents the conclusion.

DAIRY DEVELOPMENT IN KERALA

In the post-Independence India systematic and intensive efforts have been made in animal husbandry development. In Kerala organised attempts to develop the animal husbandry sector began with the Key Village Scheme (KVS) in the 1950s. The scheme continued to operate in the subsequent periods, but a large number of these key village centres were merged with the Intensive Cattle Development Programme (ICDP) later on. Besides these schemes, the Indo-Swiss Project and the Department of Dairy Development took up major breed improvement programmes in the state. The state has witnessed a rapid growth in milk production in the last two decades. The annual average growth in milk production during the last two decades in the state was 9.3 per cent compared to the national average of 4.7 per cent (Government of Kerala, 1999 b). Such growth in milk production has taken place when the bovine population itself has shown a declining trend indicating that the contribution of the 'breed effect' and 'yield effect' to growth in milk output is strong. Along with the breed improvement programmes, attempts were made to provide facilities for procurement of milk from the rural areas and its processing and distribution in the urban centres. The number of primary co-operative societies which was only 195 in 1963-64 increased to 1,582 by 1986-87 and currently stands at over 2,200. Co-operative dairying in the state received a big push in the 1980s with the launching of the OF programme. Under this programme, the Kerala Co-operative Mill Marketing Federation was established during the year 1980. It forms a ,three-tier co-operative organisation with the milk producers' societies at the villge level, regional producers union in the middle and the Federation at the apex. The milk processing capacity has also steadily increased. By 1987 the co-operative federation had built up eight dairies with a capacity of about three lakh litres (per day) of milk. The number of dairies has increased to nine and the processing capacity close to seven lakh litres by 1999. During this period the procurement of milk by the societies increased from about two lakh litres to over five lakh litres. DAIRYING IN MALABAR: A VENTURE OF THE LANDOWNING BASED ON WOMEN'S WORK? 701

Milk procurement by the societies has shown an increase in the state. Between 1989 and 1999 procurement of milk has grown at a compound growth rate of 8.49 per cent per year. The regional pattern, however, is different. The contribution of Malabar to this growth has been close to 60 per cent. Consequently, the share of Malabar in total procurement has increased from about 15 per cent in 1989 to about 40 per cent by 1999. Breed improvement has played an important role in this remarkable growth of milk production and procurement. The percentage of crossbred cattle in the total increased by about 30 percentage points in the Malabar districts, except Kozhikode and Kasaragod (Government of Kerala, 2000 a), and now (at around 70 per cent) they look comparable to the levels in the southern districts, where the increase in the percentage of crossbred cattle in the total has been about 15 percentage points. Obviously, the contribution of 'breed effect' to growth in milk production in the south is becoming smaller. Malabar has witnessed rapid growth in milk production during the last decade compared to south Kerala. In a period of rapid growth of milk production, breed improvement and milk society formation, one would expect small holders and landless to participate in dairying. Especially so, when the milk society provided a ready outlet for milk and other support services.

III

CASTE,EDUCATION AND LAND HOLDING OF MILK SOCIETY FARMERS In all, 611 households were surveyed in the three districts (Table 2). The religious composition of the sample households in the three districts shows that Hindus account for almost 100 per cent of the households in Palakkad, about 80 per cent in Kozhikode, and less than 40 per cent in Wayanad. While Hindus are over- represented in the sample in Palakkad and Kozhikode and Christians in Wayanad, Muslims are under-represented in all the districts. The households belonging to the

TABLE 2. DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSEHOLDS BY RELIGION AND LOCATION

