PROBLEMS FACED BY THE RURAL WOMEN IN HOMESTEAD VEGETABLE CULTIVATION: AN OPTION TO IMPROVE FOOD SECURITY

Abstract

Vegetables play a very important role in human nutrition as source of fiber, trace minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates and proteins and help to prevent various diseases resulting from malnutrition and unbalanced diet. Along with the nutritional benefits, home-gardens provide potential food security to the house holder. The home-garden vegetables form an integral part of the family diet. Although every member of the family has some contribution, the major labour input was contributed by women. The purpose of the study was to find out the extent of problems faced by the rural women in homestead vegetable cultivation and to explore the relationships of the rural women’s selected characteristics with their problems faced in homestead vegetable cultivation. The study was conducted in two selected villages Baikunthapur and Kasalbari under Akcha union of Thakurgaon Sadar upazilla under Thakurgaon district. Data were collected from a proportionately random sample of 74 rural women by using an interview schedule during the period from March, 2019 to May, 2019. The majority (62.2 percent) of the rural women faced medium problem in homestead vegetable cultivation, while 24.3 percent faced low and 13.5 percent faced high problem in homestead vegetable cultivation. Pearson's Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation was used to examine the relationship of the selected characteristics of the

rural

women with their problems faced in homestead vegetable cultivation. Correlation analysis indicated that among nine selected characteristics of the rural women, four namely homestead area, farm size, knowledge on homestead vegetable cultivation and uses of information sources had significant negative relationship with their problem faced in homestead vegetable cultivation and the rest five characteristics namely, age, education, family size, annual family income, organizational involvement had no significant relationship with their problem faced in homestead vegetable cultivation. On the basis of Problem Faced Index, it was observed that “lack of homestead area'' ranked first followed by " Insect and disease infestation, Cattle and goat destroy the vegetables, Lack of technical knowledge, Lack of quality seeds and seedlings were major four problems in homestead vegetable cultivation.