Livestock sector: A tool for women empowerment

India is an agriculture dependent country and livestock sector is an integral component of it. In India, livestock sector is mostly look after by women as most of the animal husbandry activities like fodder collection, chaffing, feeding, watering, health care, milking, household-level processing, value addition and other management practices are performed by women. But the share of women in income from livestock sector is considered negligible. Women have less access to technology, extension services and less women farmer’s organizations; hence efforts are needed to increase the capacity of women in terms of skills to meet their strategic needs and to document systematically their inputs and outputs with respect to livestock sector. The decision making, self-esteem, social support, access to knowledge, credit facility, livestock services, market accessibility and asset ownership are the important pillars for the women empowerment in livestock sector. Exclusive trainings for women farmers should be organized to remove their knowledge gaps regarding specific animal husbandry activities.