Location and group

Wayanad Kozhikode Palakkad Particulars

MS NMS MS NMS MS NMS farmer farmer farmer farmer farmer farmer (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) Number of households 112 94 105 102 90 108 Number of persons 541 431 487 • 471 533 603 Males 274 209 239 231 261 296 Females 267 223 248 240 272 307 Christians(per cent) 58.00 58.50 Muslims (per cent) 6.30 3.20 17.14 23.53 3.33 3.70 Hindus (per cent) 35.70 37.20 81.90 76.47 96.67 96.30 Others (percent) 1.10 0.96 SC/ST 0.90 3.20 6.67 19.61 8.89 27.78 702 INDIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

different religions are distributed between milk society farmers and non-milk society farmers in almost equal numbers in all the three districts, except in Kozhikode where the percentage of Muslims among NMS farmers is higher by over six percentage points. The caste composition of the households across the districts and between milk society and non-milk society farmers shows some striking patterns. It is evident that the sample has not been able to capture the scheduled tribes present in Wayanad. In Kozhikode and Palakkad, the proportion of SC/ST households included in the sample is more than their proportion in the population. And their presence among milk society farmers is proportionately lower than among non-milk society farmers; compared to 20 and 28 per cent among NMS farmers in Kozhikode and Palakkad respectively, their presence among MS farmers was 7 and 9 per cent respectively. In Kozhikode, similar lower representation of Muslims among MS farmers may be observed. If caste may be taken as an indicator of economic status, then a larger proportion of households with lower economic status may be found among NMS farmers. The level of education of the head of the household shows striking differences between MS farmers and NMS farmers (Table 3). Over 50 per cent of the heads of households reported a level of education below primary school across all the districts. More importantly, there is a ten point difference in the percentage of heads with less than primary level of education between MS and NMS farmers; the NMS farmers have a larger proportion of poorly educated heads in Kozhikode and Palakkad. Overall, the level of education of MS farmer households is distinctly higher than that of NMS farmer households.

TABLE 3. DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSEHOLDS BY EDUCATION OF THE HEAD OF THE HOUSEHOLD AND LOCATION (per cent) Location and group

Wayanad Kozhikode Palakkad Particulars MS NMS MS NMS MS NMS farmer farmer farmer farmer farmer farmer (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) Primary school or below 73.20 75.50 44.76 57.84 65.56 75.00 High school 25.90 22.30 47.62 40.20 32.22 22.22 Graduate and above 0.90 2.20 5.71 1.96 2.22 2.78 Note: Totals of percentages do not add up to 100 owing to some missing information.

The economic status aspect gets conclusively established when the distribution of households by the size of land owned is considered (Table 4). The number of households owning less than 10 cents of land is over 20 per cent higher among NMS farmers in Palakkad (at 48.15 per cent) and Kozhikode (at 24.51 per cent). In Wayanad, the difference between MS and NMS farmers in the up to 10 cents class is insignificant. Compared to 15.18 per cent of the MS farmers owning 10 to 50 cents, ON WOMEN'S WORK? 703 DAIRYING IN MALABAR: A VENTURE OF THE LANDOWNING BASED

owning the percentage among NMS farmers is 28.72. The percentage of households and 14.89 greater than 250 cents of land among MS and NMS farmers is 36.61 14.44 and respectively in Wayanad, 9.52 and 1.97 respectively in Kozhikode and 4.63 respectively in Palakkad. LOCATION TABLE 4. DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSEHOLDS BY LAND OWNERSHIP AND (percent) Location and group

Wayanad Kozhikode Palakkad Size of land owned (cents) MS NMS MS NMS MS NMS farmer farmer farmer farmer farmer farmer (6) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (7) 22.22 48.15 Upto 10 2.68 5.32 3.81 24.51 18.89 25.00 10 to 50 15.18 28.72 35.24 41.18 20.59 18.89 11.11 50 to 100 19.64 22.34 34.29 10.78 24.44 10.19 100 to 250 25.89 26.60 17.14 1.97 14.44 4.63 Above 250 36.61 14.89 9.52 Average land 53.12 152.58 51.06 owned (cents) 268.06 139.99 112.96 the non-reporting of ownership of land by a Note: The figures do not add up to 100 in some columns owing to few households. in The differential economic status of MS farmers and NMS farmers brought out of terms of land ownership and education gets further confirmed by the distribution 50 per households by other assets and amenities in the house (see Appendix). Over of cent of the households own radio in all the districts. A much lower percentage households among MS and NMS farmers own tape recorders, but the differences among between members and non-members persist with higher level of ownership TVs, members. Similar differences are observed regarding the ownership of colour bicycles, motor cycles, gas stoves, and mixer/grinders. The percentage of households owning every one of these durables is higher among MS farmers compared to NMS farmers. of In sum, milk society farmers do not hail from across all economic levels of MS population. An early indication of it was provided by the caste composition are farmers in comparison with NMS farmers wherein it was observed that SC/ST better relatively absent among MS farmers. The milk society farmers are relatively educated and they own more land and assets. IV

