ROLE OF RURAL WOMEN IN DAIRY FARMING OF RAJKOT DISTRICT

Abstract

A survey based study was carried out to ascertain the role and participation of rural women in dairy farming, using a pretested interview schedule by personal interview for sample size of 240 rural women in Jasdan, Morbi and Maliya tehsils of Rajkot district, Gujarat (India). The socio personal study revealed that majority of the women were middle aged (55%) in joint families (65%) with 53.33 per cent being literates. Most of the respondent families were marginal farmers (33.33 %) with low annual family income  (60.83%) having agriculture (52.5 %) as the major occupation. About 30 operations of dairy farming were selected in consultation with experts and were broadly categorized into six aspects as feeding, management, breeding, health care, processing & marketing and miscellaneous. The study revealed that women participation was maximum in caring of pregnant animals (91.66%) followed by taking animals for pregnancy diagnosis (90.83 %).The study revealed that 90 per cent women involved in milking while 89.16 per cent women cared for newborn or young animals. The farmwomen actively involved in cleaning of animal sheds (89.16 %), feeding the animals (87%) and disposal of cow dung (86.66 %). The farm women participation was least in farm record maintenance (52.5%) and getting loans or credits from the banks (49.16 %).The study concluded that women participated mostly in nonfinancial activities and there is a need to educate farm women about scientific management practices for increasing livestock production.