Association of Age and SES of Rural Women with their participation in Farming Activities

Abstract

The agricultural scenario in Rural India presents a very intricate picture of role of women in farming activities. The present study was conducted in district Churu of Rajasthan. Total sample consisted of 300 rural women from 12 villages of 3 panchayat samities of district Churu. Result shows that out of 10 farming activities, extent of participation of rural women was noticed ‘high’ i.e. more than 80% in 4 farming activities i.e. cleaning of field, seed selection and cleaning, intercultural operations and harvesting. ‘low’ in 3 farming activities i.e. manure application, irrigation, and pesticide application whereas ‘nil’ in 3 activities i.e. ploughing, fertilizer application and seed treatment and sowing. Farming activities like cleaning of fields, seed selection and harvesting were the items of maximum participation while manure and pesticide application activities were the items of least participation in all the 3 age groups i.e. younger, middle and older. SES was measured in 3 parameters viz. low, medium and high. High SES respondents participated very poorly for all the farming activities but a little better they participated for seed selection. In medium SES, participated was noticed maximum for seed selection and harvesting i.e. 44.2 and 46.4 percent respectively, while lowest for manure application i.e. 2 (28.5). Respondents of low SES participated to their maximum i.e. 142 for 4 farming activities viz. cleaning of field, seed selection, inter- cultural operations and harvesting with their respective percentage 51.4, 47.9, 54.8 and 50.3. It is well analyzed from the results that the farming activities like seed selection was the item of maximum participation whereas, 2 farming activities i.e. manure and pesticides application were the item of least participation in all the age groups as well as all SES categories.