NATURE OF AGRICULTURE AND CATTLE OWNERSHIP The nature of agriculture varies widely across the districts. A small proportion of the households in Palakkad does not cultivate any crop. They are almost entirely MS small holders with less than 50 cents of land, their percentages being 11 for the in farmers and 36 for the NMS farmers. Such households are not to be found Kozhikode and Wayanad. The dominant crop combination in Palakkad is coconut 704 INDIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

only (2.1 per cent and 33 per cent among MS and NMS farmers respectively), coconut and paddy(54 per cent and 20 per cent respectively, and paddy only (2.2 per cent and about 6.5 per cent respectively). In Kozhikode, 6.67 per cent among MS farmers and 12.75 per cent among NMS farmers cultivate only coconut; 10.48 per cent and 28.43 per cent among the two groups respectively cultivate coconut and arecanut; and 9.52 per cent and 9.80 per cent among the two groups respectively cultivate coconut, arecanut and pepper. The rest of the households cultivate a variety of crops. In Wayanad, such sole cropping or combinations of one or two crops is hardly to be seen. Almost the entire population cultivates a number of crops, but with little cultivation. paddy The cultivation of paddy provides straw as a by-product that is used as cattle feed. Hence it may be expected that farmers cultivating paddy would be in a better position to rear cattle compared to those not cultivating paddy. How does the cultivation of paddy and cattle ownership vary across size-class of holdings in the three districts? In Wayanad, none among the MS or NMS farmers reported paddy cultivation, although the extent of land owned is larger compared to the other districts. It is the hilly terrain of the land and the rapid decline in paddy cultivation in recent years, which may account for this pattern. In Kozhikode, the number of farmers cultivating paddy increases with the size-class of holding, reaching 30 per cent for the highest size-class of 250 + cents (Table 5). But no significant difference could be observed between MS and NMS farmers in the proportion cultivating paddy, except for the highest size-class. In Palakkad, there is a sizable difference between MS and NMS farmers in the proportion cultivating paddy, almost entirely accounted for by the 10 to 50 cents size-class. Overall, paddy cultivation is largely confined to Palakkad and almost absent in the other two districts. In Palakkad too, paddy cultivation is largely carried out by the landowners of size-class 50 cents and above, the extremely holders small among MS and NMS farmers cultivating coconut only. TABLE 5. PROPORTION OF HOUSEHOLDS CULTIVATING PADDY BY SIZE- CLASS OF LAND OWNERSHIP AND LOCATION (per cent) Location and group Kozhikode Size of land owned (cents) Palakkad MS farmer NMS farmer MS farmer NMS farmer (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Up to 10 0 0 0 0 10 to 50 2.70 2.38 47.06 18.52 50 to 100 11.11 4.76 82.35 91.67 100 to 250 16.67 27.27 86.36 90.91 Above 250 30.00 0 69.23 60.00 Overall 9.52 4.90 56.67 26.85 Cattle ownership is fairly common among MS farmer households and un- common among NMS farmers. The proportion of MS farmers not owning cattle is 7.14 per cent in Wayanad, 5.71 per cent in Kozhikode, and 6.67 per cent in Palakkad 705 DAIRYING IN MALABAR: A VENTURE OF THE LANDOWNING BASED ON WOMEN'S WORK?

