Does Gender Impact Technology Adoption in Dual-Purpose Cattle in Mexico?

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Small-scale systems are the most widespread productive system in developing countries. However, these systems have historically suffered from a low technological level, which constitutes their main problem and endangers the maintenance of the system and rural people who depend for their livelihood on it. Therefore, deepening the knowledge of the technology adoption process is key to its improvement, as well as including a gender approach to develop more effective public policies. In this research, very small commercial farms with a similar structure and size in the Mexican tropics (n = 383) were analysed, and the Social Network Analysis (SNA) was used to identify technology adoption patterns among male and female farmers of dual-purpose cattle. Five technological packages were analysed and statistically significant differences were found between genders in the area of reproduction. The results have shown that women even when not occupying central positions, are close to the leaders in the network, quickly adopting the re-productive technologies the leaders selected. Furthermore, farms run by women were smaller although with greater specialization and milk productivity, increasing productivity by 20%. ABSTRACT: This paper examines the role of women in the dual-purpose livestock system (DP) in Mexico through their technological adoption patterns and aims to evaluate whether there are significant differences between the technology adoption networks of men and women farmers. The sample was composed of 383 DP small farms with 20 or fewer cows and a high level of vulnerability. Social Network Analysis (SNA) was applied, and the centrality measures were calculated for the technological areas of management, feeding, genetics, reproduction, and animal health. Significant differences were found in reproduction levels between men and women farmers. Therefore, SNA was developed in this technological area where men mainly occupied central positions (brokers) while women were just close to the leaders in the network. The results have shown that farms run by women were smaller and presented higher levels of specialization and milk productivity (20% higher), and women prioritized those technologies linked to female reproductive efficiency. Moreover, women were deeply embedded in men’s networks through numerous ties and were capable of building connections with groups of farmers outside of their own group.