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Capacity Strengthening of Rural Women in Carrying out Post Harvest Activities of
Vegetables and Fruits towards Food Security
Final Report PR # 8/07
By
M Zulfikar Rahman, Principal InvestigatorSuraia Akhter, Research Assistant
Md. Atikur Rahman, Research Fellow Must. Effat Sharmin, Research Fellow
Department of Agricultural Extension EducationBangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh
andAfroza Begum, Co-Investigator
Bangladesh Agricultural University Extension CenterBangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh
October 2009
This study was carried out with the support of the
National Food Policy Capacity Strengthening Programme
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This study was financed under the Research Grants Scheme (RGS) of the National Food Policy Capacity Strengthening Programme (NFPCSP). The purpose of the RGS was to assist in improving research and dialogue within civil society so as to inform and enrich the implementation of the National Food Policy. The NFPCSP is being implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Food Planning and Monitoring Unit (FPMU), Ministry of Food and Disaster Management with the financial support of EU and USAID.
The designation and presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of FAO nor of the NFPCSP, Government of Bangladesh, EU or USAID and reflects the sole opinions and views of the authors who are fully responsible for the contents, findings and recommendations of this report.
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Executive Summary
Capacity Strengthening of Rural Women in Carrying out Post Harvest Activities of Vegetables and Fruits towards Food Security
The main endeavor of the research project was to assess the need for capacity strengthening of rural women in conducting post harvest activities (PHAs) of vegetables and fruits. However, the specific objectives were to investigate the extent of women involvement at field level in PHAs of vegetables and fruits, to find out the need of capacity strengthening for women in carrying out PHAs of vegetables and fruits, to explore the relationships between some selected socio-economic characteristics of the women and their need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs, to determine the training need and to offer training to strengthen capacity of women in conducting PHAs and to find out the problems faced by the women in performing the PHAs for vegetables and fruits.
Data for the investigation were collected from the rural women of selected nine areas in nine districts of the country. The vegetables selected for this investigation were brinjal, potato, spinach and tomato, and their respective study areas were Fulbaria (Mymensingh), Khetlal (Joypurhat), Monirumpur (Jessore) and Godagari (Rajshahi). The selected fruits were mango, pineapple, guava, banana and orange. Their respective study areas were Shibganj (Nawabganj), Madhupur (Tangail), Nesrabad (Pirpojpur), Shibganj (Bogra) and Juri (Moulavibazar). For every fruit or vegetable 50 rural women were interviewed personally. Other than this interview, focus group discussions, case studies were conducted for data collection. Their problems encountered in involving themselves in PHAs were explored through constructing scored causal diagrams (SCDs). Appropriate statistical measures were set to analyze data towards achieving the objectives. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) was computed to find out relationships between the personal characteristics of the women and their felt need for capacity building. Training and demonstration programs were also conducted against each fruit and vegetable in each site.
Involvement of rural women was mostly low to medium in PHAs of vegetables and fruits. Yet, their extent of involvement varied a little bit from vegetable to vegetable and fruit to fruit. Their major specific activities in the post harvest operations of different vegetables and fruits also varied as the nature of activities varied from vegetable to vegetable and fruit to fruit. All the respondents did not attend any training on the PHAs of any vegetable or fruit. But almost all the respondents showed their overall high to medium need of training. The major areas of training varied slightly from item to item, yet these were skill development in product processing, storage, techniques of increasing shelf-life, handling of products, disease and pest control in store and others. They also expressed their desire to receive the training in their own locality.
The major portion of the women felt high to medium need for their capacity strengthening in conducting PHAs of vegetables and fruits. The ranking exercise revealed that the different aspects of need for capacity strengthening and the corresponding expected specific areas of need were Management skill (processing of fruits and vegetables, preservation of seeds, handling of post harvest equipments, operational ability etc.), Physical facilities (processing materials, store house, processing ground, transports/vehicles, sales centers etc.), Financial ability (processing equipment, capital, credit and labor purchase etc.), Decision making ability (collection, sorting, grading, packaging, processing, selling of fruits etc.), and Access to support services (preservation facilities or cold storage, access to credit, development workers for advice, labor market, marketing channel etc.).
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Lack of training on PHAs, social/religious barrier, less or no cold storage, financial shortage, absence of farmer/women groups in locality, lack of prospect in marketing of products etc. were the major problems encountered by women towards low involvement in PHAs of vegetables and fruits. The women of the study areas suggested that localized spot training, motivation of male counterpart and other leaders of the society, formation of women group and provision of credit to the group or individual women might be some of the ways to lessen the problems. DAE and some related and capable NGOs may take their functional role to resolve the problems in this regard.
Age, education, annual family income, credit received, daily time allocation, involvement of women in PHAs, training need of women etc. were some of the personal characteristics of the women found to be linked to their felt need for capacity strengthening in conducting PHAs of vegetables and fruits.
Spot training and demonstration were conducted for the women engaged or had potentiality to be engaged in different nine locations for specific vegetable or fruit. Two three-day training cum demonstration programs were conducted at each site for each vegetable or fruit. In each batch, 30 women were included. Thus, in total 540 women participated in the training and demonstration in nine sites. As an extra output, training and demonstration materials/handout have also been prepared which may be referred to for future similar programs. Additionally, three MS theses have been prepared in the Department of Agricultural Extension Education, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh from the data support of the project. Another PhD dissertation will also be finalized soon based on the project data.
Strategic campaign is needed to get rural women more involved in PHAs of vegetables and fruits. Mass media awareness creation, group discussion, motivation through local leaders and elites may be some of the ways to create the approving situation. DAE along with other similar organizations may take lead in this matter. Scope should be created by empowering women through their development of and involvement in farmer and/or women managed associations (cooperatives) at local level. Specialized NGO can help out form and nurture the associations while DAE and allied government organizations can support technically. The felt needs for capacity escalation must be fulfilled to ensure better involvement of women in PHAs. But it is not an easy task for government alone to discharge the responsibilities. NGO and other may come forward to help government.
Almost all the respondents of the study showed their overall high to medium need of training on various aspects of PHAs. Appropriate and specific on-the-spot training may be arranged for the women on various aspects of capacity scale-up to carry out the PHAs of vegetables and fruits. To train the women, extension agents should be trained first to develop skill through ‘training of trainer’ (TOT). To flourish post harvest processing of agricultural products by the women in rural areas, community based and social support services to working women should be extended to lessen their load of household chores.
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary iList of Tables v List of Figures viiList of Photos viiiAbbreviations and Acronyms ix
Chapters Page
Chapter 1: Introduction
1 Background 12 Women’s Contributions to Agricultural Production and Food Security 22.1 As food producers 22.2 Women’s other contributions to food security 32.2.1 By preserving biological diversity 32.2.2 Processing and preparing food 32.2.3 Caring the basic needs of the households 43 Agriculture Status of Bangladesh in Respect of Food Security 44 Post Harvest Operations and Technology 55 Post Harvest Losses 76 Processing of Fruits and Vegetables 87 Agricultural Development Policies and Research 98 Objectives of the Study 109 Justification of the Study 1110 Scope of the Study 1211 Definitions of Important Terms 13
Chapter 2: Review of Literature
1 The Gender Dimensions of Food Security 152 Food Safety and Food Quality for Food Security 153 Role of Women in Post Harvest Activities 174 Post Harvest and Storage Technologies of Vegetables and Fruits 175 Training Needs of Women 196. Nutritional Values of Fruits and Vegetables 19
Chapter 3: Methodology
1 Locales of the Study 212 Sample and Sampling Procedure 213 Variables and Measurement Techniques 233.1 Measurement of independent variables 233.2 Measurement of dependent variable 264 Measurement of Involvement of Women in PHAs 275 Measurement of Training Need 286 Measurement of Problem Confrontation 287 Statement of Hypothesis 308 Instrument for Data Collection 309 Collection of Data 3010 Data Processing and Statistical Analyses 3311 Conduction of Training and Method Demonstrations 34
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Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion
VegetablesSection 1: Brinjal 35Section 2: Tomato 50Section 3: Spinach 64Section 4: Potato 80
FruitsSection 5: Mango 94Section 6: Banana 111Section 7: Pineapple 125Section 8: Guava 140Section 9: Orange 154
Focus Group Discussion 168
Key Findings 170
Chapter 5: Policy implications, Recommendations and Conclusion
1. Policy Implications and Recommendations 172
2. Areas for Further Research 174
3. Conclusion 175
Acknowledgments 176
References 178
Appendix A 183
Appendix B 190
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List of Tables
Methodology
Table 3.1 Locales of fieldwork 21
Table 3.2 Schedule of data collection 31
Results and Discussion
BrinjalTable 4.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of brinjal 35Table 4.2 Ranking of total score of participation of rural women in different PHAs of brinjal
36
Table 4.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of brinjal
36
Table 4.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of brinjal
37
Table 4.5 Ranking of the issues of need for capacity strengthening of the respondents 38Table 4.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of brinjal 39Table 4.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of brinjal 41Table 4.8 Ranking of areas of training need regarding PHAs of brinjal 41Table 4.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables 42Table 4.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve them 48
TomatoTable 5.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of tomato 50Table 5.2 Ranking of total score of involvement of rural women in different PHAs of tomato
50
Table 5.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of tomato
51
Table 5.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of tomato
52
Table 5.5 Ranking of issues of the extent of need of the respondents 52Table 5.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of tomato 55Table 5.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of tomato
56
Table 5.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of tomato 56Table 5.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables 57Table 5.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve them 62
SpinachTable 6.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of spinach
64
Table 6.2 Ranking of total score of the extent of involvement in different PHAs of spinach 65Table 6.3 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of spinach 65Table 6.4 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs spinach
68
Table 6.5 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in PHAs of spinach 69Table 6.6 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondents 70Table 6.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of spinach
72
Table 6.8 Ranking of areas of training need regarding PHAs of Spinach 72Table 6.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables 73Table 6.10 Suggested solutions with ways to achieve them 78
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PotatoTable 7.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of potato 80Table 7.2 Ranking of total score of involvement of rural women in different PHAs of potato 80Table 7.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs
of potato81
Table 7.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of potato
82
Table 7.5 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondents 82Table 7.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of potato 84Table 7.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of potato 86Table 7.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs Potato 86Table 7.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables 87Table 7.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve them 92
MangoTable 8.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of mango
94
Table 8.2 Ranking of total score of the extent of involvement in different PHAs of mango 95Table 8.3 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of mango 96Table 8.4 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of mango
99
Table 8.5 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of Mango
100
Table 8.6 Ranking of the issues of need for capacity strengthening of the respondents 101Table 8.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of mango
102
Table 8.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of mango 103Table 8.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables 104Table 8.10 Suggested solutions with ways to achieve them 109
BananaTable 9.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of banana 111Table 9.2 Ranking of total score of involvement of rural women in different PHAs of banana
111
Table 9.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of banana
112
Table 9.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of banana
113
Table 9.5 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondents 113Table 9.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of banana 116Table 9.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of banana
117
Table 9.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of banana 117Table 9.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables 118Table 9.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve them 123
PineappleTable 10.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of pineapple
125
Table 10.2 Ranking of total score of involvement of rural women in different PHAs of pineapple
126
Table 10.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of pineapple
127
Table 10.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of pineapple
127
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Table 10.5 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondents 128Table 10.6 Personal characteristics of pineapple farmers 129Table 10.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of pineapple
131
Table10.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of pineapple 131Table 10.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables 132Table 10.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve them 137
GuavaTable 11.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of guava 140Table 11.2 Ranking of total score of involvement of rural women in different PHAs of 140Table 11.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of guava
141
Table 11.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of guava
142
Table 11.5 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondents 142Table 11.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of guava 145Table 11.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training in PHAs of guava 146Table 11.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of guava 146Table 11.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables 147Table 11.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve them 150
OrangeTable 12.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of orange
154
Table 12.2 Ranking of total score of the extent of involvement in different PHAs of orange 154Table 12.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of orange
155
Table 12.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of orange
156
Table 12.5 Ranking of the issuse of need of the respondents 156Table 12.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of orange 159Table 12.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of orange
160
Table 12.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of orange 160Table 12.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables 161Table 12.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve them 166
List of Figures
Figure 3.1 Map showing the districts of study areas 22
Figure 4.1 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of rural women 39
Figure 4.2 SCDs showing the barrier of involvement of rural women in PHAs of brinjal 47
Figure 5.1 Extent of need for capacity strengthening regarding various dimensions 54
Figure 5.2 SCDs showing the barrier of involvement of rural women in PHAs of tomato 61
Figure 6.1 Pie graph showing dimension wise need for capacity strengthening 71
Figure 6.2 SCDs showing the reasons of low involvement in PHAs of spinach 77
Figure 7.1 Aspect-wise need status of the respondents for capacity building 84
Figure 7.2 SCDs showing the reasons of low involvement in PHAs of potato 91
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Figure 8.1 Status of women participation in different organizations 97
Figure 8.2 Pie graph showing dimension wise need for capacity strengthening 102
Figure 8.3 Scored Causal Diagrams showing the involvement barrier of women in PHAs of mango
108
Figure 9.1 Need for capacity strengthening regarding various dimensions 115
Figure 9.2 SCDs showing the involvement barrier of rural women in PHAs of banana 122
Figure10.1 Involvement index of the respondents 129
Figure 10.2 SCDs showing the involvement barrier of rural women in PHAs of pineapple 138
Figure 11.1 Need for capacity strengthening regarding various dimensions 144
Figure 11.3 SCDs showing the involvement barrier of rural women in PHAs of guava 151
Figure 12.1 Need for capacity strengthening regarding various dimensions 158
Figure 12.2 SCDs showing the involvement barrier of rural women in PHAs of orange 165
List of Photos
Photo 3.1: The process of making SCDs by the rural women 29
Photo 3.3: A sight of interview to collect information from rural women 31
Photo 3.3: A view of Focus Group Discussion with women 32
Photo 3.4: Showing the process of data collection for case study 33
Photo 4.1: Training and demonstration activities in photographs 199
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Abbreviations and Acronyms
BBS Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics
BSTI Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institute
DAS Days After Storage
DAE Department of Agricultural Extension
EU European Union
FGD Focus Group Discussion
FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
FS Food Security
GoB Government of Bangladesh
GO Government Organization
GDP Gross Domestic Product
HYV High Yielding Variety
IGAs Income Generating Activities
IFPRI International Food Policy Research Institute
II Involvement Index
MDG Millennium Development Goal
MoA Ministry of Agriculture
MAP Modified Atmosphere Packaging
NFP National Food Policy
NFPCSP National Food Policy Capacity Strengthening Programme
NICS Need Index for Capacity Strengthening
NGO Non Government Organization
NCDP Northwest Crop Diversification Project
PFM Participatory Farm Management Methods
PE Polyethylene
PHAs Post Harvest Activities
PHT Post Harvest Technologies
RH Relative Humidity
RSM Response Surface Methodology
SCDs Scored Causal Diagrams
SPSS Statistical Package for Social Sciences
SAAO Sub-Assistant Agriculture Officer
TMSS Thengamara Mohila Sabuj Sangha
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
USAID United States Agency for International Development
UAO Upazila Agriculture Officer
WFS World Food Summit
WHO World Health Organization
WRI World Resources Institute
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Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
1. Background
Bangladesh is one of the developing countries of the third world. It is the most densely-
populated non-industrialized country in the world. Its economy is vulnerable and
characterized by high population growth, low natural resource base and highly prone to
natural disasters like flood, cyclone, river erosion and drought etc. As a result, a large number
of people in Bangladesh cannot not afford subsistence level of income for meeting their basic
needs and live below the poverty line. Though the situation has been improving over the
years, there is a long way to go. Some progress has taken place in recent years with poverty
incidence having decreased by 10% points in the last decade (1990-2000). Bangladesh is one
of the world's most densely populated countries with 150 million people, 49 percent of whom
live below the national poverty line (The Hunger Project, 2009).
Food security (FS) exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to
sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an
active and healthy life.
Physical Access obtains at national or individual levels when a nation or individual has the
ability unimpaired by any physical barriers to get hold of food
Social Access obtains when an individual or household is able to access food by one or
another of political/communal/familial/other social-institutional mechanism
Economic Access obtains when an individual or household is able to access food by the
exercise of purchasing power in markets
Utilization/Nutrition refers to both processes and outcome whereby food consumed is
converted into health, nutrition and well-being (Rao, 2007).
Food security as a concept emerged at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) World Food Conference in 1974. It is centered around two sub-concepts; food
availability and food entitlement. The first, food availability refers to the supply of food
available at local, national or international levels. The second, food entitlement refers to the
capability of individuals and households to obtain food. It suggests that people do not usually
starve because of an insufficient supply of food but because they have insufficient resources,
including money (‘entitlements’) to acquire it (Sen, 1981). Thus, food security in a single
country, or in the world as a whole, reflects the ability of food-deficit countries, or food
deficit regions within countries, or food-deficit households within them, to meet target
consumption levels on a year-to-year basis.
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According to FAO, only seven countries in the Asia and the Pacific are on course to meet
hunger target. In as many as eight countries, the absolute number of those experiencing
hunger is actually increasing. Nearly two-thirds of undernourished in the world live in Asia.
Most of Asia’s population suffers from iron deficiency and a large proportion is also subject
to vitamin A and iodine deficiency. These gaps in regard to the Millennium Development
Goal on hunger entail that other MDGs will also be difficult to fulfill. A DFID report on
progress on prospects for the Millennium Development Goal on Hunger provides a
comparative understanding across Asian countries (Gill, 2003). The countries included in the
study are Bangladesh, India, Nepal, China, Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam. The MDG1
on hunger reduction requires that the proportion of people suffering from hunger be halved
between 1990 and 2015. The complexity of this goal arises from differences along many
dimensions: the poor/non-poor divide; the rural/urban axis, the quantity/quality of food
distinction etc.
Food insecurity refers to a lack of access to enough food. There are two kinds of food
insecurity: chronic and transitory. Transitory food insecurity is a temporary decline in a
household’s access to enough food. Transitory food insecurity can be further divided into
temporary food insecurity and cyclical or seasonal food insecurity. Temporary food
insecurity occurs when there are sudden and unpredictable shocks, such as wars, drought or
pest attack etc. Seasonal food insecurity occurs when there is regular pattern of inadequate
access to food. This is often linked to agricultural seasons. Chronic food insecurity is a
continuously inadequate diet caused by the inability to acquire food. It affects households that
persistently lack the ability either to buy enough food or to produce their own. Hence,
poverty is considered the root cause of chronic food insecurity. Transitory food insecurity
may lead to chronic food insecurity, depending on how severe it is and how frequently it
occurs. If a household suffers two drought years in a row, and is forced to sell some of its
assets to survive, then it may move from a situation of transitory food insecurity to one of
chronic food insecurity (Rahman and Schmitz, 2007).
2. Women’s Contributions to Agricultural Production and Food Security
2.1 As food producers
Women produce more than 50% of the food grown worldwide, according to FAO estimates
(FAO, 1995). Women’s contributions to farming, forestry, and fisheries may be
underestimated, as many surveys and censuses count only paid labour. Women are active in
both the cash and subsistence agricultural sectors and much of their work in producing food
for the household and community consumption, important as it is for food security, is not
counted in statistics.
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The roles that women play in agriculture vary from region to region and country to country.
Men and women often have complementary roles, sharing or dividing tasks in crop
production, livestock raising, fishing and the care and use of the forests. Women are
responsible for the more time-consuming and labour-intensive tasks of crop and livestock
production: sowing, application of fertilizer, weeding, harvesting, transporting, threshing,
winnowing, cleaning, sorting grading and bagging. These tasks are carried out manually or
with simple tools.
2.2 Women’s other contributions to food security
In addition to their crucial roles in food production, women contribute to food security in
other significant ways, such as
By preserving biological diversity Processing and preparing food Caring for the basic needs of the household
2.2.1 By preserving biological diversity
The preservation of biological diversity and plant genetic resources is now widely recognized
as essential to food security. Because women are responsible for supplying their families with
food and care, they often have special knowledge of the value and diverse uses of plants for
nutrition, health and income. Consequently, they are frequently the preservers of traditional
knowledge of indigenous plants. Women’s knowledge of biodiversity comes from their roles
as wild plant gatherers, home gardeners and plant domesticators, herbalists and seed
custodians. Women across the globe possess knowledge on wild and domesticated species of
edible and non-edible plants and animals, contributing to their abilities to propagate, collect,
process, preserve, cook and store food items.
2.2.2 Processing and preparing food
While women produce more than 50% of food worldwide, they also perform the
overwhelming majority of the work in food processing in developing countries. Food
processing contributes to food security through reducing food losses, contributing to diversity
of diet and supplying important vitamins and minerals. Women process and preserve the fruit
and vegetable produce from their home gardens and from the forests. Moreover, women are
almost universally responsible for preparing food for their households and thus for the
nutritional well-being of household members.
2.2.3 Caring for the basic needs of the household
Women perform virtually all the tasks required for household food security and for ensuring
good nutrition and healthy lives. These tasks include gathering fuel and fetching water,
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cleaning, cooking, housekeeping, child raising and caring for the sick and overall household
resource management. Both rural and urban women in waged labour dedicate a substantial
portion of their incomes to the purchase of food for their families. In Bangladesh, fully half
the country's population cannot afford an adequate diet (Working Group on Targeted Food
Intervention, 1993). Over 95% of women headed households, which account for about 8% of
rural households, fall below the poverty line. Of these, 30% are amongst the hard core poor
with cash incomes 40% below those of poor male-headed households. Women share only
23.1% in total earned income in the country (UNDP, 1997).
Recently, women in the poor households have been identified as the 'victims' as well as
'managers' of household food security. Women as producers of food and livestock as well as
primary meal makers have important responsibilities to ensure household food security. As
primary managers of livestock, women ensure a supply of high-quality protein to the country.
Women dominate home garden production thus improving the variety and quality of the
family diet. Women adopt diverse and intense household resource-use strategies to cope with
food deficit situations, such as during the lean season and natural disasters. Women intensify
their efforts in homestead production and seek non-farm production options (Anonymous,
2008).
3. Agriculture Status of Bangladesh in Respect of Food Security
Bangladesh has made substantial progress in enhancing food security by increasing
production of food grains, particularly rice, improving infrastructure, making food delivery to
the poor more efficient and liberalizing agricultural input and output markets (removal of
food rationing and abolishment of the monopoly in import and export of food grains).
The contribution of agricultural sectors to the GDP in 2003-04 was 22.83 % at 1995-96
constant prices, while they provided over 72% 0f the total employment. About 85% of the
population lives in rural areas and continues to depend largely, whether directly or indirectly,
on agriculture for its livelihood. Many rural areas lack education and health resources. They
also lack of modern food and grain storage facilities and adequate roads leading to larger
market areas. Only 19% of rural homes have electricity. Thus, concerted efforts to ensure a
sustainable and equitable development of agricultural and rural sectors, especially agro-based
industries and Micro Small and Medium sized Enterprises (MSMEs), will be key to food
security in the foreseeable future (NFP, 2006).
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Since pre-historic days, agriculture has been the main source of livelihood for the vast
majority of the people of the geographical area that now constitutes the sovereign
Bangladesh. Agriculture has continued to be the lifeline of the economy the country. Farmers
themselves are the biggest investors in agriculture. Through their investment and hard labour,
they have, in the past thirty plus years, more than doubled the production of food grains (rice
and wheat) to feed the nation.
The important causes for food insecurity in about “half of the households” in the country are:
(i) the rate of increase in annual food grain production is below the annual growth rate of
population; (ii) availability of other varieties of food such as fish, livestock and poultry,
vegetables etc. is much below the demand; (iii) Lack of purchasing power of poor households
to have access to required food; (iv) incapability of the ultra poor comprising the destitute
sick, old and infirm to participate in income generating opportunities; (v) inadequate food
safety net programs; (vi) irrationality in intra-house food allocation; (vii) dietary imbalance;
and (viii) storage, processing and cooking practices affecting food utilization.
4. Post Harvest Operations and Technology
Post harvest operations are assuming importance due to their higher yields and increased
cropping intensity. Due to introduction of modern technology, yield levels have substantially
increased resulting in a marketable surplus which has to be stored till prices are favorable for
sale. With increase in irrigation facilities and easy availability of fertilizers, intensive
cropping is being practiced. The important operations carried out after harvesting of the fruits
and vegetables are storage, transportation, marketing, grading and quality control, pest
control, packaging.
Harvesting assumes considerable importance because the crop has to be harvested as early as
possible to make way for another crop. Sometimes, harvesting time may also coincide with
heavy rainfall or severe cyclone and floods. In view of these situations suitable technology is,
therefore, necessary for reducing the harvesting time and safe storage at farm level. The
development of marketing and post harvest management has become an area of increasing
importance for supplying safe food and quality products for local and international markets.
Horticulture-based food varieties, namely fruit, vegetables and nuts, are important for the
daily diet as these contain micronutrients, fiber, vegetable proteins and bio-functional
components. Consumption of fruits and vegetables is vital for a diversified and nutritious
diet. Increasing dietary diversification is the most important factor in providing a wide range
6
of micronutrients and this requires an adequate supply, access to and consumption of a
variety of foods. However, food surveys show continuing low consumption of fruits and
vegetables in many regions of the developing world.
Horticultural interventions combined with extensive nutrition education offer a long-term,
food-based strategy to control and eliminate micronutrient malnutrition. Horticultural
production, relatively easy for unskilled people, can play an important role in poverty
alleviation programmes and food security initiatives, providing work and income
opportunities. (Bhattacharjee et al., 2007)
Most of the horticultural products are grown seasonally. Some items are produced throughout
the year but the volume is large in some months and even some are produced only during a
very short period of time. This uneven supply of horticultural products also represents a
problem for smooth marketing.
Post harvest technology is inter-disciplinary “Science and Technology” applied to
agricultural produce after harvest for its protection, conservation, processing, packaging,
distribution, marketing and utilization to meet the food and nutritional requirements of the
people in relation to their needs. It has to be developed in consonance with the needs of each
society to stimulate agricultural production; prevent post-harvest losses, improve nutrition
and add value to the products.
Importance of post-harvest technology lies in the fact that it has capability to meet food
requirement of growing population by eliminating avoidable losses making more nutritious
food items from low grade raw commodities by proper processing and fortification, diverting
portion of food material being fed to cattle by way of processing and fortifying, low grade
food and organic wastes and by-products into nutritive animal feed. Post-harvest technology
has potential to create rural industries.
5. Post Harvest Losses
Proper methods of processing, storage, packaging, transport and marketing are required for
export of crops such as jute, tea, cashew nuts, tobacco, mango, litchi, nut, spices and
condiments. One of the attributes to this post harvest system, as it is now constituted, is the
large amount of wastage it involves. In case of food grains, some estimates suggest that in
developing countries as much as 1/4 to 1/3 of total crop may be lost as a result of
inefficiencies in the post harvest system. Whereas in Bangladesh losses of food crops refer to
7
many different kinds of loss produced by a variety of factors. These include weight loss, loss
of food values, loss of economic value, loss of quality or acceptability and actual loss of
seeds themselves. The post-harvest losses for crops are huge ranging from 13.5% for grain to
40% for fruits and vegetables. The losses occur during the operation of handling,
transportation, milling, drying, parboiling, harvesting, field stacking, threshing, and storage,
about 75% of the tuber crops are stored at home and remaining 25% are stored in the cold
storage (Mazed, 2004a).
The absence of scientific drying and meager public storage for cereals is a key source of post
harvest loss. Rudimentary processing in respect of fruits and vegetable is another factor.
Though 53 industrial processing units for fruits and vegetables have been established, they
operate below installed capacities. Cottage, small, medium and large-scale industries are
engaged in the processing of products marketed in local village, national and export markets.
Vegetable production is one of the most important income generating activities (IGAs) in
alleviating poverty. Agriculture sector of the country is incurring huge post harvest loss
amounting to Taka 30,000 crore annually due to unplanned and haphazard collection and
preservation of at least 15 food grains. On an average 17 percent of total production of the
food grains suffers loss and due to this, the country had to count an aggregate loss of Taka 2,
50,000 crore during the last decade.
According to the research findings, among the crop losses, fruit is dominating the top list as
25 percent of fruits become rotten after harvest while nine percent rice incurs post harvest
loss in the country. Among the total production, seven percent of wheat, 12.05 percent
oilseeds, 25 percent each of vegetables and potato, 22.05 percent fish, 10 percent meat, 25
percent prices, 12.05 percent pulses and 10.05 percent of chili accumulate post harvest loss
due to poor handling of these produces. The report however, said the country would be able
to meet required food supply of its total population up to four months in a year if it can
prevent the post harvest loss of the crops. It will also help increase income of farmers up to
19 percent. In his recommendation, Dr. Roy suggested the authorities concerned to impart
training to the farmers about how to preserve these crops properly reducing the post harvest
loss. Besides, he also recommended for providing modern agricultural equipment to the
farmers and expansion of agri-education, setting up markets for agri-produces and agro-based
industries across the country to reduce the post harvest loss (Anonymous, 2008).
