INTRODUCTION

Women play an indispensable role in farming and in improving the quality of life in rural
areas. Rural women who are obliged to attend to all the household chores, childrens
welfare, nutrition and family cohesion along with farm work, are desperately driven to
adopt a survival strategy to save the family food security from total collapse.. In spite of
social, political and economic constraints, women farmers have proved extremely
resourceful and hardworking in their attempt to ensure household food security !rakash,
"##$).
In developing societies, both men and women play an important role in all fields
of life. Without the participation of women no society can reach substantial level of
achievement and progress. %he rural female are playing significant role in agriculture
activities. & study on womens participation in every fields shows that women work '(
to') hours daily with no break for rest and recreation. &ulmas, "##*+.
Women play an important role in sustainability of livestock through caring of animals,
gra,ing, fodder collection, cleaning of sheds to processing milk, whereas fodder
collection, cleaning of sheds to processing milk, whereas fodder production is the
responsibility of men Ishaq, "##*+.
In rural areas of !akistan, women play a ma-or role in agricultural production,
livestock rearing and cottage industries and remain busy from dawn to dusk to supply
food to men in fields, fetch water, collect fuel wood and manage livestock. %hey are
equally efficient in seed bed preparation, tilling, sowing, fertili,er application, fodder
cutting, weeding, intercultural operations, transplanting, husking, threshing, drying,
storing cereals and fodder, selling agricultural commodities and harvesting of all the
crops and picking fruits
and vegetables .uqman et al., "##(+.
Rural women have been intensively involved in agriculture and its allied fields.
%hey performs numerous labor intensive -obs such as weeding, hoeing, grass cutting,
picking, cotton stick collections, separation of seeds from fiber. Women are also expected
to collect wood from fields. .ivestock is the primary subsistent activity used to meet
household food need as well as supplement farm income.
!oultry farming is one of the ma-or sources of rural economy. %he rate of women in
poultry farming at household level is the central in poultry industry. Rural women play a
significant role in farming. %raditionally, cotton picking is exclusively a female activity
and )/0 women are engaged in it 1amali, "##/+.
%he rural women have to face many problems. %hey have heavy work load and
pay high concentration of their labor time as unpaid worker. %hey face restricted access to
improve agriculture productivity e.g. land, credit and extension services. %hey dont take
part in non2farm business activity. In rural areas, family economy is based on agriculture.
%he women seldom receive any cash income from their participation as labor, as their
husbands and male members of family control the money earned by them. Women are
generally unpaid and if paid, then they do not get same amount in same time as men get.
Women work more but it is not recogni,ed. Rural women along with their domestic
responsibilities, also help in rising of property or livestock milking and gra,ing. %heir
contribution in food production is not only through processing but also through drying
vegetables and preparation of pickles. 3eside all these activities, rural women of !akistan
are involved in home management activities i.e. cooking, taking care of children, fetching
water and fuel and other home related activities &min, et al., "##/+.
SOCIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE
!akistan is an agricultural country and its economy depends upon agriculture and
its related fields. Ra-an !ur is a remote area and situated at !un-ab2 4indh border, where
most of the people depend on agriculture sector. Rural women of Ra-anpur take part in
agriculture actively and play vital role in this sector. 5eeping in view the important role
of women in agriculture the present study has been designed to explore the participation
of women in agriculture sector in Ra-anpur area where agriculture has started very
recently.
Objectives:
%he main ob-ectives of the present study are6
' %o explore the socio economic and demographic characteristics of rural female.
" %o find out the role of female in the field of agriculture sector.
$ %o highlight the problems faced by rural women in agriculture sector.
7 %o suggest some measures for the betterment of rural women in agriculture field.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
%hresia "##7+ in his paper in women workers in agriculture+ conducted a study of
women agricultural workers. 4tudy revealed that tedious manual activities such a
transplanting of seedlings, weeding, harvesting, transporting, threshing, drying of hay etc.
was wholly done by women. 8n an average, they got three and half months of work in a
year.
4indhu and 1ayan "##7+ in their paper have attempted to study the work
participation of women in coffee cultivation. 4tratified sampling method was used and
data were collected from 9* women farmers. Work participation of women engaged in the
cultivation is assessed using W!I Work !articipation Index+. W!I scores showed that
gleaming collection, harvesting and weeding are the three farm operations in which
women contribute more than half of the labor required for the particular operation. :or
activities such as planting, post2harvest operations and -ungle clearing, women contribute
nearly about half of the labor actually required to complete the work.
Rural women play vital roles in every step of the agricultural production stated by
8,ekici et al. ("##7+. In spite of their substantial contributions to agricultural sector and
other sectors, however, their role however has been overlooked for years due to
sociocultural reasons and their reproductive role. Water management especially is seen as
mens work and women are excluded from this practice, even if there are no any formal
obstacles for women participation. In fact, women deal with water not only for
agricultural purposes but also for daily consumption like drinking, cleaning.
8yesola "##7+ in their research in 8yo2state in livestock activities of ;oruba
and :ulani rural women+ observed that rural women were involved in the livestock
activities such as rearing of cattle, goat, sheep, guinea fowl, chicken, duck, pig and
production of fresh and processed milk in 8yo2state. %hey were engaged in these
livestock activities in order to generate income and provide food for their household
consumption.
Rural womens participation rate in agriculture is more than men stated by
5hushk and <isbani "##7+. %hey help men to mix and prepare pesticide solution.
=illion women picking cotton and about "*0 of all family workers and 9*0 of part time
workers are women.9#0 of the female labor force is agriculture sector.
