Analysis of Participation of Women in Horticultural Activities.

Abstract

The present study was conducted to investigate involvement of rural women in various production activities of horticultural crops. A survey was conducted 300 respondents of 6 villages of 2 districts( Khurda and Ganjam ) of Odisha to study the participation of women in various activity of production of horticultural crops. The study revealed that participation of women was more in various production and post production activities of vegetables than fruits and flowers. The results showed that participation of women was higher in weeding (80%), field preparation (40%), irrigation (40%), collection of fruit (40%), sorting and grading (40%) of fruit crop while it was low in pit digging (10%), planting (15%), training and pruning (5%) of fruit crops. The participation of women was more than 80% in field preparation, stable collection, seed cleaning, seed sowing, transplanting of seedlings, weeding, sorting and grading of vegetables. Less than 50 percent participation of women was found in cleaning of bunds (42%), irrigation ( 38%), fertilizer application ( 24 %), crop watch (24 %), application of insecticides and pesticides ( 28%) and marketing ( 35 %). The study also depicts that age, family income, land holding influence the women participation in horticulture while type of family, education level, caste did not effected by the women participation in cultivation of horticultural crops.