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Introduction
Women are workforce of agriculture and important part of Indian economy. There is a gradual increase in realization of the key role of women in agricultural development and their involvement in the field of agriculture, food security, horticulture and other allied sectors. Women as farm labourers, participate in various activities such as seeding, cutting, planting, weeding, fertilizer spreading, plant protection, thinning, harvesting, treating, selling, sorting, care of animals, kitchen gardening etc. It is estimated that women work every day for about 8-9 h in agriculture and four hours in household activity. The Indian women, especially in the poverty group work for above five hours per day more than the Indian men in work, including visible burden of family. As per the recent findings, women in India are the major producers of food in terms of value, volume and number of hours worked.1 Drudgery can be reduced by providing gender friendly farm tools and equipment which increase the productivity of worker with safety and comfort to her. Time scheduling is also needed for achieving such task. Drudgery is term for hard work, monotony, time consuming, use of traditional tools with inappropriate working posture in field. So one way of reduction of drudgery can be through quantifying the particular field operation2 The main objective of this study was to know the participation of women in turmeric production system and their use of technologies. The information will be helpful to design gender friendly new tools and technologies.
Materials and Methods
The spice turmeric or Haldi constitutes boiled, dried, cleaned and polished rhizomes (the underground swollen stem of plant) of Curcuma longa. In Marathwada region of Maharastra, women farmers play important role in turmeric crop production 3. A questionnaire was prepared and survey was conducted on 120 women farm workers having working experience in turmeric field. Survey was carried out regarding basic information, gender participation, time spent on various activities and technology usages/ satisfaction for different activities in turmeric field. This survey was conducted at major turmeric growing area in Marathwada region viz. Pokharni, Katneshwar, Nandgaon, Bharati Camp Dist. Parbhani and Hatta, Adgaon, Satephal village of Dist. Hingoli.
Work load as per time4 was calculated by using scale and score was assigned to each activity such as: very high duration-5, high duration-4, moderate duration-3, less duration-2, Very less duration-1. Data collected on time spent in hours for each selected activity was converted into no. of man-days spent by using following formula.
No. of man days: 8 hour =1 man day
Results
Gender Participation of the respondents under different activities in turmeric production system
Key role of farm women in turmeric cropping system in Marathwada region was found in planting rhizomes, removing weeds, cutting and sorting turmeric roots as well as cleaning activities (Fig.1). Ploughing, forming ridges, irrigation are the activities performed 100 per cent by male farmers. Participation of farm women in earthing up activity was 85% and it was followed by fertilizer application (83%) (Table 1).
Table 1 : Gender participation of the respondents under different activities in turmeric production system N=120
| Activities | Male | Female | Both | ||||
| Frequency | % | Frequency | % | Frequency | % | ||
| Land preparation | |||||||
| 1. Stubble collection | – | – | 120 | 100 | – | – | |
| 1. Manure application | 120 | 100 | – | – | – | – | |
| 1. Forming ridges and furrows | 120 | 100 | – | – | – | – | |
| 5. Planting Turmeric rhizomes | – | – | 120 | 100 | – | – | |
| Weed management | |||||||
| 1. Spraying weedicide | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 1. Hand weeding (row to row) | – | – | 120 | 100 | – | – | |
| 1. Earthing up | 18 | 15 | 102 | 85 | – | – | |
| Fertilizer application with Ploughing | 20 | 16.66 | – | – | 100 | 83.33 | |
| Irrigation | 120 | 100 | – | – | – | – | |
| Harvesting | |||||||
| 1. Ploughing | 120 | 100 | – | – | – | – | |
| 1. Cutting turmeric roots/ Fingers | – | – | 120 | 100 | – | – | |
| 1. Sorting turmeric roots/ Fingers | – | – | 120 | 100 | – | – | |
| 1. Cleaning turmeric roots/ Fingers | – | – | 120 | 100 | – | – | |
| Transporting | |||||||
| 1. Carrying | 120 | 100 | – | – | – | – | |
| 1. Loading | 120 | 100 | – | – | – | – | |
| Post-Harvest Treatment | |||||||
| 1. Cooking Turmeric/ Roots | 120 | 100 | – | – | – | – | |
| 1. Drying Turmeric/ Roots with direct sun drying in the field | 85 | 70.83 | 35 | 29.16 | – | – | |
| 1. Polishing by hand operated barrel | 120 | 100 | – | – | – | – | |
Technology usages/ satisfaction of the respondents in turmeric system
Majority of the activities such as planting, earthing up, harvesting in turmeric production system were manually carried out. Traditional tool named ‘khurpi’ was used for removing weeds in field. Bullock operated plough was used for fertilizer application activity (only in row to row planting). Mobile turmeric cooker with hot water boiler was used for cooking 4 q quantities of turmeric rhizomes in field and rotating drums for polishing turmeric fingers. (Table 2).
