eChapters

1. Feminization of Agriculture

Almost all active women in rural India can be considered as ‘farmers’, in some sense – working as agricultural labourer, unpaid workers in the family farm enterprise, or combination of the two. Moreover, several farm activities traditionally carried out by men are also being undertaken by women as men are pulled away into higher paying employment. Thus rural India is witnessing a process which could be described as ‘feminization of agriculture’. The significantly high and growing population of female headed households has also highlighted women’s contribution to agriculture.

The interventions for women empowerment was perhaps started intensively since fourth plan period. Subsequently many more initiatives are taken for the total all round development of women in this country.

A. 4^TH FIVE YEAR PLAN (1969-1974)

Farmers Training and Education Programme

It was for the first time in the 4^th Five Year Plan that an effort was made by Ministry of Agriculture to address the training and extension needs of women farmers with new and improved technology through “Farmers Training and Education Programme”, in which a network of 150 Farmers Training Centers were established to close the visible gap between the recommended package of practices and the farm women’s knowledge and skills about them. In this programme, a linkage of the supply of production inputs with improved technical training, supported by Farm Radio Broadcast and Functional Literacy was provided. The unique feature of this programme was that for the first time, a cognizance of women’s participation in agriculture was taken. The experience of the programme had shown that the states which gave due importance to this programme, especially in terms of curriculum planning and syllabus formulation (based on true status and needs of women farmers), achieved very good results. It was, this programme, which focused many issues that had to be categorically considered while planning and implementing agriculture support programmes for women farmers.

Women are the backbone of rural economy. They play a significant role in domestic and socio-economic life of the society. National development is not possible without developing this important and substantial segment of any society. To achieve anything, women are obliged to surmount host of obstacles. The difficulty in gaining access to land, credit and agricultural inputs hampers their potential as producers who feed the world. Barriers of tradition and discrimination have limited their access towards technology, training and education. Moreover, the extension approaches and strategies usually followed for transfer of technology to women are not keeping match with their specific needs and problems. The World Food Summit convened by FAO in 1996 drew up a plan of action to address the major impediments to universal food security. It also called for the full and equal participation of both the genders so as to ensure gender equality and empowerment of women.

Introduction

Castor (Ricinnus communis L.) is an important non-edible oilseed crop and occupies an important place in the country’s vegetable oil economy. The crop is mostly confined to Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. Although other states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Orissa, Maharashtra, parts of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh cultivate castor, their contribution to either area or production is limited. Presently, castor is grown over an area of 8.7 lakh hectares with a production of 11.7 lakh tonnes and productivity of 1352 kg/ha in the country (2008-09). Castor oil finds application in manufacture of a wide range of ever expanding industrial products such as nylon fibres, jet-engine lubricants, hydraulic fluids, soaps, varnishes, paints, medicines and a host of similar other products. Castor cake is used as manure and also as nematicide. Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh put together contribute to 68.5% of the total castor area and 80% of the total castor production in the country. The crop has been cultivated under resource-rich irrigated conditions in Gujarat with very high productivity (1963 kg/ha), while in Andhra Pradesh, the crop has been cultivated under rainfed and poor resource management conditions, with very low productivity (509kg/ha).

Introduction

For uplifting the socio economic conditions of the poor mass, government enacted many programmes to make available of institutional credit flow to the farmers almost at their doorstep at a reasonable rate of interest. Hence, the mind set of borrowers has changed. credit is no more regarded as “hangman’s rope” but are considered as an economic “ladder or elevator”

However, Credit can serve useful purpose only when it is used for productive purpose to generate additional income. Otherwise, its deviation for non productive purposes would affect the repaying capacity of borrowers and create over due and defaulters. The increasing rate of non repayment has been one of the major problems for all the financial institutions. Increasing default in the repayment of loan led to very serious implication, for instances, it discourages the financial institutions to refinancing to the defaulting members.

Introduction

Agriculture is the base of Indian economy on which the fortunes of over 70 million families directly or indirectly rest. The women in these families are also partners in crop and food production as managers, decision makers and skilled farm workers. The socio economic advancement of a country can be best judged by the status and position, which is bestowed on its women. Women as a class, play a vital role in the process of economic development. According to census 2001, women constitute 48.26 per cent of the total population of India and 25.67 per cent of the female population are designated. Amongst the female workers, 32.50 per cent are identified as cultivators and 39.43 per cent as agricultural labourers.

