Role of Women in

Indian Agriculture

By

Prof. Vinod Malkar
Sanjivani Rural Education Society,
College of Engineering, Dept. of MBA,
Kopargaon, Dist: Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India




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CONTENTS
About India
Indian Agriculture
Indian Women
Role of Women in Indian
Agriculture
.

Location of India in World Map
India
National Symbols of India
5
Truth
Alone
Triumph
s
About India

National Anthem - Jana Gana Mana
National Bird Peacock
National Animal Tiger
National Language Hindi
Independence Day 15
th
August
Republic Day 26
th
January

About India
5,000 year old civilization
325 languages spoken
18 official languages
28 states, 7 union territories
3.28 million sq. kilometers - Area
7,516 kilometers - Coastline
1,210,193,422 population (2011
Census)
Parliamentary form of Government
Secular democratic constitution



About India
Worlds largest democracy since 55 years
4
th
largest economy
Fastest growing IT super power
Indian Railways ,the biggest employer in the
world
9
Indian Agriculture- Some Facts
Total Geographical Area - 328 million hectares
Net Area sown - 142 million hectares
Gross Cropped Area 190.8 million hectares
Major Crop Production (1999-2000)
Rice 89.5 million tonnes
Wheat 75.6 million tonnes
Coarse Cereals 30.5 million tonnes
Pulses 13.4 million tonnes
Oilseeds 20.9 million tonnes
Sugarcane 29.9 million tonnes
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Indian Agriculture- Some Facts
Contributes to 24% of GDP
Provides food to 1Billion people
Sustains 65% of the population : helps
alleviate poverty
Produces 51 major Crops
Provides Raw Material to Industries
Contributes to 1/6
th
of the export earnings
One of the 12 Bio-diversity centers in the
world with over 46,000 species of plants
and 86,000 species of animals recorded
Major Achievements
India is
Largest producer in the world of
pulses , tea , and milk
Second Largest producer of fruits,
vegetables, wheat , rice, groundnut
and sugarcane.

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Indian Agriculture Scenario
STRENGTHS
Rich Bio-diversity
Arable land
Climate
Strong and well dispersed
research and extension system
OPPORTUNITIES
Bridgeable yield crops
Exports
Agro-based Industry
Horticulture
Untapped potential
WEAKNESS
Fragmentation of land
Low Technology Inputs
Unsustainable Water Management
Poor Infrastructure
Low value addition
THREATS
Unsustainable Resource Use
Unsustainable Regional
Development
Imports

Indias Rural Market
The size of the Indias Rural market covers
two third of countries population and half
of the national income comes out of the
rural population.
The country is divided into more than 400
districts and 630,000 villages.
The size of Indias rural market, stated as
the percentage of world population is
12.2%.
This means 12.2% worlds consumer live in
rural India.

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Women In India
The status of women in India has been subject to many great
changes over the past few millennia.

From equal status with men in ancient times through the low
points of the medieval period, to the promotion of equal rights
by many reformers,
The history of women in India has been eventful. In modern
India, women have adorned high offices in India including that
of the President, Prime minister, Speaker of the Lok Sabha and
Leader of the Opposition.
As of 2012, the President of India, the Speaker of the Lok
Sabha and the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha (Lower
House of the parliament) are all women
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Place of women in Indian society:
A (cultural) historical perspective
The Goddess (Devi)
The mother
The sister
The wife
Indian Women in Modern Times
Categories of employment (2001)

Female Male
Agricultural laborer 46.3% 23.0%
Cultivator 34.6% 39.9%
Household industry 3.5% 2.1%
Non-household industry 3.8% 8.8%
Services 8.3% 10.8%
Other categories 3.5% 15.5%

