Women’s Participation in Agricultural Activities at Forest Land Areas of Bangladesh

Abstract

Women first initiated agricultural practices and demonstrated the art of science of farming. Women played a key role in the conservation of basic support system. The main objective of this research was to determine the extent of participation in agricultural activities by the rural women in Madhupur forest areas. An attempt was made to explore the potentials factors that influence their participation in agricultural activities in Madhupur forest areas in Bangladesh. Data were collected from randomly selected 70 rural women by using a pre-tested structured interview schedule. The findings of the study showed that the highest proportion of the respondents (95.7%) had high level of participation in agricultural activities, where only 4.3% had medium and 1.4% had low level of participation. Among nine selected characteristics of the rural women, two of these namely years of schooling and family farm size did not show positive significant relationships with their extent of participation in agricultural activities. On the other hand, extension media contact and access to training on agriculture showed positive significant relationship with their extent of participation in agricultural activities. The findings of the study indicate that the respondents of the study area have no alternatives other than agricultural activities. Here, more than half of respondents (62.9%) motivated towards agricultural activities as they have no alternatives to do, where, 25.7 and 11.4% of them were self-motivated and enforced by other to practice agricultural activities, respectively. More training should be provided to the women farmers of the study areas and require more exposure to extension media which helps the people to become more conscious, rational decision maker and informative about agricultural activities. So the authority should implement adequate development program in the forest areas for the welfare of women farmers.