8
High perishability of vegetables, lack of storage facilities, mechanical injury due to improper
handling, packaging, transportation and microbial infection are major causes of post harvest
losses in vegetables. The post harvest losses include significant quantitative, qualitative and
economic losses. If these losses could be minimized, the growers as well as the intermediaries
of the marketing channel could get a better economic return.
6. Processing of Fruits and Vegetables
(a) Status of commercial processing of fruits
The existing fruits and vegetables processing industries in the country mainly produce jam,
jelly and squash, ready to serve fruit drinks, ketchup and pickles. Present situations of the
industries are as follows:
They produce food items mainly from mango, pineapple, orange and some other exotic fruit
commodities. In some cases the products are prepared using only flavors and emulsions
instead of original fruits. From the under-utilized groups, olive is processed into oil pickles
and chutneys, bar and tamarind is processed into chutneys.
A small number of fruits and vegetables processing industries use very few indigenous fruit
commodities for processing into jam, jelly, fruit drinks and pickles. Vegetables, except
potatoes, are not at all processed in the existing industries, although there is good prospect for
processing these commodities. A small number of seasonal fruits is not sufficient for efficient
running of the industry. As a result, considerable amount of time of the year is spent idly in
these factories.
Most of the industries are located only in and around big cities especially in the capital city
where fruit and vegetable reach through different channels of marketing. The freshness of the
commodities deteriorates and post harvest loss occurs to a great extent due to excessive
handling and transportation in the marketing process. Also the producers of fruit and
vegetables are not in direct contact with the processing industries and hence, they do not get
the profitable price for their produce.
The quality of processed products produced by majority of fruit processing industries is not
improved in comparison to the foreign products. As a result, foreign products predominate in
the local market.
(b) Processing technologies of fruits and vegetables
Presently the processed products of fruits, vegetables include jam, jelly, fruit cheese, fruit
leather, chutney preserves and candies, fruit drink and pickle. The fruits are mainly jackfruit,
9
pineapple, papaya, golden apple, muskmelon, watermelon and guava. Pineapple juice is
prepared with the help of low cost solar dryer. The technology has been transferred to home
and industry level. Proper dehydration of cabbage retaining more vitamin C has been
developed. The dehydration technology of cauliflower has been standardized both in
mechanical and solar dryer method. The procedure for preparation of formulated products
from cabbage has been standardized. The technology is very efficient, inexpensive and
simple and hence there is ample scope for wide adoption by the growers and housewives.
7. Agricultural Development Policies and Research
Development policy-markers and planners are becoming increasing aware of the crucial
contributions of women farmers of agricultural production and food security. Nevertheless,
agricultural policies on the whole still do not address the needs of women farmers adequately.
Where the roles and needs of women farmers are recognized in policy, this tends not to be
adequately translated into practices in agricultural development programmes and planning.
Agricultural research, too, gives inadequate attention to women farmers and their needs. As
has been pointed out, for instance women and men farmers are often responsible for different
agricultural tasks and crops. Research is generally focused on the improvement of production
and technologies for men’s crop tasks, while those of women are neglected.
The lack of collection and dissemination of gender-disaggregated data is one of the
underlying causes of the neglect of women’s contributions of agricultural production and
food security in agricultural development policies and research. Another root cause of this
neglect is the lack of women’s participation in policy-making and decision-marking bodies at
national and international levels
The World Food Summit (WFS) 1996 has set the target of halving, no later than 2015, the
number of undernourished people. To achieve that goal the needed total gross investment in
agriculture of the developing countries, including primary agriculture as well as storage,
processing and support infrastructure, has been estimated by FAO at $180.4 billion annually
for the period up to 2015.
8. Objectives of the Study
a) To investigate the extent of women involvement at the field level in post harvest activities of vegetables and fruits
b) To find out the need of capacity strengthening for women in carrying out post harvest activities of vegetables and fruits
10
c) To determine the training needs and to offer training to strengthen capacity of women in conducting post harvest activities of women
d) To explore the relationships between selected socio-economic characteristics of the women with their need for capacity strengthening towards post harvest facilities of vegetables and fruits
e) To find out the problems faced by the women related to their involvement in post harvest facilities for vegetables and fruits
9. Justification of the Study
Appropriate production practices, careful harvesting, and proper packaging, storage and
transport all contribute to produce of good quality. High quality, disease-free produce with a
good shelf-life is a result of sound production practices, proper handling during harvest and
appropriate post harvest handling and storage. Use of appropriate post harvest technology
reduces the post harvest and storage losses, adds value to the product, generate employment
in village and reestablishes agro-industries in rural sector (Bachmann and Earles, 2000).
Presently, the farmers sell their products without processing. If they do primary processing
and value addition in the villages, it will generate more income and employment in rural
sector. Expensive machinery is not always required. More efficient and better utilization of
the existing facilities is often sufficient. The problem of post harvest losses of vegetables is
critical. Inadequate knowledge about post harvest handling and storing of vegetables is also
responsible for this loss. The processing of food, feed, fiber, oilseeds and sugarcane will
generate enough employment in rural areas. If an agro-processing center is established in
each big village or a cluster of small villages for primary processing, it will generate
employment to about 4-5 persons and will increase income of the farmer/processor by about
15-20%. Use of proper post harvest technology of perishables and semi-perishables will
reduce the wastage to a great extent.
Fruits and vegetables are highly perishable in nature which cannot be retained without
technological arrangement for storing and processing to achieve better market price and
nutrition at household level. Aside from this, due to farmers’ cash need and seasonal glut they
are compelled to sell their produce at low price during harvest. On the other side, during the
lean period they have nothing to sell when price is very high. So, they are deprived of getting
the share of high price paid by the consumers. Moreover, it is very regrettable that post
harvest losses of fruits and vegetables are about 30% due to the lack of proper post harvest
management and marketing system. In effect, it means that 30% of land, input and labor used
to produce fruits and vegetables go to misuse (Anonymous, 2005).
11
On the other hand, the participation of women in post harvest activities of fruits and
vegetables is dominated by their male counterparts. A study shows that women’s
participation in vegetable production is 70% (Hossain, 1995). Under the circumstances it
becomes an urgent need to reduce post harvest losses and to extend marketing and
technological support to strengthen the capacity of rural women in carrying out post harvest
activities of vegetables and fruits.
Women’s involvement is much more significant than is widely known or acknowledged. In
fact, the role of women in contributing to food security is often not appreciated. However, for
greater achievement in food security support should be provided to rural women who are
closely associated to food production systems. The National Food Policy (2006) of
Bangladesh relates that the Government is firmly committed to remove the problems of
women to bring them in mainstream production systems. It aims to:
o improve women’s participation in all kinds of activities in agricultural sector and provide opportunity and tools for rural women to improve productivity in production, processing and marketing activities
o ensure women-focused targeted training and their control over and access to production resources
o initiate women responsive projects with a view to increasing their participation in economic activities
o initiate appropriate supportive measures to increase the capacity of women to strengthen food security at household levels, and
o invest in development of packaging and safe storage facilities.
Keeping the above policy issues in view, the study plans to investigate the needs of rural
women in carrying out post harvest operations and strengthen their capacity in conducting
these operations towards food security.
The fruits of increased production of fruits and vegetable and other agricultural produce will
be realized only when they reach the consumer in good condition and at a reasonable price.
The existing post harvest loss of fruits and vegetables could be considerably reduced by
adopting improved packaging, handling and efficient system of transport. Packaging of fruits
and vegetables is undertaken primarily to assemble the produce in convenient units for
marketing and distribution.
12
10. Scope of the Study
Bangladesh has an extremely favorable environment and climate for growing various kinds of
fruits, like mango, banana, guava, jackfruit, pineapple, coconut, orange, litchi, papaya, water
melon, tamarind and many other vegetables like potato, tomato, cabbage, cauliflower, carrot,
bean, brinjal, lady’s finger/ okra, bitter gourd and so many others which are also considered
as high value crops comparison to other field crops. All these have also very good demand in
export markets. The flow of the farm products has been liberalized after globalization and
market economy which has created new potential for us to enter into export market with
fruits and vegetables both in fresh and processed form. But this new opportunity of exporting
horticultural products require improved marketing system and post harvest management.
Hence, the development of marketing and post harvest management has become an area of
increasing importance for supplying safe food and quality products for local and international
markets. In short, increased production of horticultural products will increase chief supply of
protein, minerals, vitamins and other essential nutrients to address malnutrition problem of
the common people of the country. These are also important crops for increasing farm
income particularly for the small and marginal farmer.
Adoption of post-harvest technologies and value additive measures are very strong tools for
rural and social development through employment and income generation. Development and
sustain food security even at the household level. Fruits and vegetables processing industries
have a good deal of potential in serving the rural economy. First, it helps in generating more
employment for rural people. It will also check mobility of rural masses towards urban areas
in search of employment. Employment opportunities offered by agro-processing industries
are plenty to the farm population and entrepreneur seeking self-employment. Cottage scale
units particularly offer self-employment opportunities. Traditionally women handle food and
are familiar with skills of food processing. In order to improve the status of living of woman
and rural food processing, low cost appropriate fruit and vegetable processing technologies
offer excellent opportunities for production of processed food. The improvement of status of
socially backward and landless labor classes will be possible only through providing non-
farm employment at their doorsteps. This will generate a sense of security and confidence
amongst rural people for overcoming uncertainty in agricultural income and providing self-
employment to the landless labor. The locally available untapped resources should be used
effectively.
13
11. Definitions of Important Terms
Capacity strengthening: Capacity Strengthening of the women in carrying out post harvest
activities of vegetables and fruits is defined as the extent to which they have the accessibility
to financial, physical, managerial support services as well as the ability to make decision to
conduct the post harvest activities of vegetables and fruits.
Homestead garden: It is the place where different types of vegetables and fruits are grown,
and poultry and fish in small pond are raised to meet the requirements of the family all the
year round.
Homestead: A homestead is a land owned or occupied by a dwelling unit of the household
along with adjoining area, including garden, courtyard, pond and threshing floor. Normally
the area of homestead in Bangladesh remains within 2000 sq m (Bhattacharjee et al., 2007).
Knowledge on fruits and vegetable harvest: It is the extent of basic understanding of the
respondent on different aspects of fruits and vegetable harvesting (i.e. from collection to
marketing the produced).
Management skill: It expresses the knowledge on post harvest activities, operational ability,
market facility exploitation and financial management.
Need assessment: It is defined as the measurement of prerequisites required by the rural
women towards post harvest activities of vegetables and fruits.
Organizational participation: It expresses the nature and duration of participation in
different organizations.
Participation: Participation is referred to the taking part by an individual in different
activities both physically and mentally. In this study participation referred to the extent of
involvement in performing the household and farming activities specially post harvest
activities of vegetables and fruits.
Physical facilities: Processing materials or equipments, processing ground, transporting
vehicles, store house and sales centers are collectively termed as physical facilities.
Post harvest activities of vegetables and fruits: These include the access to and availability
of processing equipments and ground, cold storage, marketing channel, credit, transport,
labor market etc.
14
Rural women: It refers to those women lived in village and engaged in different post harvest
activities of vegetables and fruits to improve their life style.
15
Chapter 2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
1. The Gender Dimensions of Food Security
Gender relates to the socially assigned position and behavior of men and women. It affects
the allocation of resources and work, decision-making and power, and the enjoyment of
rights and entitlements within the family as well as in public life. Men and women have
different roles and responsibilities in their individual lives, in their families and households,
and in their communities. Both men and women are income earners and agricultural
producers. Within the family, the women’s responsibilities often involve care and provision
for their families and intra-household food distribution.
Women also play a vital role in the processing and preparation of food, and frequently use
their own earned income in support of their children. Women seeking to make these
significant family contributions frequently have only limited access to the necessary
resources, or to the related decision-making processes of family resource allocation and use.
Individual and household food security is affected by individual actions and choices men and
women make in producing food, earning income or acquiring assets, and feeding and caring
for family members. Thus, it is critical to ensure equitable access to- and control over- the
resources needed to meet their respective roles and responsibilities. Indeed, overcoming
gender-based inequities in resource access and decision making could very much enhance
women’s contributions to food security and ultimately result in significant nutritional benefits
to the family.
2. Food Safety and Food Quality for Food Security
A recent wide-ranging survey of farming practices in respect of 820 Boro (winter rice),
potato, bean, egg plant, cabbage, sugarcane and mango in Bangladesh, over 47% of farmers
were found to be overusing pesticides (Dasgupta et al., 2005). Given that a mere 4% of
farmers have received any formal training in pesticide use or handling whilst over 87% freely
admitted using little or no protective measures while applying pesticides, such as overuse
represents a real threat to the health of both farmers and the environment.
Analyzing the pesticide overuse using a 3-equation tri-variate probit model the findings were
as follows: health effects (the 1st equation) were shown to be a function of the amount of
pesticides used in production while risk misperception (the 2nd equation) varied according to
the health impairments from pesticides and the toxicity of chemicals used. The significant
16
determinants of pesticide overused, crop composition and geographical location. The policy
implication of the results is the need to design an effective outreach program for raising risk
awareness and promoting best practices in the safe handling of pesticides. The results also
indicate the specific crops and geographical locations most in need of such outreach in view
of relatively higher prevalence of overuse- bean and eggplant in general, and all crops
produced in the districts of Chapainawabganj, Chittagong, Comilla, Jessore, Narshingdhi,
Rajshahi and Rangpur.
Arsenic contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh threatens the health of nearly 30
million people (Kowk et al., 2006). Based on a wide-ranging review of studies in Asian
countries not confined to Bangladesh, FAO has concluded that arsenic exposure is not
through drinking water alone but also via the irrigation of crops with contaminated
groundwater. Soil and water concentrations of arsenic are highly correlated with high arsenic
content in crops, particularly irrigation rice and vegetables.
As food trade is becoming more globalized, food safety issues are increasingly producing
cross-border skirmishes between countries and regions. These constitute a growing threat
especially to developing country food and agricultural exports. High value exports including
fresh and processed vegetables, fish, meat, nuts, and spices that now collectively account for
more than half the total value of agri-food exports from the countries. There is concern that
food safety and health standards may be enforced and even enacted in the first place as trade
protection measures. There is also fear that such measures are or will be applied in
discriminatory ways. On the one hand, many developing countries lack the requisites
capacities (administrative, technical, financial) for compliance with the new or more stringent
requirements while on the other, when compliance is achieved, the costs incurred may well
nullify the comparative advantage of these countries in the food trade. These obstacles may
end up further marginalizing the low-income countries, farms and farmers.
Lands, water, labour, seeds and fertilizer are most important components for agriculture and
except fertilizer and high yield seeds, all other elements are available in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is currently deploying all efforts to secure an adequate availability of food grains
in domestic markets and to protect low income and vulnerable people’s access to food
through widening the scope of public food distribution operations and other social safety nets.
Our continuous efforts are necessary, if we are to achieve the objective of halving hunger by
2015 (Spijkers, 2008).
17
3. Role of Women in Post Harvest Activities
Begum (2002) reported that the division of labor by sex in Bangladesh indicates that women
perform all (100%) of domestic work, 80% of processing and storing crops, 60% of weeding,
80% of harvesting, 80% caring for livestock and 55% of planting works in agriculture sector
of the country.
Naher (2000) found that most of the rural women participated in each of the four selected
homestead activities such as 62% in post harvest activities, 54% in poultry rearing, 47% in
goat rearing and 40% in case of homestead vegetable cultivation. Their extent of participation
was also high.
4. Post Harvest and Storage Technologies of Vegetables and Fruits
Rai et al. (2002) studied on Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) and its effect on quality
and shelf life of fruits and vegetables. MAP is intended to create an appropriate to enhance
shelf-life and to conserve the quality of the packaged produce. This review is intended to
cover the important facets of MAP so that its application to a wide range of fruits and
vegetables may help in ensuring maximum returns to the producer and a long lasting quality
product for the consumer.
Kamran and Syed (2002) studied to determine the effect of modified atmosphere packaging
technology on post harvest preservation of carrots. It was observed that peeling treatment,
film type and days of storage had significant effect on CO2 and O2 percentages within bags of
carrots stored at 70C. The bags with peeled carrots contained significantly lesser CO2 (9.4%)
and more O2 (16.1%) than non-peeled carrots (17.6% CO2 and 14.3% O2) during the 28-day
storage period.
Krumbein and Peters (2003) experimented on changes of aroma volatiles in tomato in post-
harvest. To ensure good flavor, it is recommended that harvesting take place at the red
ripening stage. During a 10-day post-harvest period under retail and home conditions, 12
aroma volatiles and the titratable acid were found to have changed significantly in the cherry
tomato Mickey when harvested at the red ripening stage. The changes detected in the flavor
substances during the post harvest period are expected to produce differences in the sensory
qualities of the tomato.
Swagatam et al. (2004) studied on prepackaging, storage losses and physiological changes of
fresh bitter gourd as influenced by post harvest treatments. Bitter gourds (Momordica
charantia) were collected immediately after harvest, transferred to the laboratory and
subjected to different pre-packaging post harvest handling treatments, consisting of (1)
18
control; (2) perforated polyethylene bag, (3) unperforated polyethylene bag, (4) wet gunny
bag, (5) polyester bag and (6) splashing of water. The physical appearance of bitter gourd
(colour and degree of shrinkage) at 6 days after storage (DAS) was better in perforated
polyethylene and wet gunny bags.
Nyalala and Wainwright (1998) studied that the shelf-life of two tomato cultivars (Money
Maker and Cal-J) at 4.50C, room temperature (18-250C) and 300C. They found that, weight
loss was significantly higher at increased temperatures, and there was an interaction between
cultivar and temperature at room temperatures and 300C. They also found that, loss of fruit
firmness was greatest at the 2 higher temperatures, but there was no significant difference
between the cultivars.
Sarkar et al. (1997) conducted an experiment to determine the suitable color of polythene
film used to extent the shelf-life of banana cv. Giant governor. Bananas were packed (2
kg/pack) using polythene film with or without perforations, and packed in film of different
colours (yellow, light yellow, red and pink). It was observed that physiological weight loss
was least for fruits packed in non-perforated polythene packs, fruits remaining marketable
condition up to 28 days after harvest.
Effective post-harvest treatments play a key role in increasing productivity and combating
food shortages. A great deal of harvested produce is still lost due to decay. The role of post-
harvest protection in the food chain is often underestimated. Innovative and safe solutions are
vital to protect healthy fruits and vegetables in view of the ever-increasing demand for these
important food commodities all year round. Modern crop protection solutions based on
innovative active ingredients from Bayer crop science’s portfolio make an important
contribution to food quality and thus toward ensuring healthy, nutrition and safeguarding the
food supply (Bayer, 2009).
Providing environmentally sound, economically viable systems, treatments, ensure product
quality and food safety and increase product value. The three broad objectives to be
addressed include (1) Develop new or improved post harvest treatments, including
alternatives to methyl bromide fumigation, for fruit, vegetable and ornamental crop imports
and exports to ensure security against quarantine pests; (2) Develop new or improved post
harvest treatments for fruits, vegetable, nut and ornamental crops to improve product quality
and shelf life, reduce or eliminate post harvest disorders or decay and enhance product value
and (3) Identify, develop or improve pre harvest methods for fruit, vegetable, nut and
ornamental crops that enhance post harvest quality and reduce the incidence of quarantine
pests that limit exports.
19
5. Training Needs of Women
Due to the growing responsibilities of women for household well-being they are considered
as effective vehicles for ensuring household food security. Women also play a central role in
determining intra-household food security and nutrition for individual family members. It is
necessary to initiate women-focused development programmes including involvement at a
larger scale of women in ever increasing economic activities through better access to provide
resources, inputs and services. Women have less access to extension services and vocational
training, credits and technologies (Anonymous, 2006).
Supekar (2002) mentioned that to enable women to undertake the agricultural or other
income-generating programs, it is very essential that specific need based training courses are
to be prepared and conducted. These training programs shall include interalia cropping
management patterns, agro-processing and preservation, marketing, packaging, advertisement
for entrepreneurship development, seed collection and selection, nursery activities, forestry,
appropriate low-cost technology, organic farming etc. In short, in addition to adult literacy
among women the “Agriculture Literacy” program has to be undertaken as a special
campaign.
Verma et al. (1992) stated that in India, women have a crucial role to play in post harvest
technology particularly in areas related to winnowing and storage of grains. However, little
attention has been paid to food losses. It is suggested that proper handling and management
needs to be taught systematically to rural women. A study of needs of training in PHT (Post
Harvest Technologies) for farm women was launched which covered the involvement of
women in operations, the effectiveness of the messages on PHT transmitted in terms of
knowledge gain and associated factors influencing knowledge acquisition and attitudinal
change. This study was undertaken to examine women’s role in PHT and the results inferred
that the message of PHT can be transmitted effectively without any consideration for age,
caste, education or family type, implying that need based training can overcome the barriers
of personal factors or limitations. PHT is, therefore, relevant to farm women irrespective of
their personal profile variables.
6. Nutritional Values of Fruits and Vegetables
Today, dietitians agree that plant foods should comprise the major part of the healthy human
diet. Fruits and vegetables are the keys to obtaining not just vitamins and minerals, but a wide
variety of other elements that can contribute therapeutically to human health. With the
20
increasing emphasis on good nutrition and healthy eating, this handy guide is crucial to
ensuring optimal nutrition from a plant-based diet.
Banana is a very popular fruit due to its low price and high nutritive value. It is a rich source
of carbohydrate and also rich in vitamins, particularly vitamin B. It is also a good source of
minerals like potassium, phosphorus, calcium and magnesium. The fruit is easy to digest free
from fat and cholesterol. Banana powder is used as baby food. (Doan, 2007). Household food
consumption studies show that cereals make up the largest share (62 percent) of the diet,
followed by non-leafy vegetables, roots tubers, which together comprise more than four-fifths
of the rural people’s total diet. Protein and micronutrient-rich foods like fish, meat, eggs,
milk, milk products, fats and oils account for less than 10 percent of the rural person’s diet,
and the consumption of vegetables and fruits is declining steadily (Bhattacharjee et al., 2007).
Rural consumption of leafy and non-leafy vegetables has remained more or less the same
over the past two decades after increasing over the preceding 30 years. Fruit consumption has
declined in rural areas after more than doubling in the 1970s. With an average national per
capita consumption of 23g of leafy vegetables, 89g of non-leafy vegetables and 14g of fruit,
the average Bangladeshi eats a total of 126g fruit and vegetables daily. This is far below the
minimum daily consumption of 400g of vegetables and fruit recommended by FAO and the
World Health Organization.
Low birth weight is more common among adolescent mothers. Marriage at very young age
has serious consequences for pregnancy, future survival, health, growth and development.
When combined with positive energy balance (adequate energy intake) in later life, LBW
increases the risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and coronary heart disease.
Between 1990 and 2004, underweight levels among children fell from 67 to 48 percent and
child stunting fell from 66 to 43 percent, but the levels are still unacceptably high.
21
Chapter 3
METHODOLOGY
The methods and procedures followed in this study have been described in this Chapter.
1. Locales of the Study
Fieldworks of the investigation were carried out in different nine locations of nine Upazilas
of Bangladesh. The basis of selecting study areas were the production prevalence/abundance
of the respective vegetable and fruit. Thus, the locations of fieldwork were considered in the
following Table 3.1 and corresponding districts are shown in Figure 3.1.
Table 3.1 Locales of fieldwork
Items Names (vegt/fruit) District Upazila Village/Block
Veg
etab
les Brinjal Mymensingh Fulbaria Shreepur,
Koiarchala and Taltala
Tomato Rajshahi Godagari Lalbag and Achua Taltala
Spinach Jessore Monirampur Nadra
Potato Joypurhat Khetlal Kusum Shahor
Fru
its
Mango Nawabganj Shibganj Pithali Tala, Kansat Bazar and House Nagar
Banana Bogra Shibganj Chandihara
Pineapple Tangail Madhupur Pirgacha, Dokhola and Chunia,
Guava Pirojpur Nesarabad Kuriana
Orange Moulavibazar Juri Shuknachara, Hayachara and Kachurgul
2. Sample and Sampling Procedure
Considering the limited scope, resource and time of the study, one study area had been
selected for each of the vegetables and fruits. Fifty women, engaged in post harvest activities
(PHAs) of respective vegetable or fruit, were selected randomly for data collection through
personal interview. Eight women were also been selected for conducting focus group
discussion (FGD) and preparing scored causal diagrams (SCDs). One women also been
selected randomly for case study. The total process of sample selection and data collection
had been conducted with the guidance and cooperation of Upazila Agricultural Office and
help of Sub-Assistant Agricultural Officer (SAAO) at field level. A total sample size stood to
450 for all the nine sites for nine vegetables and fruits to collect data through interview.
22
Figure 3.1: Map showing the districts of study areas.
= District of study areas
23
3. Variables and Measurement Techniques
Twelve personal characteristics of the women were considered as independent variables
(Garrett and Woodworth, 1981) which included age, education, dependency ratio of the
family, farm size, annual family income, organizational participation, decision making
capacity in the family, training exposure, credit received, ability to cope with uncertainty,
daily time allocation for PHAs and awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits. ‘Need for
capacity strengthening of women in carrying out post harvest activities of selected vegetables
and fruits’ was considered as the dependent variable of the study. The following two sections
contain procedures of measurement for dependent and independent variables.
3.1 Measurement of independent variables
The procedures followed in measuring the independent variables have been discussed in this
section.
Age: Age of a respondent was measured in terms of years from birth to the time of interview
which was found on the basis of response (Azad, 2003). A unit score was assigned for each
year of one’s age. This variable appears in item no. 1 in the interview schedule (Appendix-A).
Education: Education was measured in terms of one’s year of schooling. One score was
given for passing each level in an educational institution (Amin, 2004). For example, if a
respondent passed the SSC examination, educational score was given as 10. If a respondent
did not know how to read and write, her educational score was given as ‘0’ (Item no. 2 in
Appendix-A).
Dependency ratio of the family: Dependency ratio of the family is the proportion of
dependent family members to the total earning members (item no. 3 in Appendix-A). The
family members included family head and other dependent members like husband/wife,
children, etc. who lived and ate together. Dependent family members were those who were
unemployed in the family. It was determined by subtracting the number of earning members
from total number of family members (Ahmed, 2007). Finally, dependency ratio was
computed with the following formula:
membersearningofnumberTotal
membersearningofnumberTotalmembersfamilyofnumberTotalratioDependency
24
Farm size: Farm size of a respondent referred to the total area of land on which her family
carried out farming operation, the area being in terms of full benefit to the family. It was
measured in hectares for each respondent using the following formula (Hasan, 2006):
FS = A + B + 1/2C + D
Where,
FS= Family farm and homestead sizeA= Homestead areaB= Own crop landC= Crop land given to or taken from others on mortgage, lease, share- cropping etc.D= Garden, pond and others
This variable has been presented in the item no. 4 in Appendix-A.
Annual family income: Income referred to the total financial return of a household from
farm (crops, livestock, poultry and fish) and non-farm sources (service, business, selling
labor, bank interests, remittance, financial help from relatives, etc.). It was expressed in
thousand (‘000’) taka (Waheduzzaman, 2004). This variable appears in the item no. 5 in
interview schedule (Appendix-A).
Organizational participation: Organizational participation of a respondent was measured
on the basis of the nature of her involvement and duration of participation in different
organizations. Organization participation was operationalized by using the following formula
(Afique, 2006).
Organizational participation score = (A D)
Where, A= Activities score, D= Duration score
Activities score were assigned in the following manner
Nature of participation Scores assignedNo participation 0Ordinary member 1Executive committee member 2Executive committee officer/ President / Secretary/ Treasurer 3
Duration scores were assigned in the following manner
Duration of participation Scores assignedNo participation 0Participation up to 3 years 1Participated from 4-6 years 2Participated above 6 years 3
25
Organizational participation score of a respondent was obtained by summing scores of the
organizations according to the above mentioned formula for her activities in the respective
organization. The variable appears in the question no. 6 of the interview schedule of
Appendix-A.
Decision making capacity in the family: Decision making capacity in the family was
measured on the basis of the respondent’s ability to make decision in the family regarding 10
selected family activities. A score was given against each of the activities by asking question
on the same, such as, ‘0’ for not at all, ‘1’ for joint decision, mainly by other family
members, ‘2’ for joint decision, equally by self and others ‘3’ for joint decision, mainly by
self, and ‘4’ for full decision by self. Finally sum of the scores was given to each respondent.