(Table 6). Among NMS farmers it ranged from 37.23 per cent in Wayanad, 86.27 per cent in Kozhikode and 55.56 per cent in Palakkad. Among the NMS farmers, the proportion of households owning cattle increases with size-class of holding, except in Kozhikode. In Kozhikode, among NMS farmers the percentage owning cattle is significantly lower even among the higher size-class of holdings. The average number of cattle owned by a household is higher in Wayanad and Palakkad compared to Kozhikode, both among MS and NMS farmers. The number of cattle owned increases with size-class of holding in all the three districts. Among the largest size- class of holdings the average number of cattle owned does not differ very much between MS and NMS farmers. TABLE 6. PROPORTION OF HOUSEHOLDS OWNING CATTLE AND AVERAGE NUMBER OF CATTLE OWNED BY SIZE-CLASS OF LAND OWNERSHIP AND LOCATION (per cent)

Location and group

Size of land Wayanad Kozhikode Palakkad owned (cents) MS farmer NMS farmer MS farmer NMS farmer MS farmer NMS farmer (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) 27.45 Upto 10 66.67 60.00 80.00 4.17 85.00 1.33 0.80 1.40 0.04 1.90 0.49 37.04 10 to 50 82.35 37.04 91.89 7.52 100.00 1.88 0.48 1.73 0.19 2.82 0.63 50.00 50 to 100 95.45 59.15 94.27 27.27 100.00 2.41 1.00 1.71 0.41 3.18 1.42 90.91 100 to 250 89.66 84.00 100.00 18.18 90.91 1.76 1.80 2.00 0.18 2.41 2.36 60.00 Above 250 100.00 92.86 100.00 50.00 92.31 2.78 2.64 1.90 1.00 3.46 2.40 44.44 Overall 92.86 62.77 94.29 13.73 93.33 2.39 1.26 1.74 0.21 2.47 1.03 number of cattle Note: The first entry in the cell is the percentage of households owning cattle and the second the per household.

Summarising the discussions in the preceding two sections, it may be said that MS farmers hail from Christians and forward caste Hindus and with few from among the Muslims and SC/ST. MS farmers are better educated, hold larger extent of land and assets and a larger proportion among them own cattle. Paddy cultivation in itself does not seem to be a factor in cattle ownership but the proportion of households owning cattle and the number of cattle owned are positively related with the size of land.

WORK STATUS OF HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS IN THE THREE DISTRICTS The household survey tried to capture the aspect of women's work in dairying by collecting information in two blocks. In the first block titled, 'work and income', the first question addressed to each adult was whether he/she was working during the last 12 months. If the answer was 'no', the next question evinced information on the 706 INDIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

reason for not working as, unemployment, housewife, student, illness/incapacity, etc. It is well known that housewives often spend quite many hours on agricultural activities and dairying. In order to capture this aspect of women's work, information was collected from each adult woman on the time disposal during the previous two days. This section analyses the various dimensions of the work status of the population above 15 years age and the next section analyses the time disposal of adult women with particular focus on housewives. Across the three districts, between 40 and 60 per cent of the population (above 15 years) reported having worked during the previous 12 months. The proportion is low at around 40 per cent in Kozhikode and high at around 57 per cent in Wayanad with Palakkad falling in between. There are no significant differences between MS and NMS farmers in regard to the proportion of working adults. The adult population taken as a whole without making a distinction between males and females creates a problem as a sizable proportion of the population reported housewife as a reason for not working. To get over this problem, Table 7 presents the data separately for males and females. It may be seen that the total number of adults reporting as working is significantly lower among the females owing to a large number of housewives. Once that is accounted separately, the numbers not working are almost equal between males and females in all the locations, groups and categories. The proportion not working owing to illness/ incapacity varies across the districts but not significantly between males and females, and is higher among NMS farmers in Wayanad and Palakkad. As is to be expected, the proportion reporting too old is higher among females in all the districts and across categories. Among the not working, under the category of student the proportions are not different between males and females in any location or group. The well-known fact of high female education in the state is amply reflected here. However, significantly higher numbers of non-working adults constitute students among MS farmers compared to NMS farmers. The number of days of employment in a year for the working population varies enormously across the districts as well as between MS and NMS farmers (Table 8). In Wayanad, the proportion of those working getting less than 150 days of employment in a year is 5.72 per cent among MS farmers and 14.58 per cent among NMS farmers. The percentages are higher in Kozhikode at 16.67(MS farmers) and 35.77 (NMS farmers). Palakkad reported an extreme case with over 75 per cent reporting less than 150 days of employment in a year with no difference between MS farmers and NMS farmers. In Wayanad, almost 60 per cent got work for over 250 days in a year; it was below 45 in Kozhikode, and less than 15 in Palakkad. The only significant difference between Ms farmers and NMS farmers is in Kozhikode. Thus the districts show disparate pictures as regards employment. Palakkad has a large proportion of the population reporting labour as the principal occupation, majority of whom got less than 150 days of work in a year. DAIRYING