Introduction

Women constitute half of the Indian population. Around 80 % of the total female population lives in rural and out of 31 million women work force of the country, 20 million are living in rural areas. The role played by women in agriculture is more enormous and fully recognized. Women accounted for more than 76 per cent of the marginal workers and about 16 per cent of them are main workers. Among main workers as well as marginal workers more women belong to the category of agricultural labourers. The role of women and their involvement is more in production, processing and storage of grains. In general, 60-70 per cent of labour input is provided by womenfolk which increases upto 80 per cent in rice. Women formed part of a highly valuable human resources which with appropriate training and education, can bring about phenomenal changes in the desirable direction. By keeping this view, the main focus of this paper was, to find out the role played by the farm women in farming, allied and off-farm activities.

Introduction

Women in India had a high and glorious tradition. All nations have attained their pinnacle of glory only when women have been free, cultured and pure. Women have been the transmitter of culture in all societies. Modern living has brought with it not only innumerable means of comfort but also a plethora of demands that tax human body and mind. Stress is an inescapable part of human life is manageable to a large extent. With proper understanding of the processes that cause stress, the situation can be well managed. The stress management is very easy if we sincerely analyze the reasons of stress. Physical stress management techniques have been used since a long time.

The investigator had undertaken the study entitled “Positive Therapy for enhancement of Self-Esteem, Self-Efficacy and Management of Stress among Women in Local Governance in Coimbatore District”.

Introduction

In the existing socio-economic scenario, economic independence is considered as one of the main status indicator in the society. Women especially in rural areas are the deprived section of the society on account of their dependence on others for economic reasons. This necessitates generation opportunities so as to make them economically independent. Moreover, women’s contribution to national development is crucial. The process of development would be incomplete and lopsided, unless women are fully involved in it. Many innovations have failed due to non-satisfaction of women on the perceived attributes of innovations. So, it is necessary that they should be informed, trained, convinced of a technology primarily.

Farm women can’t emerge as a good entrepreneur, if they are not equipped with any skill, knowledge, education and information. So, research studies are essential to assess the training needs of them to become a successful entrepreneur. In order to know the training needs of farm women for entrepreneurial development, and the constraints faced by them to become a good entrepreneur.

Introduction

Women are vital part of the Indian economy, constituting one-third of the national labour force and are considered to be the major contributor to the survival of the family. Despite progress in several indicators, gender analysis of most social and economic data demonstrate that women in India continue to be relatively disadvantaged in matters of survival, health, nutrition, literacy and social status. More than 90 percent of rural women in India are unskilled thus restricting them to low-paid occupations. Women generally have no control over land and other productive assets, which largely excludes them from access to institutional credit and renders them dependent on high-cost informal sources of credit to secure capital for consumption and for productive purpose.

Among 621.1 lakh population in Tamilnadu (according to 2001 census) 308.4 lakh are females. The people below poverty line in Tamilnadu are about 21.12 percent, out of this, women share equal percentage of poverty. In a patriarchal society, women have inadequate knowledge on various aspects and depend largely on the male siblings or husbands. They also do not have much access to credit or income as most of the expenditure is controlled by men. Even where they have some measure of control they spend most of their earnings on family needs. Estimates shows that more women and girls experience the vigour of poverty than men in poor holds because of inequalities in access to food, healthcare and education. (www.undp.org.in).

Introduction

Since six decades after independence, the existence of people in a state of social, economic, political and knowledge disempowerment is considered as major threat to overall development. There is an essential demand for the integrated development, which should cover up development in all aspects, specifically in status, equality, security, complete physical, mental and social well-being of the target group. One sided emphasis on economic achievements by policy makers has set in motion so for But the social cleavage in rural areas has deepened. The power to the people signifies a new movement, which has been born out of the realization that society’s traditional arrangements for voicing their problems are very meager. The economic growth does not mean that only creation of wealth, but also creation of people’s capacity to create wealth and this resides in their health, education, knowledge and skills. It has been proven fact that, the economic development in any country should be preceded by social development which is interdependent. To combat the poverty at present juncture, efforts should be through the group approach only. So the new paradigm like Self - Help Groups (SHGs) can attain sustainability because of the clear cut understanding among them. Almost failure of co-operatives to mitigate unemployment problems and combating rural poverty, it is essential to think over self help group approach to empowering the rural poor.

