women in agriculture

1. Course: B.Sc. Agriculture
Subject: Basic of Agriculture
Unit :4
Women in Agriculture

2. “Women play a significant role in agriculture, the world over.
About 70% of the agricultural workers, 80% of food producers, and 10%
of those who process basic foodstuffs are women and they also undertake
60 to 90% of the rural marketing; thus making up more than two-third of
the workforce in agricultural production (FAO, 1985). In West Africa, up
to 80% of the labour force in all trade is female.
Yet, the role of women in these activities, so important
economically, has remained obscure for long because women seldom
played any major roles in political activities or decision making processes.
Despite the fact that women produce much of the food in the developing
world, they also remain more malnourished than most men are. In many
rural societies, women eat less food than men do, especially when the
food is scarce, such as just before the harvest, or when the workload
increases without a corresponding increase in the food intake."
Women in Agriculture

3. Indian Women in Modern Times
Categories of employment (2001)
Female Male
Agricultural laborer 46.3% 23.0%
Cultivator 34.6% 39.9%
Household industry 3.5% 2.1%
Non-household industry 3.8% 8.8%
Services 8.3% 10.8%
Other categories 3.5% 15.5%

4. Role of Women in
Indian Agriculture
4

5. 5

6. Key Facts
• Indian population is 48.1% women and 51.9%
men
• Female illiteracy is 62% whereas the male
illiteracy rate is 34%
• The labour force participation rate of
women is 22.7%, less than half of the men's
rate of 51.6%
• In rural India, agriculture and allied
industrial sectors employ as much as 89.5%
of the total female labour
6

7. Key Facts
• Women have extensive work loads with dual
responsibility for farm and household production
• Women's work is getting harder and more time-
consuming due to ecological degradation and
changing agricultural technologies and practices
• Women have an active role and extensive
involvement in livestock production, forest
resource use and fishery processing
7

8. Key facts
• Women contribute considerably to
household income through farm and
non-farm activities as well as through
work as landless agricultural labourers.
• Women's work as family labour is
underestimated
• There are high degrees of inter-state
and intra-state variations in gender roles
in agriculture, environment and rural
production
8

9. Multi-Dimensional Role of Women
Agriculture :
Sowing,
transplanting,
weeding,
irrigation,
fertilizer application,
plant protection,
harvesting,
winnowing,
storing etc.

10. 10
winnowingFertilizer application
Sowing

11. 11
Domestic:
•Cooking,
•child rearing,
•water collection,
•fuel wood gathering,
• household
maintenance
etc.

12. 12
water collection
child rearing
fuel wood gathering
fuel wood gathering

13. 13
Allied Activities:
•Cattle
management,
• Fodder
collection,
• Milking etc

14. 14

15. 15
Mainly rural women are engaged in agricultural
activities in three different ways depending on
the socio-economic status of their family and regional
factors. They are work as:
(i) Paid Labourers
(ii) Cultivator doing labour on their own land and
(iii) Managers of certain aspects of agricultural
production by way of labour supervision and
the participation in post harvest operations.

16. National Research Centre for Women in Agriculture
(NRCWA).
16
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research established the NRCWA
in the month of April 1996 at Bhubaneswar and has since been
upgraded as the Directorate of Research on Women in Agriculture
(DRWA) from the year 2008.
DRWA is carrying out basic, strategic and applied research on
various gender related issues in agriculture and allied sectors with
thematic approach in creating a repository of gender disaggregated
data and documentation; technology testing and refinement;
drudgery assessment and reduction; gender sensitive extension
approach; capacity building of scientists and functionaries; efficient
resource management; and gender mainstreaming.