MALABAR: TABLE 7. DISTRIBUTION OF NOT WORKING ADULTS BY REASON

Location and group Palakkad Wayanad Kozhikode A

farmer VENTURE MS farmer NMS farmer MS farmer NMS Particulars MS farmer NMS farmer Females Males Females Males Females Males Females Males Males Females Males Females (13) (6) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (4) (7) OF (1) (2) (3) (5) 95 61 114 23 122 44 144 THE Working 165 81 121 71 119 66 89 81 62 Housewife 61 44 LANDOWNING 79 76 76 60 70 82 69 67 Not working 61 64 36 54 Reason for not working Per cent 37.3 22. 13.0 21.1 19.7 23.3 25.7 35.4 30.4 unemployed 8.2 10.9 5.6 BASED Per cent illness/ 7.3 4.3 17.9 13.9 44.4 29.6 17.1 15.8 11.7 7.1 incapacity . 23.0 21.9 ON 19.4 26.6 38.9 43.4 36.8 38.3 22.9 32.9 31.9 Per cent student 62.3 48.4 38.9 WOMEN'S Per cent too 35.4 3.9 22.4 5.0 34.3 23.2 31.9 20.9 young/too old 4.9 18.8 11.1 18.5 5.3 21.7 10.0 1.2 1.5 4.5 1.3

14.5 WORK? Per cent others 1.6 0 0 0 708 INDIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

TABLE 8. DISTRIBUTION OF WORKING PERSONS BY NUMBER OF DAYS OF EMPLOYMENT (percent) Location and group Wayanad Number of Kozhikode Palakkad days of employment MS farmer NMS farmer MS farmer NMS farmer MS farmer NMS farmer (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) ' (6) (7) Less than 150 5.72 14.58 16.67 35.77 74.70 76.57 150-250 32.52 26.04 32.78 27.01 . 9.04 10.88 Above 250 61.76 59.38 50.55 37.22 16.26 Total 12.55 (number) 246 192 180 137 166 239 With the majority of the working population getting less than 150 days of employment in a year in some of the districts, it was expected that a sizable proportion of the working population would report non-availability of work during many months of the year. The percentage of persons reporting non-availability of work duritig the year is consistent with the number of days of employment in a year (Table 9). In Palakkad, over 60 per cent reported non-availability of work during January, April, May, August, September and November (six months of the year). Kozhikode reported a different pattern with work available through out the year, with only 10 to 15 percent reporting poor work availability in June and July. Wayanad is also similar to Kozhikode, the difference being a slightly higher percentage of persons reporting non-availability of work during the rainy season of May to August. There was no striking difference between MS farmers and NMS farmers with regard to the months during which work is not available in the three districts.

TABLE 9. PERCENTAGE OF WORKING PERSONS REPORTING NON-AVAILABILITY OF WORK BY MONTHS

Location and group

Wayanad Kozhikode Palakkad Month MS farmer NMS farmer MS farmer NMS farmer MS farmer NMS farmer (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) January * * * 58.43 February 66.53 * * * March 6.02 * * * * April 6.02 * * * 5.84 60.84 May 68.62 19.15 19.27 * * 60.84 June 72.80 32.11 40.10 9.44 16.06 18.67 July 12.97 37.80 43.23 8.89 14.60 18.67 August 12.55 13.82 9.38 * 10.22 68.67 September 74.48 * * * * 64.46 October 72.38 * * 13.86 November * * 8.79 5.55 * 53.61 December * * 62.34 5.55 * 23.49 17.99 Note: * indicates less than 5 per cent reporting. DAIRYING IN MALABAR: A VENTURE OF THE LANDOWNING BASED ON WOMEN'S WORK? 709

