Economic Analysis of Women Empowerment Through Value Addition of Jackfruit in Bengaluru Rural District

Present study analyzes value addition of the Jackfruit, its marketing by rural women and women empowerment in Tubagere Hobli in Bengaluru Rural district. Data was collected from all the women entrepreneurs in the study area. Six value added Jackfruit products viz, chips, jam, papad, juice, halwa and mixture are produced. A return per rupee of expenditure was highest in Jam ( 2.54) and lowest in Juice ( 1.05). They transacted an average 240 kg of chips, 120 kg of mixture, 4000 papads, 190 litres of juice, 30 kg of jam and 150 kg of halwa in 2015–2016 through direct marketing. Profit generated through value addition was higher (95%) compared with marketing of raw fruit. Women empowerment index has shown that 50, 10 and 40 per cent of women had high, medium and low level of empowerment respectively. Thus, value addition and direct marketing have enabled them to become better empowered.

There were six value added products produced from Jackfruit in the study area.

Jackfruit Jam was fetching higher returns as compared to other value added products of Jackfruit.

Value addition activity has empowered 60 per cent of women in the study area

Through the value addition and marketing of Jackfruit products women in the study area were able to save an average of 20, 000 to 25, 000. This helped them to purchase some valuable assets like gold.