17. Summary
• The women is the backbone of
agricultural workforce and are a vital
part of Indian economy.
• Over the years, there is a gradual
realization of the key role of women in
agricultural development and their
contribution in the field of agriculture,
food security, horticulture, dairy,
nutrition, sericulture, fisheries, and
other allied sectors.
17

18. Following are the key points,which will
help in creating respectable role of women
in Indian agriculture
1. Skill empowerment.
• By training in the area of various
operations :
– i. Field operations
– ii. Conservation of biodiversity
– iii. Nutritional bio-security
– iv. Vocational training
– v. Organic farming
18

19. 2. Technology development for
women
Designing of tools for various field
operations
b. Animal husbandry
i. Artificial insemination.
ii. Veterinary knowledge
c. For side income
i. Mushroom cultivation
ii. Floriculture
19

20. 3. Creation of self help groups
a. For financial support
b. For generation of employment
4. Projection of contribution of women by collecting
and analysing data
a. Collection and display of data
b. Projection of successful women in agriculture
c. Representation of their contribution in economic
terms
5. Providing Financial Powers
a. Giving representation in land holdings
20

21. These were lack of work assurance and insufficient payment
resulting in family problems, bad communication and support, and mutual
respect in collective, daily and hourly contact with sick animals, owners,
clients, buyers, suppliers, dealers, etc. Most of them expressed aggressive
behaviours toward one another, increased quality requirements at decreased
number of personnel and frequent organisational changes, high responsibility
at less autonomy.
Second were the factors, related to the work process
The most important place in this group was covered by factors
of work management – defects of personnel management, bad definition of
work tasks, dictatorial decisions, and unexpected changes in the organisation.
Inconvenient work pose was a leading risk factor by significance for tractor-
drivers, milkman, and field workers. Thirty percent of them think that the
monotonous and continuously repeated work was a stress factor because of the
need of high concentration and responsibility.
Work stress Factors

22. Second was the factor “work difficulty” in quantitative
(tractor-drivers, animal breeders) and qualitative (vets, zoo engineers,
agronomist, veterinary technicians) aspects. The problem of systemic
extension of work time and absence of a physiological regime of work
and rest, and conditions for changing and alternation of the activities
was taken seriously.
Forty five percent of interviewees reported that they
faced frequent interruptions at their primary sites of work resulting in
inability to conclude effectively their daily routines. This situation was
particularly true among the animal breeders, tractor drivers and
fieldworkers.
Tractor drivers faced the problem of obsolete tractors,
bad roads, infringement of traffic regulations, necessity to work on
difficult terrains.

23. The following were shown as factors of work environment:
•noise, vibrations and dust (tractor drivers);
•noise and dust (animal breeders);
•work with biological hazards (vets, zoo-engineers and
veterinary technicians)
A large part of the interviewees (about 65%) thought that stress at
work was one of the essential factors for the occurrence of some
diseases of the cardio-vascular system(infarctions, hypertonic
disease, etc), digestive system (ulcer, colitis) and some nervous
disorders (depression, neurosis). Subjective complaints varied from
light tenseness, anxiety, and poor co-ordination to different
psychosomatic diseases. The vegetative changes are typical,
manifested by rapid pulse, sweating of the palms, feeling of
weakness, restlessness, emotional instability, pale skin, tremor of
limbs, etc.

24. The commonly performed agricultural activites
in India were weeding, cutting/ uprooting, transplanting,
threshing, mannuring.
Drudgery is generally conceived as physical and
mental strain, agony, monotony and hardship experienced
by human beings while all of women in the is regard is
alarming as they continue to be constrained by illiteracy,
malnutrition and unemployment.
Drudgery Reduction

25. Based on the needs, the drudgery reduction measures
introduced for women include:
•Creation of safe drinking water sources closer to their houses
•Maternal and child health and family welfare
•Strengthening of traditional health care practices
•Training of midwives and upgrading the skills of local healers
•Awareness on health, hygiene and sanitation
•Training of local youth as health guides for first-aid
•Establishment of community grain banks and promotion of
nutrition gardens
•Promotion of energy conservation devices: improved woodstoves,
biogas, solar devices and energy plantations
•Establishment of Anganwadis and awareness of girl’s education

26. Strategy for Drudgery Reduction among Women Farmers
The proposed activities of the proposal when
achieved will provide additional income which will help to reduce
the women farmers’ drudgery. Presently women are involved to
earn merger income for their subsistence and this whole process is
full of hardships and resultant drudgery.
After the proposed project inputs, proper training
and capacity building their knowledge as well as risk bearing
capacity will increase and they will become capable to earn more
income by adopting quality measures. Further special care will be
taken to find out such activities in their daily routine as well as
work circle which involves drudgery.

