Assessment of gender involvement in the Parish Development Model among the dairy and piggery farmers in Bufunjo Subcounty Kyenjojo District

Abstract

The parish development model (PDM) is the current strategy for service delivery by government of Uganda for improving incomes and welfare of all Ugandans at house hold level. Production being one of the five pillars of the PDM, a cross sectional study was carried out to comparatively assess the level of engagement of dairy and piggery production farmers with emphasis on gender mainstreaming in the parish development model preparations in Bufonjo sub county, Kyenjojo district. The study indicated that majority of the dairy and piggery farmers were involved/engaged in PDM with 97.7% of the farmers being aware of the project, 90.8% of the farmers being registered and 49.4% of the farmers being actively involved in leadership. Men were more involved than women at a percentage of 51.5% and 42.9% respectively. Additionally, majority of the farmers were more involved in piggery farming compared to dairy farming. The main socio-demographic factors affecting involvement of farmers in PDM were gender (p=0.008), marital status (p=0.002) and position as household head (p=0.002). Across the gender roles in Bufonjo Sub-county, majority of the activities involved in running dairy and piggery projects were done by women, followed by boys, men and least by girls. Therefore, more effort in Bufonjo Sub-county should be more inclined to piggery farming as majority of the farmers prioritize piggery farming compared to dairy farming.