Role of Women in
Indian Agriculture




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Key Facts
Indian population is 48.1% women
and 51.9% men
Female illiteracy is 62% whereas
the male illiteracy rate is 34%
The labour force participation rate
of women is 22.7%, less than half of
the men's rate of 51.6%
In rural India, agriculture and allied
industrial sectors employ as much as
89.5% of the total female labour
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Key Facts
Women have extensive work loads with
dual responsibility for farm and household
production
Women's work is getting harder and more
time-consuming due to ecological
degradation and changing agricultural
technologies and practices
Women have an active role and extensive
involvement in livestock production, forest
resource use and fishery processing
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Key facts
Women contribute considerably to
household income through farm and
nonfarm activities as well as through
work as landless agricultural
labourers.
Women's work as family labour is
underestimated
There are high degrees of inter-state
and intra-state variations in gender
roles in agriculture, environment and
rural production
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Multi-Dimensional Role of Women
Agriculture :
Sowing,
transplanting,
weeding,
irrigation,
fertilizer application,
plant protection,
harvesting,
winnowing,
storing etc.
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winnowing
Fertilizer application
Sowing
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Domestic:
Cooking,
child rearing,
water collection,
fuel wood gathering,
household
maintenance
etc.
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water collection
child rearing
fuel wood gathering
fuel wood gathering
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Allied
Activities:

Cattle
management,
Fodder
collection,
Milking etc
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Mainly rural women are engaged in agricultural
activities in three different ways depending on
the socio-economic status of their family and
regional factors. They are work as:

(i) Paid Labourers
(ii) Cultivator doing labour on their own land and
(iii) Managers of certain aspects of agricultural
production by way of labour supervision and
the participation in post harvest operations.
Currently in India a paid women
labour is getting Rs.100/- to
Rs.150/- for six hours i.e. $2 to$3
for Six hours.
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Percentage distribution of workers (main + marginal)
according Categories of worker by sex and by sector
during 2001 for India.
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Case Study
The study was conducted by Nisha N. in 2010
Palakkad district of Kerala state. Palakkad
district is the major agricultural district in
the state and more than 50 per cent of the
total women workforce is employed in
agriculture. There are about 317,192
agricultural labourers in the district, of
which 156,290 are male agricultural
labourers and 160,902 are female
agricultural labourers.
A Sample Size 120 has been taken for
study and the results are found as

Demographics of women in agriculture
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Economics Women in agriculture
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Women Employment days in a year
National Research Centre for Women in
Agriculture (NRCWA).
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The Indian Council of Agricultural Research established the
NRCWA in the month of April 1996 at Bhubaneswar and has
since been upgraded as the Directorate of Research on
Women in Agriculture (DRWA) from the year 2008.
DRWA is carrying out basic, strategic and applied research
on various gender related issues in agriculture and allied
sectors with thematic approach in creating a repository of
gender disaggregated data and documentation; technology
testing and refinement; drudgery assessment and reduction;
gender sensitive extension approach; capacity building of
scientists and functionaries; efficient resource management;
and gender mainstreaming.
Summary
The women is the backbone of
agricultural workforce and are a vital
part of Indian economy.
Over the years, there is a gradual
realization of the key role of women
in agricultural development and their
contribution in the field of
agriculture, food security,
horticulture, dairy, nutrition,
sericulture, fisheries, and other allied
sectors.
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Following are the key points,which will
help in creating respectable role of
women in Indian agriculture
1. Skill empowerment.
By training in the area of various
operations :
i. Field operations
ii. Conservation of biodiversity
iii. Nutritional bio-security
iv. Vocational training
v. Organic farming

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2. Technology development for
women
Designing of tools for various field
operations
b. Animal husbandry
i. Artificial insemination.
ii. Veterinary knowledge
c. For side income
i. Mushroom cultivation
ii. Floriculture

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3. Creation of self help groups
a. For financial support
b. For generation of employment

4. Projection of contribution of women by
collecting and analysing data
a. Collection and display of data
b. Projection of successful women in
agriculture
c. Representation of their contribution in
economic terms
5. Providing Financial Powers
a. Giving representation in land holdings

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India Lives in its Villages
----- Mahatma Gandhi








Thank You