Introduction

In India, the marginal, small and semi-medium land holding constitutes more than 90% of the land holdings in the country. They are caught in a vicious cycle of low investment, low productivity and low income with little chance to get out of it. In general, majority of farm families possess limited and scattered land holding with a low productivity and they have very limited accessibility to the improved agricultural information because of their illiteracy and lack of participation in extension programmes. The development of entrepreneurship in subsidiary activity like vermicompost production and Dairying will definitely help the small and marginal farmwomen to increase the farm income. The entrepreneurship among farmwomen in vermi composting and dairying will definitely encourage them to start self employment in addition to the agricultural income. Farmwomen perform -multifaceted role in various fields such as production, processing and marketing. In spite of their significant contribution to production they have virtually remained invisible as farmers, home makers and the ultimate by protecting the whole family. Their role has become critical in the process of moving their family out of the vicious ‘circle of poverty’ Nataraju and Perumal, (1990). Farmwomen generally have lower income and less leisure time than men and seldom have equal opportunities to develop their capabilities. Farmwomen have been considered unorganized and inferior to men, Lelamma (2001).

Introduction

Women empowerment is a global issue and it is the outcome of criticism and debates generated by the women’s movements / feminists. Empowerment is the process by which the powerless gain greater control over the circumstances of their own levels relating to both resources and ideology.

Empowerment means the ability to assert oneself; striving for upward mobility or attaining the psychological status of being powerful. Empowering of women is necessary for sustainable development of a community. Sustainability implies a state of balance and equilibrium in factors related to human life which can be social, political, financial, environmental and even spiritual. (B.K.Singh,2006).

Women empowerment often involves the empowered developing confidence in their own capacities. Empowerment, probably, the totality of the following or similar capabilities (social welfare,2010).

Introduction

Very few countries have experienced rapid economic growth without agricultural growth either preceding or accompanying it. Agricultural growth is a catalyst for broad based economic development in most of the low-income countries. Over the last few decades, the share of agriculture in GDP has steadily declined in India from over 19.7 per cent in the 1970-7 to 5.7 per cent in 2009-10. In contrast, the share of industry and services has increased to 26.4 and 55.1 per cent respectively due to greater focus on these sectors. But, agriculture still remains the backbone of Indian economy as nearly as 58 per cent of the rural population depends upon agriculture and allied activities for livelihood. The National Agricultural Development Policy (NADP) of India envisages a growth rate of 4 per cent per annum in the agriculture sector so as to achieve a target of over 300 million tonnes of food grain production by the year 2020. (Survey of Indian Agriculture, 2007).

Introduction

The people in Kolli Hills were more traditional in nature believing the fith and practices of the local communities. They happened to manage their livelihood through agriculture and maintained an indigenous life with their own knowledge system. They used to maintain the longstanding traditions from their ancestors and spread the knowledge in different spheres of livelihood. Such socially generated knowledge is popularly called as local knowledge. The ongoing practice of using such knowledge for indigenous communities established the belief that such knowledge used in atraditional manner was fruitful for the people. The concept of indigenous knowledge gained its worldwide recognition through the United Nations Conference on Environment and Education in 1992, World Conservation Strategy of International Union and Conservations of Natural Resources in 1980, Brundtland Commission, and World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987. These events recognized the existence of indigenous knowledge in every country, society, culture. Since India has a long history and much enriched culture there is abundant reservoir of indigenous knowledge in every part of the country. Similarly Kolli Hills of Namakkal district in Tamil Nadu, is a historical land having enriched cultural heritage which has varied communities and immense resources. Its flora and fauna are vast and varied in nature. The tribal communities, of this Kolli Hills, “Malayali” appear to live on their own knowledge system. The paper is intended to unfurl the essence of Indigenous Tribal Agricultural Practices (ITAPs) in Kolli Hills and the rationality analysis ITAPs in the study area. According to Grenier (1998) indigenous knowledge is the traditional knowledge of the local community existing within and developed around the specific conditions of women and men indigenous to a particular geographical area.

