Authros: Lutfun Naher Mukta, Md. Enamul Haque, Md. Abu Sadat and Md. Zablul Tareq*
*Corresponding author: zablulbarj@gmail.com
Abstract
Participation of women in homestead agricultural sector is a crucial issue in developing countries like Bangladesh. The study was conducted in two selected villages of Kapasia Upazila under Gazipur district of Bangladesh to assess the nature and extent of women’s participation in homestead agricultural activities. Fourteen types of issues namely age, education, family size, family firm size, organizational participation, exposure to mass media, training, knowledge in the different homestead agricultural activities, participation in the homestead agricultural activities, comparative participation in different homestead agricultural activities, participation in homestead vegetables and fruit cultivation, participation in post-harvest activities, participation in poultry and participation in cattle rearing were investigated in this study. This research was conducted from randomly selected 90 farm women from the two selected villages during July to August, 2011. Most of the rural women were found to participate in homestead vegetable and fruit cultivation, post-harvest activities, poultry raising and cattle rearing. In case of vegetable and fruit cultivation, majority of the rural women regularly participate in activities like harvesting, weeding, mulching and irrigation. It was found that extent of participation of the rural women in post-harvest activities and poultry raising were also high. Educational status, family farm size, organizational participation, exposure to mass media, training experience and knowledge about different agricultural activities showed significant positive relationships with their participation in homestead agricultural activities. Major problems faced by the rural women in homestead agricultural activities were lack of good quality seeds in proper time, shortage of irrigation water for agricultural production, lack of knowledge for improved crop production, lack inf adequate quantity of fertilizer at proper time and insect attack, respectively.
Keywords: Rural women, Agriculture, Homestead activity.
