Does Participation of Women in Agriculture Changes their Socio-Economic Status? – An Investigation

Agriculture is the backbone of developing economy and equal participation of women is essential to strengthen this sector and to use their potential. However, women are not participating in agricultural activities due to unaware of its benefits. Even though, few sections of women engaged in agriculture, how far their socio-economic conditions have changed is not known due to dearth of studies. Hence this paper focuses on assessing the benefits of women who participated in agriculture and the influential factors responsible for their participation. To address the objectives, primary data was collected from 33 participant women in agriculture and 118 non-participant women were identified through proportionate random sampling. The extent of participation and their socio economic changes were analyzed using descriptive statistics whereas factors influencing women participation was analyzed using logistic regression model. The results show that the level of women participation in agriculture is less than men. Crop production and livestock marketing is dominated by men. 72.73% of sample women witnessed their livelihood change after participation in agriculture. Agriculture has brought positive change on income of participant women which is significant at 10% level. The logistic regression results revealed that, out of eleven explanatory variables, seven variables were positively influenced women participation in agriculture. It is recommended that stakeholders shall encourage and assist women farmers in terms of access to farm inputs, incentives and marketing supports to enhance their participation.