| Livestock Research for Rural Development 23 (11) 2011 | Guide for preparation of papers | LRRD Newsletter | Citation of this paper |
The projects are focused on role of women in ensuring adequate food security through development of animal production by women’s group applying the goat-sharing scheme. A total of 10 community projects have been set up by a university based livestock development project to enhance small ruminant production in a rural comunities. As an example a women group was set up in 2007 in Gunungkidul district near Yogyakarta Java Indonesia. At the beginning of the project members of the group consisted of 30 women. Each were given 2 pregnant goats. The objectives of the scheme were to increased family income by improving goat population at the village and to increase motivation of farmer in goat management.
A physical benefit to the members involved in the goat-sharing scheme is the ownerships of the kids. The number of kids kept by the participants depends on the number of kids born from the first two pregnancies.as the number of kids have to be shared with the community. After that the participants also owns the original female goats and all subsequent offspring. By 2011, the goat-sharing scheme had been running for over four years. The majority of the female goat allocated within the scheme were already in the third to fourth pregnancies. The other benefit of the goat-sharing scheme is production of manure, which is a very useful by products of goat keeping. The goats are kept in small pens beside their house and fed on by products from their fields as well as leaves from trees as a cut and carry system. It was rare for any of the members to sell goat faeces for cash because the manure has more value as fertilizer for crops. At this the total number of goats in the village are 410 heads, and the total members are 84. When the compost produced was applied to marginal land, much have being improved by utilization of the organic fertilizer. The programme of animal production through goat-sharing scheme, are able to give rural women access to resources,and information, and enable them to the increase goat productivity, which benefit their families financial security.
Key words: Farmer, group, goat-sharing, tropics
This paper is about development of animal production through women’s group, based in Banyusoca village in Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia. The animal’s use in this activity are goats; in the goat-sharing scheme a university based livestock development project to enhance small ruminant production in rural communitis.
The goat-sharing scheme was developed due to the economic pressure,which led to the increase of prices of various agricultural products. The high inflation also led to the increase of cost of living (Booth 2002). The number of poor people in Indonesia is increasing in 1999. 27.1 million of the population was below the national poverty line (World Bank 2005) and in 2010 is 31 million (Cikeas 2010).
The programmed of setting up animal production through goat-sharing scheme, in Banyusoca village in Gunungkidul Regency, expected give rural women access to resources and information and may enable them to increase goat productivity (Kustantinah et al 2002), therefore, benefiting their families financial security.
The long term aim of animal production through goat sharing scheme was to alleviate farmers poverty, the specific aims are: increasing goat population at the village, increasing motivation in goat management, giving training in self reliance, increasing decision making ability, giving access to legume trees as goat feeds.
The programmes are conducted by involvement of members women farmers group that are chosen from ten villages, i.e. Kwarasan that is situated in Nglipar, Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta, Java. There are approximately 513 households in Kwarasan. Crops grown by villagers include rice, peanut, cassava, corn and soybean. These crops are grown on land surrounding the house, or on piece of land within the village boundary. The Kwarasan women’s group consists of 32 members with the average age of the members are 47 years, which is ranging from 30 to 56 years old. The formal education of the members are mainly, primary school, just 27 % of them have completed primary school. The second village is Gombang which situated in Ponjong, Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta, Java. There are approximately 150 households in Gombang, which has a population of 500. Similar to Kwarasan, crops grown by farmers include rice, peanut, etc. The Gombang women’s groups so called Lestari, consist of 30 members, where the age of members slightly younger than Kwarasan, ranging from 25 to 55 years old. With the education of members are quite similar to Kwarasan which is mainly primary school and 17% of the members has completed primary school The third village is Wonolagi. Different the other two villages, Wonolagi is situated in the bank of “Oya” river. This village situated in Playen, Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta, Java. The situation of the village is in hillyside, next to the district woodland. There are approximately 45 households in Wonolagi, which has a population of 130. The Wonolagi women farmers group so called “Sumber Rejeki” having 35 members.