In this variable the total scores might range between 0 to 40, where ‘0’ indicated no capacity
to make decision and ‘40’ indicated full capacity to make decision in the family. This
variable appears in the item no. 7 in interview schedule (Appendix-A).
Training exposure: Training exposure was computed by total number of days a respondent
attended in different training programs in her life from different organizations (Akter, 2003).
This variable appears in the question no. 8 of the interview schedule (Appendix-A).
Credit received: Credit received of a respondent woman was measured in terms of the
amount of money received by her as loan from different sources. It was expressed in
thousand Taka (Afique, 2006). This variable appears in question no. 9 of the interview
schedule as presented in Appendix-A.
Ability to cope with uncertainty: Ability to cope with uncertainty referred to the
psychological strength of a woman to withstand unprecedented hardship or crisis that could
arise in her life. It was measured on 4-point rating scale. Score was assigned as ‘0’ for not at
all, ‘1’ for weak, ‘2’ for moderate and ‘3’ for strong ability to cope with uncertainty. Thus a
total score might vary from 0 to 24 in this scale (item no. 10 of Appendix-A), where ‘0’
indicated no ability and ‘24’ indicated strong ability to cope with uncertainty.
Daily time allocation for PHAs: The daily time allocation for PHAs was meant for the
approximate daily time utilization in different PHAs of vegetables and fruits. It was measured
on the basis of total hours spent per day for any selected activity of any fruit or vegetable.
This variable appears in question no. 11 of the interview schedule as presented in Appendix-
A.
26
Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits: The awareness referred to the rural
women’s knowing of first hand information on nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits.
The awareness was measured against 15 various statements related to nutrition of vegetables
and fruits. For each statement ‘yes’ or ‘no’ agreement was sought from the respondents.
Thus, the total score could range from 0 to 15 (item no. 12, Appendix-A)
3.2 Measurement of dependent variable
Need for capacity strengthening of women in carrying out post harvest activities (PHAs) of
selected vegetable or fruit was the dependent variable of the present study. To measure the
extent of need for capacity strengthening of women five dimensions of capacity strengthening
were included. They were: a) need for financial ability (capital, credit, labor purchase and
processing equipment purchase), b) need for decision making ability (collection, grading,
packaging, processing, storing, selling of fruits), c) need for access to support services
(preservation facilities or cold storage, labor market, marketing channel/facilities, access to
credit, transport, development workers for advice), d) need for management skill (handling of
post harvest equipments, operational ability, market facility exploitation, preservation of
seeds, processing of fruits and vegetables, financial management), e) need for physical
facilities (processing materials, processing ground, transports/vehicles, store house, sales
centers). The dimensions were measured on a four-point rating scale (item no. 13, Appendix-
A). Scores were assigned as 0, 1, 2 and 3 for ‘no’, ‘low’, ‘medium’ and ‘high’ respectively.
The scores of all items of each dimension were added to obtain the total score of a single
dimension. Finally, scores of all the five dimensions formed the total score of the extent of
need for capacity strengthening of women for a respondent. Then total score was converted to
percent using following formula.
The Need Index for capacity strengthening (NICS) can mathematically be expressed as
follows:
Where, NICS = Need Index for capacity strengthening
Na = Actual need
Np = Possible need
Thus, total score of a subject for this variable could range from 0 to 100, where ‘0’ indicated
‘no need’ and ‘100’ indicated ‘high need’ of women for capacity strengthening.
100N
NNICS
p
a
27
4. Measurement of Involvement of Women in PHAs
To measure the extent of involvement in post harvest activities, three dimensions of
participation namely (i) frequency of performance, (ii) part of work done, and (iii) control
over decision (Hasan, 2006) were used as shown in the interview schedule in item no. 14
(Appendix-A). The first dimension included involvement, the second ensured action, and the
last dimension covered the psychological aspect of involvement. Each of the dimensions was
quantified separately with four-point rating scale against 13 broad categories of post harvest
activities of selected vegetable or fruit.
Frequency of performance, the first dimension of involvement, was defined as the regularity
of performing certain post harvest activities. Scores were assigned to the column of frequency
of performance for respondent on the basis of responses furnished by subjects in such a way
that 0 (zero) was assigned for ‘not at all’, 1 for ‘rarely’, 2 for ‘sometimes’ and 3 for
‘regularly/frequently’.
The second dimension of involvement, part of work done, was defined as how much amount
of work done by the respondent regarding the selected post harvest activities. The scores
were made in the following way:
Part of work done ScoreNot at all 0Less than half of the requirement 1More than half of the requirement 2Completely 3
In accordance with the third dimension, control over decision, was measured on the basis of
decision taken by the respondent in a family. Scores were made in the following way:
Control over decision ScoreAbsolutely no decision by self 0Shared decision, mainly by others 1Shared decision, mainly by self 2Full decision by self 3
Involvement Index (II) has been used to determine the extent of involvement. It was defined
as the ratio of ‘actual involvement’ to ‘possible involvement’ in any issue expressed as%.
The Involvement Index can mathematically was expressed as follows:
100d
d
w
w
f
f
3
1II
p
a
p
a
p
a
……………………. (i)
Where, II = Involvement Indexfa = Actual frequency of performancefp = Possible frequency of performance
28
wa = Actual part of work donewp = Possible part of work doneda = Actual control over decisiondp = Possible control over decision
In the present study, extent of involvement in post harvest activities by rural women has been
computed according to the formula of Involvement Index (II). In this way, II could vary from
0 to 100%, 0 indicating no involvement and 100 indicated full involvement in post harvest
activities by rural women.
5. Measurement of Training Needs
The extent of training needed by rural women in carrying out PHAs was measured by adding
their expression against some training item/topic related to PHAs. The extent of training
needs of rural women was measured with four-point rating scale. Score was assigned to each
of the items as follows:
Extent of training needs Assigned score
No 0Low 1Medium 2High 3
Thus, total extent of training needs of a respondent woman was computed through adding
scores of all items/topics.
6. Measurement of Problem Confrontation
To measure problem confrontation in carrying out post harvest activities of selected fruit or
vegetable, Scored Causal Diagrams (SCDs) of Participatory Farm Management (PFM)
methods were used (Galpin et al., 2000). SCDs were used to examine in detail the causes and
effects of problems and to identify the ‘root’ cause which need to be addressed, and to
analyze the relative importance of the problems and prioritize them.
First, the topic, participation in post harvest activities of fruit or vegetable, was critically
discussed with the participants in a small group consists of six members in order to construct
the SCDs. Various problems of participation in post harvest activities were listed through
discussion with the respondents. Assuming the end problem ‘low participation in post harvest
activities’ and writing it on a piece of white paper, they were asked to mention the direct
causes of this problem. As the direct causes were identified and written on separate pieces of
29
paper by the respondent, the pieces of paper were placed on a large white paper on the ground
and arrows were drawn to represent the causal relationships between the problems.
Each problem was represented on the paper once only. The causes of those problems were
identified and added to the diagram. These might be from the original list or might be newly
identified. The process was continued until the participants were satisfied that all the
problems had been included and all the connections identified. The problems at the edge of
the diagram with no identified ‘causes’ were determined as the ‘root’ causes. Scoring was
done by moving counters (pieces of broken bricks) up from the end problem by dividing
them between the causes of each subsequent problem. In this study hundred (100) broken
bricks were used as counters as the total score for the end problem.
The procedural steps of scoring used in this research study were as follows (Photo 3.1):
Photo 3.1: The process of making SCDs by the rural women.
i. After drawing the causal diagram, even number (100) of broken bricks were placed on the end problem.
ii. The females were asked to divide the 100 pieces of bricks between the causes of that problem (i.e. the arrows entering the problem), to represent how important the causes of that problems were.
iii. The scores were then taken back a further step and divided between the causes of the next problem using the same procedure as in step-2.
iv. If no causes of the problem had been identified on the diagram i.e. there was no arrow entering the problem, then the score remained on that problem. If there was only one cause of the problem, the whole score is moved back to that cause. At each stage the scores were written on the diagram before the pieces of bricks were moved on.
30
v. If a cause had more than one effect, the scores from those effects arrows were added together. This total was then divided between the different causes of the problem as in step-2.
vi. The scoring was continued until all the problems on the diagram had been scored. The pieces of bricks were ended up on the ‘root’ causes.
vii. On completion of the scoring process, the relative scores of the ‘root’ causes were compared. The higher the score the more important the problem. These scores and the reasoning behind the scores (i.e. the causes and effects on the diagram) were clarified with the participants.
viii. Finally possible solutions of the ‘root’ causes were traced back on the diagram.
7. Statement of Hypothesis
The following null hypothesis (Ray and Mondal, 2004) was formulated and tested to explore
the relationship between the selected characteristics and the need for capacity strengthening
of women in carrying out post harvest activities:
H0: There is no relationship between the selected characteristics of the women and their need for capacity strengthening in carrying out post harvest activities.
8. Instrument for Data Collection
A structured interview schedule was used for collection of relevant data from the women
engaged in respective vegetable or fruit for the study. Closed form questions were included in
the schedule. Simple and direct questions were also included to ascertain the opinions of the
women regarding a number of aspects. Scales were developed to determine the need for
capacity strengthening of women in carrying out PHAs. The draft interview schedule was
prepared in accordance with the objectives of the study. The interview schedule was pre-
tested with 10 respondents. Necessary corrections, additions and modification were made in
the interview schedule based on the pretest results. The modified and corrected interview
schedule was then printed in final form (Appendix-A).
9. Collection of Data
Data were collected by the project personnel (mainly Research Fellows) through personal
interview schedule from the women of the selected villages. The interviews were conducted
with the respondents individually in their respective houses or house premises (Photo 3.2).
Wherever the respondents felt any difficulty in understanding any questions, the utmost care
was taken to explain and clarify the same properly. Data were collected as per following
schedule.
31
Table 3.2 Schedule of data collection.
Items Names (vegt/fruit)
Upazila Village/Block Date
Veg
etab
les Brinjal Fulbaria Shreepur, Koiarchala and
Taltala16.3.08 to 25.3.08
Tomato Godagari Lalbag and Achua Taltala 25.7.08 to 31.7.08Spinach Monirumpur Nadra 11.5.08 to 16.5.08Potato Khetlal Kusum Shahor 4.6.08 to 9.6.08
Fru
its
Mango Shibganj Pithali Tala, Kansat Bazar and House Nagar
27.3.08 to 5.4.08
Banana Shibganj Chandihara 12.6.08 to16.6.08Pineapple Madhupur Pirgacha, Dokhola and Chunia, 6.3.0 to to15.3.08Guava Nesarabad Kuriana 6.4.08 to14.4.08Orange Juri Shuknachara, Hayachara and
Kachurgul25.1.09 to 31.1.09
Photo 3.3: Interview to collect information from rural women.
Personal interview was conducted to gather data on women’s need for training and capacity
strengthening to conduct post harvest activities (PHAs) of vegetables and fruits. Additionally,
Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with the women engaged in PHAs of vegetables and fruits
were conducted for triangulation of data. FGD is structured discussions led by a facilitator.
The purpose of the focus group is to stimulate discussion around issues concerned. An FGD
functions like a “group interview” with the facilitator posing questions and participants
responding with their thoughts and opinions. The focus group generally consists of a small
number (6-12) of relatively similar individuals who provide information during a directed and
moderated interactive group discussion (Anonymous, 2003 and Popham, 1993).
32
In this study, focus group participants were typically chosen based on their ability to provide
specialized ideas or insight into the needs of training and overall capacity strengthening in
conducting PHAs of vegetables and fruits. Women from similar backgrounds or experiences
were brought together to discuss the topic (Photo 3.3). Homogeneity of samples was
preferred.
Photo 3.3: A view of Focus Group Discussion with women
An FGD was conducted for each of the selected vegetables and fruits in their respective study
areas, having each group of at least eight women. Thus, a total of nine FGDs were conducted
in nine areas to achieve additional information on training and capacity needs of the rural
women who were engaged in PHAs of vegetables and fruits. Finally, the outcomes of nine
FGDs were merged together to make a comprehensive report.
Purpose of discussion was explained and the specific discussions were done on the said
objectives with the participating women. Then the responses and consensus were listed down.
The outcomes of group discussions were noted down by the investigator. Sub-Assistant
Agriculture Officer (SAAO) of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) of the
respective Block assisted to form and mobilize the groups.
Addition to these, case studies (Yin, 2002 and Ray and Mondal, 2004) were also conducted
with the women engaged in PHAs of vegetables and fruits. A case study is one of several
ways of doing research whether it is social science related or even socially related. It is an
intensive study of a single group, incident, or community. Other ways include experiments,
surveys, multiple histories, and analysis of archival information (Wikipedia, 2009). In
33
another word, case study is a research strategy, an empirical inquiry that investigates a
phenomenon within its real-life context.
Photo3.4: Showing the process of data collection for case study.
One woman from each site (i.e. one for each selected fruit or vegetable) was studied to
achieve in-depth ideas about her needs for training and overall capacity building for carrying
out PHAs. Thus, a total of nine case studies were conducted in this investigation and
comprehensive nine separate reports were also prepared.
10. Data Processing and Statistical Analyses
Qualitative data were converted to quantitative one wherever necessary. Data obtained from
the respondents were first put to a master sheet, then compiled, tabulated and analyzed in
accordance with the objectives of the study.
Descriptive statistical methods like range, mean, percent distribution and standard deviation
were used in describing the dependent and independent variables. For clarity of
understanding, tables and graphs were used in presenting data. For exploring the relationship
between the selected characteristics of the women with their need for capacity strengthening
in carrying out post harvest activities Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation
(r) (Ray and Mondal, 2004) was used.
34
The analysis of data was performed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences)
computer program. Throughout the study, at least five% (0.05) level of probability was used
as a basis of rejecting a null hypothesis.
11. Conduction of Training and Method Demonstrations
Two training programs were conducted in two separate batches of women engaged in PHAs
of each of the selected vegetables and fruits. A three-day training program was conducted for
30 women in each batch. Thus, a total of 18 training programs were conducted for nine
vegetables and fruits covering a total population of 540. The participants of the training were
selected by the concerned SAAO of the respective Block with prior guidance from
Agriculture Office of the Upazila.
Demonstrations were conducted simultaneously with the training activities mainly
concentrating on the third day of training program. On the afternoon of second day of
training, the theoretical aspects and the processes were taught and on the next day the product
demonstrations were done practically. In the same way of training, a total of 540 women took
part in product demonstrations in nine sites on selected fruits and vegetables.
35
Chapter 4
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Section 1: BRINJAL
This chapter contains the findings and their logical interpretations according to the objectives
of the present study regarding brinjal.
1. Involvement of Rural Women in PHAs of Brinjal
Involvement score of the respondents in different PHAs ranged from 17.17 to 49.49 with a
mean of 35.68 and standard deviation of 7.39 (Table 4.1). On the basis of involvement, the
respondents were divided into three categories.
Table 4.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of brinjal Range of score: Possible 0-100, Observed 17.17-49.49
Respondents MeanStandard deviation
Categories Number Percent
35.68 7.39Low (≤ 33) 19 38
Medium (34-67) 31 62
High (>67) 0 0
Data in the Table 4.1 show that the highest (62%) proportion of the women had moderate
involvement while 38% of them had low and none of them had high involvement in any post
harvest activities. Most of the respondents had similar involvement in post harvest activities
like transport from field to house, sorting and grading, cleaning, packaging and seed storage
etc.
In order to investigate the involvement of rural women in various post harvest activities of
vegetables and fruits towards food security, the works are categorized into three dimensions,
such as frequency of performance, part of work done and control over decision. Each of
these three categories also has four sub-dimensions with score 0 to 3. Most of the respondents
had similar involvement in post harvest activities like seed storage, sorting and grading, water
cooling and transport from field to house, etc.
36
Table 4.2 Ranking of total score of participation of rural women in different PHAs of brinjal
Post harvest activities Frequency of performance
Part of work done
Control over decision
Total score
Rank order
Seed storage 149 149 142 440 1
Water cooling 130 133 79 342 2
Sorting and grading 134 137 67 338 3
Transport from field to house
66 62 41 169 4
Table 4.2 shows that the highest participation of rural women was in seed storage and then
water cooling and the lowest was in transport from field to house. According to their total
score of involvement the women were mostly involved in seed storage because they can
easily do it inside their household. Due to their social status and conservativeness women are
restricted to go out from the house. So their involvement in transportation from field to house
is inferior to other activities.
2. Need for Capacity Strengthening of Rural Women
Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to measure the extent of need for
capacity strengthening of women. The findings have been presented in the following
subsections.
2.1 Overall need for capacity strengthening
The extent of need for capacity strengthening of women was assessed in terms of need index
for capacity strengthening (NICS). The NICS values could range from 0 to 100. The observed
NICS values ranged from 70.37 to 95.06 with an average of 83.23 and standard deviation of
6.65. Based on their NICS values the respondents were classified into three categories as
shown in Table 4.3.
Table 4.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of brinjal Score range: Possible 0-100, Observed 70.37-95.06
RespondentsMean Std. Dev.
Categories No. %Low (≤33)
Medium (34-67)
High (>67)
0
0
50
0
0
100
83.23 6.65
Presented data show that the cent% of the respondents had high extent of need and none of
them had medium or low extent of need for capacity strengthening in PHAs of brinjal.
37
The findings clearly indicate that all of the respondents had high need for capacity
strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal. While collecting the data, it was observed in the study
area that there was scarcity of post harvest facilities of brinjal towards food security and even
a little facility was available but those were not in accessible form for the rural women. Thus,
the respondents logically felt high need for their capacity strengthening towards post harvest
facilities of brinjal.
2.2 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of rural women
Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to assess the extent of need for
capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of brinjal. The computed NICS values of all
the dimensions have been shown in Table 4.4.
Table 4.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of brinjal
Dimension of capacity strengthening(measuring unit)
Range Respondents
MeanStd.Dev.Possible Observed Categories
No.%
Need for financial ability (%) 0-100 58.33-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)
0347
06
9489.00 10.30
Need for decision making ability (%) 0-100 55.56-77.78
Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)
01139
02278
73.22 5.69
Need for access to support services (%) 0-100 61.11-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)
0842
01684
79.67 9.43
Need for management skill (%) 0-100 72.22-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)
0050
00
10088.11 7.86
Need for physical facilities (%) 0-100 66.67-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)
0149
02
9889.07 8.70
Data presented in Table 4.4 indicate that almost all of the women fell in high need category
for all the dimensions of capacity strengthening. The highest average need for capacity
strengthening (89.07) was for physical facilities and the lowest average (73.22) was for need
for decision making ability. Findings evidently specify that need for capacity strengthening
was about similar for most of the components but need for physical facilities like storage
facilities was essential because physical facilities were absent in this study area.
Data presented in Table 4.5 indicates that capital shows higher score in need for financial
ability, processing and storing shows higher score in need for decision making ability,
preservation facilities of cold storage shows higher score in need for access to support
38
services, handling of post harvest equipments and processing of fruits and vegetables shows
higher score in need for management skill and finally store house shows higher score in need
for physical facilities.
Table 4.5 Ranking of the issues of need for capacity strengthening of the respondentsItems Score Rank
Need for financial abilityCapital 146 1Processing-equipment 145 2Credit 141 3Labor purchase 102 4Need for decision making abilityProcessing 149 1Storing 149 1Packaging 147 2Selling of vegetables fruits 130 3Grading 43 4Collection 41 5Need for access to support services Preservation facilities of cold storage 150 1Access to credit 140 2Development workers for advice 136 3Marketing channel/facilities 116 4Transport 114 5Labor market 61 6Need for management skill Processing of fruits and vegetables 150 1Handling of post harvest equipments 150 1Financial management 142 2Operational ability 134 3Market facility exploitation 109 4Preservation of seeds 108 5Need for physical facilitiesStore house 150 1Processing materials/ equipment 149 2Processing ground 129 3Sales centers 123 4Transport/vehicles 117 5
Figure 4.1 represents that the highest extent of need of the respondents was for physical
facilities and lowest extent of need was for decision making ability. It might be worthy to
mention here that the differences among the components of capacity strengthening in respect
of need felt by the respondents was less. Therefore, the respondents women felt need more or
less same for all the dimensions of capacity strengthening towards PHAs.
39
Figure 4.1 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of rural women
20%
19%
19%
22%
20%
Financial ability
Decision making ability
Access to support services
Management skill
Physical facilities
3. Characteristics of the Rural Women
There were various characteristics of the rural women that influenced their extent of need for
capacity strengthening towards post harvest activities of brinjal towards food security. In the
present study, twelve characteristics of the rural women were selected as independent
variables, which included age, education, dependency ratio of the family, farm size, annual
family income, organizational participation, decision making capacity in the family, daily
time allocation, training experience, awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits, credit
received and ability to cope with uncertainty. The characteristics of the respondents have
been presented in Table 4.6.
The study was conducted with the rural women who were more or less involved in brinjal’s
PHAs. Among the respondents most of them were either middle or young aged (40 and 52%
respectively) whereas 50% of them had education at primary level (Table 4.6). About half of
the respondents (48%) had medium and 44% had low dependency ratio in their family
respectively. The highest proportion (52%) of the respondents had been observed in small
farm size while 38% and 8% of them in marginal and medium farm size respectively.
Majority of the respondents (56%) had low annual family income while 36% and 8% of them
had medium and high annual family income respectively. In case of organizational
involvement most of the respondents (92%) had less involvement while 2% had moderate
and 6% had high involvement in any organization.
40
Table 4.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of brinjalCharacteristics (Measurement
units)
Range RespondentMean
Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %
Age(year) - 19-50
Young (≤30)Middle aged(31-45)Old (>45)
26204
52408
33.16 8.07
Education(year of schooling)
- .00-9
Illiterate (0)Primary (1-5)Secondary (6-10)Higher secondary (>10)
192560
3850120
2.26 2.76
Dependency ratio of the family (ratio)
- 0.5-6Low (≤2)Medium (2.1-4)High (>4)
22244
44488
2.71 1.24
Farm size(hectare)
- 0.08-4.76
Landless ( < 0.02)Marginal (.021-.2)Small (0.21-1.0)Medium (1.1-3.0)Large (>3.0)
0192641
0385282
0.46 0.68
Annual family income (‘000’ Taka)
- 17.05-141Low (≤50)Medium (51-100)High (>100)
28184
56368
54.6728.2
0
Organizational participation (score)
- .00-12Low (≤2)Moderate (3-4)High (>4)
4613
9226
1.36 2.15
Awareness (score) 0-15 3-15
Less(≤5)Medium(6-10)High(>10)
33215
66430
9.06 2.88
Daily time allocation (hours) - 3-8
Low(≤3)Medium(3.1-6)High(>6)
4379
87418
5.27 1.36
Decision making capacity in the family (score)
0-40 4-36Weak (≤13)Moderate (14-26)Strong (>26)
3416
68212
21.54 5.28
Training exposure (score) - .00-17
Null (0)Short-term (1-3)Mid-term (>3)
381
11
76222
3.24 6.14
Credit received(‘000’ Taka) - .00-40
Small (≤10)Medium (11-20)High (>20)
4451
88102
6.10 7.08
Ability to cope with uncertainty (score)
0-24 7-17Less (≤8)Moderate (9-16)Strong (>16)
12371
24742
10.34 2.10
Women were moderately aware on nutrition of vegetables and fruits (64%). Six percent had
low awareness and only 30% had high awareness. Highest (74%) proportion of the women
had moderate time allocation while 18% of them had high and the rest 8% of them had low
time allocation for PHAs of brinjal (Table 4.6). Most of the respondents (82%) of the women
had medium decision making capacity while 6% of them had weak and 12% of the women
had highest decision making capacity in their family. Majority of the respondents (76%) had
no training exposure while 2% and 22% of them had short-term and mid-term training
experience. A large number (88%) of the women had small credit received while 10% had
41
medium and 2% of them had high credit received circumstance. Most of the respondents
(74%) had moderate while 24% had less and only 2% of them had strong ability to cope with
uncertainty.
4. Training needs of women
The training need for capacity strengthening of women ranged from 27 to 36 and average of
32.18 and standard deviation of 2.02. Based on their NICS values the respondents were
classified into three categories as shown in Table 4.7.
Table 4.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of brinjal
Range of score RespondentMean
Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %
0-100 27-36
Low(≤24)
Medium(25-30)
High(>30)
0
11
39
0
22
78
32.18 2.02
Findings show that almost all (78%) of the respondents have high training need for all of the
activities. There were only 22% of respondents who had medium training need and no
respondent had low training need for any of the activities. This was because; most of the
respondents had low participation in any developmental organization. Therefore, they
received low training facilities and thus training need was high (Ahmed, 2007).
Table 4.8 Ranking of areas of training need regarding PHAs of brinjal
ActivitiesTotal Score
Rank
Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control 150 1
Biological treatments for disease and pest control 150 1
Processing of brinjal 149 2
Storage 149 2
Increasing of shelf-life of brinjal 146 3
Using packaging materials 145 4
Chemical treatments for disease and pest control 140 5
Handling of modern equipment 134 6
Transportation and marketing of brinjal 132 7
Preservation of seed 119 8
Sorting and grading 63 9
Washing and drying 46 10
Cooling 31 11
Determination of maturity index 55 12
42
5. Selected Characteristics of the Rural Women and Their Extent of Need for Capacity Strengthening
Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation (r) was computed in order to explore
the relationships between the selected characteristics of the women and their extent of need
for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security. The coefficient of
correlation (r) was used to test the null hypothesis regarding the relationship between two
concerned variables. The null hypothesis was formulated as H0: There is no relationship
between the selected characteristics of the women and their need for capacity strengthening
towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security. The relationship between the dependent and
independent variables has been presented in Table 4.9.
Table 4.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variablesIndependent variables Computed ‘r’ values with
48 d.f.Age 0.185Education -0.305*Dependency ratio 0.360*Farm size -0.119Annual income 0.025Organizational participation 0.017Decision making ability 0.018Training exposure -0.146Credit received 0.078Ability to cope with uncertainty -0.241Daily time allocation -0.207Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits
-0.372**
** Correlation is significant at 1% level of probability * Correlation is significant at 5% level of probability
Based on the computed ‘r’ value the relationship between age and extent of need for capacity
strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security was non-significant and
followed a positive trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it
could be said that age the respondents was not an important indicator for the extent of need
for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security.
Sarkar (2005), Naoroze (2004), Asaduzzaman (2003), Begum et al. (2000) and Kumari
(1999) found similar relationships between age and need in their respective studies. The
findings were interesting and logical because, all of the respondents were middle and old-
aged category and they were involved in using PHAs of brinjal in more or less similar
pattern.
43
The relationship between education and extent of need for capacity strengthening towards
PHAs of brinjal towards food security was significant at 5% level of probability and followed
a negative trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis was rejected. Thus, it could be told
that education level of the women had significant relationship with their extent of need for
capacity strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security.
In this research, the respondent women were mostly housewives. They had been continuing
their livelihoods from the similar social background utilizing similar resources and facilities.
But, their level of education could play a significant role in their extent of need for capacity
strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security. Normally, the educated person
is conscious about their needs and facilities. But in this study, the significant negative
relationship between the need for capacity strengthening and education of the women showed
a different trend. Maybe, the small sample size was not enough to represent an appropriate
association among the variables or the indirect influence of other variables might have effect
on the desired outcome.
Dependency ratio in the family was positively significant at 5% level of probability with the
extent of need for capacity building towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security. Hence,
the concerned null hypothesis was rejected. Thus, it was concluded that dependency ratio of
the family of the women play significant role on their extent of need for capacity
strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal.
It should be noted that dependency ratio of the family was computed using the total number
of family members and of earning members of the family. When the number of earning
members of the family increases, the need for capacity strengthening decreases. It was also
reflected in this study. On the other hand, need for capacity strengthening had significant
negative relationship with the total number of family members.
The relationship between farm size and extent of need for capacity strengthening towards
PHAs of brinjal was nonsignificant and followed a negative trend. Hence, the concerned null
hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was decided that farm size of the women did not
affect their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal. Farm size is an
important indicator of power. When the farm size increases the owners bear an increased
extent of power. Thus, the women having more farm size felt less need for capacity
strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal.
44
The relationship between family income and extent of need for capacity strengthening
towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security was nonsignificant but followed a positive
trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it could be said that
family income of the women did not play any significant role on their extent of need for
capacity strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal. Similar relationships were observed by
Naoroze (2004), Asaduzzaman (2003) in their respective studies.
The relationship between organizational participation and extent of need for capacity
strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security was non-significant. Hence, the
concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was inferred that organizational
participation of the women did not significantly link to the extent of need for capacity
strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal.
Bhowmick (2004) mentioned similar relationship in his study. The respondents of the present
study were affiliated to different organizations which did not deal with the PHAs of brinjal
rather just with micro-credit programs. Accordingly, organizational participation of the
respondents had no significant relationship with their need for capacity strengthening.
