Participation of rural women in cultivation of rice in Himalayan belt of Kashmir Valley

The present study was undertaken at Gulbagh village of district Anantnag of Kashmir valley located 10 km from district headquarters Pulwama as it is known for rice cultivation. Total number of 100 rural women who were actively involved in rice cultivation were selected. It was observed that majority of the rural women belonged to age group of 30-40 years and could not read and write. Majority of respondents belonged to joint family system comprising 44% and have 5-10 kanal of rice land with agriculture as main source of income. The rural women performed all the agricultural activities actively that include cultivation and harvesting of rice like cleaning of boundaries, collecting stubbles, preparation of nursery, seed cleaning and treatment, Sowing, pulling out seedlings, transplanting, weeding, harvesting, bundling, threshing, winnowing, bagging, stocking, storing and transportation of the rice to safe place. They started their farm activities at 8-9 am, as they reached the farm at the same time. The rural women performed agricultural activities for more than 7 hours a day, comprising 57% respondents to collect stubbles, 67% in cleaning of boundaries, 78% in transplanting, 72% in weeding, 47% in preparation of nursery, 58% in seed cleaning, 60% in seed treatment, 82% in harvesting, 62% in bundling, 69% in threshing and winnowing, 59% in bagging, 60% in stocking and storing. The activities like sowing (55%) and pulling out of seedlings (45%) was done for 6-7 hours a day. Harvesting is energy and time-consuming activity and is performed by majority of rural women Observations were made that 65% of the rural women received help by their husbands in farming. Finally, results show that overall rural women spent 7 hours a day in agricultural activities in the fields during cropping season. The workload gets increased during harvesting season.