Away from the hustle and bustle of cities like Karachi and Hyderabad, a small village in Sindh offers a haven of peace and serenity. A group of women tend to their livestock in a large courtyard, while others chase runaway hens under verdant tree cover. The scene makes for a calming spectacle, with coastal winds blowing at a moderate velocity.

It's early morning and the village men have already left for the fields or to take care of other chores in and outside the village. The women aren't resting, though. In fact, women’s contribution to such a rural area's economy is immense as they often work alongside men in the fields. Livestock rearing, for example, is considered their responsibility alone and serves as a major source of income.

Izzat Lashari village is located in Mirpursakro taluka of Thatta district at the tail-end of Sindh province. Thatta district itself is part of Sindh’s disaster-prone coastal region.

Accustomed to conventional methods of cattle farming and trade, two of Izzat Lashari's female residents this year found a new way to get optimal returns for the livestock they nurture all year round: selling them online.

“I got the desired price (Rs100,000) for my bull ahead of Eidul Azha,” says Rubina Lashari, a hint of pride on her face. This was the first time she and fellow villager Shaheen Lashari used the tools of online marketing and e-trade to sell their cattle.

Navigating the World Wide Web

“We had uploaded pictures of our cattle on a Facebook page and we got a somewhat better response in terms of prospective buyers; in the past, we used to sell them at whatever price was offered by traders in our village,” Rubina explains. These traders, she says, in fact bought cattle from her and other village women and then sold them in the cities' larger cattle markets set up for sacrificial animals at higher prices.

Shaheen runs the Facebook page. She got connected with the online buyers using the cellphone numbers of her husband and uncle. “We will hopefully fare even better next year after learning from this year’s experience,” she says optimistically.

But cattle is not their only product. For Rubina and Shaheen, the marketing opportunities on the World Wide Web are endless.

“We are also promoting our handicrafts online. It is something we've just started,” Shaheen says. She even tried to sell ghee through a WhatsApp group — which albeit got a mixed response. “Those joining the group want us to provide them pure ghee for free,” she shares with a laugh.

It has been a steep learning curve for others too. Shaheen initially had difficulty with uploading pictures of her animals on her Facebook page. “I tried repeatedly but I ended up without success. But then Kashif, a project official, helped fix the problem,” she recalls. “Now I can do it myself.”

Livestock management

According to Rubina, they paid a lot more attention to their cattle this year, thanks to the knowledge they gained in a programme about livestock management. "I provided better food to the animals and took care of their other necessities including health and nutrition. It has indeed paid off," she says.

The training programme alluded to by Rubina was launched for women in several villages of Mirpursakro. It supported around 300 rural women entrepreneurs, who were given training in livestock management and value addition in by-products of milk. The knowledge helped them realise how they could earn more during the testing times of the pandemic instead of essentially wasting a commodity as precious as milk.

“The [coronavirus] pandemic did affect us economically. But at the same time, it offered us the opportunity and window to look for other business options that we were unaware of. We are now also producing by-products of milk such as maava (condensed milk) and desi ghee, thanks to the training programme,” Rubina shares.

The women were selected for the training by Research and Development Foundation (RDF), a development-sector organisation and a local partner of the project’s lead agency, International Trade Centre (ITC). The programme was launched under the Growth for Rural Advancement and Sustainable Progress (Grasp) initiative as part of the Grasp's Covid-19 emergency response for Sindh and Balochistan.

A six-year project, Grasp is designed to alleviate poverty in Pakistan by strengthening small-scale agribusinesses in Sindh and Balochistan. The project’s study shows that SMEs make up the bulk of businesses in Pakistan.

As an immediate relief measure for Pakistani recipients, the emergency response activities included animal vaccination and the provision of tools, equipment, seeds, fertiliser, fodder and feeds.

The direct input support activities were complemented by capacity-building of local farmers/SMEs on good agriculture practices, climate-smart practices, e-commerce and value-chain development.

According to Shabnam Baloch, the provincial lead for the project in Sindh, 10 women were provided smartphones to help them get online business exposure. “They are still learning,” she comments.

Sustainability

“We never opted for vaccination of animals [in the past] but now we got our animals vaccinated. I have seen animals being vaccinated in our village,” Nasima, a beneficiary, says.