The relationship between decision making capacity in the family and extent of need for
capacity strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal was non-significant. Hence, the concerned
null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was inferred that decision making capacity in
the family of the women did not influence significantly their extent of need for capacity
strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security.
A woman may have the capacity to make decision regarding household activities, but she
may form this capacity from her educational status, parents socio-economic position etc.
Moreover, need for capacity strengthening depends on the availability and accessibility of the
facilities. Therefore, decision making capacity of the women in their family was not
significantly related with their extent of need for capacity strengthening of PHAs of brinjal.
The relationship between training exposure and extent of need for capacity strengthening
towards post harvest facilities of brinjal was non-significant. Hence, the concerned null
hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was inferred that training exposure of the
respondents was not linked to their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs
of brinjal. Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between training exposure and need of the
respondents in his study.
45
The relationship between credit received and extent of need for capacity strengthening
towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security was non-significant and followed a positive
trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it could be said that
credit received of the women did not play significant role on their extent of need for capacity
strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security. Sarkar (2005), Mahmud
(2002), Hashemi et al. (1996) and Pitt and Khandker (1995) also stated similar relationships
in their respective studies.
The relationship between ability to cope with uncertainty and extent of need for capacity
strengthening towards post harvest facilities of brinjal was not significant and followed a
negative trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was
concluded that ability to cope with uncertainty of the women played non-significant role on
their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security.
The relationship between daily time allocation and extent of need for capacity strengthening
in conducting PHAs of brinjal towards was non-significant. Hence, the concerned null
hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was inferred that daily time allocation of the
respondents was not associated to their extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying
out PHAs of brinjal. Ahmed (2007), Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between training
exposure and need of the respondents in his study.
The relationship between awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits of the women and
their extent of need for capacity strengthening in conducting PHAs of brinjal was significant
at 1% level of probability and followed a negative trend. Hence, the concerned null
hypothesis was rejected. It was inferred that awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits of
the respondents were influential to their extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying
out PHAs of brinjal.
6. Problems of Involvement in PHAs of Brinjal
Problems faced by the women of involvement in PHAs of brinjal towards food security were
measured through constructing Scored Causal Diagrams (SCDs) of Participatory Farm
Management methods. Problems in involving in PHAs of brinjal were discussed with a group
of respondents, assuming the ‘end problem’ being ‘low participation in PHAs of brinjal’.
Firstly the problems mentioned by the respondents were listed, secondly diagrams were
drawn by them on the plain ground to show causal relationships between the problems, and
46
finally scoring of selected problems was performed again by them. In this way SCDs was
prepared by the group of respondents (Figure 4.2). The problems identified by the group has
been listed here with their relative importance indicated by the original score numbers as
shown inside the parentheses.
End problem: Low participation in PHAs of brinjal (100)
Intermediary problems
(i) Low decision-making ability (30)(ii) Lack of interest (10)(iii) Inefficient manpower (15)(iv) Women are restricted to go outside (15)(v) Low market price (25)(vi) Conservativeness (5)
Root causes
(i) Lack of training on PHAs (35)(ii) Lack of cold storage (25)(iii) Social/religious barrier (15)(iv) Lack of processing materials (10)(v) Scarcity of money (10)(vi) Lack of operational ability (5)
Among the ‘root’ causes ‘lack of training on PHAs' got the highest score then ‘lack of cold
storage’. It was logical because lack of training caused lack of knowledge and skill resulting
in low decision-making in PHAs and due to lack of cold storage respondents’ perceived
complexity in PHAs and accordingly there was low participation in PHAs. According to the
score, in third position was placed social/religious barrier which keeps away the women from
any development work, so their participation in PHAs were restricted by this problem.
Scarcity of money results in lack of interest as a result the women lose heart to involve in
PHAs of brinjal. Lack of processing materials and lack of operational ability make rural
women inefficient.
Other causes namely conservativeness, inefficient manpower and low market price can be
minimized with the help of proper communication with the women and they should be aware
of their need. Absence of any kind of cold storage is the great problems for the farmers. Also
rural women have low decision making ability in their family and this is a main problem for
them to build their capacity in any developmental activities.
47
Figure 4.2 Scored Causal Diagrams showing the barrier of involvement of rural women in PHAs of brinjal
Suggested solutions to the ‘root’ causes
Participants of the group engaged in the preparation of Scored Causal Diagram (SCD) were
requested to mention possible solutions to the ‘root’ causes of low participation in PHAs of
brinjal. The respondents expressed different opinions on how these problems could be
overcome. The suggestions for the solution of the problems made by the respondent women
have been given here:
Lack of training on PHAs (35)
Lack of knowledge and skill (35)
Low decision-making ability (30)
Conservativeness (5)
Low involvement in post harvest activities
of Brinjal (100)
Lack of interest (10)
Women are restricted to go outside (15)
Social/religious barrier (15)
Lack of cold storage (25)
Low market price (25)
Inefficient manpower (15)
Scarcity of money (10)
Lack of processing
materials (10)
Lack of operational ability (5)
48
Table 4.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve them
Sl No.
Suggested solutions Way to achieve
1. Increased training facilities according to their needs for increasing their knowledge and skill towards PHAs of brinjal as well as to have efficient manpower.
Need GOs and NGOs collaboration
2. Involving rural women in different PHAs of brinjal to increase their operational ability.
Government and private organizations should take initiatives
3. Establishing processing centers for the rural women to build their capacity in PHAs.
Government can create special programs with the well known NGOs
4. Emphasizing the necessities of women participation with the rural people with the help of local leaders, imams, purohit etc
Women should be motivated to aware the women by different communication media
5. Establishing storage facilities for the rural women by the government.
Government can take proper initiatives
6. Increased credit availability according to the need of the rural women regarding post harvest facilities of brinjal towards food security.
GOs and NGOs can take proper steps in this matter
Participation of the rural women in PHAs is an important issue for controlling PHAs and
development of socio-economic condition of the rural people. The study reveals that
participation of the rural women in PHAs was low to medium, which is quite disheartening.
Thus, right policy and need-based support should be ensured in order to secure better
participation of the rural women in PHAs. Linkage between GO and NGOs need to be
strengthened to ensure effective participation of the rural women. The issues that might be
dealt with are input and technical information supply, training, incentive campaign and
others.
49
7. Case Study
Name of women: Ms Rokeya Begum Husband’s name: Mr Md Abdul HamidAddress: Village-Taltala, Fulbaria, Mymensingh
Ms Rokeya Begum was a lady of 35 years engaged in PHAs of brinjal along with home and homestead management. She does not have any formal education except for signing her name. Her husband, Mr Abdul Hamid was a farmer and cultivated brinjal along with other crops.
Ms Rokeya lived with her husband and two children- one son and one daughter. They had about 0.40 ha of land for cultivation with an homestead area of about 0.10 ha. The mostly grown crops are rice, vegetables of different types, sugarcane and garlic. The annual income of the family was about Taka 1,00,000.
Ms Rokeya Begum had a great zeal for processing and other PHAs of brinjal and other vegetables. She helped her husband in taking care of different crops even at field. Specially, she used to take special care of collected brinjal to sale in the market and to be used in the house for consumption. Normally she kept the brinjal in cool dry place so that it did not lose moisture and looked fresh. She did not know the processing of brinjal other than some cooking like making fry and curry.
She used to do all these PHAs through her own initiatives. She agreed that she could do some of the activities but lacked a many of the modern techniques of PHAs. She told in the way:“I learned some of the activities of post harvest from my mother. I like to do all these PHAs in a better way through increasing my capacity and skill. But I do not have enough skill, money and thus, limited scope to do more of brinjal’s PHAs in a better way. I believe that if I could increase my capacity to do PHAs of brinjal, better preservation and consumption of brinjal could be done at my house. Again, through processing of brinjal I could make some products which can be used at house and earn good amount of money from selling products. To make my motivation true I need help from any organization or person.”
Unfortunately, she did not receive any training on PHAs of vegetables or fruits. Yet her expected training areas were about sorting, grading, packing and storage of vegetables in scientific ways; vegetable disease control at house; processing and preservation of vegetables and vegetable products. She did not borrow any credit from any organization except for Taka five thousand from neighbor. She showed a moderate role of decision-making in the family. Ms Rokeya was aware on nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits and used to take due care to maintain nutritive value of vegetables and fruits during harvest, cooking and consumption.
Regarding need for overall capacity building to conduct PHAs of vegetables and fruits, Ms Rokeya expressed high need of it. Again about different aspects of capacity building (i.e. need for financial and decision making abilities, access to support services, management skill and physical facilities) she aspired mostly for skill development and financial facilities.
With moderate involvement in overall PHAs of vegetables and fruits, she expected training support on various issues of PHAs of vegetables, especially on brinjal. She thinks that related government and non-government organizations can train and help them manage PHAs of vegetables in a successful and profitable style. This would ultimately increase the enhanced participation of rural women in PHAs of brinjal leading to earn a better livelihood.
50
Section 2: TOMATO
This Chapter contains the findings and their logical interpretations according to the objectives
of the present study regarding tomato.
1. Involvement of rural women in PHAs of tomato
Involvement score of the respondents in different PHAs of tomato ranged from 6.67 to 38.89
with a mean of 25.73 and standard deviation of 8.39 (Table 5.1). On the basis of involvement,
the respondents were divided into three categories.
Table 5.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of tomato
Score Range: Possible 0-100, Observed: 6.67-38.89Respondents Mean Standard deviation
Categories Number %
Low (≤ 33) 48 96
25.73 8.39Medium (34-66) 2 4
High (>66) 0 0
Data in the Table 5.1 show that almost all (96%) of the women had low involvement and the
rest 4% of them had medium involvement in the PHAs of tomato. Most of the respondents
had similar involvement in PHAs like sorting, grading, packaging, insect and disease control,
transport from field to house.
Among the selected PHAs of tomato, the highest involvement of rural women was in sorting
and grading of tomato followed by packaging and insect and disease control (Table 5.2). On
the other hand, involvement of rural women in seed storage was the lowest because it was
noticed in the study area that most of the rural women buy their seed from market.
Table 5.2 Ranking of total score of involvement of rural women in different PHAs of tomato
Post Harvest Activities Total score Rank order
Sorting and grading 270 1Packaging 122 2Insect and disease control 97 3Processing of tomato 33 4Washing and cleaning of tomato 32 5Transport from field to house 276 6Transport to the market 25 7Storage of tomato (by processing) 14 8Seed storage 7 9
51
2. Need for Capacity Strengthening of Rural Women
Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to measure the extent of need for
capacity strengthening of women. The findings have been presented in the following two
subsections.
2.1 Overall need for capacity strengthening
The extent of need for capacity strengthening of women was assessed in terms of need index
for capacity strengthening (NICS). The NICS values could range from 0 to 100. The observed
NICS values ranged from 60.49 to 92.49 with an average of 81.68 and standard deviation of
10.47. Based on their NICS values the respondents were classified into three categories as
shown in Table 5.3.
Table 5.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of tomato Score Range: Possible: 0-100, Observed: 60.49- 92.49
RespondentsMean Std. Dev.
Categories No. %Low (≤33)
Medium (34-67)
High (>67)
0
9
41
0
18
82
81.68 10.47
Presented data show that most (82%) of the respondents had high extent of need while 18%
of them had medium and none of them had low extent of need for capacity strengthening in
PHAs of tomato towards food security.
The findings clearly indicate that all the respondents had medium to high need for capacity
strengthening towards PHAs of tomato. It was noticed that there was acute scarcity of post
harvest facilities of tomato and their storage facilities also insufficient. The respondents are
not getting appropriate price according their labor and cost of production. Thus, the
respondents logically felt high need for their capacity strengthening towards PHAs of tomato.
2.2 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of rural women
Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to assess the extent of need for
capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of tomato. The computed NICS values of all
the dimensions have been shown in Table 5.4.
52
Table 5.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of tomato
Dimension of capacity strengthening(measuring unit)
Range Respondents MeanNICS Std.
Dev.Possible Observed Categories No. %
Need for financial ability (%) 0-100 58.33-91.67
Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)
01436
02872
80.83 12.17
Need for decision making ability (%) 0-100 55.56-94.44
Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)
01139
02278
79.22 10.15
Need for access to support services (%) 0-100 55.56-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)
01337
02674
79.56 9.68
Need for management skill (%) 0-100 50-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)
01436
02872
85.22 13.36
Need for physical facilities (%) 0-100 60-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)
01535
03070
83.60 12.50
Data presented in Table 5.4 indicate that majority of the women fell in high need category for
all the dimensions of capacity strengthening. In case of need for financial ability, 72% of the
respondents had high need while 78% of them had high need for decision making ability. In
case of need for access to support services, 74% of the women fell in high need category and
72% of them were in high need category for management skill while 70% were in high need
category for physical facilities. The highest average need for capacity strengthening (85.22)
was for management skill and the lowest average (79.22) was for decision making ability.
Findings clearly indicate that need for capacity strengthening was about similar for all the
components but need for management skill was crucial because most of the women in the
study area faced problems in managing tomato cultivation or its PHAs.
Data presented in Table 5.5 show that in case of need for financial ability, processing
equipment was highest and processing was highest in case of need for decision making
ability. In case of need for access to support services, preservation facilities of cold storage
was scored highest and in case of need for management skill, handling of post harvest
equipments and processing of fruits and vegetables were scored highest and finally
processing materials/equipment had the highest score in case of need for physical facilities.
This indicates that the rural women need to be immediately strengthened regarding handling
of post harvest equipments and processing materials/equipment.
53
Figure 5.1 illustrates that need for management skill was dominated over other dimensions of
need for capacity strengthening of the rural women in conducting PHAs of tomato towards
food security. Need for decision making ability was the lowest among five dimensions of
need for capacity strengthening. The rural women did not receive adequate training on the
management of PHAs of tomato. So, they had little skill in this regard. On the other hand, the
rural women generally know when to harvest, how to collect and when to sell the harvested
tomato. That is why need for capacity strengthening was highest for physical facilities and
the lowest for decision making ability.
Table 5.5 Ranking of issues of the extent of need of the respondentsItem Score Rank
Financial abilityProcessing-equipment 133 1Credit 123 2Capital 112 3Labor purchase 107 4Decision making ability regarding Processing 142 1Storing 140 2Selling of vegetables fruits 115 3Packaging 110 4Collection 51 5Grading 49 6Access to support servicesAccess to credit 122 1Development workers for advice 111 2Transport 106 3Marketing channel/facilities 106 3Labor market 87 4Management skillHandling of post harvest equipments 144 1Processing of fruits and vegetables 144 1Operational ability 137 2Preservation of seeds 118 3Market facility exploitation 113 4Financial management 113 4Access to physical facilitiesProcessing materials/equipment 142 1Store house 137 2Transport/vehicles 107 3Processing ground 106 4Sales centers 106 4
54
80.83
79.22 79.56
85.22
83.6
76
78
80
82
84
86
Finan
cial a
bility
Decisi
on mak
ing a
bility
Acces
s to su
pport
serv
ices
Man
agem
ent s
kill
Physica
l fac
ilitie
s
Ave
rage
sco
re
Figure 5.1 Extent of need for capacity strengthening regarding various dimensions
3. Selected Characteristics of the Rural Women
The selected rural women pose various characteristics that influenced their extent of need for
capacity strengthening towards PHAs of tomato. For the present study, only 12 characteristics
of the rural women were selected as independent variables viz. age, education, dependency
ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income, organizational participation, awareness
on nutrition of vegetables and fruits, daily time allocation, decision making capacity in the
family, training exposure, credit received and ability to cope with uncertainty. The selected
characteristics of the respondents have been presented in Table 5.6.
The study was conducted with the rural women who were more or less involved in PHAs of
tomato. About half (46%) of the respondents were middle aged while 38% and 16% of them
were young and old, respectively. Among the respondents 60% had education at primary
level while 16% of them were illiterate and 22% of them had secondary level of education.
About half (48%) of the respondents had low dependency ratio of the family and 40% of
them had medium dependency ratio. Most (56%) of the respondents had small farm size and
36% of them had marginal farm size. The annual family income of the respondents was
mostly medium to high.
55
Table 5.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of tomato
Characteristics (Measurement
units)
Range RespondentMean
Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %
Age(year) - 18-55
Young (≤30)Middle aged(31-45)Old (>45)
19238
384616
35.36 10.18
Education(year of schooling)
- .00-11
Illiterate (0)Primary (1-5)Secondary (6-10)Higher secondary (>10)
830111
166022 2
3.76 3.46
Dependency ratio of the family (ratio)
- .00-6Low (≤2)Medium (2.1-4)High (>4)
24206
484012
2.53 1.51
Farm size(hectare)
- .05-3.47
Landless ( < 0.02)Marginal (.021-.2)Small (0.21-1.0)Medium (1.1-3.0)Large (>3.0)
0182831
0365662
.44 .56
Annual family income (‘000’ Taka)
- 33-405Low (≤50)Medium (51-100)High (>100)
52124
104248
115.55
73.18
Organizational participation (score)
- .00-4Low (≤2)Moderate (3-4)High (>4)
40100
80200
.98 1.25
Awareness (score)0-15 7-15
Less(≤5)Medium(6-10)High(>10)
0941
01882
12.64 2.01
Daily time allocation (hours/day)
- 2-8Low(≤3)Medium(3.1-6)High(>6)
5432
10864
4.47 1.22
Decision making capacity in the family (score)
0-40 10-30Weak (≤13)Moderate (14-26)Strong (>26)
7403
14806
19.22 4.57
Training exposure (score) - .00-30
Null (0)Short-term (1-3)Mid-term (>3)
4901
9802
.60 4.24
Credit received(‘000’ Taka) - .00-16
Small (≤10)Medium (11-20)High (>20)
4640
9280
2.92 4.88
Ability to cope with uncertainty (score)
0-24 7-21Less (≤8)Moderate (9-16)Strong (>16)
261410
522820
12.16 5.13
In case of organizational participation, majority (80%) of the respondents had low
organizational participation. Among the selected women 82% were highly aware of nutrition
of vegetables and fruits while 18% of them had medium awareness. The highest (86%)
proportion of the women had moderate time allocation for PHAs of tomato in the period of
harvesting. Majority (80%) of the women had moderate decision making capacity in the
family. Almost all (98%) of the respondents had no training experience while only 2% of
them had mid-term training experience. Among the respondents, 92% received small credit
while 8% medium and none of them received high amount of credit. The average score of
56
ability to cope with uncertainty by the respondents was 12.16 and more than half (52%) of
the respondents had less ability to cope with uncertainty.
4. Training Need of the Women
The training need score for capacity strengthening of women ranged from 22 to 38 with an
average of 33.66 and standard deviation 4.74. Based on their NICS values the respondents
were classified into three categories as shown in Table 5.11.
Table 5.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of tomato
Range RespondentMean
Std.
Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %
0-100 22-38
Low(≤24)
Medium(25-30)
High(>30)
4
9
37
8
18
74
33.66 4.74
Findings show that about three-fourths (74%) of the respondents had high training need for
all of the activities while 18% of them had medium and 8% of them had low training need.
Most of the respondents had low involvement in any developmental organization. They did
not receive any training on PHAs of vegetables and fruits. Therefore, their training need was
high.
Table 5.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of tomato
Post Harvest Activities Total Score
Rank
Increasing of shelf-life of tomato 137 1
Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control 137 1
Processing and preservation of tomato 137 1
Preservation and care taking of seeds 137 1
Using packaging materials 136 2
Storage of seeds 136 2
Biological treatments for disease and pest control 135 3
Handling of modern equipment 133 4
Chemical treatments for disease and pest control 112 5
Transportation and marketing of tomato 109 6
Cooling 103 7
Determination of maturity index 95 8
Washing 92 9
Sorting and grading 84 10
57
Data contained in Table 5.8 show that extent of training need of the rural women regarding
increasing of shelf-life of tomato, mechanical treatments for disease and pest control,
processing and preservation of tomato, and preservation and care taking of seeds were the
highest and ranked in first position. On the other hand, sorting and grading was the lowest. It
is obvious that training on the activities which require high technical knowledge was highly
needed by the rural women. For this reason, sorting and grading of tomato was needed by the
rural women to the lowest extent.
5. Relationships between the Selected Characteristics of the Rural Women and Their Extent of Need for Capacity Strengthening
Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation (r) was computed in order to explore
the relationships between the selected characteristics of the women and their extent of need
for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of tomato towards food security. The coefficient of
correlation (r) was used to test the null hypothesis regarding the relationship between two
concerned variables. The null hypothesis was formulated as H0: There is no relationship
between the selected characteristics of the women and their need for capacity strengthening
towards PHAs of tomato towards food security. The relationship between the dependent and
independent variables has been presented in Table 5.9.
Table 5.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables
Independent variables ‘r’ value with 48 df
Age .128Education .152Dependency ratio of the family .103Farm size .143Annual family income .084Organizational participation .215Decision making capacity in the family -.012Training exposure .116Credit received .174Ability to cope with uncertainty -.811**Daily time allocation -.141Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits
.309*
** Significant at the 0.01 level * Significant at the 0.05 level
The computed ‘r’ values for ability to cope with uncertainty, awareness on nutrition of
tomato were significant. Hence, the concerned null hypotheses were rejected. Therefore,
58
there was significant relationship between these characteristics of the rural women and their
extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of tomato. However, awareness on
nutrition of tomato had positively significant relationship whereas ability to cope with
uncertainty had negatively significant relationship with their need for capacity strengthening
towards PHAs of tomato. The rest of the characteristics namely age, education, dependency
ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income, organizational participation, decision
making capacity in the family, training exposure and daily time allocation of the respondents
did not have any significant relationship with the same.
The women who had better ability to cope with uncertainty and more aware on nationals
aspects of vegetables and fruits felt their less need for capacity strengthening in conducting
post harvest activities of fruits and vegetables. Thus, it could be said that ability to cope with
uncertainty and awareness on nutrition of tomato were important indicators for the extent of
need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of tomato.
The rural women in the study area were involved in tomato cultivation irrespective of their
age and they felt more or less similar extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs
of tomato. So, age of the women did not significantly influence their need for capacity
strengthening. Sarkar (2005), Naoroze (2004), Asaduzzaman (2003), Begum et al. (2000) and
Kumari (1999) found similar relationships between age and need in their respective studies.
In the present research, the respondent women were mostly housewives. They had been
continuing their livelihoods from the similar social background utilizing similar resources
and facilities. So, their level of education could not play a significant role in their extent of
need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of tomato.
It should be noted that dependency ratio of the family was computed using the total number
of family members and of earning members of the family. However, when the number of
earning members of the family increases the need for capacity strengthening did not
remarkably decrease. On the other hand, need for capacity strengthening was not noticeably
influenced by the total number of family members.
In case of annual family income similar relationships were observed by Naoroze (2004),
Asaduzzaman (2003) in their respective studies. It was so, because the families having higher
income might need fewer amounts of PHAs of tomato towards food security. Thus, annual
59
family income exerted insignificant negative effect on the need for capacity strengthening
towards PHAs of tomato.
The respondents of the present study were affiliated with different organizations which did
not deal with the PHAs of tomato towards food security rather just with micro-credit
programs. Accordingly, organizational participation of the respondents had no significant
relationship with their need for capacity strengthening.
A woman may have the capacity to make decision regarding household activities, but she
may form this capacity from her educational status, parents’ socio-economic position etc.
Moreover, need for capacity strengthening depends on the availability and accessibility of the
facilities. Therefore, decision making capacity of the women in their family was not
significantly related with their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of
tomato towards food security. Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between training
exposure and need of the respondents in his study.
The respondents got training from different organizations they were affiliated but a very little
training was conducted specifically regarding post harvest facilities of vegetables. This is
why need for capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of tomato towards food
security had no significant relationship with their previous training experience. Ahmed
(2007), Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between training exposure and need of the
respondents in his study.
The credit received also did not play any significant role on their extent of need for capacity
strengthening in carrying out PHAs of tomato. Sarkar (2005), Mahmud (2002), Hashemi et
al. (1996) and Pitt and Khandker (1995) also stated similar relationships in their respective
studies. The woman who received more credit had more facilities regarding PHAs of tomato
towards food security to utilize her credit effectively. Thus, credit received was not
significantly related with the extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of
tomato.
As there was lack of post harvest facilities of tomato in the study area, the women did not
involve themselves in PHAs of tomato towards. That's why daily time allocation did not
significantly influence need of women for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of
tomato. However, with the decrease of ability to cope with uncertainty and increase of
60
awareness on nutrition of tomato need for capacity strengthening of the women was greatly
increased.
6. Problems of Low Involvement in PHAs of Tomato
Problems faced by the women towards involvement in PHAs of tomato were measured
through making Scored Causal Diagrams (SCDs) of Participatory Farm Management
methods. Problems in participating PHAs of tomato were discussed with a selected group of
respondents, assuming the ‘end problem’ being ‘low involvement in PHAs of tomato’. Firstly
the problems mentioned by the respondents were listed, secondly diagrams were drawn by
them on the plain ground to show causal relationships between the problems, and finally
scoring of selected problems was performed again by them. In this way SCDs was prepared
by the group of respondents (Figure 5.2). The problems identified by the group has been
listed here with their relative importance indicated by the original score numbers as shown
inside the parentheses.
End problem: Low involvement in PHAs of tomato (100)
Intermediary problems(i) Lack of knowledge and skill [35](ii) Inability to operate PHAs [35](iii) Ready cash from harvest [20](iv) No cooperative initiatives [15](v) Inability to do PH processing [15](vi) Less interest for PH processing [20](vii) No processing establishment [15](viii) Hesitation to work [5](ix) Less scope to do processing [10]
Root causes(i) Need of training [35](ii) Commercialization of raw tomato [20](iii) No women group to do PHAs [15](iv) Lack of processing materials [15](v) Lack of capital [10](vi) Religious barrier [5]
‘Need of training on PHAs' secured the highest score among the ‘root’ causes and then
‘Commercialization of raw tomato’. It was very reasonable because training facilitated
knowledge and skill which results in high decision-making capacity in PHAs and due to
‘Commercialization of raw tomato’ respondents were not interested in PHAs because they
got cash money from supplying tomato from their field for that reason there was low
involvement in PHAs. According to the score, in third position were placed for ‘No women
group to do PHAs’ and ‘Lack of processing materials’. Due to lack of any women group, no
cooperative cluster was found to do any development work for the women related to PHAs of
tomato in that study area. Lack of processing materials makes rural women inefficient. Due to
61
Low involvement of women in PHAs of tomato [100]
Lack of processing materials [15]
Need of training [35]
Religious barrier[5]
Lack of capital[10]
Commercialization of raw tomato [20]
No women group to do PHAs [15]
Lack of knowledge and
skill [35]
Inability to operate PHAs
[35]
Less scope to do processing
[10]Hesitation to work [5]
Inability to do PH processing [15]
Less interest for PH processing
[20]
Ready cash from harvest [20]
No cooperative
initiatives [15]
No processing establishment
[15]
this problem, women who interested in PHAs of tomato could not do anything even with
huge amount of tomato during harvesting season.
Figure 5.2: Scored Causal Diagrams showing the barrier of involvement of rural women in PHAs of tomato
62
Lack of capital consequences less scope to process their product as a result farmers lose heart
to involve in PHAs of tomato. So most of their products were rotten. Religious barrier kept
away the women from any development work and they hesitate to come out from the
household to work for processing so their involvement in PHAs was restricted. Consequently
there was unsatisfactory involvement in PHAs of tomato in the study area.
Suggested solutions to the ‘root’ causes
Participants of the selected group for the preparation of Scored Causal Diagram (SCD) were
requested to mention possible solutions to the ‘root’ causes of low involvement in PHAs of
tomato towards food security. The respondents uttered diverse opinions on how these
problems could be overcome. The suggestions for the solution of the problems made by the
respondent women have been given here:
Table 5.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve them
Sl. No.
Suggested solutions Way to achieve
1. Increased training facilities according to their needs for increasing their knowledge and skill towards PHAs of tomato as well as to have efficient manpower.
Need GOs and NGOs collaboration
2. Increase facilities to preserve tomato for long term use to minimize commercialization.
GO and NGO and Donor organizations can take proper steps
3. Involving rural women in different PHAs of tomato to increase their operational ability.
Government and private organizations should take initiatives
4. Establishing processing centers for the rural women to build their capacity in PHAs.
Government can create special programs with the well known NGOs
5. Emphasizing the necessities of women involvement among the rural people with the help of local leaders, imams, purohit etc.
