Summary Report: Understanding Women's Role in Agriculture in the Eastern Gangetic Basin: The Macro and Micro Connections (original) (raw)
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Women's Participation in Agriculture in Bangladesh 1988-2008: Changes and Determinants
In Bangladesh, being a traditional Muslim society, women's participation in economic activities in general and in agriculture in particular has remained low. But recent labor force surveys conducted by the Bureau of Statistics show rapidly increasing participation of women in economic activities. The progress is attributed to poverty, empowerment of women by NGOs, and migration of male members from agriculture to non-farm occupation. With the absence of male members, women's role is changing from unpaid family worker to farm managers, a phenomenon termed as " feminization of agriculture ". This paper uses unpublished longitudinal panel data from a nationally representative sample survey in 62 villages conducted in 2000 and 2008 that covered the same households to assess the trend and determinants of women's involvement in agricultural activities. It uses a module on time budget for all adult members for the last four days preceding the survey. The second author was the Principal Investigator in all three surveys. The results show that 66 percent of women participated in agricultural activities in 2008, an increase from 58 percent in 2000. The allocation of time has also increased from 1.11 to 1.28 hours per day although this was less than 1988 level. But the participation was limited to mostly livestock and poultry farming which is a marginal economic activity with allocation of only 0.91 hour of labor per day. The participation in crop farming was low. Only 3.85 percent of the female workers participated in crop farming in 2008, compared to 53 percent for men. But crop farming is a relatively full time activity for them with allocation of 2.92 hours per day in 2008 which has reduced from 4.30 hours per day in 1988. Only about 1 percent of the women participated in the agricultural labor market in 2000 and 2008. Women's participation in agricultural labor market remains insignificant at 1.07 percent of agricultural workers compared to 23% for male workers in 2008. A regression analysis show that women's participation is negatively related with landholding, age after some limit, village level electricity, education of household head, distance of bus stop from village and wage rate in non-agriculture, but positively related with age of female workers, irrigated area of female workers' households, NGO membership of women, remoteness of village and agricultural wage rate in village. Changes in income of the participating and non-participating women laborers' households in agricultural activities, and the determinants of the changes in income are also reported in the paper.
An Analysis of Women’s Participation in Agriculture in Bihar
SSRN Electronic Journal
Understanding the nature of rural landscape change during the urbanization process is vital to formulate rural management plans for sustainable development. However, there is little information on how rural landscapes changes and limited evidence as to how it can be improved. There were 244.9 million households in India of which 179.7 million households or 833 million people were in rural areas (SECC Survey 2011). Survey revealed that 87.2 million rural households reported one of more criteria of deprivation, while 92 million households were engaged in casual manual labour and agricultural activities. In agriculture, the role of women cannot be denied. They contribute in every operation of agricultural activities and are also active in allied sectors like cattle management, dairying, beekeeping, goat rearing mushroom production and poultry farming etc. Women participation in total workforce was assessed 27.44% as against 72.56% by male workforce in 2011. Share of women agricultural workforce in total workforce was computed to be 16.57% in 2001 which declined to 6.23% in 2011. Causes of decline may be their participation other sectors with improvement in their literacy rate which rose to 51.50% in 2011 as compared to 33.57% in 2001. The male-female sex ratio has registered a decline of 0.11% as compared to 2001 census. Women holding land account for only 13.31% as against 87.27% by men in Bihar. Share of women agricultural workforce in total agricultural workforce was estimated to be 19.32% as per census 2011. Analysis of CACP unit level data of Bihar for the year 2013-14, revealed that the contribution of women in agricultural activities was assessed to be 35.94%. Women's contribution in agriculture is significant and plays diverse role, still their wages were found 7.04% less than their male counterparts during 2015-16. To strengthen women's participation in agriculture and allied sectors and to improve their access to land, loan and other facilities, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has policy provisions like joint leasing for both domestic and agricultural land under National policy for farmers. Under credit facility provisions government has framed policy for issuing Kisan Credit Cards to women for creating livelihood through livestock practices and agricultural processing. Beside all efforts, there is still a wide gender gap in the state which may be addressed properly for overall development of women and enhancing the rural landscape of the state in particular and nation in general. The paper tries to analyze the role women in agricultural development of Bihar and the issues confronting them.
