Vegetable cultivation in Uttarakhand hills: viewing through a gender lens

Abstract

Gender is a social unhierarchical ordering of institutions into strongly classified words of men and women. It is used for studying the role of men and women in a society. Women form the backbone of agriculture in India, comprising the majority of agricultural labourers and have been contributing not only in terms of physical output but also in terms of quality and efficiency. They along with men are actively involved in vegetable cultivation activities, yet their active role is not countable. The present study was carried out on extent of participation of farmers and farm women in vegetable cultivation in Uttarakhand hills of India. The study was undertaken in two villages namely, Rousil and Ladkhora. Purposive sampling was followed for selection of the district, villages and respondents whereas blocks were selected through chit method of Simple Random Sampling. Analytical research design was used to meet the objectives set forth for the study. The data were collected through pretested structured interview schedule. The findings showed that the majority of labour activities related to vegetable cultivation were performed by women. The total time spent by men was 8.31 h per day and women spent 14.31 h per day on vegetable cultivation activities. Although women start work on the farm at a very early age, they still have little access and control over property, both moveable and immovable.

Gender Participation in Activities and Decisions of Vegetable Cultivation in Surkhet, Nepal

“…Our result is consistent with result observed by (Fartyal and Rathore, 2013;Fischer et al, 2017;Kalauni et al, 2020). However, contrasting results were obtained from household surveys in Ghana; nursery management of vegetable crops was male domain, occasionally assisted by women and children for watering (Cornish et al, 2001).…”

“…Field preparation are exclusively done by male; especially ploughing and taxing part of the job. Similar results were reported by (Devkota et al, 2018;FAO, 2011;Fartyal and Rathore, 2013;Zewdu et al, 2016). Farmers doing vegetable farming in large areas use hand driven tractor to plough land, whereas, those with small landholding use ox driven local plough (halo).…”

A Study of Marketing and Production Constraints Faced by Vegetable Growers

“…Despite small holdings, most of the farmers have opted for a shift in production from low value food grains like wheat, paddy, ragi to high commercial crops, particularly vegetable and pulses (Uttarakhand State Perspective and Strategic Plan 2009 -2027) [4]. At present, the area under fruit crops is 179.3 thousand hectares whereas the area under vegetables is almost half i. e. 85.8 thousand hectares with much higher production of 1030.9 thousand million tons [5]. Major vegetables grown in the state are potato, cauliflower, tomato, onion, brinjal, pea, cabbage and okra.…”

Understanding Gender Dynamics in Fruit Cultivation under Indian Condition

“…Their roles vary from region to region and are transforming rapidly in many parts of India, where economic and social forces are revolutionizing the agricultural sector (Sekhar et al, 2013). The roles and status of women in agriculture and rural areas vary widely with region, age, literacy rates, ethnicity and social class (Fartyal and Rathore, 2013). They play a substantial role in production system, encompassing cultivation, crop management, harvesting, maintenance, sorting, grading, packaging and selling.…”