Farmers should be motivated to aware the women by different communication media
6. Women group formation with the help of different Go and NGOs
Government should concern with NGOs and Donor organizations
7. Increased credit availability according to the need of the rural women regarding post harvest facilities of tomato
GOs and NGOs can take proper steps in this matter
Involvement of the rural women in PHAs is a vital topic for controlling PHAs and
development of socio-economic condition of the rural people. The study reveals that
participation of the rural women in PHAs was low to medium which is not so hopeful. Thus,
appropriate approach should be ensured in order to secure complete involvement of the rural
women in PHAs. Linkage between GO and NGOs and Donor organization need to be
strengthened to ensure effective involvement of the rural women. The issues that might be
dealt with are credit and technical information supply, training and demonstration, motivation
campaign and others.
63
7. Case Study
Name of women: Ms Marzina ; Husband: Mr Abdul MalekAddress: Village- Achua, Godagari, Rajshahi
Ms Marzina was a lady of 30 years engaged in PHAs (PHAs) of tomato. She was basically a house wife and assisted her husband in farming. She also used to manage her small homestead where she planted some fruit trees only. She completed her primary education and then was married to Mr Abdul Malek. Mr Malek (40 years) was a farmer and had been cultivating rice for long time and recently rice and tomato.
Ms Marzina had three children of which the first one (11 years) was a school boy. The other two were daughters of ages 10 and 6 years. They had cultivated about 0.65 ha of land of which 50% was on lease basis. Tomato was cultivated in the entire land. The mostly grown crops were rice, tomato and other vegetables. The annual income of the family was about Taka 1,75,000 and only from tomato was about Taka 1,20,000. The family felt the cultivation of tomato profitable.
The family land was occupied mostly by rice in season and then the full land went under tomato cultivation. In the recent days, tomato had been cultivated with high interest as the farmers earned good profit through scientific cultivation.
Although Marzina used to do her family works and PHAs of tomato, she was not involved in any organization of the locality. She also did not receive any training from any organization. She also did not borrow any credit form any organization and was unaware of access to borrowing facilities. Yet she articulated very good mind to cope with any uncertainty either in her family or farming.
Ms Marzina used to engage herself mostly in home and homestead activities. But a substantial time had been spent in harvest and PHAs of tomato in its main season. In the PHAs of tomato, her involvement was mostly in grading, ripening and packing. She needed to spend a very long hours during the harvest of tomato. Especially, she used to manage the heap of tomato when kept at homestead. Spraying hormone, drying under sun, shed management and sorting for sale were felt tiresome jobs, she pointed out. In spite of her considerable participation in PHAs of tomato she showed her deep interest in tomato processing. She indicated:“Now I can handle the grading, packing, and other activities in a good manner through working on it. But I am almost unable to process the tomato for its better preservation and consumption in different ways. I heard of tomato products like ketchup, sauce, juice and preservation in vinegar etc. I like to learn how to process tomato to prepare these things. It needs skill and I am willing to earn the skill through training. I also need some materials and equipments to process tomato. I think, women interested in PHAs can form group to materialize their idea of conducting processing in our locality. While, GO or NGO can provide credit and training supports to make the group working.”
Ms Marzina did not receive any training on PHAs of vegetables or fruits. Her expected training areas were about sorting, grading, ripening and packing of tomato scientifically; disease control at storehouse; processing and preservation of tomato and tomato products. Ms Marzina was not so aware on nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits but she wanted to take due care to maintain nutritive value of fruits and vegetables during harvest, cooking or consumption.
Regarding need for overall capacity building to conduct PHAs of vegetables and fruits, Ms Marzina expressed high need of it. Again on different aspects of need for capacity strengthening, she wanted mostly for skill development and physical facilities. Skill development in preparation, packaging and storing of products. Marketing information and exploration of marketing channels were also felt very important need to succeed in processing of tomato.
With high involvement in PHAs of tomato, she expected training support on various aspects of PHAs of vegetables, especially on tomato. She thinks that related government and non-government organizations can train and help them to manage PHAs of vegetables in a successful and cost-effective manner. This would ultimately ensure enhanced participation of rural women in PHAs of brinjal leading to better living values.
64
Section 3: SPINACH
This section includes the outcome and their rational interpretations according to the
objectives of the study regarding spinach.
1.1 Involvement of Women in PHAs of Spinach
The term ‘involvement’ referred to take part fully or partially in different types of PHAs of
spinach for this study. For getting a lucid image of extent of involvement in PHAs, total score
and Involvement Index (II) of all PHAs for the respondents were computed which have
described in the following subsections.
Involvement Index was expressed as percentage and thus, it could vary from 0 to 100. The
computed II of the respondents ranged from 11.11- 49.07 with an average of 33.20 and
standard deviation 11.06. Based on their II the respondents were classified into three
categories. Data presented in Table 6.1 show that 44% of the respondents had low
involvement in PHAs compared to 56% medium involved while none of them were highly
involved.
Table 6.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of spinach Range of score: Possible 0~100, Observed: 11.11-49.07
Respondents MeanStandard deviation
Categories Number %
33.20 11.06
Low (≤ 33) 22 44
Medium (34-66) 28 56
High (>67) 0 0
The findings clearly indicate that 100% of the respondents had involvement in PHAs of
spinach from medium to low extent. It was factual in the study area while collecting the data
that there was insufficiency of post harvest facilities of spinach for the rural women. Spinach
is perishable leafy vegetables. The spinach growing fields were mostly used for other crops
and vegetables in a certain period of time. Most of the families are switching over other crops
for more profit. For these reasons involvement of women in PHAs of spinach were low to
medium. The economic, social, religious and psychological statuses of the respondents were
also responsible for this low participation.
In the study area, it was found that very few families made themselves involved in PHAs of
spinach. Some women were involved in processing of spinach (dust, chutney, pickles) only to
65
serve their family. In order to rank involvement status in PHAs total score was calculated for
involvement in each of the PHAs (Table 6.2).
Table 6.2 Ranking of total score of the extent of involvement in different PHAs of spinach
Post Harvest Activities Total score
Rank order
Washing and cleaning of spinach 319 1Cooling of spinach (using water) 311 2Sorting and grading 273 3Transport from field to house 226 4Packaging 166 5Storage of spinach 79 6
Table 6.2 shows that highest score of participation was found in washing and cleaning of
spinach. It is enormously balanced for the study area because most of the respondents’ fields
were adjacent to their households where they grow spinach. Then the second highest score
was found in cooling of spinach. This job is totally done by women and teenagers of the
house. Sorting and grading and transport from field to house got the third and fourth
positions.
1.2 Characteristics of the Women
There were various characteristics of the women that influenced their extent of need for
capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of spinach. For this study, twelve personal
characteristics of the respondent women were selected as independent variables, such as: age,
education, dependency ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income, organizational
participation, awareness, daily time allocation, decision making capacity in the family,
training exposure, credit received and ability to cope with uncertainty. The relevant features
of the respondents have been presented in Table 6.3.
Based on their age the women were classified into three categories as young, middle-aged
and old. Table 6.3 revealed that more than half of the respondents (52%) were middle-aged,
42% were young and 6% and rest of them were old (6%). Sharmin (2008), Hasan (2006),
Sharmin (2005), Rasel (2004) and Akter (2003) found similar distribution of respondents in
different age categories in their respective studies. According to national standard of
classification, among the respondents, 4% were illiterate, 42% had education at primary level,
50% had education at secondary level. Table 6.3 indicated that half of the respondents (50%)
secured secondary level of education. This finding was similar to Sharmin (2008), Rahman
(2008), Alam (2001) and Hossain (2000). Based on the dependency ratio value, the
respondents were classified into three categories. Computed data indicate that 42% of the
respondents had low dependency ratio, 44% of the respondents had medium and 14% of them
66
had high dependency ratio of the family (Table 6.3). The findings supported by Sharmin
(2008), Rahman (2008) and Ahmed (2007). According to the farm size occupied by the
respondents, they were classified into five categories (indicated by DAE, 1999) as shown in
Table 6.3. Data indicates that almost half of the respondents (48%) had small farm size while
30% of them were marginal. It indicates that most of the families (about 80%) possess a
small sized cultivable land. Rahman (2008), Sharmin (2008), Akhter (2007), Rasel (2004),
Parvin (2004) and Rashid (2004) also found similar findings in their respective studies.
Table 6.3 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of spinachCharacteristics (Measurement units)
Range Respondent Mean
Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %
Age(year) - 20-55
Young (≤30) Middle aged (31-45)Old (>45)
21263
42526
33.86
8.40
Education(year of schooling)
- 0-12
Illiterate (0)Primary (1-5)Secondary (6-10)Higher secondary (>10)
221252
442504
5.90 3.12
Dependency ratio of the family (ratio) - 1-6
Low (≤2)Medium (2.1-4)High (>4)
21227
424414
2.83 1.34
Farm size(hectare)
- 0.04-4.34
Landless ( < 0.02)Marginal (.021-.2)Small (0.21-1.0)Medium (1.1-3.0)Large (>3.0)
01524101
03048202
0.66 0.79
Annual family income (‘000’ Taka) -
9.00-3227.90
Low (≤50)Medium (51-100)High (>100)
241214
482428
143.50
450.44
Organizational participation (score) - 0-12
Low (≤2)Moderate (3-4)High (>4)
3983
78166
1.82 2.26
Awareness (score)0-15 5-14
Less(≤5)Medium(6-10)High(>10)
12128
24256
10.92
1.81
Daily time allocation (hours) - 0-12
Low(≤3)Medium(3.1-6)High(>6)
12371
24742
4.19 1.85
Decision making capacity in the family (score)
0-40 10-30Weak (≤13)Moderate (14-26)Strong (>26)
5441
10882
19.52
3.76
Training exposure (score) - 0-90
Null (0)Short-term (1-3)Mid-term (>3)
4055
801010
2.90 12.98
Credit received(‘000’ Taka) - 0-62
Small (≤10)Medium (11-20)High (>20)
29156
583012
11.58
12.32
Ability to cope with uncertainty (score) 0-24 7-21
Less (≤8)Moderate (9-16)Strong (>16)
31172
62344
10.14
3.39
67
On the basis of annual family income, the respondents were divided into three categories.
Table 6.3 shows that the highest (48%) proportion of the women had low annual family
income while 24% and 28% of them had medium and high annual family income
respectively. Sharmin (2008), Akhter (2007), Parvin (2004) and Rashid (2004) supported this
distribution of the respondents. Data contained in the Table 6.3 show that most of the
respondents (78%) had less participation while 16% had moderate and only 6% of them had
high participation in different organizations. Sharmin (2008), Rahman (2008), Rasel (2004)
and Hossain (2000) observed similar findings in their respective studies.
Majority of the women (74%) had moderate time allocation while 2% of them had high and
the rest 24% of them had low time allocation in the family. Akhter (2007) also found same
findings. Their daily time allocation for PHAs was low to medium due lack of proper post
harvest techniques for spinach. Moreover PHAs depend on season. During harvesting of
Spinach they worked hard. But in other season they spent their time in other purposes. As a
result their average daily time allocation for PHAs was low to medium. The highest
proportion of the women (88%) had moderate decision making capacity while 2% of them
had strong and the rest 10% of them had weak decision making capacity in the family. This
study supported studies of Sharmin (2008), Rahman (2008), Ahmed (2007) and Sharmin
(2005). Table 6.3 shows that the highest (80%) proportion of the women had no training
exposure while 10% of them had short-term training experience and 10% of them had mid-
term training exposure. Sharmin (2008), Sharmin (2005) and Akter (2003) mentioned similar
findings in their study. Data furnished in the Table 6.3 indicate that the highest (58%)
proportion of the women received small credit while 30% received medium credit and the
rest 12% of them received high credit. Rahman (2008) and Ahmed (2007) also found similar
findings in their respective studies. The table shows that the highest proportion (62%) of the
respondents had less ability, while the rest 34% had moderate ability to cope with
uncertainty.
Table 6.3 shows that more than half of the respondents (56%) had high awareness and 42%
had medium and only 2% of them were less aware on nutrition of vegetables and fruits. The
results were satisfactory because most of the women were literate and has some knowledge
about the nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits. But in practical situation they did not or
could not practice according to their awareness and knowledge due to their prejudice, family
options and lack of willingness due to a little labor-some efforts. For example, the rural
women know that draining off the water coming out of boiling leafy vegetables is not
68
scientific. Yet they practice it as the family members might like the non-sticky and good-
looking cooked leafy vegetables even at the cots essential minerals and other nutrients.
1.3 Need for Capacity Strengthening of Women
In the present study, ‘ capacity strengthening’ of the rural women towards PHAs of spinach
was defined as the extent to which they have the accessibility to financial, physical,
managerial and support services as well as the ability to make decision about utilizing the
PHAs of spinach. Need for capacity strengthening of women was the main focus of the
present research work. Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to measure
the extent of need for capacity strengthening of women. The findings have been interpreted in
the following subsections.
1.3.1 Overall need for capacity strengthening
The extent of need for capacity strengthening of women was assessed in terms of need index
for capacity strengthening (NICS). The NICS values could range from 0 to 100, while the
observed NICS values ranged from 55.56 to 100 with an average of 77.31 and standard
deviation of 8.70. Based on their NICS values the respondents were classified into three
categories as shown in Table 6.4.
Data presented in the Table 6.4 show that the highest proportion (86%) of the respondents
had high extent of need while the rest 14% of them had medium and none of them had low
extent of need for capacity strengthening of women. Ahmed (2007) found similar distribution
in her respective study.
Table 6.4 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of spinach Range of score: Possible: 0~100, Observed: 55.56-100.00
RespondentsMean Std. Dev.
Categories No. %
Low (≤33)
Medium (34-66)
High (>67)
0
7
43
0
14
86
77.31 8.70
The findings clearly indicate that more than four-fifths of the respondents had high need for
capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of spinach. It was observed in the study area
while collecting the data that there was insufficiency of post harvest techniques of spinach for
the rural women. Moreover the respondents of this study were less involved in PHAs of
spinach. But they wished to involve themselves in income generating activities like PHAs to
increase their family income. But they could not do due to lack of information and adequate
69
conveniences of PHAs of spinach. Thus, the respondents logically felt high need for their
capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of spinach.
1.3.2 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women
Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to assess the extent of need for
capacity strengthening of women in carrying out PHAs of Spinach. The computed NICS
values of all the dimensions have been shown in Table 6.5. However, for more clarifying
picture has been presented in Figure 6.1 in order to have a contrasting view of dimension-
wise need for capacity building of women.
Data presented in Table 6.5 indicate that most of the women fell in high need category for all
the dimensions of capacity strengthening. The highest proportion (90%) of the respondents
was in high need for management skill while only 10% of them had medium need for this
dimension. It is due to lack of knowledge and enough training facilities in carrying out PHAs
of Spinach in the study area. Then second highest proportion (82) of the respondents was in
high need for physical facilities while 18% of them had medium need for this dimension.
Table 6.5 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in PHAs of spinach
Dimension of capacity strengthening(measuring unit)
Range Respondents
MeanStd.Dev.Possible Observed Categories No. %
Need for financial ability (%)
0-10041.67-
100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)
01436
02872
79.17 12.96
Need for decision making ability (%)
0-10044.44-
100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)
03713
07426
67.44 10.59
Need for access to support services (%)
0-100 50-100Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)
0941
01882
75.78 10.98
Need for management skill (%)
0-10066.67-
100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)
0545
01090
85.44 9.25
Need for physical facilities (%)
0-10053.33-
100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)
0941
01882
79.73 11.43
The reason behind the findings was the lack of sufficient support services such as
preservation facilities, marketing facilities, transport, access to credit and development
workers for advices. For rest of the dimension of need, the majority of the respondents felt
high need for capacity strengthening. It was normal that the women did not have low need for
70
any dimensions of capacity strengthening. It was felt logical because none of the dimensions
existed in satisfactory level rather than in low level. Thus, it was a simple analogy that the
components available in low quantity would be felt as high need components.
Table 6.6 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondents
Items Score Rank
Financial abilityProcessing-equipment 133 1Credit 123 2Capital 112 3Labor purchase 107 4Decision making ability Processing 142 1Storing 140 2Selling of vegetables fruits 115 3Packaging 110 4Collection 51 5Grading 49 6Access to support servicesPreservation facilities of cold storage 150 1Handling of post harvest equipments 144 2Operational ability 137 3Access to credit 122 4Preservation of seeds 118 5Market facility exploitation 113 6Management skillHandling of post harvest equipments 144 1Processing of fruits and vegetables 144 1Operational ability 137 2Preservation of seeds 118 3Market facility exploitation 113 4Financial management 113 4Access to physical facilitiesProcessing materials/equipment 142 1Store house 137 2Transport/vehicles 107 3Processing ground 106 4Sales centers 106 5
Table 6.5 shows that highest score was obtained in case of processing-equipment regarding
financial ability, preservation facilities of cold storage regarding access to support services,
processing regarding decision making ability, handling of post harvest equipments and
processing of fruits and vegetables regarding management skill and processing materials
regarding access to physical facilities. It is due to lack of cold storage facilities and
processing equipment in the study area. Second highest score was obtained in case of credit
71
20%
17%
20%
22%
21%
Financial ability
Decision making ability
Access to support services
Management skill
Physical facilities
regarding financial ability, storing regarding decision making ability; operational ability
regarding management skill and access to support services and store house regarding access
to physical facilities due to lack of knowledge and training and low involvement in different
organizations and commercial activities of spinach. Then capital regarding financial ability;
selling of vegetables and fruits regarding decision making ability; operational ability
regarding access to support services, preservation of seeds regarding management skill,
transport regarding access to physical facilities got third position due to lack of training on
the topic of PHAs of spinach. In the study area it was found that no training was provided by
any organization to the respondents on PHAs of spinach to change their skill and attitude.
Again there were no storage facilities in the Monirampur upazila for storage of spinach.
That’s why the farmers felt high extent of need in management skill and physical facilities.
Figure 6.1 Pie graph showing dimension wise need for capacity strengthening
Figure 6.1 shows that the highest extent of need (85) of the respondents was in management
skill having the relative weight of need 22% and the lowest extent of need (67) was for
decision making ability with relative weight of need 17%. It might be creditable to mention
here that the differences among the components of capacity strengthening in respect of need
felt by the respondents were not so distant. Therefore, the respondent women felt need more
or less same for all the dimensions of capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of spinach.
1.4 Training Need in carrying Out PHAs of Spinach
The training need values ranged from 25 to 45 with a mean 33.64 and standard deviation of
5.41. More than half (52%) of the women felt high need training in carrying out PHAs of
spinach.
72
Table 6.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of spinach
Range of score RespondentMean Std. Dev.
Possible Observed Category No. %
0-100 25-45
Low(≤24)
Medium(25-30)
High(>31)
0
24
26
0
48
52
33.64 5.41
The findings clearly indicate that most of the respondents were in high need of training for
their involvement in PHAs of spinach. This might be due to inadequate training offered by
Government organization or other NGOs. Most of the respondents had short-term training
experience as stated earlier. The rural women in the study area kept desire to take part in
income generating activities such as PHAs of Spinach but they could not do due to lack of
awareness and adequate information about the expected activities. Thus, more than half of the
respondents felt in the high training need category.
Table 6.8 Ranking of areas of training need regarding PHAs of Spinach
Post Harvest Activities Total Score Rank
Storage of vegetables 149 1
Processing of vegetables 148 2
Increasing of shelf-life of vegetables 147 3
Handling of modern equipment 133 4
Care taking of seed 127 5
Chemical treatments for disease and pest control 125 6
Using packaging materials 125 6
Transportation and marketing of spinach 125 6
Biological treatments for disease and pest control 124 7
Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control 124 7
Cooling 89 8
Washing and cleaning 68 9
Determination of maturity index 62 10
Table 6.8 shows that the extent of training need of the respondents in carrying out PHAs of
spinach more or less similar in all the activities. They had done all the activities traditionally.
They did not know about modern technology of PHAs of spinach. Even they did not receive
any training regarding PHAs of spinach from any organization. That’s why they felt high
extent of training need. But they felt less extent of training need in case of cooling, washing
and cleaning and determination of maturity index. Because, they had been doing these
traditionally. But in case of storage, processing and increasing of shelf-life of vegetables, they
felt high extent of need.
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1.5 Relationships between the Selected Characteristics of the Women and Their Extent of Need for Capacity Strengthening
Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation (r) was computed in order to explore
the relationships between the selected characteristics of the women and their extent of need
for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of spinach. The coefficient of correlation (r)
was used to test the null hypothesis regarding the relationship between two concerned
variables. The null hypothesis was formulated as H0: There is no relationship between the
selected characteristics of the women and their need for capacity strengthening in carrying
out PHAs of spinach. The relationship between the dependent and independent variables has
been presented in Table 6.9. However, the correlation matrix of dependent and independent
variables for the women has been presented in Appendix-B in order to have a clear
exploration of the inter-correlation and multi co-linearity among the variables.
Table 6.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables
Independent variables ‘r’ value with 48 df
Age -.172
Education .036
Dependency ratio of the family -.045Farm size -.224
Annual family income -.095
Organizational participation .291*Decision making capacity in the family .013Training exposure .059Credit received -.039Ability to cope with uncertainty -.243
Daily time allocation .415**Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits -.112
** Significant at the 0.01 level * Significant at the 0.05 level
Among the twelve selected characteristics of the respondents, the ‘r’ values of age, education,
dependency ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income, awareness, decision
making capacity in the family, training exposure, credit received and ability to cope with
uncertainty with their extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of
spinach were non-significant. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected for
these variables. Based on the computed ‘r’ value the relationship between age and extent of
need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of spinach was and followed a negative
74
trend. Sharmin (2008), Rahman (2008), Akhter (2007), Hasan (2006), Sarkar (2005),
Naoroze (2004), Khatun (2004), Alam (2004), Islam (2003) and Yeasmin (2002) found
similar relationships between age and need in their respective studies. Thus, it could be said
that age the respondents was not an important indicator for the extent of need for capacity
strengthening in carrying out PHAs of spinach. Women found in that area were mostly
literate but due to their lack of less involvement in PHAs, they felt less need for capacity
strengthening in carrying out PHAs of Spinach.
Dependency ratio was significantly correlated with the number of family members and
negatively correlated with earning member. It is shown in Appendix B. On the other hand,
need for capacity strengthening had no significant relationship with the total number of
family members. Finally, dependency ratio of the family had no significant effect on the need
for capacity strengthening of women due to irregular pattern of number of earning members
of the family with their respective family size.
Based on the computed ‘r’ value the relationship between organizational participation and
extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of spinach was significant.
Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could be rejected. Thus, it was inferred that
organizational participation of the women significantly influenced the extent of need for
capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of Spinach. When women come in contact with
different organizations or source of information they can felt their need. It is very much
rational that women could expose their need after getting some information or knowledge
about what should be or which could help to uplift their life-style. The respondents of the
present study were affiliated with some organizations which dealt with the micro-credit
programs rather PHAs of vegetables. From their organizational involvement of the
respondents made significant relationship with their need for capacity strengthening.
Daily time allocation and extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of
spinach was significantly and positively related. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis was
rejected. Thus, it was conditional that daily time allocation of the respondents was prominent
to their extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of spinach. Akhter
(2007) also found this type relation in her study.
During the harvesting season women in the study area were mostly involved in PHAs of
spinach. They have to pay great attention to get more profit from their product. The women’
75
involvement in PHAs of spinach was enthusiastically. That's why daily time allocation played
a significant role on their need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of spinach.
1.6 Problem Confrontation in Involvement of PHAs of Spinach
Constraints faced by the respondents in involving themselves in PHAs were explored through
making Scored Causal Diagrams (SCDs) of Participatory Farm Management (PFM) methods.
The problems identified by the group has been listed here with their relative importance
indicated by the original score numbers as shown inside the parentheses (Figure 6.3).
End problem: Low involvement in PHAs of spinach (100)
Intermediary problems
(i) Less scope for processing (45)(ii) Less skill and knowledge (40)(iii) Less motivation for PHAs of spinach (40)(iv)) Less interest in PHAs (10)(v) Less prospect of preservation (15)
Root causes
(i) Lack of training on PHAs (40)(ii) Unavailability of processing facilities (20)(iv) Short duration spinach availability (15)(v) Lack of money (10)(vi) Unknown scope for marketing (10)(vii) Highly perishable in nature (5)
‘Lack of training on PHAs of spinach’ got the highest score among the ‘root’ causes then
‘unavailability of processing facilities’. It was logical because lack of training caused less
skill and knowledge and resulting in less motivation for PHAs of spinach. Unavailability of
processing facilities, unknown scope for marketing and short duration spinach availability
caused less scope for processing of spinach. Lack of money creates lack of interest in PHAs
of spinach. Due to highly perishable in nature spinach can not be preserved for long time and
it also results less profit which led to lower involvement in PHAs.
1.6.1 Suggested solutions to the ‘root’ causes
Participants of the group engaged in the preparation of SCDs were requested to mention
possible solutions to the ‘root’ causes of low involvement in PHAs. They made the following
suggestions through discussing with one another. Giving priority to their needs the
suggestions are presented in the following Table 6.9.
Involvement of the rural women in PHAs is an important factor for the progress of socio-
economic condition of the rural people at least for this study area. The study revealed that
76
Low Involvement in PHAs of spinach [100]
Lack of training on PHAs of spinach [40]
Less skill and knowledge [40]
Less motivation for PHAs [40]
Lack of capital[10]
Less interest in PHAs [10]
Highly perishable nature [5]
Less prospect of preservation [5]
Unknown scope for marketing [10]
Unavailability of processing
facilities [20]Short duration
spinach availability [15]
Less scope for processing [45]
Figure 6.2: SCDs showing the involvement barrier of rural women in PHAs of spinach
77
participation of the rural women in PHAs was low to medium, which was not encouraging.
Now it is the time to take proper policy and need-based support in order to secure full
participation of the rural women in PHAs. Linkage between GOs, NGOs and private sectors
need to be strengthened to ensure efficient involvement of the rural women. The issues that
might be dealt with are input and technical information supply, training and motivation
campaign.
Table 6.10 Suggested solutions with ways to achieve them
Sl. No.
Suggested solutions Way to achieve
1. Arranging special training programs on PHAs of spinach Collaboration is needed with GOs and NGOs
2. Encouraging the rural women to involve in PHAs through different extension communication media like personal contact of extension personnel, result demonstrations, block demonstrations, television, radio, newspaper, leaflet, booklet etc.
Extension personnel should be more careful about women participation in PHAs
3. Establishment of cold storage GOs, NGOs andprivate sectorscollaboration is needed
4. Emphasizing the necessities of women participation among the rural people with the help of local leaders, imams, purohit etc.
Government can create special programs with the well known NGOs
5. Creating micro-credit facilities especially for the women on spinach processing and exploitation of marketing facilities.
GOs and NGOs can take proper steps in this regaard
78
7. Case Study
Name of women: Ms AnwaraHusband’s name: Mr Solaiman AliAddress: Village- Nadra, Monirampur, Jessore
Ms Anwara, a lady of 45 years was engaged in PHAs (PHAs) of spinach. She was basically a house wife and assisted her husband in farming. She also used to manage her small homestead. She completed her primary education of three years and then was married to Mr SolaimanAli (50 yrs) who was a guava farmer.
Ms Anwara had two sons. They had cultivated about 0.20 ha of land in which spinach was cultivated only in one-fourth of land in winter season. Their main income was from various crops and masonry work of husband. The annual income of the family was about Taka 70,000 and only from spinach was about Taka 15,000. Cultivation of spinach is profitable but climatic favor is important.
Although Ms Anwara used to maintain her family and homestead activities, she remained engaged in harvest and PHAs of spinach in season. She was a credit borrower of BRAC and thus, was a member women group of the locality but did not receive any training from any organization. She expressed a moderate will to cope with any uncertainty either in her family or farming and possessed a good authority in decision-making in the family.
Ms Anwara used to engage herself mostly in home and homestead activities. But a substantial time had been spent in harvest and PHAs of spinach in its main season. She helped her husband in harvesting spinach along with other laborers. In the PHAs of spinach, her involvement was mostly in cleaning, sorting and packing. She had to manage the sorted out junk of spinach for home consumption. She did not know processing of spinach. In spite of her moderate participation in PHAs of spinach she showed her high interest in spinach processing. She asserted:
“I can handle the sorting, grading and packing, and other activities in a good manner through work experience. But I do not how to process the spinach for its better preservation and consumption in different ways. I am not so aware of spinach products. I shall be happy to learn how to process spinach to prepare various things. It needs skill and I am willing to learn the skill. I also need some materials and equipments to process spinach. I feel, women interested in PHAs can form group to materialize their idea of conducting processing. Some relevant organizations can provide credit and training supports to make it effective.”
Ms Anwara did not receive any training on PHAs of vegetables or fruits. Her expected training areas were about sorting, grading and modern packing of spinach for better transportation; processing and preservation of spinach and spinach products. She was moderately aware of nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits but she wanted to take due care to maintain nutritive value of fruits and vegetables during harvest, cooking or consumption.