Trends and Patterns of Women Workforce Participation in Agriculture in India
Journal of Rural and Industrial Development, 2021
The agricultural sector plays a strategic role in the process of economic development of a country. Today, this sector as a whole has developed and expanded immensely with the growth of science and technology, and there is a growing realisation and commitment among the global community that the agriculture sector has to undergo changes for a sustainable and broadbased expansion, after addressing gender-related issues through the initiation and partnerships of various national, regional, and global institutions. In developing countries like India, agriculture continues to absorb and employ the female workforce, but fails to recognise their role and importance as an employed labour force. In developing countries, women participation in the agricultural labour force is 38%. However, a large number of women have been treated as an insignificant part of the active agricultural labour force; there is also a growing gap between women's actual economic participation and public perception about their economic participation. At this juncture, there is a growing need for the agricultural research agenda to overcome the existing gaps and to tackle the emerging problems of sustainable development and livelihood of resource-poor women farmers. Several researchers have attempted to overcome this gap through empirical research studies on gender analysis and gender roles. The present study is an attempt to highlight the trend of female workforce participation in the agricultural sector across various Indian states. The secondary data is used to analyse the growth trend of the agricultural workers over the last decade. Suitable solutions have to be delivered to women farmers for raising their productivity, through which their overall empowerment may be targeted. Other practical solutions should also be taken up to help and support women farmers.
In India, there are distinct male and female roles in the rural economy. Women and girls engage in a number of agro-oriented activities ranging from seedbed preparation, weeding, and horticulture and fruit cultivation to a series of post-harvest crop processing activities like cleaning and drying vegetable, fruits and nuts for domestic use and for market. A disproportionate number of those dependent on land are women: 58% of all male workers and 78% of all female workers, and 86% of all rural female workers are in agriculture. Female headed households range from 20% to 35% of rural households (widows, deserted women as well as women who manage farming when their men migrate). Although the time devoted by both women and men in agricultural activities may, in several communities and agricultural situations, be taken to be almost equal, women are dominant within the domestic tasks. Rural Indian women are extensively involved in agricultural activities, but the nature and extent of their involvement differs with variations in agro-production systems. This paper reaffirms that women make essential contributions to agriculture and rural enterprises. But there is much diversity in women's roles and over-generalization undermines policy relevance and planning. The context is important and policies must be based on sound data and gender analysis.
Nature and extent of rural women's participation in agricultural and non-agricultural activities
Rural women in Bangladesh are involved in different works in agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. The present study was undertaken to determine the nature and extent of participation of rural women in various agricultural and non-agricultural activities. A sample size of 96 women labour was drawn from three villages of Mithapukur upazial (25°23′ to 25°41′N latitude and 89°06′ to 89°26′E longitude) of Rangpur district (25°17′ to 25°57′N latitude and 88°95′ to 89°32′E longitude). The findings showed that most of the respondents constitute economically active age group who were mostly illiterate. Rural women area largely took part in homestead gardening, harvesting crops, post-harvest operation, selling labour, sewing katha, 'buying daily necessities' and rice husking by dhekhi. Women were involved in various activities in order to meet basic family needs, increase family income and meet additional family requirements. The values of correlation coefficient (r) indicated that age of the respondents, amount of indebtedness of the family and family size were positively, and level of education and size of landholding are negatively associated with the participation of rural women in various agricultural and non-agricultural activities, whereas, average annual income and wage rate have no significant relationship with their participation in various activities.
Role of Women in Agricultural Sector of Bihar
In the present scenario a proverb "without women we will go hungry" seems suitable. Women play prime role in traditional farming from manual farm activities to agroprocessing to homemaking (Majumdar and Shah 2017).
