| Livestock has vital importance in the economic development of Pakistan. Pakistan is the third-largest livestock producing country in the world. About half the population of the country consists of females (49.19%) who enthusiastically take part in social and economic activities including all operations related to crop production and livestock works like handling of milk production, animal care, and fodder cutting, etc. in rural areas. Despite all these activities they are still powerless in decision making and other developmental initiatives. Various NGOs are doing their best in this regard namely the Aurat Foundation, Bunyad Foundation, Kashf Foundation, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Dairy and Rural Development Foundation (DRDF) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID and DRDF are working together to train females from rural Punjab for promotion of livestock business entrepreneurship among Pakistani females through the “Dairy Project” by producing Women Livestock Extension Worker (WLEW). The study was planned to analyze the role of USAID- DRDF Dairy Project in enhancing the capacity building of rural females involved in livestock farming. The study was conducted in district Muzaffargarh where 1662 Women Livestock Extension Workers have been trained under this Project. A sample of 120 respondents was interviewed using a simple random sampling technique. The collected data was analyzed with the help of SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) for drawing conclusions and formulating the recommendations. It was found that all of the female trainees were aware of the basic livestock disease services being learned by the project. An overwhelming majority of the respondents (95%) were satisfied by the working of the dairy project. It was suggested that the time period of the project must be increased with focus on small scale industries and maximum involvement of females in such training programs should be increased so that they can earn for their family. |
