**2.4 Statistical analysis**

Questionnaire and FGD data were analyzed by frequency procedure of Statistical Analytical Software. Livestock population was analyzed by the general linear model procedure. Frequency procedure and regression procedure were used to determine the annual livestock populations [19]. The statistical model was as follows:

$$\mathbf{Y}\ddot{\mathbf{j}} = \mu \mathbf{+} \mathbf{G}\dot{\mathbf{i}} + \mathbf{e}\dddot{\mathbf{j}}\tag{1}$$

**187**

**Table 2.**

*The Role of Culture in Achieving Sustainable Agriculture in South Africa: Examining Zulu…*

was because the male receives cattle gifts as part of cultural and ceremonies.

Most of the population sampled was rearing livestock for prestige (FGD). The cultural understanding and set up in the community give regards and honor livestock farmers based on the number of livestock, especially goats and cattle possessed by individual farmers. This agreed with the findings made by [6]. Census agricultural household (2013) reporting that 41.9% of agricultural household in KwaZulu-Natal are livestock farmers and 24.6% of agricultural households practice

**3.3 Ownership by the gender, cultural beliefs and management practices on** 

an organized activity because of the following reasons:

The system of livestock husbandry at Umsinga is casual and cultural, and is not

More male than female owners use modern medicine to cure goats (P < 0.0001; **Table 3**). Among the population sampled, 4 and 10% of female and male owner respectively, uses traditional medicine and engages in dipping practices. The percentages of male and female owners using modern medicine were 57 and 19%, respectively (**Table 3**). Vaccination program for livestock is poor and the cultural medicinal routine treatment is not better. It was discovered during the focus group discussion that a majority of farmers cannot identify or prevent in advance against infections that come with changes in season in these communities; thereby exposing livestock to seasonal diseases. Farmers only call for veterinary treatment when a disease outbreak has struck the kraal. As a result of delayed treatment, there is a high rate of mortality across seasons. Male owners have more financial funds for

About 32% male and 9% of female owners buy feed and feed crop residues (**Table 3**). There is a high proportion of male than female headed households use dryland crop production (Chi-square 4.7744, P < 0.05, **Table 3**). Questionnaire results indicated that farmers had little, or no supplementary feed offered to livestock. Animals only depend on feed found on communal grazing lands, which

**Year (N) Gender** *RSME* **P value**

2013 (N) 10.3 ± 13.05 (22) 25.0 ± 64.47 (54) 52.8919 0.2132

2013 (N) 6.0 ± 12.57 (21) 7.5 ± −13.73 (41) 13.3453 0.6037

**Female Male** Goats 2012 (n) 11.7 ± 11.85 (23) 20.6 ± 58.25 (43) 47.7960 0.4044

Cattle 2012 (n) 4.6 ± 8.87 (20) 8.9 ± 11.16 (29) 10.4351 0.0676

*Mean of livestock numbers for different genders in Umsinga over the period of 2 years.*

The ratio of gender ownership (male:female) for cattle is 2.9 households, but the ratio of the population of cattle owned is 3.6 respective (**Table 1** ). The average populations of cattle per male owner and per female owner were 13 and 7, respectively. Females do not like keeping cattle because of the attention demanded in cattle management, such as herding [20]. There was an increase in cattle population among the male owners while it decreases among the female owners (**Table 2**). This

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86759*

**3.2 Socioeconomic impacts**

**livestock production**

modern treatment than female owners.

mixed farming.

where Yij = dependent variable (livestock numbers over 12 months); μ = overall mean; Gi = effect of gender owners and eij = residue error**.**
