PARTICIPATION OF RURAL WOMEN IN HOMESTEAD VEGETABLE CULTIVATION OF NABINAGAR UPAZILA UNDER BRAHMANBARIA DISTRICT

Abstract

The main purpose of this research was to assess the extent of participation of rural women in homestead vegetable cultivation and to explore the relationship between each of the selected characteristics of the rural women and their extent of participation in homestead vegetable cultivation. The study was conducted in five villages of Nabinagar upazila under Brahmanbaria district. The populations of rural women in homestead vegetable cultivation in these villages were 594, from which 120 samples were selected proportionally. An interview schedule was used for data collection. The data were collected during 18 th July, 2014 to 25 th August, 2014. Appropriate scales were developed in order to measure the variables. Majority (62.5%) of the respondent had medium participation in winter homestead vegetable cultivation as compared to 30 percent low participation and 7.5 percent high participation. The highest proportion (73.3%) of the respondent had medium participation in summer homestead vegetable cultivation as compared to 22.5 percent low participation and 4.2 percent high participation. The highest proportion (52.5%) of the respondent had medium participation in homestead vegetable cultivation as compared to 36.7 percent low participation and 10.8 percent high participation. Correlation analysis indicated that five out of eleven independent variable namely farm size, extension contact, agricultural training, decision making role and innovativeness had significant positive relationship with their homestead vegetable cultivation. Other variables namely age, level of education, family size, family income, knowledge of homestead vegetable cultivation and cosmopoliteness had no significant relationship with their homestead vegetable cultivation. Among the ten selected problem ‘lack of credit’ was ranked first followed by ‘lack of technical knowledge’, ‘insect and disease infestation’, ‘higher price of inputs’, ‘lack of quality seeds and seedlings’, ‘cattle and goat destroy the vegetables’ ‘lack of homestead land’, ‘lower fertility of homestead land’ and ‘lower market price of products’ while ‘lack of required information in time’ had the last position in order of ranking.