LAND, LIVESTOCK, AND LIVELIHOODS - CHANGING DYNAMICS OF GENDER, CASTE, AND ETHNICITY IN A NEPALESE VILLAGE

Over the past 10 years, Ghusel VDC, Lalitpur District has moved from p rimarily subsistence agriculture into the wider cash economy aided by the Small Farmers' Development Program (SFDP), which provides credit t o farmers mainly for the purchase of buffalo for milk production and b y the National Daily Corporation, which supports local daily cooperati ves Analysis reveals that buffalo-keeping and milk sales are increasin g the well-being of many households white at the same time creating ne w inequalities in gender roles and responsibilities, greater inequitie s between Brahmin and Tamang residents in Ghusel, and placing pressure s on the ecosystem for increased supplies of fodder and fuelwood. Evid ence suggests that there is critical need for attention to the social, and particularly gender-based, implications of maintaining livestock for milk safes and to the ecological underpinnings of this livelihood system.