27. S.
No.
Task Role of Woman
Technology
application
Impact on
Drudgery
Reduction
A Agriculture Operations
1 Sowing (SRI) Maintain proper
distance and space
Marker application Proper distances
maintained in less
time and effort
2 Weeding Manually using
hands and bare feet
Cono-weeder Physical effort is
reduced drastically
3
Mulching Manual operation by
women with bare
hand and feet
shoes and gloves It saves vital body
parts by protecting
4
Spray of
pesticide/insectici
de
Manually mixing
with hand and spray
by hand
Spray pump Easy to operate
more output, saves
from harmful
inorganic products
5
Irrigating/water
management
Manually through
wells and ponds
using buckets
Low cost irrigation
application
Saves lots of time
and effort and
proper water
management

28. 6
Harvesting of crop Manually with old
instruments
Improved sickle Easy operation
using less labour
B Household chores
1
Routine home
work
Improper light and
fuel source makes it
hell
Transparent roof
sheet, Solar light
Low cost, easy to
operate, help
children study and
health enviroment
2
Kitchen Routine cooking task Improved
smokeless chullah
Easy to operate,
help in health
improvement
3
Fetching water
from wells
Manually fetched Ball bearing Easy to operate, less
physical power
4
Fetching potable
water from far
away
Manually fetched Hand pump or
water cleaning
devices
saves time and
energy and
improves health
5 NTFP/fuel wood
collection
Manually fetched by
head load
Cycle or small
pulling device
Less energy much
more output and
more money

29. Draw weeder
This weeder is best suited to dry areas. It consists of a toothed, double-
edged blade attached to a long handle. The sharp-toothed blade cuts
weeds just below the soil surface.

30. V-blade hand hoe
This tool, designed for light weeding, consists of a long wooden
or bamboo handle joined to a sharpened, V-shaped blade. The
blade cuts through soil, cutting weeds just below the soil
surface.

31. Khurpa-cum-sickle
This sickle is best suited for harvesting wheat and rice crops. It
has a wooden handle with a special hand grip shaped to make
harvesting easier. The sickle blade, made of serrated carbon
steel, is riveted to a 12-mm wide, Ushaped strip which is fixed
to the handle. Ten women using naveen sickles can harvest I
ha in 1 0 hours.

32. Group Dynamics
A system of behaviours and psychological processes
occurring within a social group (intra group dynamics), or between social
groups (inter group dynamics). The study of group dynamics can be useful in
understanding decision-making behaviour, tracking the spread of diseases in
society, creating effective therapy techniques, and following the emergence
and popularity of new ideas and technologies.
Group dynamics are at the core of understandingracism,
sexism, and other forms of social prejudice and discrimination. These applications
of the field are studied in psychology, sociology, political science, epidemiology,
education, social work, business, and communication studies.
A group is two or more individuals who are connected to each
other by social relationships. Because they interact and influence each other,
groups develop a number of dynamic processes that separate them from a random
collection of individuals. These processes include norms, roles, relations,
development, need to belong, social influence, and effects on behaviour. The field
of group dynamics is primarily concerned with small group behaviour. Groups
may be classified as aggregate, primary, secondary and category groups.

33. Advantages of Groups
The major potential advantages of groups can be divided into three major
areas: For outside individuals(extension, developmental, and research) or
organisations (government and non-governmental including NGOs or
commercial firms, banks, etc.)
farmer groups can:
improve their efficiency in working with rural people through
providing a single point of contact for many farmers;
improve their effectiveness in working with farmers by providing
the opportunity to train several clients/people simultaneously;
save repeated explanations of activities and encourage collective
feedback;
provide a rapid and cost-effective way of verifying and reinforcing
findings from individual farmer contacts and disseminating of findings and
other information;