The village is located close to the metropolitan city of Karachi. Efforts are underway through Grasp to develop strong market linkages between these rural women or SMEs and Karachi-based businessmen dealing in by-products of milk to develop a supply chain where they can keep selling the by-products.

The Economic Survey of Pakistan 2020-21 describes agriculture as indispensable to the country’s economic growth, food security, employment generation and poverty alleviation, particularly at the rural level.

The sector contributes 19.2 per cent to the GDP and provides employment to around 38.5pc of the labour force. More importantly, over 65-70pc of the population depends on it for livelihood. Livestock, over the years, has emerged as largest sub-sector in agriculture, contributing 60.1pc to agriculture value addition and 11.5pc to the GDP in FY2020-21.

Shabnam Baloch says Grasp will keep supporting women entrepreneurs in rural areas to build their capacity and in turn, improve the quality and quantity of their products, including value addition, packaging and branding to enhance their marketability. Their e-trade skills will be further upgraded through hands-on trainings and market linkages, she says.

For Rubina, prior to participation in the programme, like many others in her village, she had no idea about livestock management. But the training has equipped her with the essential skills to run a successful business.

“We used to follow conventional practices to manage animals,” she says, adding that she didn’t know what kind of diet is required for them. "We used to feed the cattle dry fodder, grass and some other items that were readily available in the village."

But all that has changed now, she says. “Now we feed the livestock wanda, recommended to us in the training,” she says. The wanda she refers to is a concoction specifically designed for cattle feed. It helps milk production and makes the cattle healthier.

For Rubina, the wanda worked wonders, she says, as the bull she reared last year turned out to be quite healthy and fetched a good price. Though the product is more expensive compared to what she would normally feed her livestock, the returns make it worth it.

“My bull looked smart. I bathed it as well when the buyers came to make the purchase," she says happily, adding that this was why she was able to sell the bull for Rs100,000. She will use the money for her daughter's education. "I want her to become a doctor," she says.

By-products

Besides caring for the livestock's health, the women were also taught how to produce maava (condensed milk) during the training, for which the basic ingredient, milk, is readily available in villages. Roughly 40 kilogrammes of milk produces around 7-8kgs of maava. For the cattle to produce large volumes of milk, however, their diet must be taken care of.

Buwa Lashari says the milk yield from her cow has certainly increased ever since she changed the dietary pattern. “Previously, we didn't care much about their (cattle's) dietary needs,” she says. But ever since the shift, she regularly gets five to 10kgs of milk, instead of the earlier 2kgs.

“We also feared that vaccinations would render our cows infertile. It was just a fear,” she concedes. She is now looking for a business partner who would be willing to buy milk from her in bulk quantity.

“The only thing these rural women need is linkages to the urban market,” says RDF’s Ashfaq Soomro. “The issue is supplying the maava in the market of Karachi or other urban centres,” she adds.

Other opportunities

Grasp is not the first project to help farmers improve their profitably. It is, however, the first of its kind specifically catered towards women.

Earlier in 2019, the Sindh government’s livestock department in collaboration with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) had worked on “Sustainable Livestock Development for Rural Sindh” to ensure calf salvation in the province. Calf slaughtering remains unchecked in Sindh, with the slaughtering of 0.6 million calves per annum reported in Karachi alone, according to one figure.

Under the project, calves bought from cattle colonies are kept for 90 days in a calf salvation centre (CSC) established by the livestock department directorate for proper feeding at different stages. Two calves each are then handed over to pre-selected pilot farmers after completion of the 90-day period.

Around 5,000 farmers — both male and female — have been trained under the project, against a target of 3,000, according to a JICA official who coordinates with the Sindh livestock department. JICA has borne 80pc of the cost of the project (Rs838m), while Sindh government has paid the other 20pc (Rs227.061m).

Rubina, Nasima and Shaheen also cultivate tomatoes. The area they live in is considered a hub of tomato production. But at times, the crop becomes a financial burden. “Even tomato picking becomes a liability. We then leave it in the land for it to become organic matter before cultivating another crop," Nasima explains. This time, the Grasp emergency support provided them with critical crop inputs during the pandemic-driven lockdown.

“We look forward to Grasp training us in value-added items for tomatoes, and their processing, storage, grading, sorting, packaging and marketing to unlock the full potential of the product," she says.

Header image: A village woman feeds her bull in Izzat Lashari village. — Umair Ali