In sum, no significant difference could be observed between MS and NMS farmers in the three districts with regard to the proportion of adults working or not working and reasons thereof. But as regards the number of days of employment, considerable variation was observed across the three districts. The number of days of employment was high in Wayanad, moderate in Kozhikode and low in Palakkad. In Kozhikode and Wayanad, a small percentage of the working persons reported non- availability of work during the rainy season of May to August. But in Palakkad, for over six months of the year and for about 60 per cent of those working availability of work was poor. In Wayanad and Kozhikode, the percentage of working adults getting less than 150 days employment was higher among NMS farmers.

HOUSEWIVES AND DAIRYING

As shown in the previous section, not much difference could be observed between MS and NMS farmers in terms of proportion working, reason for not working, number of days of employment, etc. Probably, the way information was collected does not allow us to capture the difference, especially the contribution of housewives to dairying. So, the information on the time disposal of all adult women (for the previous two days) was collected. The data show some striking patterns. Earlier studies have shown that women devoted considerable time on cattle rearing. We analysed the relation between the number of women in the household and cattle ownership. It is seen that there does not exist a positive relationship between the two in any district among MS and NMS farmers. The information on time disposal of women (Table 10) shows that in every household more than one woman is involved in cooking and upkeep of the household. The other activity with the greatest participation is related to livestock in that in every cattle keeping household at least one woman - the average number varied from 1.11 among MS farmers to 2 among NMS farmers in Kozhikode - looks after cattle and collects fodder. The participation of women in other activities varies enormously across the districts. There is a remarkable similarity across the districts and between MS and NMS farmers in the number of hours spent on cooking, upkeep of household, child care, care of other members and studies. The rest of the activities show considerable variation. Agricultural activities take up close to seven hours (in two days) in Palakkad and between four and five hours in Wayanad. In Kozhikode, it is just about two hours for MS farmers and double that time for NMS farmers. Manufacturing activities and paid activities also show considerable variation. Livestock related activities take up between eight and 12 hours (in two days) and are TABLE 10. TIME DISPOSAL OF ADULT WOMEN(PREVIOUS TWO DAYS)

Location and group

Wayanad Kozhikode Palakkad INDIAN Activity

MS farmers NMS farmers MS farmers NMS farmers MS farmers NMS farmers JOURNAL JOURNAL Number Hours Number Hour Number Hours Number Hours Number Hours Number Hours (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) Cooking 166 5.13 138 4.21 168 4.41 153 4.73 169 4.80 202 4.75

Upkeep of OF household 136 2.95 108 3.09 154 2.35 140 2.22 153 2.50 186 2.41 AGRICULTURAL Child care 81 3.19 58 3.48 34 6.94 37 5.76 94 3.13 97 3.59 Care of other members 44 2.20 38 2.32 27 3.22 26 2.98 119 2.20 123 2.34 Agricultural activities 92 4.32 83 4.48 56 2.04 29 2.05 75 6.77 56 7.75 Manufacturing

activities 38 5.08 28 6.54 18 1.75 23 3.91 11 3.09 4 7.50 ECONOMICS Other duties 35 2.43 25 2.52 105 2.14 78 2.50 98 2.88 133 2.80 Work in household fields 22 2.47 9 2.78 9 2.11 9 2.44 51 3.08 24 3.38 Paid activities 7 5.00 7 9.86 13 5.81 13 6.46 24 15.63 70 15.37 Studies 77 6.39 58 6.41 72 4.89 55 3.95 57 5.67 52 4.54 Looking after 129 3.49 78 2.94 111 3.64 26 3.67 131 3.65 65 4.05 livestock 1.24 132 1.11 2.00 L$6 L48 Collecting 78 3.97 56 3.75 101 2.89 • 12 3.13 89 3.85 51 4.27 fodder 0.75 0.95 1.01 0.92 1.06 L16 Selling live- 68 2.24 52 1.81 49 1.73 3 2.00 50 2.96 28 3.54 stock products 0.65 0.88 0.49 0.23 0.60 0.64 Leisure 139 2.51 120 2.75 170 6.68 162 7.15 180 2.75 227 3.61 Sleep 186 15.83 159 16.05 196 14.97 176 15.21 193 15.23 230 15.62 Note: Numbers underlined stand for average number of women involved in the activity per cattle-keeping household. DAIRYING IN MALABAR: A VENTURE OF THE LANDOWNING BASED ON WOMEN'S WORK? 711