Regarding need for overall capacity building to conduct PHAs of vegetables and fruits, Ms Anwara expressed high need of it. About different aspects of need for capacity building she expected mostly for skill development, capital support and physical facilities. Skill development was for preparation, packaging and storing of products. Marketing information and exploration of marketing channels were also felt as very important need to do well in processing of spinach.
With moderate involvement in PHAs of spinach, she expected training support on various aspects of PHAs of vegetables and fruits, especially on spinach. She thought that related government and non-government organizations can train and help them to manage PHAs of vegetables in a successful and cost-effective manner.
79
Section 4: POTATO
This Chapter contains the findings and their logical interpretations according to the objectives
of the present study regarding potato.
1. Involvement of Rural Women in PHAs of Potato
Involvement score of the respondents in different PHAs ranged from 13.89 to 40.28 with a
mean of 26.13 and standard deviation of 6.85 (Table 7.1). On the basis of involvement, the
respondents were divided into three categories.
Table 7.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of potato
Score Range: Possible 0-100, Observed: 13.89-40.28
Respondents MeanStandard deviation
Categories Number %
26.13 6.85Low (≤ 33) 46 91
Medium (34-66) 4 8
High (>66) 0 0
Data in the Table 7.1 show that the highest (91%) proportion of the women had low
involvement while 8% of them had moderate and none of them had high involvement in any
PHAs of potato. Most of the respondents had similar involvement in PHAs like sorting and
grading, seed storage, packaging, processing, insect and disease control etc.
In order to investigate the involvement of rural women in various PHAs of potato, the works
are categorized into three dimensions such as frequency of performance, part of work done
and control over decision. Each of these three categories also has five sub-dimensions with a
score of 0 to 3. Most of the respondents were found to involve themselves in PHAs like
sorting and grading, seed storage, storage vegetables, processing, packaging etc.
Table 7.2 Ranking of total score of involvement of rural women in different PHAs of potato
Post Harvest Activities Frequency of performance
Part of work done
Control over decision
Total score
Rank order
Sorting and grading 130 127 90 347 1Seed storage 108 83 37 228 2Storage potato 110 65 32 207 3Processing 66 70 69 205 4Packaging 93 83 19 195 5Insect and disease control 85 68 27 180 6
80
Table 7.2 shows that the highest involvement of rural women was sorting and grading then
seed storage and the lowest was in insect and disease control of potato towards food security.
Table 7.2 represents the status of the respondents’ in different PHAs of potato. Incase of
sorting and grading their involvement is highest due to less laborious work than other field
job like harvesting, insect and disease control, curing, drying etc. Among other activities
insect and disease control and harvesting is less because women’s level of knowledge about
pest management was found low and due to physical and social problem most of the families
did not come out to field.
2. Need for Capacity Strengthening of Rural Women
Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to measure the extent of need for
capacity strengthening of women. The findings have been presented in the following
subsections.
2.1 Overall need for capacity strengthening
The extent of need for capacity strengthening of women was assessed in terms of need index
for capacity strengthening (NICS). The NICS values could range from 0 to 100. The observed
NICS values ranged from 44.44 to 98.77 with an average of 73.60 and standard deviation of
11.63. Based on their NICS values the respondents were classified into three categories as
shown in Table 7.3.
Table 7.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of potato Score Range: Possible: 0-100, Observed: 44.44-98.77
RespondentsMean
Standard
DeviationCategories Number %
Low (≤33)
Medium (34-66)
High (>66)
0
12
38
0
24
76
73.60 11.63
Presented data show that the most of the respondents had high extent of need and a few of
them had medium and none of them had low extent of need for capacity strengthening in
PHAs of potato. The findings clearly indicate that most of the respondents had high need for
capacity strengthening towards PHAs of potato towards food security. While collecting the
data, it was observed in the study area that there was scarcity of post harvest facilities of
potato towards food security and their storage facilities also insufficient. The respondents are
not getting appropriate price according their labour and cost of production. Thus, the
respondents logically felt high need for their capacity strengthening towards PHAs of potato.
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2.2 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of rural women
Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to assess the extent of need for
capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of potato towards food security. The
computed NICS values of all the dimensions have been shown in Table 7.4.
Table 7.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of potato
Dimension ofcapacity strengthening(measuring unit)
Range Respondents
MeanStd.Dev.Possible Observed Categories No. %
Need for financial ability (%) 0-100 50-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)
01238
02476
79.33 15.08
Need for decision making ability (%) 0-100 38.89-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)
03614
07228
66.00 12.23
Need for access to support services (%) 0-100 50-100
Low (≤33)Medium (33-66)High (>66)
02525
05050
73.33 12.65
Need for management skill (%)
0-100 22.22-100Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)
21335
42670
77.22 15.72
Need for physical facilities (%) 0-100 0-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)
12128
24256
74.13 17.02
Data presented in Table 7.4 indicate that most of the women fell in high need category for
most of the dimensions of capacity strengthening. The highest proportion (76%) of the
respondents was in high need for financial ability while only 72% of them had medium need
for decision making ability. Fifty% of the respondent had medium and the rest 50% had high
need for access to support services and 26% had medium need for management skill and 42%
had medium need for physical facilities respectively. Thus, it was simple that the components
available in low quantity would be felt as high need components.
Table 7.5 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondentsItems Score Rank
Need for financial abilityProcessing-equipment 138 1Labor purchase 115 2Capital 113 3Credit 110 4
Need for decision making abilityProcessing 135 1
Selling of vegetables fruits 118 2Storing 112 3
Packaging 97 4Collection 71 5
Grading 61 6
82
Need for access to support services Access to credit 123 1
Transport 120 2
Marketing channel/facilities 117 3
Development workers for advice 109 4
Preservation facilities of cold storage 98 5
Labor market 93 6
Need for management skill Handling of post harvest equipments 129 1Processing of potato 129 1Operational ability 120 2Market facility exploitation 110 3Financial management 110 3Preservation of seeds 97 4Need for physical facilitiesProcessing materials/equipment 132 1
Processing ground 111 2
Sales centers 109 3
Transport/vehicles 106 4Store house 98 5
Table 7.5 shows that in case of need for financial ability, processing-equipment was scored
highest and processing was highest in case of need for decision making ability. In case of
need for access to support services, access to credit scored highest and in case of need for
management skill handling of post harvest equipments and processing of potato scored
highest and finally processing materials/equipment scored highest in case of need for physical
facilities.
Figure 7.1 shows the variation of different needs for capital strengthening. Women mostly
felt high need to increase their involvement in various PHAs of potato. They are trying to get
support from GO and NGOs to activate their potentialities. From the following graphical
representation (Figure 7.1) it might be clear to us that the respondents’ dimension of need
varied according to their need for different components. However, they had highest need for
physical facilities and lowest for management skill.
83
3. Selected Characteristics of the Rural Women
The selected rural women possessed various characteristics that might influence their extent
of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of potato. For the present study, only
twelve characteristics of the rural women were selected as independent variables which have
been presented in Table 7.6.
Table 7.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of potato
Characteristics (Measurement units)
Range RespondentMea
nStd. Dev.Possible Observed Category
No.
%
Age(year) - 18-62
Young (≤30)Middle aged (31-45)Old (>45)
20237
404614
35.6011.2
9
Education(year of schooling)
- 0-12
Illiterate (0)Primary (1-5)Secondary (6-10)Higher second. (>10)
1123142
2246284
4.36 3.93
Dependency ratio of the family (ratio)
- 0-5Low (≤2)Medium (2.1-4)High (>4)
30182
60364
2.12 1.26
Farm size - .01-3.92 Landless ( < 0.02) 1 2 0.84 0.74
74.13
77.22
73.33
66
79.33
0 20 40 60 80 100
Financial ability
Decision makingability
Access to supportservices
Management skill
Physical facilities
Figure 7.1 Aspect-wise need status of the respondents for capacity building
84
(hectare) Marginal (.021-.2)Small (0.21-1.0)Medium (1.1-3.0)Large (>3.0)
1020181
2040362
Annual family income (‘000’ Taka)
- 2-662.5Low (≤50)Medium (50.1-100)High (>100)
5936
101872
190.73
134.84
Organizational involvement (score)
- 0-5Low (≤2)Moderate (3-4)High (>4)
4361
86122
0.80 1.25
Awareness (score)0-15 4-15
Less(≤5)Medium(6-10)High(>10)
12128
24256
10.38 2.43
Daily time allocation (hours) - 1-7
Low(≤3)Medium(3.1-6)High(>6)
12371
24742
4.36 1.64
Decision making capacity in the family (score)
0-40 10-23Weak (≤13)Moderate (14-26)Strong (>26)
27230
54460
14.80 5.15
Training exposure (score) - 0-60
Null (0)Short-term (1-3)Mid-term (>3)
4037
806
142.72 9.28
Credit received(‘000’ Taka) - 0-50
Small (≤10)Medium (11-20)High (>20)
3578
701416
8.8612.0
8
Ability to cope with uncertainty (score)
0-24 7-21Less (≤8)Moderate (9-16)Strong (>16)
24179
483418
12.06 4.51
The study was conducted with the rural women who were more or less involved in potato
PHAs. Among the respondents most of them were either middle or young aged (46 and 40%
respectively) whereas 46% of them had education at primary level. More than half of the
respondents (60%) had low dependency ratio in their family. The highest proportion (40%)
of the respondents had been observed in small farm size while 20% and 36% of them in
marginal and medium farm size. Majority of the respondents had (72%) had high annual
family income while 18% and 10% of them had medium and low annual family income
respectively. In case of organizational involvement most of the respondents (86%) had less
involvement while 12% had moderate and 2% had high involvement in any organization
(Table 7.6).
Women were highly aware in maintaining nutrition of vegetables and fruits (56%) while they
used to handle, preserve or eat, 42% of them had medium awareness and only 2% had low
awareness. About three-fourths (74%) of the women had moderate time allocation while 2%
of them had high and the rest 24% of them had low time allocation for PHAs of potato in the
period of harvesting (Table 7.6). More than half of the respondents (54%) of the women had
weak decision making capacity while 46% of them had medium and it was noticeable that no
respondent was found to take highest decision making capacity in their family. Majority of
85
the respondents (80%) had no training exposure while 6% and 14% of them had short-term
and mid-term training experience. A large number (70%) of the women had small credit
received while 14% had medium and 16% of them had high credit received circumstance.
About half (48%) of the respondents had less ability, while 34% had moderate and only 18%
of them had great ability to cope with uncertainty (Table 7.6).
4. Training Need of the Women
The training need for capacity strengthening of women ranged from 17 to 36 with an average
of 31.34 and standard deviation of 3.61. Based on their NICS values the respondents were
classified into three categories as shown in Table 7.7.
Table 7.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of potato
Range Respondent MeanStd. Dev.
Possible Observed Category No. %
31.34 3.610-100 17-36
Low(≤24)Medium(25-30)High(>30)
12029
24058
Findings show that most (58%) of the respondents has high training need for all of the
activities. There were 40% of the respondents who had medium training need and only 2%
had low training need for the PHAs. The reason behind this condition was that most of the
respondents had low involvement in any developmental organization. Therefore, they
received low training facilities and ultimately their training need was high.
Table 7.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs Potato
Post Harvest Activities Total Score
Rank
Processing of potato 149 1
Increasing of shelf-life of potato 145 2
Transportation and marketing of potato 126 3
Biological treatments for disease and pest control 123 4
Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control 123 4
Using packaging materials 123 4
Preservation of seed 122 5
Chemical treatments for disease and pest control 122 6
Handling of modern equipments for harvesting 121 7
Storage 112 8
Determination of maturity index 76 9
Sorting and grading 63 10
Curing 60 11
Cooling 53 12
Washing and drying 49 13
86
Most of the women were interested in training on processing of potato as it was unknown to
them. They were also deprived from the knowledge of long term preservation as a result they
have to pay great loss of their product every year. Because, the DAE and concerned other
organizations do not have their regular extension approach to teach and motivate the rural
women on various key issues of preservation of fruits and vegetables. So, training on
increasing shelf-life got the second position. Transportation and marketing also suffers the
women so it got the third rank. Among other items of training biological and mechanical
treatments for disease and pest control were important as women are so poor to control
disease and pest. They fully depend on their male-counterpart of family for this purpose.
Washing and drying got last rank as they do these in traditional process.
5. Characteristics of the Rural Women and Their of Need for Capacity Strengthening
Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation (r) was computed in order to explore
the relationships between the selected characteristics of the women and their extent of need
for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of potato. The relationship between the dependent
and independent variables has been presented in Table 7.9.
Table 7.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables
Independent variables ‘r’ value with 48 df
Age -.143
Education .090Dependency ratio of the family -.119
Farm size -.078 Annual family income -.253Organizational involvement .263
Decision making capacity in the family .097Training exposure .058
Credit received -.208
Ability to cope with uncertainty -.248Daily time allocation .159Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits -.193
** Significant at the 0.01 level * Significant at the 0.05 level
The computed ‘r’ values between the selected twelve characteristics of the rural women and
their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of potato were non-significant.
Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it could be said that all the
characteristics of the respondents were not important indicators for the extent of need for
capacity strengthening towards PHAs of potato. Among the variables, age, dependency ratio
87
of the family, farm size, annual family income, ability to cope with uncertainty, credit
received and awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits showed non-significant negative
trend and rest of the characteristics viz. education, organizational involvement, decision
making capacity in the family, training exposure and daily time allocation showed non-
significant positive relationship with their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards
PHAs of potato.
Sarkar (2005), Naoroze (2004), Asaduzzaman (2003), Begum et al. (2000) and Kumari
(1999) found similar relationships between age and need in their respective studies. In the
present research, the respondent women were mostly housewives. They had been continuing
their livelihoods from the similar social background utilizing similar resources and facilities.
So, their level of education could not play a significant role in their extent of need for
capacity strengthening towards PHAs of potato towards food security. It should be noted that
dependency ratio of the family was computed using the total number of family members and
of earning members of the family. Need for capacity strengthening was not noticeably
influenced by their family dependency ratio. Farm size is an important indicator of power.
When the farm size increases the owners bears an increased extent of power. Thus, the
women having more farm size tended to feel less need for capacity strengthening towards
PHAs of potato towards food security. In case of annual family income similar relationships
were observed by Naoroze (2004) and Asaduzzaman (2003) in their respective studies. It was
so, because the families having higher income might need fewer amounts of PHAs of potato
towards food security. Thus, annual family income exerted non-significant negative effect on
the need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of potato.
The respondents of the present study were affiliated with different organizations which did
not deal with the PHAs of potato rather just with micro-credit programs. Accordingly,
organizational involvement of the respondents had no influencing relationship with their need
for capacity strengthening.
A woman may have the capacity to make decision regarding household activities and she
may form this capacity from her educational status, parents socio-economic position etc.
Moreover, need for capacity strengthening depends on the availability and accessibility of the
facilities. Therefore, decision making capacity of the women in their family was not
significantly related with their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of
potato towards food security. Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between training
exposure and need of the respondents in his study.
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The respondents got training from different organizations they were affiliated but a very little
training was conducted specifically regarding post harvest activities of vegetables. This is
why need for capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of potato towards food
security had no significant relationship with their previous training experience. Ahmed
(2007), Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between training exposure and need of the
respondents in his study.
The credit received also did not play any significant role on their extent of need for capacity
strengthening towards PHAs of potato towards food security. Sarkar (2005), Mahmud (2002),
Hashemi et al. (1996) and Pitt and Khandker (1995) also stated similar relationships in their
respective studies.
Ability to cope with uncertainty was non-significantly related with the extent of need for
capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of potato because the most of the
respondents had similar ability to cope with uncertain situations like accidents, crop failure,
scarcity of money, unavailability of labor etc. As there was lack of post harvest facilities of
potato in the study area, the women did not involve themselves in PHAs of potato actively.
That's why daily time allocation did not significantly influence need of women for capacity
strengthening in carrying out PHAs of potato. However, awareness on nutrition of vegetables
and fruits was not influential to the need for capacity strengthening of rural women in PHAs
of potato.
6. Problems in Involvement in PHAs of Potato
Problems faced by the women in using up the PHAs of potato towards food security were
measured through making Scored Causal Diagrams (SCDs) of Participatory Farm
Management methods. The problems identified by the group has been listed here with their
relative importance indicated by the original score numbers as shown inside the parentheses
(Figure 7.2).
End problem: Low involvement in PHAs of potato (100)
Intermediary problems
(i) Lack of knowledge and skill in PHAs of potato (40)(ii) Less motivated to PHAs of potato (40)(iii) Less potato for PHAs (20) (iv) Less cooperation in operating of PHAs (10)(v) Less interest with less unity (5)(vi) Less interest in PHAs (5)
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Root causes(i) Lack of training on PHAs of potato (40)(ii) Inadequate number of cold storage (20)(iii) Scarcity of capital (15)(iv) No community organization for women (10)(v) Low marketing system (10)(vi) Low wage for women (5)
Among the ‘root’ causes ‘lack of training on PHAs of potato’ got the highest score then
‘inadequate number of cold storage’. It was highly logical because lack of training caused
lack of knowledge and skill resulting less motivation to PHAs of Potato and accordingly there
was low involvement in PHAs.
Inadequate number of cold storage results in their low involvement due to their loss of potato
so it was perceived complexity in PHAs. According to the score, in third position ‘scarcity of
capital’ was placed. Scarcity of capital keeps away the women from any progress work so
their involvement in PHAs was less. No community organization for women and low
marketing system make rural women unproductive. Low wage for women results less interest
in PHAs of potato.
Other causes less motivated to PHAs of potato, less potato for PHAs, less cooperation in
operating of PHAs and less interest with less unity can be minimize with the help of proper
cooperation with farmers and the farmers should be aware about proper channel of
information. Absence of any kind of organization for women and storage facilities is the great
problems for the farmers.
Suggested solutions to the ‘root’ causes
Participants of the group engaged in the preparation of Scored Causal Diagram (SCD) were
requested to mention possible solutions to the ‘root’ causes of low involvement in PHAs of
potato towards food security. The respondents expressed different opinions on how these
problems could be overcome. The suggestions for the solution of the problems made by the
respondent women have been given in Table 7.10.
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Scarcity of capital (15)
Low wage for women (5)
Low Involvement in PHAs of Potato
(100)
No community organization for women (10)
Low marketing facilities (10)
Lack of training on PHAs (40)
Inadequate number of cold storage (20)Lack of knowledge
and skill in PHAs (40)
Less interest in PHAs (5)
Less potato for PHAs (20)
Less cooperation in operating of PHAs (10)
Less interest with less unity (10)
Less motivated to PHAs (40)
Figure 7.2: Scored Causal Diagrams showing the involvement barrier of rural women in PHAs of potato
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Table 7.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve issues
Sl. No.
Suggested solutions Way to achieve
1. Increased training facilities according to their needs for increasing their knowledge and skill towards PHAs of potato as well as to have efficient manpower.
GOs and NGOs collaboration is needed
2. Establishing cold storage for the rural people Government and NGO can take proper initiatives to organize the community and offer soft loan to establish cold store under community management
3. Involving rural women in different PHAs of potato towards food security to increase their operational ability.
Government and private organization should take initiatives
4. Establish community organization for rural women GO and NGOs can take proper initiatives for them
5. Establishing processing centers for the rural women to build their capacity in PHAs.
Government can create special programs with the well known NGOs
6. Emphasizing the necessities of women involvement among the rural people with the help of local leaders.
Farmers should be motivated to aware the women by different communication media
7. Increased credit availability according to the need of the rural women regarding post harvest facilities of potato towards food security.
GOs and NGOs can take proper steps in this matter
Involvement of the rural women in PHAs is an important concern for controlling PHAs and
progress of socio-economic condition of the rural people. The study reveals that involvement
of the rural women in PHAs was medium to high, which is encouraging. Thus, proper
strategy and need-based support should be ensured in order to secure full involvement of the
rural women in PHAs. Linkage between GO and NGOs need to be strengthened to make sure
successful contribution of the rural women. The issues that might be dealt with are input and
technical information supply, training, inspiration operation and others.
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7. Case Study
Name of women: Ms Beauty RaniHusband’s name: Mr Parimol ChandraAddress: Kusum Shahor, Khetlal, Joypurhat
Ms Beauty Rani was a lady of 32 years and engaged in PHAs (PHAs) of potato along with home and homestead management. She completed her class eight education before she was married to Mr Parimol Cahndra. Mr Chandra was a farmer and had been cultivating potato along with other crops.
Ms Rani had three sons of which the first one (24 years) after completing his 10 years schooling got involved in farming. They had about 0.50 hectare of land for cultivation with an homestead area of about 0.15 ha. The mostly grown crops were rice, potato and vegetables of different types. Her homestead was occupied by some fruit trees, threshing ground and bamboo bush. The annual income of the family was about Taka 1,00,000.
The family land was occupied mostly by rice and potato cultivation. In the recent days, potato had been cultivated with high enthusiasm as the farmers counted good profit through modern cultivation. In potato season, her all crop land was covered by potato cultivation. She got a total production of 8,000 kg in 0.50 ha of land.
Other than family works and PHAs of potato, Ms Rani was not involved in any organization. She also did not receive any training from any organization on agricultural issues. She also did not borrow any credit form any organization. But she expressed very good mind to cope with any uncertainty either in her family or farming.
Ms Rani used to engage herself mostly in home and homestead activities. But a substantial time had been spent in PHAs of potato in its peak season. In the PHAs of potato, her involvement was mostly in sorting, grading, drying, packing, and storing. She needed to spend a long hours during the harvest. Specially, she manages the heap of potato when kept at house. Its temperature control, shed management and sorting for sale were tough and tiresome tasks, she mentioned. Another important activity of potato in house was keeping seed for next year, both for sale and own plantation. In spite of her substantial involvement in PHAs of potato she showed her deep interest in potato processing. She indicated:
“I can mange the grading, packing, storing and other activities more or less in a good way. But I am almost unable to process the potato for its better preservation and consumption in different ways. I heard of potato products like chip, flour, bread, fry etc. I like to learn how to process potato to prepare these things. It needs skill and am eager to achieve skill though training. I also need some materials and equipments to process potato. As a community need, I think, government should prepare more cold storage in our locality.”
Ms Rani did not receive any training on PHAs of vegetables or fruits. Her expected training areas were about sorting, grading, packing and storage of potato scientifically; disease control at house store; processing and preservation of potato and its products. Ms Rani was aware on nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits and used to take due care to maintain nutritive value of fruits and vegetables during harvest, cooking or consumption.
Regarding need for overall capacity building to conduct PHAs of vegetables and fruits, Ms Rani desires high need of it. Again on different aspects of need for capacity building she wanted mostly for skill development and marketing techniques. Skill development in preparation, packaging and storing of products and also handling of equipments if needed. Marketing information and exploration of marketing channels were also felt very important need to succeed in processing of potato.
With high involvement in PHAs of potato, she expected training support on various aspects of PHAs of vegetables, especially on potato. She thinks that related government and non-government organizations can train and help them to manage PHAs of vegetables in a successful and cost-effective manner. This would ultimately ensure enhanced participation of rural women in PHAs of vegetables and fruits leading to better living values.
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Section 5: MANGO
This Chapter contains the findings and their logical interpretations according to the objectives
of the study regarding mango.
1.1 Involvement of Women in PHAs of Mango
In order to have a clear picture of extent of involvement in PHAs, total score and
Involvement Index (II) of all PHAs for the respondents were computed which have described
in the following subsections. Involvement Index was expressed as%age and thus, it could
vary from 0 to 100. The computed II of the respondents ranged from 16.24 to 40.17 with an
average of 31.54 and standard deviation 4.70. Based on their II the respondents were
classified into three categories. Data presented in Table 8.1 show that 62% of the respondents
had low involvement in PHAs compared to 38% medium involved while none of them were
highly involved in PHAs of mango.
Table 8.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of mango Possible Range: 0-100, Observed Range: 16.24-40.17
Respondents MeanStandard deviation
Categories Number %
31.54 4.70Low (≤ 33) 31 62
Medium (34-67) 19 38
High (>67) 0 0
The findings clearly indicate that 100% of the respondents had involvement in PHAs of
mango low to medium. It was observed in the study area while collecting the data that there
was scarcity of post harvest facilities of mango and even a little facility was available but
those were not in accessible form for the rural women. Moreover the mango trees of this
study area were sold out for several years to the mango traders. For this reason involvement
of women in PHAs of mango were low to medium. Economic, social/religious and
psychological status of the respondents were also responsible for low participation.
In the study area, it was found that more or less every family had been involved themselves in
some specific PHAs. Most of the women had been involved in processing of mango (pickles,
chutney, amta or amchur), seed storage or raising seedling, ripening and short term storage of
mango only for homestead use. In some cases they had been participated in sorting and
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grading of mango. In order to rank involvement status in PHAs total score was calculated for
involvement in each of the PHAs (Table 8.2).
Table 8.2 Ranking of total score of the extent of involvement in different PHAs of mango
Post Harvest Activities Total score Rank order
Processing of mango (pickles, chutney, amta, etc.) 450 1Seed storage or raising seedling 413 2Short-term storage for homestead use 405 3Ripening of mango for homestead use 399 4Sorting and grading 164 5Packaging 16 6
Table 8.2 shows that highest score of participation was found in processing of mango. It is
very much rational that the women were mainly involved in preparation of pickles from green
mango and amta from ripe mango for homestead use. Then the second highest score was
found in seed storage or raising seedling. In previous days, seed of mango was useless but
now-a-days it is very important as the seedling of mango is used as ‘root stock’. This is
totally done by women and children of the house. Then ripening of mango used got the third
and fourth position respectively. And finally sorting and grading and packaging got fifth and
sixth position respectively.
1.2 Characteristics of the Women
There were various characteristics of the women that influenced their extent of need for
capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango. In the present study, twelve
characteristics of the women were selected as independent variables, which included age,
education, dependency ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income, organizational
participation, decision making capacity in the family, training exposure, credit received,
ability to cope with uncertainty, daily time allocation for PHAs, awareness on nutrition of
vegetables and fruits. The salient features of characteristics of the respondents have been
presented in Table 8.3.
The Table 8.3 revealed that 32% of the respondents were middle-aged, 60% were young and
8% of them were old-aged. Akhter (2007), Hasan (2006) and Sharmin (2005) found similar
distribution of respondents in different age categories in their respective studies. Data
indicate that more than half of the respondents were young-aged and only 8% were old-aged
and rest of them were middle-aged. This is fairly logical, because it is expected that the
young and middle-aged women are more active, energetic and enthusiastic in performing
PHAs of mango. It was observed from the research that most of the young women were very
95
much interested in mango processing training and also paying attention to involve them in
carrying out PHAs of mango. Data presented in Table 8.3 indicate that more than half of the
respondents (52%) of the study area secured primary level of education. These findings were
supported by Alam (2001) and Hossain (2000). It was interesting that 92% of the respondents
were literate. It was logical, because only few of the respondents were old-aged and
education was generally negatively correlated with age. So, most of the respondents were
literate.
Table 8.3 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of mango
Characteristics (Measurement units)
Range RespondentMean
Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %
Age (year)- 20-55
Young (≤30)Middle aged(31-45)Old (>45)
30164
60328
32.16 8.39
Education(year of schooling)
- 0-14
Illiterate (0)Primary (1-5)Secondary (6-10)Higher secondary (>10)
426182
852364
4.64 3.98
Dependency ratio of the family (ratio) - 0.33-7
Low (≤2)Medium (2.1-4)High (>4)
21236
424612
2.95 1.53
Farm size (hectare)
- 0.01-3.71
Landless ( < 0.02)Marginal (.021-.2)Small (0.21-1.0)Medium (1.01-3.0)Large (>3.0)
3172442
6344884
0.59 0.82
Annual family income (‘000’ Taka) - 26-475.20
Low (≤50)Medium (51-100)High (>100)
17267
345214
76.92 65.03
Organizational participation (score) - 1-6
Low (≤2)Moderate (3-4)High (>4)
3893
76186
1.86 1.25
Daily time allocation (hours) - 2-7.5
Low(≤3)Medium(3.1-6)High(>6)
18293
36586
4.02 1.40
Decision making capacity in the family (score)
0-40 11-31Weak (≤13)Moderate (14-26)Strong (>26)
1409
28018
21.50 4.42
Training exposure (score) - 0-8
Null (0)Short-term (1-3)Mid-term (>3)
11381
22762
1.28 1.36
Credit received(‘000’ Taka) - 0-30
Small (≤10)Medium (11-20)High (>20)
4631
9262
4.88 5.6
Ability to cope with uncertainty (score) 0-24 7-16
Less (≤8)Moderate (9-16)Strong (>16)
15350
30700
10.06 2.12
Awareness (score)0-15 7-14
Low (≤5)Medium(6-10)High (>10)
03726
07426
9.50 2.11
96
49
0
4844
1
50
26
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
ASA PROSHIKA Grameen Bank Others
No participationParticipation
Figure 8.1: Status of women participation in different organizations
Table 8.3 reveals that most of the respondents had medium dependency ratio of their family.
