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Aishwarya Dudi ¹, M. L. Meena ²

Affiliations
1 ICAR-CAZRI, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, PALI-Marwar (Rajasthan), IN
2 ICAR-CAZRI, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, PALI-Marwar (Rajasthan), IN

Abstract

Agriculture can be an important engine of growth and poverty reduction. Women’s contribution to the farming sector in respect of participation and decision making has largely been ignored. Though women performed more than four-fifth of agriculture work, their decision were accepted only less than one-third of the case. The present study was attempted to ascertain the extent of participation and decision making pattern of farm women in agricultural activities. The present study was carried out in villages of Pali district of Rajasthan by selecting 120 Farm women. The findings of the study revealed that more number of farm women found to have high level of participation in agricultural operation 53.57 per cent followed by the medium participation (33.73%) and low participation (15.20%) in agricultural operations, respectively. The study also revealed that the higher number of farm women (57.11%) were observed in low category of decision making which was followed by 27.74 per cent and 15.15 per cent, respectively in case of medium and high decision making process. Study further revealed that age, education, size of family, size of land holding, social participation, extension participation, information seeking behaviour, cosmoploteness, economic motivation, exposure to training and management orientation factors had significantly influenced the participation and decision making pattern of farm women. The study also revealed that the socio-economic factors found to influence the agriculture operation and decision making of farm women positively and significantly.

Keywords

Farmwomen, Agricultural Operations, Extent Of Participation, Decision Making.

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M. L. Meena ¹, Aishwarya Dudi ¹

Affiliations
1 ICAR-CAZRI, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Palimarwar (Rajasthan), IN

Abstract

Participation in decision making process especially in economic activities is an indication of empowerment. The present study attempts to investigate the level of women economic empowerment in resource-poor farm families by analyzing their extent of participation in decision making on farm and household related economic activities. The study was conducted in six blocks Pali district of Rajasthan taking a random sample of 180 resource poor farm families. Both husband and wife of the families were personally interviewed by pretested structured interview schedule. Spearman’s rank-difference correlation was used to measure the extent of agreement between husband’s and wife’s responses. The study revealed that wives played a major role to jointly decide purchasing or hiring of land (44.44-48.33%), selling of produce (35.56-37.78%) and borrowing for agriculture (25.00-30.56%). Decisions for milking and processing of milk, utilization of dung and sale of milk and milk products were dominantly taken by wives 68.33%, 56.67% and 39.44%, respectively, where purchase and sale of animals, type and number of animals to be kept and adoption of new animal husbandry practices were mainly decided jointly 32.78-36.67%, 32.78-35.56% and 24.44-25.00 per cent, respectively. Household economic decisions on building new house, household purchasing, education of children, selection of occupation for children and financial activities were mainly taken jointly 39.44-42.78%, 33.33-36.67%, 26.31- 31.67%, 25.00-31.67% and 23.22-27.22 per cent, respectively. The findings of the study indicated higher level of women economic empowerment in animal husbandry and household sectors.

Keywords

Women Empowerment, Decision Making, Resource-Poor Farm Family, Spearman’s Rank-Difference Correlation.

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Aishwarya Dudi ¹, M. L. Meena ¹

Affiliations
1 ICAR-CAZRI, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Pali-Marwar (Rajasthan), IN

Abstract

Women play a vital role in advancing agricultural development, food security and nutritional outcomes. They participate in all aspects of rural life, including paid employment, trade and marketing, as well as raising crops and animals, collecting water and wood for fuel and caring for family members. But women face multiple constraints in many of the activities they pursue that limit their productivity. Relative to men, women tend to own less land, have limited ability to hire labour and have impeded access to credit, extension and other training services. They started to work in almost all fields like men and are equal to men. Inspite of the various measures taken up by the government after independence women haven’t been fully empowered. The ground reality is deprivation and exploitation of women specially women from rural areas and those belonging to deprived sectors of the society. The study was conducted in Pali district. For this study, 160 rural women were selected and gathered information through structured interview schedule. The results of the study revealed that, majority of the women participated regularly in activities like sowing operations, weeding and intercultural operations, harvesting and post harvesting operations and animal husbandry activities. Major per cent of them participated in training demonstrations on vermiculture training and dairy training. Majority of the women perceived that losses at storage (due to storage pests attack), pests and diseases attack are the major causes for food grain losses. Empowerment of women in agriculture field is one of the major strategies for achieving food security. Hence, there is a need for empowerment of women in terms of social, cultural, economical and educational dimensions to play an important role in the overall development of the country. There is a need for empowerment of farm women to take care of food production and post harvest production losses for global food security through extension strategies.

Keywords

Adoption, Knowledge, Empowerment, Food Security, Sustainable, Vermiculture.

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