Introduction

Indian forests are being denuded at an appalling rate of 1.5 million ha per year but only a tenth of this is being renewed. This has resulted in the accelerated dwindling of forest resources to a meager level of 23.55 per cent of the total geographical area against the mandated requirement of 33 per cent. This low forest cover coupled with poor productivity (0.5 -0.7 m³ ha-1 yr^-1) in comparative global statistics (2.1 m³ ha-1 yr^-1) of Indian forest has ushered in a total mismatch between supply and demand of both domestic and industrial wood besides creating environmental de- stability and disequilibrium. The National Forest Policy of 1988 has resolved to phase out the supply of raw material to wood based industries and ultimately totally stopped the raw material supply from the forest (Anon., 1988). The policy also indicated that wood based industries have to become self reliance in meeting the raw material demand by establishing direct linkages with the farmers by providing lending facilitates and other input needs. This is going to pave the way for a strong industry-farmer nexus, with many farmers attracted towards tree husbandry due to assured marketability and income. As the activity gets intensified, location specific problems warranting solution are also found to be in the ascendancy.

Introduction

On 26^th December 2004, out of the 7516 km long coastline of India, more than 4500 km stretch was badly affected by the 9.0 magnitude earthquake- triggered tsunami, resulting in the total destruction of living environment along the coast. The worst affected areas along the Indian coast were in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh states. Tamil Nadu state suffered maximum loss with the damage concentrated in 4 districts.

It was reported that due to 26 December, 2004 Tsunami in Tamil Nadu state, 8.96 lakh people were affected, 376 villages had heavy damage, 7951 human lives lost, 1000 KM coastal length is affected, the sea water penetrated 1-1.5 KM distance into the main land, 128394 dwelling units affected, 9559 cattle lost, 10245 ha cropped area affected, 42655 boats damaged. (GOI, Ministry of Home Affairs, 09.01.2005). Many felt that impact will be very serious and it will take years to resume normal activities in the region. This paper presents an analytical study of the impact of tsunami on agricultural production, household income of the farm households on a continuous basis from 2005 to 2008.

Introduction

Organic agriculture is defined by Food and Agricultural Organisation / World Health Organisation Codex Alimentarius Commission as “a holistic production management system which promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem health including biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It emphasizes the use of management practices in preference to the use of off farm inputs. This is accomplished by using, where possible agronomic, biological and mechanical methods as opposed to using synthetic materials, to fulfill any specific function within the system”.

Introduction

The prosperity of Tamil Nadu depends on the development of rural areas. As per the 2001 Census, Tamil Nadu’s rural population was 36.2 million, amounting to 58% of the total population. Of these 90 percent are earning their livelihood through agriculture and allied activities. The agricultural situation in Tamil Nadu largely depends on the quantum of rainfall received during seasonal rainfall of South West and North East monsoon. North East monsoon which occurs around September to November is more crucial as South West monsoon which will give enormous rainfall to other Indian states is blocked by Western Ghats. So Tamil Nadu is receiving low rainfall and it also comes in three to five heavy showers during October and November. This limits the wet period (good condition for cultivation) to two to five weeks for the whole season. The wet period is further shortened by fast wind and soil type in some area. Thus, the success of the crop is largely determined by one’s capacity to exploit the short wet period. Even though the Tamil Nadu is relatively better position in tapping available ground water resources (92 percent of potential has been tapped), 82 percent of the well is owned by medium and large farmers who is only 10 per cent of total cultivators.

Introduction

Soil, water and vegetation are three basic natural resources. The survival of God’s creation depends upon them and nature has provided them as assets to human beings. The management of natural resources to meet people’s requirements has been practised since the pre-Vedic era. Farmers were ranked high in the social system and village management was in their hands. Over-exploitation of natural resources by growing population resulted in various severe problems. Destruction of vegetation has resulted in land degradation, denudation, soil erosion, landslides, floods, drought and unbalanced ecosystems. A balanced ecosystem is an urgent need.

There is an increasing realization throughout the world, about the state of our environment, caused by over-exploitation of natural resources for economic development. Resource exploitation in the developing world has largely been geared to meet the very basic needs of food, fodder, fuelwood and shelter of a large section of deprived societies. On the other hand, developed parts of the world have largely concerned themselves in trying to maintain and accelerate the already very high levels of resource consumption that they have achieved for a much smaller segment of the world’s population, based on an early initiative taken and advantage gained through industrialization. Natural resource base has often viewed as limitless by the industrialized world either due to a myopic view of the future or because of their immense faith in technology being able to substitute for the natural resource capital. This faith in technological quick-fixes for world’s problems linked with over-consumption is still prevalent.