It was due to higher unemployment rate of the study area. The findings supported by Ahmed
(2007). Almost half of the respondents (48%) had small farm size while 34% of them had
marginal farm size. It indicates that most of the families (about 82%) possess a small sized
cultivable land. For this reason there were only a few (4%) large farm families and 8%
medium farm families. Akhter (2007), Rasel (2004), and Rashid (2004) also found similar
findings in their respective studies. The highest (52%) proportion of the women had medium
annual family income while 34% and 14% of them had low and high annual family income
respectively. Akhter (2007), Rashid (2004) and Akter (2003) supported this distribution of
the respondents. Most of the respondents (76%) had less participation while 18% had
moderate and only 6% of them had high participation in different organizations. Rasel (2004)
and Hossain (2000) observed similar findings in their respective studies.
Figure 8.1 graphically represents the status of the respondent women involvement in different
organizations. As all the respondents were the members of NCDP and here PROSHIKA was
the partner NGO of NCDP. That is why all the respondents were involved with PROSHIKA.
But some of them were also involved with Grameen Bank, Association for Social
Advancement (ASA), TMSS (Thengamara Mohila Sabuj Sangha) etc. Though all
respondents were members of NCDP, most of the respondents were involved with less
number of organizations for less number of years. It might be due to women who are
normally less affiliated with organizations than those of male were the respondents of the
present study.
97
The highest (80%) proportion of the women had moderate capacity while 18% of them had
strong and the rest 2% of them had weak decision making capacity in the family. The
distribution of the respondents regarding decision making capacity in the family was
supported by Ahmed (2007) and Sharmin (2005). Data contained in the Table 8.3 show that
the highest (76%) proportion of the women had short-term training exposure while only 2%
of them had mid-term training experience and 22% of them had no training exposure.
Training exposure is directly related with organizational affiliation. Though most of the
respondents involve in NCDP group their training exposure was very low in case of PHAs of
mango. The highest (92%) proportion of the women had received small credit while 6%
received medium credit and the rest 2% of them received high credit. Ahmed (2007) also
found similar findings in her respective study. It was found that majority of the women in the
study area were in moderate category of decision making capacity in the family. Most of the
respondents (70%) were found to have moderate ability to cope with uncertainty. Data
contained in the Table 8.3 show that 74% women had medium awareness and 26% had high
and none of them had low awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits. The results were
satisfactory because most of the women were literate and they know about the nutritional
aspects of vegetables and fruits. But in practical situation they didn't practice according to
their knowledge due to proper awareness. Moreover most of the women were very
traditional.
Table 8.3 show that the highest (58%) proportion of the women had moderate time allocation
while 6% of them had high and the rest 36% of them had low time allocation in the family.
Their daily time allocation for PHAs were low to medium due lack of proper post harvest
facilities for mango. Moreover PHAs are seasonal activities. During mango season they
worked all day long. But in other times they spent their time in other purposes. As a result
their average daily time allocation for PHAs was low to medium.
1.3 Need for Capacity Strengthening of Women
Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to measure the extent of need for
capacity strengthening of women. The findings have been interpreted in the following
subsections.
1.3.1 Overall need for capacity strengthening
The extent of need for capacity strengthening of women was assessed in terms of need index
for capacity strengthening (NICS). The NICS values could range from 0 to 100. The observed
NICS values ranged from 55.56 to 97.53 with an average of 84.25 and standard deviation of
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11.81. Based on their NICS values the respondents were classified into three categories as
shown in Table 8.4.
Data presented in the Table 8.4 show that the highest proportion (86%) of the respondents
had high extent of need while the rest 14% of them had medium and none of them had low
extent of need for capacity strengthening of women. Ahmed (2007) found similar distribution
in her respective study.
Table 8.4 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of mango Score range: Possible: 0-100, Observed: 55.56-97.53
RespondentsMean Std. Dev.
Categories No. %
Low (≤33)
Medium (34-66)
High (>66)
0
7
43
0
14
86
84.25 11.81
The findings clearly indicate that majority of the respondents had high need for capacity
strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango. It was observed in the study area while
collecting the data that there was scarcity of post harvest facilities of mango and even a little
facility was available but those were not in accessible form for the rural women. Moreover
the respondents of this study were less involved in PHAs of mango. But they kept desire to
participate in income generating activities like PHAs to increase their family income. But
they could not do due to lack of knowledge and sufficient facilities of PHAs of mango. Thus,
the respondents logically felt high need for their capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs
of mango.
1.3.2 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women
Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to assess the extent of need for
capacity strengthening of women in carrying out PHAs of mango. The computed NICS
values of all the dimensions have been shown in Table 8.5. However, for more clarifying
picture has been presented in Figure 8.2 in order to have a contrasting view of dimension-
wise need for capacity building of women.
Data presented in Table 8.5 indicate that most of the women fell in high need category for all
the dimensions of capacity strengthening. The highest proportion (86%) of the respondents
was in high need for management skill while only 14% of them had medium need for this
dimension. It is due to lack of knowledge and sufficient training facilities in carrying out
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PHAs of mango in the study area. Then second highest proportion (80) of the respondents
was in high need for physical facilities while 20% of them had medium need for this
dimension.
Table 8.5 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of Mango
Dimension of capacity strengthening(measuring unit)
Range Respondents
MeanStd.Dev.Possible Observed Categories No. %
Need for financial ability (%) 0-100 50-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)
01535
03070
85.33 18.64
Need for decision making ability (%)
0-100 55.56-88.89Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)
01634
03268
76.89 10.84
Need for access to support services (%)
0-100 50-100Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)
01139
02278
81.67 12.86
Need for management skill (%)
0-100 66.67-100Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)
0743
01486
92.11 11.12
Need for physical facilities (%) 0-100 46.67-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)
01040
02080
85.87 16.86
The reason behind the findings was that, lack of sufficient support services such as cold
storage, marketing facilities, transport, access to credit and development workers for advices.
For rest of the dimension of need, the majority of the respondents felt high need for capacity
strengthening. It was normal that the women did not have low need for any dimensions of
capacity strengthening. It was quite logical because none of the dimensions existed in
satisfactory level rather than in low level. Thus, it was a simple analogy that the components
available in low quantity would be felt as high need components.
Table 8.6 shows that highest score was obtain in case of processing regarding decision
making ability and preservation facilities of cold storage regarding access to support services.
It is due to lack of cold storage facilities and processing equipment in the study area. Second
highest score was obtain in case of packaging regarding decision making ability due to lack
of modern packaging materials and low involvement in commercial activities of mango. Then
storing regarding decision making ability, handling of post harvest equipment regarding
management skill and processing materials or equipment regarding access to support services
got third position due to lack of training on the topic of PHAs of mango. Then fourth and
fifth highest extent of need was in the processing of fruits and vegetables and operational
ability regarding management skill and store house regarding need for physical facilities. In
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the study area it was found that no training was provided by any organization to the
respondents on PHAs of mango to change their skill and attitude. Again there were no storage
facilities in the Shibganj upazila for storage of mango. That is why the farmers felt high
extent of need in management skill and physical facilities.
Table 8.6 Ranking of the issues of need for capacity strengthening of the respondents
Items Score Rank
Need for financial abilityCapital 136 1Processing-equipment 133 2Credit 122 3Labor purchase 121 4Need for decision making abilityProcessing 150 1Packaging 146 2Storing 144 3Selling of vegetables fruits 134 4Collection 59 5Grading 59 6Need for access to support services Preservation facilities of cold storage 150 1Development workers for advice 131 2Access to credit 129 3Marketing channel/facilities 123 4Transport 113 5Labor market 89 6Need for management skill Handling of post harvest equipments 144 1Processing of fruits and vegetables 143 2Operational ability 141 3Preservation of seeds 141 3Financial management 138 4Market facility exploitation 122 5Need for physical facilitiesProcessing materials/ equipment 144 1Store house 141 2Processing ground 122 3Sales centers 122 4Transport/vehicles 115 5
Figure 8.2 shows that the highest extent of need (92) of the respondents was in management
skill having the relative weight of need 23% and the lowest extent of need (77) was for
decision making ability with relative weight of need 18%. It might be worthy to mention here
that the differences among the components of capacity strengthening in respect of need felt
by the respondents were small. Therefore, the respondent women felt need more or less same
for all the dimensions of capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango.
101
20%
18%
19%
23%
20%
Need for financial ability
Need for decision making ability
Need for access to support services
Need for management skill
Need for physical facilities
Figure 8.2 Pie graph showing dimension wise need for capacity strengthening
1.4 Training Need in Carrying out PHAs of Mango
The training need values ranged from 47 to 54 with a mean 50.56 and standard deviation of
1.68. All the women felt high need for training in carrying out PHAs of mango.
Table 8.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of mango
Range RespondentMean
Std.
Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %
0-100 47-54
Low(≤24)
Medium(25-30)
High(>30)
0
0
50
0
0
100
50.56 1.68
Data presented in the Table 8.7 show that all of the respondents had high training need. This
might be due to inadequate training offered by Government organization or other NGOs.
Most of the respondents had short-term training experience as stated earlier. The rural women
in the study area kept desire to participate in income generating activities such as PHAs of
mango but they could not do due to lack of knowledge and sufficient information about the
expected activities. Thus, all of the respondents fell in the high training need category.
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Table 8.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of mango
Post Harvest ActivitiesTotal Score
Rank
Dumping and waxing 150 1
Increasing of shelf-life of fruits 150 1
Biological treatments for disease and pest control 150 1
Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control 150 1
Chemical treatments for disease and pest control 150 1
Using packaging materials 150 1
Processing of mango (jam, jelly, pickles, sauces and chutney etc.) 150 1Heat treatments for preservation 150 1
Low temperature treatment for preservation 150 1
Chemical treatment for preservation 150 1Preservation by drying, dehydration and fermentation 150 1
Storage 150 1
Handling of modern equipment 148 2
Degreening and ripening 148 2
Care taking of seed 148 2
Transportation and marketing of mango 145 3
Sorting and grading 59 5
Table 8.8 shows that the extent of training need of the respondents in carrying out PHAs of
mango more or less similar in all the activities. They had done all the activities traditionally.
They did not know about modern technology of PHAs of mango. Even they did not receive
any training regarding PHAs of mango from any organization. That is why they felt high
extent of training need. But they felt less extent of training need in case of sorting and
grading and determination of maturity index. Because they had been doing these traditionally.
But in case of dumping and waxing, handling of modern equipment, disease and pest control,
processing, increasing of shelf-life, they felt high extent of need.
1.5 Relationships between the Selected Characteristics of the Women and Their Extent of Need for Capacity Strengthening
Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation (r) was computed in order to explore
the relationships between the selected characteristics of the women and their extent of need
for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango. The coefficient of correlation (r)
was used to test the null hypothesis regarding the relationship between two concerned
variables. The relationship between the dependent and independent variables has been
presented in Table 8.9. However, the correlation matrix of dependent and independent
variables for the women has been presented in Appendix-B in order to have a clear
exploration of the inter-correlation among the variables.
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Table 8.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables
Independent variables ‘r’ value with 48 df
Age -.062Education -.362**
Dependency ratio of the family -.017
Farm size -.447**
Annual family income -.613**
Organizational participation -.134
Decision making capacity in the family -.166Training exposure -.095
Credit received -.324*
Ability to cope with uncertainty -.285*
Daily time allocation .041Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits .245
** Significant at the 0.01 level * Significant at the 0.05 level
Based on the computed ‘r’ value the relationship between age and extent of need for capacity
strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango was non-significant and followed a relative
trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it could be said that
age the respondents was not an important indicator for the extent of need for capacity
strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango. Sarkar (2005), Naoroze (2004), Asaduzzaman
(2003) and Begum et al. (2000) found similar relationships between age and need in their
respective studies.
The relationship between education and extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying
out PHAs of mango was significant and followed a negative trend. Hence, the concerned null
hypothesis could be rejected. Thus, it could be said that at least for the present study,
education of the respondents did not play significant role on expressing their extent of need
for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango. Education is positively significant
with family farm size and annual income (Appendix B). The women had high level of
education possess higher farm size and annual income. As a result they felt less need for
capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango as the farm size and annual income
negatively significant with need for capacity strengthening. Moreover, the multi-colinearity
of variables might have impact on such unusual outcomes.
The relationship between dependency ratio of the family and extent of need for capacity
strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango was non-significant and followed a positive
104
trend. Thus, dependency ratio of the family of the women did not play significant role on
their extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango. Ahmed
(2007) similar relationship between dependency ratio and need in her respective study.
The relationship between farm size and extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying
out PHAs of mango was significant and followed a negative trend. Hence, the concerned null
hypothesis could be rejected. Thus, it was decided that family farm and homestead size of the
women play significant role on their extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying out
PHAs of mango. Similar relationships were observed by Ahmed (2007) in her studies. Family
farm size is an important indicator of power. When the farm size increases the owners bear an
increased extent of power. Thus, the women having more family farm size felt less need for
capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango.
Relationship between family income and extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying
out PHAs of mango was significant and followed a negative trend. Hence, the concerned null
hypothesis could be rejected. Thus, it could be said that at least for the present study, family
income of the women played significant role on their extent of need for capacity
strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango. Similar relationships were observed by Ahmed
(2007), Sarkar (2005), Asaduzzaman (2003) in their respective studies. It was so, because the
families having higher income might need fewer amounts of post harvest facilities of mango.
Thus, annual family income exerted significant negative effect on the need for capacity
strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango.
The relationship between organizational participation, decision making capacity, training
exposure and extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango was
non-significant. Thus, it was inferred that these three variables of the women did not
significantly influence the extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of
mango. Bhowmick (2004) mentioned similar relationship incase of organizational
participation in his study. Ahmed (2007) and Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between
training exposures and need of the respondents their respective studies.
The relationship between credit received and extent of need for capacity strengthening in
carrying out PHAs of mango was significant and followed a negative trend. Hence, the
concerned null hypothesis could be rejected. Thus, it could be said that credit received of the
women played significant role on their extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying
out PHAs of mango. During data collection it was observed that, the respondents used loan
mostly in other business than to invest in post harvest or processing of mango due to lack of
105
sufficient facilities. This is may be reason behind the findings that the women who received
high credit felt less need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango. The
relationship between ability to cope with uncertainty and extent of need for capacity
strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango was significant and followed a negative trend.
Thus, it was concluded that ability to cope with uncertainty of the women play a significant
role on their extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango.
Ability to cope with uncertainty was significantly related with the extent of need for capacity
strengthening of women in carrying out PHAs of mango because the most of the respondents
had similar ability to cope with uncertain situations like accidents, crop failure, scarcity of
money, unavailability of labor etc. The relationship between daily time allocation, awareness
on nutrition of vegetables and fruits and extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying
out PHAs of mango was non-significant and followed a negative trend
1.6 Problem Confrontation in Involvement in PHAs of Mango
Constraints faced by the respondents in involving PHAs were measured through making
Scored Causal Diagrams (SCDs) of Participatory Farm Management (PFM) method.
Problems in involving PHAs were discussed with a selected group of respondents, assuming
the ‘end problem’ being ‘low involvement in PHAs (PHA) of Mango’. Firstly the problems
mentioned by the respondents were listed, secondly diagrams were drawn by them on the
ground to show causal relationships between the problems, and finally scoring of selected
problems was performed again by them. In this way SCDs was prepared by the group of
respondents (Figure 8.3). The problems identified by the group has been listed here with their
relative importance indicated by the original score numbers as shown inside the parentheses.
End problem: Low involvement in PHAs (100) of Mango.
Intermediary problems
(i) Lack of knowledge and skill (40)(ii) Low market price (25) (iii) Low decision-making ability in family (20) (iv) Conservativeness (20)(v) Lack of interest in mango processing (20)(vi) Women are restricted to go outside (15)
Root causes
(i) Lack of training on PHAs of mango (40)(ii) Social/religious barrier (15)(iii) Lack of cold storage (15)(iv) Lack of processing equipments (12)(v)) Lack of marketing facilities (8)(vi) Lack of proper packaging materials (5)(vii) Disease and pest outbreaks and lack of proper treatment (5)
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Among the ‘root’ causes ‘lack of training on PHAs of mango’ got the highest score then
‘social/religious barrier’ and ‘lack of cold storage’. It was highly logical because lack of
training caused lack of knowledge and skill resulting in low decision-making ability,
conservativeness and accordingly there was low involvement in PHAs. Social/religious
barrier keeps away the women from any improvement so their participation in PHAs were
restricted by this problem. Lack of cold storage in the study area results in low market price
of mango which ultimately resulted in low involvement. According to the score, in third
position ‘root causes’ was placed ‘lack of processing equipments’ results laziness and lack of
interest for mango processing. Then ‘lack of marketing facilities’ also results lack of interest
for mango processing which ultimately results in low involvement in PHAs. Then ‘lack of
proper packaging materials’ and ‘disease and pest out breaks and lack of proper treatment’
also cause low market price of mango and it results in low involvement in PHAs of mango.
Suggested solutions to the ‘root’ causes
Participants of the group engaged in the preparation of SCD were requested to mention
possible solutions to the ‘root’ causes of low involvement in PHAs. They made the following
suggestions through discussing with one another. Giving priority to their needs the
suggestions are presented in the following Table8.10.
Involvement of the rural women in PHAs is an important issue for empowering and
improvement of socio-economic condition of the rural people atlest for this study area. The
study reveals that participation of the rural women in PHAs was low to medium, which was
not encouraging. Now it is the time to take proper strategy and need-based support in order to
secure full participation of the rural women in PHAs. Linkage between GO, NGOs and
private sector need to be strengthened to ensure effective participation of the rural women.
The issues that might be dealt with are input and technical information supply, training,
motivation campaign and others.
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Figure 8.3 Scored Causal Diagrams showing the involvement barrier of women in PHAs of mango
Low involvement in PHAs of Mango (100)
Lack of knowledge and skill (40)
Conservativeness (20)
Low decision-making in PHAs (20)
Low market price (25)
Lack of interest in mango processing (20)
Lack of proper packaging materials
(5)
Lack of processing
equipments (12)
Lack of marketing facilities (8)
Lack of cold storage (15)
Women are restricted to go outside (15)
Social/religious barrier (15)
Disease and pest outbreak and lack of proper treatment (5)
Lack of training on PHA of mango
(40)
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Table 8.10 Suggested solutions with ways to achieve the issues
Sl. No.
Suggested solutions Way to achieve
1. Arranging special training programs on PHAs of mango Need GOs and NGOs collaboration
2. Encouraging the rural women to participate in PHAs through different extension communication media like personal contact of extension personnel, result demonstrations, block demonstrations, television, radio, newspaper, leaflet, booklet etc.
Extension personnel should be more careful about women participation in PHAs
3. Establishment of cold storage Need GOs, NGOs andprivate sectors collaboration
4. Emphasizing the necessities of women participation among the rural people with the help of local leaders, imams, purohit etc.
Government can create special programs with the well known NGOs
5. Creating micro-credit facilities especially for the women on mango processing and exploitation of marketing facilities.
GOs and NGOs can take proper steps in this matter
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7. Case Study
Name of women: Ms ShahanaraHusband’s name: Mr Md ShahjahanAddress: Pithali Tola, Sadar Upazila, Nawabganj
Ms Shahanara was a middle aged lady of 35 years engaged in PHAs of mango along with home and homestead management. She completed primary education before she was married to Mr Shahjahan who was a farmer and grow mango as well.
Ms Shahanara lived with her husband and two children, one son and one daughter. They had about a hectare of land for cultivation with a homestead area of about 0.25 ha. Another 0.50 ha of land they cultivate under lease. Additionally, they had 0.30 ha orchard of mango. The mostly grown crops were rice, vegetables of different types, sugarcane, garlic and others. The annual income of the family was about Taka 2,50,000.
The mango garden is not so large but they used to take utmost care to produce different types of quality mango. They had trees of mango like langra, fazli, gopalbhog and khirshapat. Some of the trees are old and some are new which yield to a satisfactory level. Major part of the garden was leased out for years. Last year they leased out at Taka 3,50,000 for three years. But some of the trees they kept under their own management for own family consumption, self-sale and some processing.
Ms Shahanara showed a great zeal for processing and other PHAs of mango and other fruits. She helped her husband in taking care of mango orchard. She attended the activities of fertilizing mango trees, spraying small flowers and buds of mango, harvesting, cooling, grading, packing of mango. Especially, she used to take special care of collected mango to keep for ripening in the house which could be used for household consumption or periodic sale. Among the processing of mango she used to prepare juice manually, dense juice as amta/amshatto, amchur (dried green mango) etc.
She used to do all these PHAs through her own initiatives. She agreed that she could do some of the activities but lacked a many of the modern techniques of PHAs. She told in the way:
“I do all these PHAs from my own interest and curiosity. I learned some of these from my mother and presently from my neighbor. I like to do all these PHAs in a better way through increasing my capacity and skill. But I do not have enough skill, money and thus, scope to do more of mango PHAs. I strongly believe that if I could increase my capacity to do PHAs of mango and other fruits, better preservation and consumption of mango could be done at my house. Again, through processing of mango I could make some products which can be used at house and earn good amount of money from selling of products. To make my will true I need help from any organization or person.”
Unfortunately, she did not receive any training on PHAs of vegetables or fruits except only one day training on IPM for some crops. Yet her expected training areas were about determination of maturity index of fruits; sorting, grading, packing and storage of fruits in scientific ways; fruit disease control at house store; processing and preservation of fruits and fruit products. She did not borrow any credit from any organization but had a moderate role of decision-making in the family. Ms Shahanara was aware on nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits and used to take due care to maintain nutritive value of fruits and vegetables during harvest, cooking or consumption.
Regarding need for overall capacity building to conduct PHAs of vegetables and fruits, Ms Shahanara desired high need of it. Again on different aspects of capacity building (i.e. need for financial and decision making abilities, access to support services, management skill and physical facilities) she aspired mostly for skill development and physical facilities.
With moderate involvement in overall PHAs of vegetables and fruits, she expected training support on various aspects of PHAs of fruits, especially on mango. She thinks that related government and non-government organizations can train and help them to manage PHAs of fruits in a successful and profitable manner. This would ultimately increase the enhanced participation of rural women in PHAs of vegetables and fruits leading to better livelihood standards.
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Section 6: BANANA
This Chapter contains the findings and their logical interpretations according to the objectives
of the present study regarding banana.
1. Involvement of Rural Women in PHAs of Banana
Involvement score of the respondents in different PHAs of banana ranged from 0 to 29.17
with a mean of 19.04 and standard deviation of 5.31 (Table 9.1). On the basis of involvement,
the respondents were divided into three categories.
Table 9.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of banana
Score Range: Possible 0-100, Observed: 00-29.17Respondents Mean Standard deviation
Categories Number %
19.04 5.31Low (≤ 33) 50 100
Medium (34-66) 0 0
High (>66) 0 0
Data in the Table 9.1 show that all (100%) the women had low involvement in the PHAs of
banana. Most of the respondents had similar involvement in PHAs like storage and collection
of sucker, insect and disease control, transport from field to house, harvesting etc.
Among the selected PHAs of banana, the highest involvement of rural women was in storage
and collection of sucker followed by insect and disease control and that was lowest in cooling
of banana (Table 9.2). Sucker collection and storage are vital task in banana cultivation.
Without healthy sucker desired yield can never be obtained. Besides, some of the diseases of
banana can drastically reduce the harvest. After harvesting the bananas, they must be
transported to house immediately other wise may be degraded with the scorching sunshine
and reduced humidity. For these reasons the involvement of rural women in these activities
was higher.
Table 9.2 Ranking of total score of involvement of rural women in different PHAs of banana
PHAs Total score Rank orderStorage or collection of sucker 277 1Insect and disease control 263 2Transport from field to house 237 3Sorting and grading 123 4Ripening 71 5Packaging 36 6Washing and cleaning of banana 35 7Cooling 33 8
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2. Need for Capacity Strengthening of Rural Women
In the present study, ‘capacity strengthening’ of the rural women towards PHAs of banana
towards food security was defined as the extent to which they have the accessibility to
financial, physical, managerial and support services as well as the ability to make decision
about utilizing the PHAs of banana towards food security. Need for capacity strengthening of
women was the main focus of the present research work. Five dimensions of capacity
strengthening were selected to measure the extent of need for capacity strengthening of
women. The findings have been presented in the following subsections.
2.1 Overall need for capacity strengthening
The extent of need for capacity strengthening of women was assessed in terms of need index
for capacity strengthening (NICS). The NICS values could range from 0 to 100. The observed
NICS values ranged from 56.79 to 98.77 with an average of 79.46 and standard deviation of
8.85. Based on their NICS values the respondents were classified into three categories as
shown in Table 9.3.
Table 9.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of banana Score Range: Possible: 0-100, Observed: 56.79-98.77
Respondents Mean Std. Dev.Categories No. %
Low (≤33)
Medium (34-67)
High (>67)
0
5
45
0
10
90
79.46 8.85
Presented data showed that the most (90%) of the respondents had high extent of need and a
few (10%) of them had medium and none of them had low extent of need for capacity
strengthening in PHAs of banana towards food security. The findings clearly indicate that
most of the respondents had high need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of banana.
While collecting the data, it was observed that there was scarcity of post harvest facilities
were of banana and their storage facilities also insufficient. The respondents are not getting
appropriate price according their labour and cost of production. Thus, the respondents
logically felt high need for their capacity strengthening towards PHAs of banana.
2.2 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of rural women
Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to assess the extent of need for
capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of banana towards food security. The
computed NICS values of all the dimensions have been shown in Table 9.4.
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Table 9.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of banana
Dimension of capacity strengthening(measuring unit)
Range RespondentsMeanNICS
Std.Dev.Possible Observed Categories No. %
Need for financial ability (%) 0-100 50-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)
01238
02476
79.50 11.32
Need for decision making ability (%) 0-100 50-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)
01634
03268
78.22 14.32
Need for access to support services (%) 0-100 55.56-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)
01139
02278
78.44 13.68
Need for management skill (%)
0-100 55.56-100Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)
09
41
01882
80.22 10.36
Need for physical facilities (%) 0-100 60-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)
01040
02080
81.20 10.75
Data presented in Table 9.4 indicate that most of the women fell in high need category for
most of the dimensions of capacity strengthening. The highest proportion (82%) of the
respondents was in high need for management skill. The average need index for capacity
strengthening ranged from 78.22 to 81.20. The highest index was for physical facilities and
the lowest was for decision making ability. Findings clearly indicate that need for capacity
strengthening was about similar for all the components but need for physical facilities like
storage facilities were crucial.
Table 9.5 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondents
Items Score RankNeed for financial capitalProcessing-equipment 136 1Credit 120 2Labor purchase 112 3Capital 109 4Need for decision making abilityProcessing 141 1Storing 132 2Selling of vegetables fruits 125 3Grading 94 4Collection 92 5Need for access to support servicesAccess to credit 131 1Development workers for advice 122 2Marketing channel/facilities 116 3Preservation facilities of cold storage 114 4Transport 114 4Labor market 109 5
113
Need for management skill Processing of fruits and vegetables 136 1Handling of post harvest equipments 134 2Operational ability 127 3Financial management 112 4Market facility exploitation 111 5Preservation of seeds 102 6Need for physical facilitiesProcessing materials/equipment 136 1Store house 127 2Sales centers 117 3Processing ground 116 4Transport/vehicles 113 5
Data presented in Table 9.5 show that in case of need for financial ability, processing-
equipment scoring highest and processing was highest in case of need for decision making
ability. In case of need for access to support services, access to credit scoring highest and in
case of need for management skill, processing of fruits and vegetables scoring highest and
finally processing materials/equipment scoring highest in case of need for physical facilities.
Figure 9.1 illustrates that need for physical facilities were dominated over other dimensions
of need for capacity strengthening of the rural women in carrying out PHAs of banana. Need
for decision making ability was the lowest among five dimensions of need for capacity
strengthening. The physical facilities including processing materials, store house, sales center
etc. were lacking in the study area. Eventually they were deprived from getting appropriate
price of their produces. On the other hand, the rural women generally know when to harvest,
how to collect and when to sell the harvested banana. That is why need for capacity
strengthening was highest for physical facilities and the lowest for decision making ability.
