Women Role In Agriculture, Auqaculture, Livestock

Importance of Women Role In Agriculture, Auqaculture, Livestock sector.

Today, let us touch the points of women role in agriculture.

Role of Women in Agriculture and its allied fields

Agriculture is considered to be an opportunity for growth and development in the country. The poverty of the country can be reduced through agriculture, which is considered to be the major part of the population in the country. In the agricultural sector, women are found to contribute in an essential way. The roles of women in the country have been seeing a change across the world. The women play a significant role in the villages by working on multiple tasks parallelly.

Women, in the current generation, have been considered as the most important ones for the development of the economy related to rural areas and also in the national extent. The women occupy 45% of the labour force across the world, which leads to up to 75% in some countries individually. Though women occupy a significant percentage in the agricultural sector, they are not given specific access to the land and the resources in it. Though the women play a significant role in the economic sector of the country through agriculture, they are not provided access to educate themselves which eradicates poverty. Women contribute to livelihood in rural areas on a larger extent. Their efforts in the production of agricultural crops will help them to sustain for themselves. This would just satisfy their financial needs required for survival, but could not help in the terms of health, education of children and to purchase the necessary materials required on a daily basis.

• As agriculture is the main source for the women living in the rural areas, there should be better access to the resources which are useful for the effects which occur due to severe changes in the climate. They should also get educated on how to deal with such circumstances.
• Women are treated just as support or help in the agricultural field. They are not considered as important people and their contribution is not treated with respect. In Spite of agriculture, women living in rural areas, should search and get water, get the firewood for cooking. All these works lead to less participation of women in big decisions made.
• The women contribute in a major way to agriculture by increasing the production of food. But that will not be enough for the women to get their future needs met.
• Hunger and malnutrition are the major things which have to be considered and worked on from now. If women are given enough resources to fight with these from now on, there would be a chance of higher income in the future and provides the women with the necessary conditions for living.
• The malnutrition and the hunger affect the women of backward communities and who practice agriculture on a small scale depending on fewer crops. The agriculture in the rural communities should be in such a way that it increases the income of the women considering their future savings.
• The women should be provided with the facilities which would make the work of the women easy in agriculture and also keeping in mind the fact that they do not affect the environment.
• There are a lot of drawbacks in the system of agriculture in the country in terms of production of crops, processing and the marketing. There should be collective efforts to create conditions which are favorable in the areas which follow agriculture. These should include the construction or improvement of roads which would make the transportation of women easy and help them to maximize the processing and marketing of the products.

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• The policies which are not that favorable to women living in rural areas should be excluded and the policies which completely focus on the appreciation of their role improve their wealth should be established.
• The policies which protect the women who are part of production in agriculture from the changes in the climate should be established or included.
• Behind all these factors, the most important thing is training which needs to be given to the women in rural areas. They should be trained so that they can get adapted to the agricultural techniques which are introduced in the modern era. They even get to know through the training how to make use of the natural resources in a good way so that they would contribute a lot to agriculture without causing any damage to the environment. To make this happen, the results of the researches which are carried by various agricultural experts should be spread widely across the rural areas. The results should include the techniques which are economically beneficial in the agricultural field so that this would help the women in the rural areas to increase their income and their production levels.
• To increase the income among the rural women, there should be practices which encourage the production and the economic status of the people. This includes extension services, providing roads, electricity and the training in terms of technology which develops communication, marketing and the ways to access.
• The women in the rural areas should also come to know about the cooperative banks and the organizations which support the farmers.
• The governments in various states are found playing an important role to give access to land for women, also to water and seeds. This happens mainly among the rural women who take part in the small scale agriculture.
• Supporting the women in rural areas, mainly helps in reducing the poverty in the rural areas and expanding the rural villages and clubbing them into cities.
• The strategies of the development should consider the women in the rural areas as their main aspect so that there would be special attention to them and their silks would be improved socially irrespective of the sector they are taking part in.
• The policies which are being established for the benefit of the women living in the rural areas should be assessed again by the beneficiaries. These policies should be used as a leaning which helps them socially.
• The women living in rural areas should not be treated as just beneficiaries. They should be seen and treated as experts who possess substantial knowledge in the agricultural sector. The participation of the women should be in large numbers as the membership would help to empower themselves in getting improved in the subjects which would eradicate poverty and help the women to grow financially.
• To increase the production of crops or contributing to it, the government should provide ultimate support to the organizations and the farmers who take part in the promotion of programs which include the new concepts and the development of agriculture. This brings together the activities which generate income also provides access to the other services.
• It is very important to identify the role which is played by the women in the rural areas and their contributions to cooperatives. This contribution gives them political support and also financial support by making them involved in the training and making them conduct the development programs thereby increasing the role of women in agriculture.

Women in Crop production:

In most of the situations in the real world, women are not intended to produce the crops or food separately. The food in the agricultural areas is produced by the collective effort of both men and women. If the share of food produced by rural women is quantified, assumptions are made in an arbitrary way about the roles of men and women in the process of production of crops. For example, of the men work to clean the field and women work on planting the crops, both of them are considered to be a part of the harvest. If there are any shreds of evidence which are presented in terms of the participation of the labour by changing the definition of the gender directly indicates that it is true that the 60% of crops which provide food in various countries are produced by women.

The women seem to play a significant role in all the stages of agriculture starting from planting to marketing. The roles played by the women in the rural areas in terms of agriculture will be changing as per the region.

The women in rural areas take part in the activities of agriculture in three ways. This completely depends on the social and economic status of the family of the women and there will also be dependent on the factors which are to be considered regionally. The women occupy roles such as paid labourers, cultivators which work as labourers in their own field, and as managers who take part in few aspects of production by supervising the labour and by participating in the operations during the post-harvest period.

The activities which the rural women take up in terms of agriculture include sowing the seeds, managing the nursery, transplantation, removing the weeds, irrigation works, application of fertilizers, activities which include protection of plants, harvesting crops, storing etc.

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Women in Livestock:

In the systems of mixed farming, livestock is the one which plays an important role and is the one which supports the rural women by improving their status and the situations financially. Most of the women are involved in the livestock. Women share equal responsibility with men in taking care of the animals which are part of livestock. Most of the activities involved in the livestock are related to women. As livestock are reared at homes mostly, the women play a prominent role in taking proper care of the animals in terms of their health and the management.

When the tasks which are related to the livestock farming are divided, the men will be involved in the construction work such as the construction of sheds, marketing the products and the women will be involved in the use of eggs, meat and the milk for the purpose of consumption related to their own houses. The women can also participate in the marketing of the products from home and increase the income. As the livestock farming helps the women to work from their homes it is considered to be a very good investment for the development of the projects whose main aim is to improve the financial conditions of the women living in the rural areas. Most of the households which are headed by women are very much successful in generating a good income from the animals involved in the livestock.

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Studies and surveys have proved that most of the income in rural areas for women will come from selling milk and animals. Most of the women in the rural areas will be participating in cleaning the sheds of the animals, providing food and water for the cattle, milking, preparing the cakes from dung and collecting manure from the farmyard. 

Women in Aquaculture:

Women will have very less engagement in the fisheries because of the hectic and difficult work involved in it. They are not involved in the capturing of fishes because of their responsibilities in the household. The women are seen in the marketing phase of aquaculture mostly. Women also take a major role in providing labour for the fishing in the coastal areas. In the marketing of fish, women play a significant role in almost all the regions where production of fish is involved.

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