34. increase the number of farmers that can be worked with and the
number of different types of activities that can be implemented (for example,
opening up the possibility of having group responsibility for paying back of
loans or undertaking collective marketing of production);
provide a forum in which everyone involved in rural development
(farmers, facilitators, researchers, planners, NGOs, and the private
commercial sector) can interact together, which is increasingly being
recognised as being important if efficient agricultural development is going
to take place;
provide a good focal point for organizing activities (such as workshops
and field days);
provide a useful way of collecting and exchanging information on all
types of matters

35. GROUP DYNAMICS
KVK has tried various methodologies of transfer of technologies
among the farming communities in the operational areas. After working on different
concept of technology transfer, KVK has developed selected methodologies which
found very effective and shown significant results. A brief description about these
methodologies is furnished as below:
Innovative Farmers Club (Prayog Pariwar) - KVK has always
focused on group approach for dissemination of technology among the farming
community. During the year 1996, KVK has taken steps to form the groups of
innovative farmers who are adopting innovative technologies in different
commodities in the district at their field. This group was named as Prayog Pariwar
comprising of 712 Innovative Farmers from the district. Subgroups were formed
commodity wise of the farmers in Prayog Pariwar. This group used to fine-tune the
technology suitable for the particular location or farming situation. This concept
helped to KVK to refine technologies for various commodities. We can quote the
examples where the fine tuning was made in pruning techniques in drumstick,
Fertigation techniques in grapes, planting methods in sugarcane, support system in
pomegranate etc. Also technologies developed by these farmers were found very
useful for its horizontal spreading among the non-member farmers. The Prayog
Pariwar basically worked on exchange of ideas and experiments being carried out
by them with other farmers.

36. Kisan Mandal (Farmers Club) – For faster dissemination of fine
tuned technology at village level was a difficult task. To overcome
this difficulty, KVK has adopted the concept of formation of Farmers
Club during 2000-2001. A village level group of farmers from
different enterprises were brought together under the name of
Farmers Club. At present about 123 Farmers Clubs are functioning
in the operational area.
Each club consists of 20-25 members
including farmwomen, rural youth and artisans from various
enterprises like agriculture, horticulture, dairying, animal husbandry
and non-farm sector. To achieve improvement in agricultural
productivity and employment generation in rural areas, the Farmers
Club has found very effective tool. These clubs are linked with
financial institutions as well as other line departments. KVK has
been carrying out various programmes and activities through these
clubs

37. Keeping these clubs at center, KVK has developed concept
called three-tier model. At Apex Level the members of Prayog
Pariwar are involved. Whereas at middle level Farmers Clubs are
playing active role and at micro level the messages are passed
through SHGs. Through this model, work like planning,
implementation, follow-up, monitoring, evaluation and feedback
related to implemented programmes is also taken care by these clubs.
These clubs are utilized for communication of technologies from
KVK to grass root level. The Farmers Clubs also develop their
annual action plan based on problems and needs of the respective
villages and based on their action plan, KVK is planning and
implementing various activities.

38. Self Help Groups (SHGs) – Women are playing very active
role in the agriculture development. However their active
participation in technology perception and dissemination was
not visible. During the initial stage, KVK received very poor
response from the farmwomen. Therefore, KVK started to
establish SHGs of women from the year 2001-2002. At
present KVK has established 455 SHGs in the operational
areas and in each SHG 15-20 women are the members.
Besides technology transfer, credit mobilization was also the
main objective as they are in need of credit for adoption of
technologies. All SHGs are linked with nationalized and co-
operative banks. Due to credit availability from SHGs, the
adoption of technologies is enhanced. SHGs are adopting
agriculture technology for improving production besides
starting suitable agro-based enterprises for self-employment
generation.

39. Book:
1. Women in Agriculture : M.S. Randhawa
Web References/ Image references:
1. http://knowledgecentre.drwa.org.in/womenagri.htm
2. http://farmech.gov.in/Women%20Friendaly%20Equipment-
With%20photographs.pdf
3. http://collections.infocollections.org/ukedu/uk/d/Jii01ee/8.1.html
4. http://www.kvk.pravara.com/extn/gd.htm