Women and Crop Production Technologies

Women may have been the first agriculturists, as the steps from gathering roots and seeds to planting and cultivating food, fodder, fiber and fuel wood crops in small pockets are closely associated with them. In South-East Asia, most of the work in the fields is done by women and the system is deemed to be female. The figures from the International Labour Organization reveal that women are responsible for 50% of food production in the developing world. There is hardly any activities in agricultural production expect ploughing in which women are not actively involved. Seasonal migration by men counterparts imposes an extra burden on women, as they have to cope with the dual responsibilities of own farm/wage labour and managing their children. Under these conditions, women’s participation in agriculture increases rather than decreases because of the migration and employment of men outside the village. Despite their major contribution to agricultural production and performing a large number of others activities, such as, attending off-farm works, animal husbandry, processing of food for family use, collecting of wood and water, gathering fruits for family use, and thus contributing a lot to the income generation of the family as a whole, yet women were put under house-wifezation and thereby excluding women altogether from the purview of policy-making. In fact the agricultural development system had not yet taken farm-women population seriously in the main-stream of its development processes. Therefore, it is high time that this issue is discussed and deliberated at the national and regional levels in order to sensitize people about its potentiality, prospects and obstacles. The present book will provide information on various aspects of involvement of women in different on-farm and off-farm activities, decision-making, economic contribution and drudgery undertaken by them. It is imperative for the planners and policy-makers to have a composite index reflecting the extent of gender-based inequality in wages in the society in order to make effective policies and programmes addressing the issues involved properly.