Participation of Women in Sugarcane Farming System-A Case Study of Bijnor District (Western Uttar Pradesh) Zaidi Naheen Haider*, Munir Abdul Department of Geography, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh -202002, U.P, India *Corresponding author: naheenhz16@gmail.com
Online published on 11 November, 2014. Abstract Sugarcane is an annual crop engaging around 50 million farmers of which approximately half are women. Even though, women form the backbone of sugarcane cultivation, they still tend to exist as “the hidden farmers” with almost negligible access on land, resources, technologies, financial services, markets and even education. Despite their exclusive inputs in sugarcane farming operations like farmyard manure application, sett planting and treatments, hand weeding and detrashing, sugarcane bundling, disposal of trash and plant protection measures, the output of the land controlled by women is drastically lesser than the male counterparts. Against this backdrop the present paper is an attempt to examine the role of women in sugarcane farming in terms of their participation level, their decision making pattern in various activities, time utilization pattern, drudgeries involved and thereby implications. Hence, this study was conducted in Nehtaur Block of Bijnor District of Western Uttar Pradesh. Six villages from Nehtaur Block were selected for the purpose of the study. From these villages, 120 women who were engaged in sugarcane farming selected randomly and each was interviewed personally for the collection of data. Top Keywords Sugarcane, women, hidden farmers, participation level, drudgery. Top |