Preface Women, sustainable agriculture and women empowerment are now important issues in our development. Women in Agriculture have been the national and international topic. Sustainable agriculture, participation of women in farming, methods to motivate farm women, incentives to attract them  for profitable farming are both research and extension agenda at present. Authors have tried to touch all these important issues from research and extension points of view. We hope the book will be of great help to those who are concerned with sustainable agriculture and empowerment of women. We acknowledge the sources that we have cited in the book

We mean sustainable of agriculture as preservation of productivity of land for a long period. This requires deviation from present methods of cultivation. The deviation needs knowledge about ecological process. At present we mean agriculture in association with terms like, high-tech, bio-tech and info-tech. Our traditional farming system or conventional farming system essentially means sustainable agriculture.

Women constitute 50% of our population. Their contribution to farming needs no emphasis as they are integral part of it. Women have developed farming in our country and contributed immensely for growth and maintenance of agriculture as a whole. But majority of them are not fully aware of sustainable agriculture in scientific terms although they practice it. Surveys and observations reveal that women are in favor of traditional agriculture and feel that traditional farming is more sustainable than the present one.

Sustainable agriculture requires sincere attempt by the farmers to be sustainable in their approach. The practices are neither new nor difficult. But the minds of the farmers are so much inclined to inorganic farming that it is not so easy to divert their minds for sustainable agriculture.

In rural development, the sole aim is to transfer the technology for better living of people. The process by which the technology is transferred to users is called Transfer of Technology. Transfer of technology falls in the domain of adoption and diffusion. Therefore, it is necessary to understand adoption and its related issues. Adoption of sustainable agricultural practices is relatively difficult as people do not find newness in it. The transfer of technology is explained in terms of technology movement from place of generation to the hands of the users.

Teaching, Research and Extension are interrelated and interwoven in development. It may be in any field, like agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, forestry etc. Whenever we talk of extension, it implies the participation of clients in the program. Extension can never be defined without inclusion of participation of people. Extension approach means application of tools and methods by which we can reach people. The participation is the core value of extension but its use differs from situation to situation bringing out a degree of differences leading to variation in result. In extension the farmers are advised and the blue print prepared for them are recommended to be adopted. Such approach did not yield desirable result, as result regarding realization was under question the impact of extension on farming communities. The studies conducted on extension approaches tend to reveal poor result as the participants failed to own and shape the program designed for them.

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