Empowerment of farm women with pulses production technologies: An empirical framework

The study was conducted in six villages of Kanpur Dehat and Fatehpur districts of Uttar Pradesh during 2008–09 to design a framework for empowering farm women with improved pulse production technologies. A total of 180 farm women were randomly sampled for the study. Structured interview schedule with selected participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools were utilized for drawing data from the respondents. For devising the framework, activity role analysis, the perceived technological needsand their time utilization pattern and constraintswere studied. Participation of women farmers was highest in the areas like post-harvest operations like cleaning of grains (93%), value addition (89%), processing (85%), winnowing (67%) and seed cleaning (60%). Storage of the pulses was a joint activity in majority of the households (44%). Majority of women farmers expressed need for improved storage techniques (73.53%), drudgery reducing post-harvest handling techniques (73.34%) and improved varieties (54%). Limited availability of quality seeds (82%) and lack of information on suitable improved varieties (67%) were expressed as the major problems. Women farmers were found mid January -mid March months of the year and timings from 11 AM to 3 PM during the day as most suitable for planning interventions related to their technological empowerment. Based on the findings, an empirical framework comprising of suitable technological interventions, extension methodology and time schedule for technological empowerment of farm women of the state was designed.