Women in Agriculture

Women are critical to the well-being of farm households. Aside from raising children, women are expected to prepare all meals, maintain the homestead, and assist in crop and animal production, all the while tending to the general health of their families. Perhaps, ironically, it is because women have so many responsibilities that they have been over-looked by agriculturalists and policy makers – it has been more convenient to label men as farmers and women as child raisers and cooks. In truth, women are involved in all aspects of agriculture, from crop selection to land preparation, to seed selection, planting, weeding, pest control, harvesting, crop storage, handling, marketing, and processing. Whatever the reason for this neglect, the importance of developing farming technologies relevant to women has only recently been recognized.

Role of women in agriculture is hugely emphasized in KVK. One of the principal thrust area of KVK Burdwan is to make farm women participate more in agriculture and allied aspects. Women can play a pivotal role in value addition of agricultural produces, regarded as the future of Indian agriculture. KVK is exploring the possibility of entrepreneurship development for rural women through value addition. Selected farm women and school dropout girls of one of the adopted village, namely KETEN, were thoroughly trained in a 7 day workshop by KVK for preparation of jute handicrafts from fibre. After completion of the training 2 Mahila Mandals were formed and two members of the groups namely Namita Lohar and Tanushree Majhi mastered the skills so well that they started preparing crafts like jute bags, pen stands and other ornamental items themselves. The crafts were marketed in the gramin melas, women fairs and they earned incomes of Rs. 1400 and Rs. 1800 respectively till date, thereby ensuring grater livelihood security for their families.

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