Women Dairy Farmers and Decision Making Pattern in Sonitpur District of Assam

The women folk are considered the backbone of the nation and better half of the men in almost all spheres of community development. Rural women constitute about 50% of total rural population. They play a vital role in all spheres of economic life and contribute richly towards national income. Of the major rural enterprises, dairy enterprise has been regarded as an important instrument of economic and social change and supplement to the income and employment to rural women. Livestock rearing is an important means of income generation in villages for all categories of farmers including small, marginal and even landless farmers in rural India. Milk production and processing of milk for product preparations play a vital role in India’s agricultural economy. Dairying is an important means of livelihood to millions of rural poor farmers. The per capita availability of milk in our country has gone up from 112g in 19501951 to 218g today. But despite having 11.48 million cattle and 0.96 million buffalo population in north-eastern region, the per capita availability of milk in this region is only 77g against all India average of 218g. In addition, the small and marginal farmers get cash by selling milk and milk products to purchase seeds, fertilizers etc. for crop production. The role of rural women in agriculture and livestock sector is always neglected. The rural women are denied their status as active producers in these sectors. They have less access to technology, credit, training etc. It is important to understand the role and contribution of farm women for future planning of extension services to fit their needs. Krishi Vigyan Kendras are playing a crucial role in catering the needs of farm women in rural India. In rural India, cattle and buffalo rearing has been traditionally been a responsibility of farm women. The government of India report indicates that 85 percent of rural women are engaged in livestock production (Viswanathan 1989). But in most instances, in spite being the major contributor in cattle and buffalo production, farm women have been left out from extension programmes of animal husbandry. In addition to this, the extension service work is a male dominated area where farm women have some hesitation to inquire regarding reproduction related problems. These might be the reasons for slow progress in this area. Various micro level studies highlight womens’ significant role in dairy production (Jain and Verma 1992; Singh et al. 2005). The study was conducted in Sonitpur district of Assam. The data were collected through a personal interview schedule in randomly selected 140 farm women from 14 villages of 7 developmental blocks of the district. Contribution of farm women in dairy production activities was studied with respect to their percent involvement in decision making process. Involvement in decision making of an individual family member may not be of the same level for all activities of dairy production. In some cases, the farm women might take decision of their own, while in others they might not be involved at all. The involvement of farm women in decision making was studied under category of feeding, breeding, management, health care and processing of milk. The farm women were asked to indicate who was taking decision in each activity on a four point continuum viz. Decision taken by spouse alone (independent decision ), spouse + house wife + other family members / friends/ relatives (collective decision), house wife + spouse (joint decision) and house wife alone (independent decision). In the event of the respondent not responding to an activity, no response was recorded. As can be seen the continuum was in ascending order with respect to the perceived level of involvement, the spouse Indian Journal of Hill Farming 25(1):58-62 Available online at www.kiran. nic.in