The goat management system based on the principle of sharing was set up within the women’s group, in which the majority of the women were given either one or two females goat. Each ten females there has available one buck. Each member of the group had to sign a legal agreement stating the age, sex, weight and price of goat received from the project, that they agree to the system of goat sharing and that they will manage the goats to the best of their ability. Animal Nutrition and Feeds Science Department/Gadjah Mada University (ANFS/GMU) are the principle owner of the goats, and the participants are the second owner. After second pregnancy, the farmer becomes the sole owner of the female goats and the kids. The system include introduction of the legume trees, improvement of goat’s pens and introduction of the goat.
In Kwarasan, the women’s group consists of 30 members. This group has a head man and meet once a month. In this area, the Forestry department, Yogyakarta has given the group access to the close woodland, in which they grow King grass, Cassava and Peanut (the leaves are used to feed their goats). Individual members are responsible for managing their own plot within this group area of woodland. In Gombang village, similar system to Kwarasan were used.
All members of the women’s group were given legume seeds trees which are Gliricidae immaculata, Calliandra, Leucaena leucocephala and Sesbania. The majority of these trees were growing very well, although with increasing goat population in the village, there is still lack of feed during the dry season. It was expected that farmers collect the seeds produced for further seeding in other areas. The goat sharing scheme has given the opportunity for each member of the women’s group to borrow two hundred thousand rupiah, equivalent of 18 euro, interest free, from ANFS/GMU to build or repair an existing goat pens. Each month, members who borrowed money, pay back 10.000 rupiah, equivalent of 90 pence of euro, to the head of the group or treasury of the group, than passed it to the goat sharing scheme co-ordinator. This fund will be transfered to other new member to build or repaired goat pens. So far, there have not been any problems with repayment of the loan given to group members.
A physical benefit to participants involved in the goat-sharing scheme is the ownerships of the kids. The number of kids kept by the participants depends on the number of kids produced from the first two pregnancies. After which the participants also owns the original female goat and all subsequent offsprings. In 2010, the total number of goat produced were over 3000 heads,of which include 882 were sold, 410 heads has been passed to new participants 329 died at birth and 48 were used for local ceremonies (Kustantinah A 2010 unpublished).
Part of benefits from the farmer the ownerships kids and does (after two pregnancies) is manure production. The manure production is also one of the purposes of keeping goats. The production of manure is a very useful by-products of goat keeping, and collection of manure is made easier by housing the goats in a raised goat pen near to the house. It was rare for any of the members to sell goat faeces for cash, because the manure has more value as fertilizer for crops. This fertilizer is a one of the impact of goat-sharing scheme.
The authors acknowledge the DFID-British Council Indonesia under Higher Education Link scheme between Department of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science Faculty of Animal Science, UGM - IFRU, Macaulay Institute, Aberdeen UK; Orskov Foundation, Macaulay Institute, Aberdeen UK for financial input and Rotary club of Westhill, Aberdeen UK.
Booth A 2002 Crisis and Poverty, in: Inside Indonesia. January-March 2002. No. 69. Indonesia Resources and Information Program (IRIP). Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). 2004. Towards Sustainable Food Security. http://www.fao.orang. Visited 20/12/2004
Cikeas 2010 Indonesia’s poor people reaches 31 million. http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/CIKEAS. Visited 2/4/2011
Kustantinah A, Lomax M, Suhartanto B, Agus A, Orskov E R , Hartadi H , Utomo R and Yusiati L M 2002 A Livestock Development Approach Contributes to Poverty Alleviation: A special case at Kwarasan, Nglipar, Gunungkidul, as an example. Proceedings of the 3 rd International Seminar on Tropical Animal Production, Faculty of Animal Science, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
World Bank 2005 The World Bank and Indonesia. http://www.worldbank.orang. Visited 2/01/2005.
Received 3 October 2011; Accepted 13 October 2011; Published 4 November 2011