Participation and decision making pattern of farm women in agriculture

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.