a major component of women's work. It seems more important than agricultural activities. The proportion of women participating in dairying and the number of hours spent them who reported as 'housewives' and 'rest' is presented in Table 11. It may be seen that between 55 and 72 per cent of the housewives looked after livestock among MS farmer households in the three districts and the number of hours spent by them was between 2.5 and 3.6 hours in two days. The proportion among non-housewives was less but the number of hours spent was higher. A lower proportion of housewives, compared to non-housewives, participated in collecting fodder and selling livestock products. The same pattern may be seen among NMS farmers wherein the participat-ion itself was significantly lower.

TABLE 11. TIME DISPOSAL OF ADULT WOMEN IN DAIRYING - HOUSEWIVES AND REST(PREVIOUS TWO DAYS)

MS farmers NMS farmers

Activity Housewives Rest Housewives Rest

Per cent Hours Per cent Hours Per cent Hours Per cent Hours (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) Wayanad Looking after livestock 72.13 3.03 58.62 3.73 45.45 2.95 46.40 2.93 Collecting fodder 21.31 2.69 44.83 4.23 15.91 1.86 39.20 4.02 Selling livestock products 8.20 2.00 43.45 2.25 13.64 1.50 36.80 1.85 Kozhikode Looking after livestock 54.55 2.54 54.01 4.22 15.73 3.57 13.98 3.58 Collecting fodder 50.00 2.61 49.64 3.03 5.62 2.80 7.87 3.36 Selling livestock products 36.33 1.48 18.25 1.98 1.12 4.00 2.15 1.00 Palakkad Looking after livestock 71.06 3.64 64.60 - 3.66 32.26 3.45 25.86 4.31 Collecting fodder 37.04 3.23 52.21 4.17 16.13 2.40 23.98 4.73 Selling livestock products 23.46 2.68 27.43 3.13 4.88 1.67 14.62 3.76

An important conclusion that may be drawn from the discussion in this section is that the decision to keep cattle does not seem to be governed by the number of women present in the household. But in cattle keeping households women - housewives and others - devote considerable number of hours in livestock related activities. Of particular interest is the participation of those women who reported themselves as not working and housewife in dairying. Such participation is, in fact, higher by non-housewives. 712 INDIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

VII

CONCLUSION

The comparison of caste, education and land holding of MS farmers with NMS farmers points to a larger proportion of households belonging to the backward caste, being less educated and holding lower size of land are not able to participate in dairying. A recent study of two dairy co-operatives in Gujarat argued that inequality in land ownership, caste, illiteracy and undemocratic functioning of co-operatives are the barriers to entry (Rawal, undated). Illiteracy might not be a factor in Kerala but land ownership could be one, as among the lower size-class of land owners a smaller proportion seem to be keeping cattle. As regards the work status of the adult population, no significant difference between MS farmers and NMS farmers could be observed. Women, however, devoted considerable amount of time for dairying, irrespective of whether they reported as working or not working and giving the reason as housewife. Obviously, the categories of work status and employment often used are not very useful in capturing the work input of women in dairying. Time disposal studies do help bring this aspect of work and show that women's role in cattle keeping is great. The initiatives undertaken such as Malabar Rural Development Foundation for improving the quality of dairy farmers are welcome as they go beyond taking care of the dairy animal. But they cannot address the problems of the poor and landless as their participation in dairying is low. This needs to be kept in mind while planning welfare interventions.