&lam and =an,oor "##*+ concluded that about 9# 0 of the female force in
!akistan is in agricultural sector their role being the toughest of all and yet their
contribution goes unnoticed and undocumented. %hey further stated that millions of
women are involved in on2farm activities like sowing, weeding, hoeing, grass cutting,
cotton stick collection, field cleaning, milking and feeding animals at household level,
separation of seed from fiber, packing and grading of fruit, working in cotton gaining
factories and they also perform their duties of domestic work. Women are also involved
in activities of rearing poultry at household level.
>eological 4urvey of !akistan "##*+ reported that census of agriculture gave a
reasonably accurate indication of the extent of womens participation in agricultural labor
force of 3alochistan. %he census estimate constitutes ")."0 of all family workers in
agricultural crop ? livestock+ households. =ost probably higher for household involved
in livestock sector considering the large contributions that women made all activities
which pertained to livestock in 3alochistan.
&ulmas "##*+ in her study @4ocio2cultural determinants of womens
participation in agricultural activitiesA founded that the daily wages of unskilled women
labor should be according to the labor laws. :or agriculture and livestock management,
government should impart through females extension workers. >overnment should
upgrade the literacy rate of rural female and provide opportunities to rural females, so
that they can explore their hidden qualities. =ass media should broadcast such program
that creates awareness among rural as well as urban people about the rights of female.
8rthodox attitude of people towards female employment should be changed as well as
government should provide facilities to working women.
Ba,i "##(+ in her study entitled @%he role of women in agricultural
developmentA emphasi,ed that government should take a policy decision for compulsory
education of women up to matriculation. &griculture education should also be included in
the curriculum. >overnment in collaboration with C>8s should take measures to
eliminate poverty in women. :acilities for interest2free small loans should also be
extended to rural women to buy inputs.
;adav and 5aushik "##(+ explored that the total days of different activities in a
season ranged from one day to "# days, maximum days being spent on weeding followed
by harvesting. %he total time spent by women was maximum on harvesting, followed by
weeding, irrigation and storing ..east time was spent on threshing, winnowing, plant
protection, fertili,er application and sowing .%he study concludes that as women mostly
do -obs that are tedious, monotonous and requiring manual labor while technical
activities are taken over by men, women need to be trained in technical aspects as well to
handle farming operations independently.
&rshad et al. "#'#+ suggested that awareness should be created among male
members of the society about womens socialDcivic rights by government, private sector,
religious leaders or through media. =oreover, awareness should also be created among
male members for the benefits of providing opportunities to the female members to
participate actively in making decisions in all aspects of livestock management activities.
%hey must be educated to decide things mutually and not to dominate in decision making.
%he youth male and female+ must be given equal chances to participate in discussion on
various matters relating to livestock management and also to participate in decision
making which will help to reduce the male dominancy at later stages.
4pieldoch "#''+ in their paper in 5ey role of rural women in achieving food
security+ indicated that the ma-ority of working women in the rural sector work in
agriculture. In varying contexts, yet across the board, they face ongoing discrimination.
:or example, according to the :&8, and not surprising to most, they still receive
considerably less money than men for the same -obs. %hey work longer hours and have
more of a work burden in light of their roles as unpaid workers and family care providers.
&lthough agricultural value chains can offer better wages than traditional agriculture,
women are often temporary or casual workers who are given the labor2intensive,
unskilled tasks and receive lower wages than men. =en are twice as likely as women to
own a business with employees. &s business owners, rural women have more difficulty
getting credit and collateral.
4idhu "#''+ viewed that it become imperative to scientifically educate and train
women in speciali,ed skill so that they too can improve and sharpen their skills and
abilities for performance of tasks which need some technical knowledge and skill In view
of the critical role of women in the agriculture as producers, concentrated efforts need to
be made to ensure that benefits of training, extension and various programs reach them in
proportion to their participation pattern. 4trategies should be designed to enhance the
capacity of women and empower them to meet the future participatory needs in farm
operations. 4pecial training programmes for women will enhance their skills and
strengthen faith in them for effective and independent performance of farm operations
and help them to make a shift from physically enduring operations to speciali,ed tasks.
Re,a,adeh "#''+ in their study in 4ocial effects of rural womenEs financial self2
reliance+ suggested that if rural women could provide a -ob for them by getting credits,
loan and other financial convenience, through their income they can get self2reliance or
financial independency and we will see social, cultural ? economic change in village. In
our rural society there is an especial social ? cultural kind that its outcome may be
different and in some case inconsistent. With these actions rural women could be in
idealistic economic condition and they could live without dependency to their husbandEs
income. When rural women became financially independent, itEs acceptable to see its
cultural ? social outcomes.
METHODOLOGY
=ethodology is a discipline to study the behavior of human beings in various
social setting. =ethodology techniques and ways of analy,ing the observation are
important to sociological pursuits and empirical research. %he study was aimed to
investigate female participation in agriculture sector in rural areas of district Ra-anpur.
THE UNIVERSE:
%he universe, any set of individual of ob-ects having common observable
characteristics constitute a population or universe. %he universe of this study will be
rural areas of Fistrict Ra-anpur.
THE SAMLE:
@& sample refers to small representation of a universe. @ %otal sample for the
present study will be '"# females.
SAMLING TECHNI!UE
Random sampling technique will be used
DATA COLLECTION TOOLS
Fata will be collected through interviewing schedule.
DATA ANALY"ED:
Gollected data will be analy,ed through 4!44 4oftware packages.
LAN OF STUDY
Gurrent Research will be completed within two months.
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