Analysis of Women Participation in Indian Agriculture
Agriculture sector as a whole has developed and emerged immensely with the infusion of science and technology. But this latest emergence is not capable of plummeting the ignorance of women labour as an integral part of this industry. In developing countries like India, agriculture continues to absorb and employ female work force but fails to give them recognition of employed/hired labour. Women constituted 38% of the agricultural labour force in developing countries. It is also estimated that 45.3% of the agricultural labour force consists of women. But a large number of women have remained as "invisible workers”. Since there has been concern expressed regarding the gap between women’s actual economic participation and public perception of it several researchers have attempted to overcome this invisibility through gendered empirical research studies for using on gender analysis and gender roles. This piece of research is highlighting the trend of female participation in agriculture across various Indian states. The secondary data collated for the research is used to study the growth trend of the agricultural worker from 1961-2001. Analysis is done to categorize the states on their identical behaviour of participation in agriculture by hierarchical clustering of economically active female in agriculture based on measurements like coefficient of variation, compound growth rate and work participation rate.
Journal of Rural Studies, 2020
This paper examines the key socioeconomic and cultural-demographic factors that determine rural women's labour contributions in agriculture in India, both on family farms (either as cultivators or as family labour) and as agricultural wage labourer. Based on the analysis of primary data derived from a survey of 800 households from the two Indian states of Gujarat and West Bengal, it establishes that women's work in the farm sector cannot be homogenized. Women's work as additional hands in family farms differs from that as wage labourers which is casual in nature; their work also differs across different regions. In the commercialized, relatively more developed state of Gujarat, women's labour contributions are significantly different from West Bengal's less commercialized agrarian economy. The paper concludes that feminization of agriculture in India is distress-led where it has both class (defined with income in Gujarat) and caste (social groups) connotations in Gujarat, while mainly economic factors influence women's work in the farm sector in West Bengal.
2020
India is a developing country. In most of the developing countries agriculture is one of the main occupations, the Indian the scenario is more or less similar. As per the FAO report 2017-2018 agriculture and is allied source is the largest source of livelihood in India. In India about 70 percent of rural population is still depended on the agriculture among them a large number of populations is women. About 82 percent of the farmers are small or marginal farmer although India is the largest producer of Milk, Jute, pulses in the world and 2nd largest producer of rice, wheat, sugarcane, cotton and groundnuts. According to 68th round of National Sample Survey in 2013 indicate that in rural area 59 per cent men and 75 per cent women are engaged in agriculture. Women play an important role in agriculture but still they are lag behind in achieving job and wage in comparison to men. So, the present study has been attempting to make understand the gender inequality, socio economic condition...
Rural Non-Farm Employment in Assam: A Gender-Based Analysis
This study explores the rural labour market in Assam. The Work Participation Rates (WPR) for males has increased during the period 1993-94 to 2009-10, whereas the same for females has been fluctuating around a lower level of 15 to 20 per cent. Thus, unemployment rates for females have been higher than males. A sector-wise distribution of workers shows that the proportion of males employed in the farm sector has been declining in favour of the Non-Farm Sector (NFS), while the females are more concentrated in the farm sector. Thus, females stand in a more disadvantageous situation in the rural labour market as indicated by their low WPR, higher unemployment rates and low level of diversification into NFS. However, gender equality is necessary for growth. This is more so with regard to education and employment. India has introduced the concept of inclusive growth in the Eleventh Five Year Plan. Inclusive growth ensures opportunities for all sections of the population, with a special emphasis on the poor, particularly women and young people, who are most likely to be marginalised. A rapidly growing population in India has not only increased the size of the rural labour force but has also led to fragmentation of land holdings. Thus, this sector alone cannot create additional employment opportunities, even in high growth agriculture states of India. This has led to the growth of a vibrant non-farm sector. The study comes up with the suggestion that the NFS, with its greater potential of employment generation, can not only solve the unemployment problem, but can also lead to the increased access of women to resources and employment opportunities.