Received May 2001. Revision accepted April 2002.

NOTES

I. Thribhuvandas Patel was the chairman of the Kheda co-operative for decades, which is said to provide the 'model' for the Anand pattern. 2. Malabar Regional Co-operative Milk Producers' Union is one of the three Milk Unions in Kerala owned by over 1,50,000 farmers and is affiliated to the apex Kerala Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation, popularly known by the brand name WILMA'. 3. "A recent study shows that 55,912 farmers (35,982 members and 19,930 non-members in milk societies) are associated with Malabar Milk Union for the last three years. Out of this 45,395 farmers (29,900 members and 15,495 non-members) supplied milk during 1999-2000."

REFERENCES

George, P. S. and K.N. Nair (1990), Livestock Economy ofKerala. Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum. Government of Kerala (2000 a), Integrated Sample Surveyfor Estimation ofProduction of Milk. Egg and Meatfor the Year 1997-98. Department of Animal Husbandry, Thiruvananthapuram. Government of Kerala.(2000 b), Economic Review 1999, State Planning Board, Thiruvananthapuram. Kerala Statistical Institute (2000), Handbook ofStatistics 2000, Thiruvananthapuram. Rawal, Vikas (undated), "Participation of the Rural Poor in Dairy Co-operatives: A Case Study from Gujarat", Background paper for the FAO project on "Rural Household Income Strategies for Poverty Alleviation and Interactions with the Local Institutional Environment". DAIRYING IN MALABAR: A VENTURE OF THE LANDOWNING BASED ON WOMEN'S WORK? 713

APPENDIX

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HOUSEHOLDS

Location and group Wayanad Kozhikode Palakkad Characteristics Milk Non- Milk Non- Milk Non- society milk society milk society milk farmer society farmer society farmer society farmer farmer farmer (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) Number of households 112 94 105 102 90 108 Number of persons 541 431 487 471 533 603 Males 274 209 239 231 261 296 Females 267 223 248 240 272 307 Average household size 4.83 4.59 4.64 4.59 5.90 5.57 Average number of adults 3.88 3.50 3.84 3.46 4.42 4.14 Average number of children 0.95 1.09 0.80 1.13 1.48 1.43 Average number of persons Above sixty years of age 0.338 0.344 0.400 0.510 0.467 0.519 Percentage of households with no child 6.40 8.33 56.19 32.35 34.44 29.63 Average age of the head of the household (years) 47.63 48.41 52.32 52.82 52.81 53.90 Percentage of head of household with high school + education 26.80 24.56 53.33 42.16 34.44 25.00 Average land owned (cents) 268.06 139.99 112.96 53.12 152.58 51.06 Number reporting 112 92 105 101 89 107 Average land cultivated (cents) 255.74 128.17 104.11 47.43 184.87 96.76 Number reporting 96 70 100 96 62 33 Number of households with cattle 104 59 100 13 84 44 Average number of cattle* 2.57 2.00 1.85 1.54 2.65 2.32 Number of households with fowl 31 22 54 42 Average number of fowl* 6.68 6.36 3.56 2.79 Number of households producing milk 77 35 68 6 65 21 Average milk produced*a (litres) 50.09 40.83 26.52 33.25 33.01 26.43 Average milk consumed* b (litres) 7.82 8.20 5.94 8.75 7.07 5.05 Number of households with credit outstanding 49 37 31 38 55 47 Average amount of credit 63,148 39,108 31,919 15,286 14,911 11,526 outstanding* (Rs.) Average number of rooms in the 6.25 4.98 5.31 4.48 5.72 4.64 house Percentage of houses with well 25.00 26.60 91.43 79.41 84.44 58.49 water Percentage of houses with toilet 90.20 85.10 96.19 94.12 76.67 57.41 Percentage of houses electrified 46.40 35.10 80.95 60.78 86.67 62.96 Percentage of houses with colour TV 15.20 12.80 35.24 19.61 20.00 8.33 Notes: a. Adults: Age 15 + years. b. Production and consumption of milk is per week. * Per reporting household.