Gender Issues In Agriculture Essay

Gender issues in agriculture: An overview

Sakamma, S1. and Umesh, K.B2

Abstract

Women play a significant role in agriculture as well as in allied fields. Female land holdings account for only 10.5 per cent of total land holdings as against male land holdings (89.5 %). Out of the total female land holdings, 75 per cent accounts for marginal, small and medium land holdings. Women agricultural workers, although they represent a big proportion of all women workers, continue to receive lower wages than men. In India, about 76.6 per cent of the entire female workforce is engaged in agricultural operations, and only 54.6 per cent of the entire male workforce is engaged in agricultural operations. Women play a significant and diverse role in agriculture and contribute to agriculture more than men. Though women agricultural workers account for 39.2 per cent in India their overall empowerment status is low.

Keywords: Agriculture, Women, Land holdings,

INTRODUCTION

Women play very important role in agriculture and allied fields. Swaminathan, the famous agricultural scientist describes that it was woman who first domesticated crop plants and thereby initiated the art and science of farming. The extent of women’s participation in agriculture, varies from one region to

However the child sex ratio has declined by 1.4 per cent. In case of literacy rate female literacy is less than male literacy in both decades and In case of male’s literacy rate in urban was more 89.67 per cent as compared to rural literacy rate which is 78.57 per cent. In case of female literacy rural literacy rate is very much lesser its 58.75 compared to urban literacy rate which is 79.92 per