Table 2: Technology usage satisfaction of the respondents in turmeric production System N=120
|
Activities |
Technology used |
Duration of use of technology per season (hrs./min) |
Years of use |
Source of technology |
Satisfaction level |
||
|
Satisfied (%) |
Not satisfied (%) | ||||||
|
Conventional method |
Improved method |
||||||
| Land preparation | |||||||
|
Manually | – | – | – | – | – | – |
|
Plough | – | – | – | LocalArtisan | – | – |
|
Plough | – | – | – | Local Artisan | – | – |
|
Plough | – | – | – | Local Artisan | – | – |
| 5. Planting Turmeric rhizomes / Roots | Manually/ Sickle | – | – | – | Local Artisan | – | – |
| Weed management | |||||||
|
– | – | – | – | – | – | – |
|
sickle | – | 240 hrs. | – | Local Artisan | 21 | 79 |
|
Manually | – | 720 hrs. | – | – | – | – |
| Fertilizer application with plough | Plough | – | 240 hrs. | – | Local Artisan | 38 | 62 |
| Irrigation | Electric pump/Drip irrigation | – | 4320 hrs | – | District market | 120 | – |
| Harvesting | |||||||
|
Plough | 120 hrs. | – | – | 120 | – | |
|
Manually | – | – | – | – | – | 100 |
|
Manually | – | – | – | – | – | 100 |
|
Manually | – | – | – | – | – | 100 |
| Transporting | |||||||
|
Gunny bag/ Ghamela | – | – | – | Local Market | – | – |
|
– | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Post-Harvest Treatment | |||||||
| 1. Cooking Turmeric/ Roots | Presser cooker | – | 1080 hrs. | – | – | – | – |
| 2. Drying Turmeric/ Roots direct sun drying in the field | Rake | – | 720 hrs. | – | – | 21 | 79 |
| 3. Polishing by hand operated barrel | Drum | 24hrs | 100 | ||||
Duration for performing field activities in turmeric crop
Data on duration for performing selected field activities in turmeric crop indicated that maximum time consuming activity was hand weeding (84 man days/season) followed by earthing up (63 man days/season) and cutting, sorting & cleaning roots (56 man days/season). As per the work load score all the activities performed by women were of very high duration. All the selected farm women were working in the field for 7 hours/ day (Table 3).
Table 3: Duration/time spent by the respondents in performing different activities in turmeric production system N=120
| Activities | Time (h) /day | Days required/acres/season | labour employed | Man days/ season* | Work load score** |
| Field preparation | |||||
|
7 | 2 | 7 | 12 | 5 |
|
– | – | – | – | – |
|
– | – | – | – | – |
|
– | – | – | – | – |
| 5.Planting Turmeric rhizomes / Roots | 7 | 2 | 8 | 14 | 5 |
| Weed management | – | – | – | – | – |
|
– | – | – | – | – |
|
7 | 16 | 6 | 84 | 5 |
|
7 | 12 | 6 | 63 | 5 |
| Fertilizer application with plough | 7 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 5 |
| Manual fertilizer application | 7 | 6 | 5 | 26 | 5 |
| Irrigation | – | – | – | – | – |
| Harvesting | – | – | – | – | – |
|
– | – | – | – | – |
|
7 | 8 | 8 | 56 | 5 |
|
7 | 8 | 8 | 56 | 5 |
|
7 | 8 | 8 | 56 | 5 |
| Transporting | |||||
|
– | – | – | – | – |
|
– | – | – | – | – |
| Post-Harvest treatment | |||||
|
– | – | – | – | – |
|
5 | 10 | 5 | 31 | 5 |
|
– | – | – | – | – |
*Man day: 8 hour =1 man day
**Work load as per time1: very high duration-5, high duration-4, moderate duration-3, less duration-2, Very less duration-1
Time spent by the women farmers in performing different activities in turmeric production system depicted that total seven activities are performed by farm women in turmeric production system. Total seven hours per day are spent by farm women in the field. Eight days were required for cutting, sorting and cleaning turmeric roots / fingers while performing stubble collection planting and drying turmeric roots required only two days. Earthing up and hand weeding required 12 to 16 days per acre.
 |
Figure 1: Participation of women worker in various activities in turmeric field Click here to View Figure |
 |
Figure 2: Time spent by the respondents in performing different activities in turmeric production system Click here to View Figure |
Conclusion
Key role of farm women in turmeric crop in Marathwada region was found in planting rhizomes, removing weeds, sorting and cleaning activities. Ploughing, forming ridges, irrigation are performed solely by male farmers. Participation of farm women in earthing up activity was 85%, it was followed by fertilizer application (83%). Majority of the activities such as planting, earthing up, harvesting in turmeric production system were performed manually. Data on time spent by the female workers in performing different activities in turmeric production system indicated that, hand weeding was maximum time demanding activity (84 man days/ season) followed by earthing up (63 man days/ season) and cutting, sorting as well as cleaning roots (each of 56 days/ season). It indicated urgent need of development of technologies for performing these activities.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge ICAR-CIWA, Bhubaneswar for providing funds for conducting this research work.
Conflict of Interests
Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
References
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- Dash, B. Role of farm women in agriculture, ergonomics and musculoskeletal injuries in agriculture: recognizing and preventing the industry’s most widespread health and safety problem. Yojna, 2000; 44(11): 35-37 cited by Singh, S., and R. Arora in Ergonomic intervention for preventing musculoskeletal disorder among farm women, Pp: 61.
- Sheikh S., R. Chourad, S .Amarapurkar and R. Kondaguri. International Journal of Commerce and Business Management. 2014; 7(1): pp 100-104.
- Sridhar. G., B.S. Rao, D.V. Patil, SSN. And M. Rao (Impact of women empowerment through drudgery reduction in agricultural operation training during 12th five years plan period in BCT-Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Visakhapatnam district. International journal of innovation research in science, engineering and technology, 2015; Vol. 4 (7): ISSN (online): 2319-8753ISSN (print): 2347-6710.