Donkey Ownership Provides a Range of Income Benefits to the Livelihoods of Rural Households in Northern Ghana
Abstract
:Simple Summary
Abstract
1. Introduction
“Anytime I don’t have money, I use the donkey to work and earn money at the end of the day. I can make at least 50.00 GH¢ (£6.48) and I can use that money to buy a female goat and it will reproduce”Kahiau, (RID27M67).
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Preliminary Considerations
2.2. Data Collection and Study Location
2.3. Ethical Considerations
2.4. Ethics Approval and Sampling
2.5. Adult Research Instruments
2.6. Children’s Research Instruments
2.7. Data Analysis
3. Results
3.1. A Market for Hiring out Donkeys and Carts
3.2. Six Different Income Benefits from Donkey Ownership
3.2.1. Domestic Use of Donkeys for Non-Monetary Income Benefits (Cashless Indirect)
3.2.2. Direct Income Generation Utilising Donkeys (Direct)
The Role of Children in Direct Income Generation Utilising Donkeys
3.2.3. Speculative Sales as a Means of Generating Income from a Donkey and Cart (Indirect)
3.2.4. Speculative Collection as a Means of Generating Income from a Donkey and Cart (Indirect)
3.2.5. Generating Income through the Sale of Donkey Intestine Soup (Indirect)
3.2.6. Donkey Ownership Generates Income Benefits through the Saving of Time (Cashless Indirect)
3.3. Income Generated from the Use of Donkeys
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Supplementaly Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
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Study Site | No. of Respondents | Girls | Boys | Age Range (years) | Mean Age (years) | Family Owns 1 Donkey | Family Owns 2 Donkey | Family Owns 3 Donkey | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fielmon | Mixed sex FGD | December 2018 | 12 | 3 | 9 | 10–16 | 11.58 | 7 | 4 | 1 |
Girls only | June 2019 | 8 | 8 | 12–15 | 13 | 4 | 4 | |||
Boys only | June 2019 | 8 | 8 | 12–15 | 13.2 | 8 | ||||
Gia | Mixed sex FGD | December 2018 | 11 | 4 | 7 | 10–16 | 12.81 | 0 | 8 | 3 |
Girls only | June 2019 | 7 | 7 | 10–13 | 12 | 2 | 4 | 1 | ||
Boys only | June 2019 | 8 | 8 | 10–14 | 13 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
Method of Income Generation | Description | Potential Earnings Per Hire (GH¢) | Illustrative Participant Quotation | RID | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Domestic (Cashless Indirect) | No income generating activities per se. | Not applicable, but saves costs. | Still contributes to household income, through not having to hire in transportation and ploughing assistance - information provided by Jalia (DO). Also saves time, itemised separately under 6. | 25 |
2. | Direct Hire (Direct) | Hire directly for an EADL. | 10.00–20.00 GH¢ (£1.40–2.80). | Approximate weekly income from hiring out her donkey, costs quoted by Maiara (DO). | 28 |
3. | Speculative Selling (Indirect) | Collect a load of wood with no one in mind to sell it to, to sell 'on spec' to anyone who needs wood, for any purpose. | “Costs 5 GH¢ (£0.70) twice per week to hire a donkey to cart firewood back from the bush.” | Costs to hire a donkey and cart to collect firewood she has cut and collected in the bush, quoted by Selma (NDO). The only alternative is for her to carry it home on her head. | 38 |
4. | Speculative Collection (Indirect) | Collect firewood to sell “commercially” to specific petty traders. Rather than collecting wood to be sold to any person who needs it, a particular target audience is kept in mind by the DO when collecting wood. | 50.00 GH¢ (£6.95) per day. | Anytime I don’t have money, I use the donkey to work and earn money at the end of the day. I can make at least 50.00 GH¢ and I can use that money to buy a female goat and it will reproduce” Kahiau (DO). | 27 |
5. | Donkey Intestine Soup (Indirect) | Selling donkey intestine soup. | Unknown. | An option available only in Gia. Sharpur (a DO) reported women collecting donkey intestines at the slaughterhouses, making soup from them and then selling the soup, as “a business opportunity.” | 21 |
6. | Freeing Time (Cashless Indirect) | Saving time, which can be converted into money, through paid employment. | "We usually pay GH¢ 15 (£2.10) per person on [a] daily basis." | Costs provided by an NDO Kali (NDO 41) who reported: “We pay people to plough, sow, and even weed on our farm," to the benefit of Esosa, a DO (29) who advised that owning a donkey "saves me time to engage in a day job like sowing on someone’s farm for money.” | 41 and 29 |
Unique ID | Study Site | Gender | Respon-dent * | Key EADLs Using Their Donkey | Income Generating Methods Used | Donkey’s Contri-bution to HH Income | Time Their Donkey(s) Saves Her/Him |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
29 | Gia | Female | Esosa | Income generation was the second key reason why she owns a donkey as it is the main source of her income. | Domestic; Direct Hire; Speculative Selling; Speculative Collection and Freeing Time. | 60% | “I can go to the market to sell my vegetables after using the donkey to carry out carting work/job”. |
28 | Gia | Female | Maiara | Brews pito to sell and does hire out her donkeys for income. | Domestic; Direct Hire; Speculative Selling; Speculative Collection and Freeing Time. | 40% | 2 h a day |
24 | Fielmon | Female | Abi | Domestic use, saved time and hiring out for income through her children. Currently, only her boys are old enough to assist in hiring donkey out: her girls are too young. | Domestic; Direct Hire; Speculative Selling; Speculative Collection and Freeing Time. | 40% | 6 h a day |
25 | Fielmon | Female | Jalia | Domestic use and saved time only: currently, no children old enough to help with hiring their donkey out. | Domestic; Freeing Time. | 30% | <1 h a day (6 h per week) |
27 | Gia | Male | Kahiau | Domestic, farming and gardening use, plus conscious breeding of females to minimise re-purchase costs. | Domestic; Direct Hire; Speculative Selling; Speculative Collection and Freeing Time. | ~50% | “Much time is saved for my household to perform other works. The saved time I use it to work on my garden.” |
26 | Fielmon | Male | Kaif | Domestic and farming chores and occasionally rents out his donkey and cart to carry firewood for a fee. | Domestic; Direct Hire; Speculative Selling; Speculative Collection and Freeing Time. | 40% | Saves men 5 h per week; women 5 h per week; children 10 h per week |
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Maggs, H.C.; Ainslie, A.; Bennett, R.M. Donkey Ownership Provides a Range of Income Benefits to the Livelihoods of Rural Households in Northern Ghana. Animals 2021, 11, 3154. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11113154
Maggs HC, Ainslie A, Bennett RM. Donkey Ownership Provides a Range of Income Benefits to the Livelihoods of Rural Households in Northern Ghana. Animals. 2021; 11(11):3154. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11113154
Chicago/Turabian StyleMaggs, Heather C., Andrew Ainslie, and Richard M. Bennett. 2021. "Donkey Ownership Provides a Range of Income Benefits to the Livelihoods of Rural Households in Northern Ghana" Animals 11, no. 11: 3154. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11113154
APA StyleMaggs, H. C., Ainslie, A., & Bennett, R. M. (2021). Donkey Ownership Provides a Range of Income Benefits to the Livelihoods of Rural Households in Northern Ghana. Animals, 11(11), 3154. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11113154