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76
77
78
79
80
81
82
Fina
ncial a
bility
Decision mak
ing ab
ility
Acces
s to sup
port se
rvice
s
Man
agem
ent s
kill
Physica
l fac
ilities
Ave
rage
sco
re
Figure 9.1 Need for capacity strengthening regarding various dimensions
3. Selected Characteristics of the Rural Women
The selected rural women posed various characteristics that influenced their extent of need
for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of banana. For the present study, only 12
characteristics of the rural women were selected as independent variables viz. age, education,
dependency ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income, organizational participation,
awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits, daily time allocation, decision making
capacity in the family, training exposure, credit received and ability to cope with uncertainty.
The selected characteristics of the respondents have been presented in Table 9.6.
The study was conducted with the rural women who were more or less involved in PHAs of
banana. Among the respondents most of them were either young or middle aged (44 and 40%
respectively) whereas 48 and 44% of them had education at primary and secondary levels,
respectively. Most (70%) of the respondents had medium family size and half (50%) of the
respondents had low dependency ratio of the family. Majority (70%) of them had small farm
size while 12% and 18% of them in marginal and medium farm size, respectively. Farm
income of the respondents was higher than that of non-farm income. Majority of the
respondents had (42%) had medium annual family income while 34% and 24% of them had
high and low annual family income, respectively. In case of organizational participation,
more than three-fourths (76%) of the respondents had low organizational participation.
Women were highly aware of nutrition of vegetables and fruits (70%), 28% of them had
115
medium awareness and only 2% had low awareness. Highest (60%) proportion of the women
had moderate time allocation while 40% of them had low time allocation for PHAs of banana
in the period of harvesting. Majority (78%) of the respondents did not have any training
experience and rest of them had short-term to mid-term training exposure.
Table 9.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of banana
Characteristics (Measurement units)
Range RespondentMean
Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %
Age (year)- 20-60
Young (≤ 30)Middle aged(31-45)Old (>45)
22208
444016
34.84 10.17
Education(year of schooling)
- 0-12
Illiterate (0)Primary (1-5)Secondary (6-10)Higher secondary (>10)
324221
648442
5.40 3.60
Family size2-8
Small (≤3)Medium (4-6)large(>6)
10355
207010
4.66 1.39
Dependency ratio of the family (ratio)
- 0-5Low (≤2)Medium (2.1-4)High (>4)
25223
50446
2.42 1.35
Farm size (hectare)
- .05-2.93
Landless ( < 0.02)Marginal (.021-.2)Small (0.21-1.0)Medium (1.1-3.0)Large (>3.0)
06
3590
01270180
0.68 .62
Annual family income (‘000’ Taka)
- 15.7-578.75Low (≤50)Medium (51-100)High (>100)
122117
244234
114 101.12
Organizational participation (score)
- 0-9Low (≤2)Moderate (3-4)High (>4)
38102
76204
1.42 1.76
Awareness (score)0-15 4-15
Less(≤5)Medium(6-10)High(>10)
11435
22870
11.86 2.39
Daily time allocation (hours) - .00-6
Low(≤3)Medium(3.1-6)High(>6)
20300
40600
3.83 1.71
Decision making capacity in the family (score)
0-40 10-40Weak (≤13)Moderate (14-26)Strong (>26)
30191
60382
14.46 6.11
Training exposure (score) - .00-90
Null (0)Short-term (1-3)Mid-term (>3)
3992
78184
2.66 12.89
Credit received(‘000’ Taka) - .00-100
Small (≤10)Medium (11-20)High (>20)
3677
721414
9.02 16.44
Ability to cope with uncertainty (score)
0-24 7-21Less (≤8)Moderate (9-16)Strong (>16)
171518
343036
13.62 5.27
Among the respondents, 72% received small credit while 14% medium and the rest 14%
received high amount of credit. The average score of ability to cope with uncertainty by the
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respondents was 13.62 and the respondents were well distributed among the categories of
ability to cope with uncertainty.
4. Training need of the women
The training need for capacity strengthening of women ranged from 36 to 46 with an average
of 40.32 and standard deviation of 3.25. Based on their NICS values the respondents were
classified into three categories as shown in Table 9.7.
Table 9.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of banana
Range Respondent Mean Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %
0-100 36-46
Low(≤24)
Medium(25-30)
High(>30)
0
0
50
0
0
100
40.32 3.25
Findings show that all of the respondents had high training need for all of the activities. The
reason behind this condition was most of the respondents had low involvement in any
developmental organization. Therefore, they received low training facilities and ultimately
their training need was high.
Data contained in Table 9.8 show that extent of training need of the rural women regarding
increasing shelf-life of fruits was the highest and ranked in first position followed by bottling
and canning and processing of banana. On the other hand, training on sorting and grading
was the lowest. It is obvious that training on the activities which require high technical
knowledge was highly needed by the rural women. For this reason, training on cooling,
sorting and grading was needed by the rural women to the lowest extent.
Table 9.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of banana
Post Harvest Activities Total Score RankIncreasing of shelf-life of fruits 149 1Bottling and canning 146 2Processing of banana (jam, jelly, chanachur etc) 145 3Handling of modern equipments for harvesting 134 4Using packaging materials 123 5Cold storage of banana 120 6Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control 119 7Biological treatments for disease and pest control 116 8Transportation and marketing of banana 116 8Chemical treatments for disease and pest control 113 9Ripening 111 10Storage in pits 108 11Storage care taking of sucker 105 12Determination of maturity index 104 13Cooling 98 14Sorting and grading 96 15
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5. Relationships between the Selected Characteristics of the Women and Their Need for Capacity Strengthening
Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation (r) was computed in order to explore
the relationships between the selected characteristics of the women and their extent of need
for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of banana. The relationship between the dependent
and independent variables has been presented in Table 9.9.
The computed ‘r’ values for all the selected characteristics of the rural women were non-
significant. Hence, the concerned null hypotheses could not be rejected. Therefore, there was
no significant relationship between the selected characteristics of the rural women and their
extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of banana. Among the variables age,
education, dependency ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income, decision making
capacity in the family, credit received, ability to cope with uncertainty and daily time
allocation of women carrying out PHAs of banana showed non-significant negative trend and
rest of the characteristics viz. organizational participation, training exposure and awareness
on nutrition of fruits and vegetables and showed non-significant positive relationship with
their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of banana.
Table 9.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables
Independent variables ‘r’ value with 48 df
Age -.184Education -.108
Dependency ratio of the family -.065Farm size -.086Annual family income -.228Organizational participation .059
Decision making capacity in the family -.057Training exposure .266Credit received -.011
Ability to cope with uncertainty -.005Daily time allocation -.106Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits .071
** Correlation is significant at 1% level of probability * Correlation is significant at 5% level of probability
Thus, it could be said that all the characteristics of the respondents were not important
indicators for the extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of banana.
Sarkar (2005), Naoroze (2004), Asaduzzaman (2003), Begum et al. (2000) and Kumari
(1999) found similar relationships between age and need in their respective studies. In the
present research, the respondent women were mostly housewives. They had been continuing
118
their livelihoods from the similar social background utilizing similar resources and facilities.
So, their level of education could not play a significant role in their extent of need for
capacity strengthening towards PHAs of banana. It should be noted that dependency ratio of
the family was computed using the total number of family members and of earning members
of the family. However, when the number of earning members of the family increases the
need for capacity strengthening did not remarkably decrease. On the other hand, need for
capacity strengthening was not noticeably influenced by the total number of family members.
Therefore, dependency ratio could not play remarkable role on the need for capacity
strengthening of rural women. In case of annual family income similar relationships were
observed by Naoroze (2004), Asaduzzaman (2003) in their respective studies. It was so,
because the families having higher income might need fewer amounts of PHAs of banana.
Thus, annual family income exerted insignificant negative effect on the need for capacity
strengthening towards PHAs of banana.
The respondents of the present study were affiliated with different organizations which did
not deal with the PHAs of banana rather just with micro-credit programs. Accordingly,
organizational participation of the respondents had no significant relationship with their need
for capacity strengthening.
A woman may have the capacity to make decision regarding household activities and she
may form this capacity from her educational status, parents socio-economic position etc.
Moreover, need for capacity strengthening depends on the availability and accessibility of the
facilities. Therefore, decision making capacity of the women in their family was not
significantly related with their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of
banana towards food security. Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between training
exposure and need of the respondents in his study.
The respondents got training from different organizations they were affiliated but a very little
training was conducted specifically regarding post harvest facilities of vegetables. This is
why need for capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of banana had no significant
relationship with their previous training experience. Ahmed (2007), Naoroze (2004) also
found this relation between training exposure and need of the respondents in his study.
The credit received also did not play any significant role on their extent of need for capacity
strengthening towards PHAs of banana. Sarkar (2005), Mahmud (2002), Hashemi et al.
(1996) and Pitt and Khandker (1995) also stated similar relationships in their respective
119
studies. The woman who received more credit had more facilities regarding PHAs of banana
to utilize her credit effectively. Thus, credit received was not significantly related with the
extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of banana.
Ability to cope with uncertainty was non-significantly related with the extent of need for
capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of banana because the most of the
respondents had similar ability to cope with uncertain situations like own accidents, crop
failure, scarcity of money, unavailability of labor etc.
As there was lack of post harvest facilities of banana in the study area, the women did not
involve themselves in PHAs of banana actively. That is why daily time allocation did not
significantly influence need of women for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of
banana. However, with the change of awareness on nutrition of banana, involvement of
women in carrying out PHA of banana and training need in carrying out PHA of banana their
need for capacity strengthening was not greatly changed.
6. Problems of Involvement in PHAs of Banana
Problems faced by the women in involvement of the PHAs of banana were measured through
making Scored Causal Diagrams (SCDs) of Participatory Farm Management methods.
Problems in involving PHAs of banana were discussed with a group of respondents,
assuming the ‘end problem’ being ‘low involvement in PHAs of banana’. Firstly the
problems mentioned by the respondents were listed, secondly diagrams were drawn by them
on the plain ground to show causal relationships between the problems, and finally scoring of
selected problems was performed again by them. In this way SCDs was prepared by the
selected group of respondents (Figure 9.3). The problems identified by the group has been
listed here with their relative importance indicated by the original score numbers as shown
inside the parentheses.
End problem: Low involvement in PHAs of banana (100)
Intermediary problems
(i) Lack of skill in PHAs (35)(ii)Less motivated to PHAs (35)(iii)Less banana for PHAs (20)(iv) Less cooperation in conducting PHAs (15)(v)Less investment (10)(vi)Unstable market of products (10)
Root causes
(i) Shortage of training on PHAs (35)
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(ii) Uncertainty of weather condition on banana cultivation (20)(iii) Low wage for women (10)(iv) Scarcity of capital (10)(v) Low marketing facilities (10)(vi) Lack of community organization for women (15)
Among the ‘root’ causes ‘shortage of training on PHAs' got the highest score then
‘uncertainty of weather condition on banana cultivation’. It was extremely rational because
shortage of training caused lack of knowledge and skill resulting less motivated to PHAs of
banana and accordingly there was low involvement in PHAs. Uncertainty of weather
condition on banana cultivation creates less banana production which ultimately results less
involvement in PHAs of banana. Low wage for women results less interest in PHAs of
banana. Scarcity of capital makes less investment in PHAs and also discouraged the women
from any development work so their involvement in PHAs was less.
Low marketing facilities make rural women uncreative. They are not able to create any
suitable marketing system for their products. Lack of community organization for women
was also one kind of barrier to involve themselves in PHAs of banana. Women are not
familiar with the preservation techniques nor any kind of information through local
organization or group. These problems can be minimized with the help of proper
collaboration with farmers and the farmers should be aware about proper channel of
information. Absence of any kind of organization for women and preservation facilities are
the great problems for the farmers.
Suggested solutions to the ‘root’ causes
Participants of the group engaged in the preparation of Scored Causal Diagram (SCD) were
requested to mention possible solutions to the ‘root’ causes of low involvement in PHAs of
banana towards food security. The respondents expressed different opinions on how these
problems could be overcome. The suggestions for the solution of the problems made by the
respondent women have been given here:
121
Figure 9.2: Scored Causal Diagrams showing the involvement barrier of rural women in PHAs of banana
Shortage of training on PHAs (35)
Low wage for women (10)
Lack of community
organization for women (15)
Scarcity of capital (10)
Low marketing facilities (10)
Uncertainty of weather condition
on banana cultivation (20)
Lack of skill in PHAs (35)
Less interest in PHAs (5)
Less banana for PHAs (20)
Less cooperation in conducting PHAs (15)
Less motivated to PHAs (35)
Low involvement in PHAs of
banana (100)
Less investment (10)
Unstable market of products (10)
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Table 9.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve the issues
Sl. No.
Suggested solutions Way to achieve
1. Increased training facilities according to their needs for increasing their knowledge and skill towards PHAs of banana as well as to have productive manpower.
GOs and NGOs collaboration is needed
2. Involving rural women in different PHAs of Banana towards food security to increase their operational ability.
Government and private organization should take initiatives
3. Establishing processing centers for the rural women to build their capacity in PHAs.
Government can create special programs with the well known NGOs
4. Emphasizing the necessities of women involvement among the rural people with the help of local leaders.
Farmers should be motivated to aware the women by different communication media
5. Establishing preservation facilities for the rural women Government and Donor organization can take proper initiatives
6. Increased credit availability according to the need of the rural women regarding post harvest facilities of banana.
GOs and NGOs can take proper steps in this matter
7. Organize rural women to create awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits
Go, NGOs And Donor Groups collaboration is needed
Involvement of the rural women in PHAs is a significant issue for controlling PHAs and
progress of socio-economic condition of the rural people. The study reveals that involvement
of the rural women in PHAs was low, which is discouraging. Thus, proper strategy and need-
based support should be ensured in order to secure full involvement of the rural women in
PHAs. Linkage between GO, NGOs and donor organizations need to be strengthened to make
successful contribution of the rural women. The issues that might be dealt with are
contribution by all and technical information supply, training, inspiration operation and
others.
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7. Case Study
Name of women: Ms MiniHusband’s name: Mr Abdur RahimAddress: Village-Korotkhola, Upazila-Shibganj, District-Bogra
Ms Mini (30 years) was engaged in PHAs (PHAs) of banana. She was basically a house wife and assisted her husband in farming. She also used to manage her small homestead where she planted some fruit trees only. She completed her primary education. Mr A Rahim (35 years) was her husband who was a banana farmer.
Ms Mini had only one son of five years. They had cultivated about 0.25 ha of land in which only banana was cultivated. Other than banana only some vegetables were cultivated. Their main income was from banana and small business. The annual income of the family was about Taka 80,000 and only from banana was about Taka 40,000. Cultivation of banana was profitable but it depended on whim of nature. If there is any natural calamity like storm or heavy rain the total production might come down to almost zero. The banana plants may fall down or the bunch of fruits may be destroyed.
Although Ms Mini used to maintain her family and homestead activities, she remained engaged in harvest and PHAs of banana. She was a credit borrower of Grameen Bank and thus, was a member women group of the locality. She did not receive any training from any organization. She expressed a moderate will to cope with any uncertainty either in her family or farming.
Ms Mini used to engage herself mostly in home and homestead activities. But a substantial time had been spent PHAs of banana in its main season. She helped his husband in harvesting banana along with other laborers. In the PHAs of banana, her involvement was mostly in sorting for ripening and then managing to sale. Especially, she was to manage the sorted out junk of banana for home consumption. She could only process some the bananas in making traditional cakes (pitha) at house level. Other processing she did not know. In spite of her moderate participation in PHAs of banana she showed her high interest in banana processing. She stated:
“I can handle the harvesting, sorting banana for ripening, and other activities in a good manner. But I do not how to process the banana for its better preservation and consumption in different ways. I am aware of banana products like cake, biscuit, chanachur, fry or chips etc. I shall be happy to learn how to process banana to prepare these stuff. It needs skill and am willing to learn the skill. I also need some materials and equipments to process banana. I feel, women interested in PHAs can form group to materialize their idea of conducting processing. Some relevant organizations can provide credit and training supports to make functional.”
Ms Mini did not receive any training on PHAs of vegetables or fruits. Her expected training areas were about to realize maturity of fruit, sorting and packing of banana for better transportation; disease control at house store; processing and preservation of banana and banana products. Ms Mini was moderately aware of nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits and she was eager to take due care to maintain nutritive value of fruits and vegetables during harvest, cooking or consumption.
Regarding need for overall capacity building to conduct PHAs of vegetables and fruits, Ms Mini expressed high need of it. About different aspects of need for capacity building she expected mostly for skill development, capital support and physical facilities. Skill development was in respect of preparation, packaging and storing of products. Marketing information and exploration of marketing channels were also felt as very important need to do well in processing of banana.
She thought that related government and non-government organizations can train up and help them to manage PHAs of vegetables in a successful and cost-effective manner. This would ultimately ensure enhanced participation of rural women in PHAs of vegetables and fruits which may direct to earn better livelihoods.
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Section 7: PINEAPPLE
This Chapter contains the findings and their logical interpretations according to the objectives
of the present study regarding pineapple.
1. Involvement of Rural Women in PHAs of Pineapple
Involvement score of the respondents in different PHAs ranged from 8.89 to 48.89 with a
mean of 27.04 and standard deviation of 9.07 (Table 10.1). On the basis of involvement, the
respondents were divided into three categories.
Table 10.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of Pineapple
Score Range: Possible 0-100, Observed: 8.89-48.89
Respondents MeanStandard deviation
Categories Number %
27.04 9.07
Low (≤ 33) 39 78
Medium (34-66) 11 22
High (>66) 0 0
Data in the Table 10.1 show that the highest (78%) proportion of the women had low
involvement while 22% of them had medium and none of them had high involvement in any
PHAs. Most of the respondents had similar involvement in PHAs like transport from field to
house, sorting and grading, cleaning, packaging and seed storage etc.
In order to investigate the participation of rural women in various PHAs of pineapple towards
food security, the works are categorized into three dimensions such as frequency of
performance, part of work done and control over decision. Each of these three categories
also has five sub-dimensions with score 0 to 3. Most of the respondents had similar
involvement in PHAs like processing, sorting and grading, ripening, drying and trimming of
stem, storage of seed etc.
The following Table 10.2 shows that the highest participation of rural women was in
processing then in sorting and grading and ripening. Insect and disease control of pineapple
was the lowest among the activities.
125
Table 10.2 Ranking of total score of involvement of rural women in different PHAs of pineapple
Post Harvest Activities Total score Rank order
Processing (making of fermented product, chutney, acher)
331 1
Sorting and grading 308 2Ripening 219 3Drying 213 4Trimming of stem 140 5Storage of seed 127 6Packaging 103 7Insect and disease control 73 8
Table 10.2 sharply represents the status of the respondents’ in different PHAs of pineapple. In
case of processing their involvement is highest due to less laborious work than other field job
like harvesting, insect and disease control, drying etc. Among other activities insect and
disease control is less because women’s level of knowledge about pest management found
low and due to physical and societal problem most of the families did not come out to field.
From the field study it was found that ‘Garo’ women were mostly involved in the PHAs of
pineapple.
2. Need for Capacity Strengthening of Rural Women
In the present study, ‘capacity strengthening’ of the rural women towards PHAs of pineapple
was defined as the extent to which they have the accessibility to financial, physical,
managerial and support services as well as the ability to make decision about utilizing the
PHAs of pineapple. Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to measure the
extent of need for capacity strengthening of women. The findings have been presented in the
following subsections.
2.1 Overall need for capacity strengthening
The extent of need for capacity strengthening of women was assessed in terms of need index
for capacity strengthening (NICS). The NICS values could range from 0 to 100. The observed
NICS values ranged from 64.20 to 98.77 with an average of 86.79 and standard deviation of
7.15. Based on their NICS values the respondents were classified into three categories as
shown in Table 10.3.
126
Table 10.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of pineapple Score Range: Possible: 0-100, Observed: 64.20-98.77
RespondentsMean Std. Dev.
Categories No. %Low (≤33)
Medium (34-67)
High (>67)
0
2
48
0
4
96
86.79 7.15
Presented data show that the 96% of the respondents had high extent of need and 4% of them
had medium or low extent of need for capacity strengthening in PHAs of pineapple. The
findings clearly indicate that all of the respondents had high need for capacity strengthening
towards PHAs of pineapple. While collecting the data, it was observed in the study area that
there was scarcity of post harvest facilities of pineapple and even a little facility was available
but those were not in accessible form for the rural women. Thus, the respondents logically
felt high need for their capacity strengthening towards post harvest facilities of pineapple.
2.2 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of rural women
Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to assess the extent of need for
capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of pineapple. The computed NICS values of
all the dimensions have been shown in Table 10.4.
Table 10.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of pineappleDimension of capacity strengthening(measuring unit)
Range Respondents
MeanStd.Dev.Possible Observed Categories No. %
Need for financial ability (%) 0-100 50-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>67)
01436
02872
87.50 16.34
Need for decision making ability (%) 0-100 66.67-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>67)
06
44
01288
80.89 8.56
Need for access to support services (%) 0-100 61.11-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>67)
04
46
0892
84.78 10.81
Need for management skill (%) 0-100 72.22-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>67)
00
50
00
10090.33 8.31
Need for physical facilities (%) 0-100 66.67-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>67)
03
47
0694
91.47 9.43
Data presented in Table 10.4 indicate that all of the women fell in high need category for all
the dimensions of capacity strengthening. The cent % of the respondents was in high need for
management skill and none of them had medium need for management, 28% had medium
127
need for financial ability and 12% had medium need for decision making ability 8% had
medium need for access to support services and 6% had need for physical abilities
respectively. It was normal that the women did not have low need for any dimensions of
capacity strengthening. It seems logical because none of the dimensions existed in
satisfactory level rather at low level. Thus, it was simple that the components available in low
quantity would be felt as high need components.
Table 10.5 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondentsItems Score Rank
Need for financial abilityProcessing-equipment 135 1Capital 134 2Credit 131 3Labor purchase 125 4Need for decision making abilityPackaging 143 1Storing 141 2Selling of vegetables & fruits 139 3Processing 128 4Collection 90 5Grading 87 6Need for access to support services Preservation facilities of cold storage 147 1Access to credit 135 2Transport 127 3Development workers for advice 125 4Marketing channel/facilities 125 5Labor market 104 6Need for management skill Handling of post harvest equipments 150 1Operational ability 141 2Preservation of seeds 134 3Financial management 133 4Processing of fruits and vegetables 129 5Market facility exploitation 126 6Need for physical facilitiesProcessing materials/equipment 148 1Sales centers 145 2Store house 144 3Transport/vehicles 125 4Processing ground 124 5
Data presented in Table 10.6 show that in case of need for financial ability, processing-
equipment scoring highest and packaging was highest in case of need for decision making
ability. In case of need for access to support services, preservation facilities scoring highest
and in case of need for management skill handling of post harvest equipments scoring highest
128
91.47
90.33
87.5
84.78
80.89
74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94
Phisical facilities
Management skill
Financial ability
Access to supportservices
Decision makingability
and finally processing materials/equipment scoring highest in case of need for physical
facilities.
Figure10.1 Involvement index of the respondents
Figure 10.1 shows that the highest need was for the physical abilities than the other need.
Need for decision making ability show the lowest need.
3. Selected Characteristics of the Rural Women
There were various characteristics of the rural women that influenced their extent of need for
capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple. In the present study, twelve
characteristics of the rural women were selected as independent variables, which included
age, education, dependency ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income,
organizational participation, decision making capacity in the family, daily time allocation,
training experience, awareness on nutrition of pineapple, credit received and ability to cope
with uncertainty. The characteristics of the respondents have been presented in Table 10.6.
Table 10.6 Personal characteristics of pineapple farmersCharacteristics (Measurement units)
Range RespondentMean
Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %
Age (year)- 19-65
Young (≤30)Middle aged(31-45)Old (>45)
20264
40528
36.10 9.28
Education(year of schooling)
- .00-11
Illiterate (0)Primary (1-5)Secondary (6-10)Higher secondary (>10)
1517162
3034324
3.64 4.12
Dependency ratio of - .00-3 Low (≤2) 46 92 1.37 .70
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the family (ratio) Medium (2.1-4)High (>4)
40
80
Farm size (hectare)
- .04-14.21
Landless ( < 0.02)Marginal (.021-.2)Small (0.21-1.0)Medium (1.01-3.0)Large (>3.0)
0224195
04483810
1.52 2.23
Annual family income (‘000’ Taka) - 5.25-482.50
Low (≤50)Medium (51-100)High (>100)
21209
424018
81.0587.2
0
Organizational participation (score) - .00-5
Low (≤2)Moderate (3-4)High (>4)
35141
70282
1.94 1.15
Awareness (score)0-15 5-14
Less(≤5)Medium(6-10)High(>10)
22226
44452
10.40 2.34
Daily time allocation (hours) - 1.5-8
Low(≤3)Medium(3.1-6)High(>6)
81527
163054
5.80 1.98
Decision making capacity in the family (score)
0-40 10-31Weak (≤13)Moderate (14-26)Strong (>26)
41333
82666
26.06 5.89
Training exposure (score) - .00-30
Null (0)Short-term (1-3)Mid-term (>3)
281012
562024
3.40 6.69
Credit received(‘000’ Taka) - .00-41
Small (≤10)Medium (11-20)High (>20)
25178
503416
12.64 9.38
Ability to cope with uncertainty (score) 0-24 6-14
Less (≤8)Moderate (9-16)Strong (>16)
23270
46540
9.10 1.95
The study was conducted with the rural women who were more or less involved in pineapple
PHAs. Among the respondents most of them were either middle or young aged (52 and 40%
respectively) whereas 34% of them had education at primary level (Table 10.6). Most of the
respondents (92%) had low dependency ratio in their family. The highest proportion (48%)
of the respondents had been observed in small farm size while 4% and 38% of them in
marginal and medium farm size. The highest proportion of the respondents had (42%) had
low annual family income while 40% and 18% of them had medium and high annual family
income respectively. In case of organizational involvement most of the respondents (70%)
had less involvement while 28% had moderate and 2% had high involvement in any
organization (Table 10.6).
Women were highly aware on nutrition of vegetables and fruits (52%), 44% of them had
medium awareness and only 4% had low awareness. Highest (54%) proportion of the women
had high time allocation while 30% of them had medium and the rest 16% of them had low
time allocation for PHAs of pineapple in the period of harvesting. About theree-fourths of the
respondents (66%) of the women had strong decision making capacity while 8% of them had
130
weak and 26% of them had medium decision making capacity in their family. Majority of the
respondents (56%) had no training exposure while 20% and 26% of them had short-term and
mid-term training experience. Half (50%) of the women had small credit received while 34%
had medium and 16% of them had high credit received circumstance. About half (46%) of the
respondents had less ability, while 54% had moderate and none of them had great ability to
cope with uncertainty (Table 10.6).
4. Training need of the women
The training need for capacity strengthening of women could range from 48 to 60 with an
average of 52.72 and standard deviation of 2.67. Based on their NICS values the respondents
were classified into three categories as shown in Table 10.7.
Table 10.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of pineapple
Range RespondentMean
Std.
Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %
0-100 48-60
Low(≤24)
Medium(25-30)
High(>30)
0
0
50
0
0
100
52.72 2.67
Findings show that all of the respondents had high training need for all of the activities. This
was because; most of the respondents had low participation in any developmental
organization. Therefore, they received low training facilities and their training need was high.
Table10.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of pineapple
ActivitiesTotal Score Rank
Storage of pineapple 150 1
Handling of modern equipment 149 2Increasing of shelf-life of pineapple 149 2Biological treatments for disease and pest control 149 2Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control 149 2Transportation and marketing of pineapple 146 3Using packaging materials 144 4Dumping and waxing 137 5Care taking of seed 129 6Ripening 127 6Chemical treatments for disease and pest control 126 7Processing of pineapple (jam, jelly, pickles etc.) 125 8Determination of maturity index 96 9Cooling 96 9Trimming of stem 96 9Sorting and grading 91 10
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Training need were ranked (Table10.8 ) according to score and among different aspects of
PHAs, women of Madhupur upazila found enthusiastic to learn techniques of storage of
pineapple and then handling of modern equipment, increasing of shelf-life of pineapple,
biological and mechanical treatments for disease and pest control. Transportation and
marketing of pineapple ranked third position. Similar to other fruits these respondents also
felt lees need for training on sorting and grading as they are habituated to done this job
following traditional methods.
5. Relationships between the Selected Characteristics of the Rural Women and Their
Extent of Need for Capacity Strengthening
Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation (r) was computed in order to explore
the relationships between the selected characteristics of the women and their extent of need
for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple towards food security. The
relationship between the dependent and independent variables has been presented in Table
10.9.
Table 10.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables
Dependent variable
Independent variables Computed ‘r’ values with 48
d.f.
Need assessment for
capacity strengthening
of rural women
Age -.001Education -.155Dependency ratio .007Farm size -.497**Annual income -.338*Organizational participation -.071Decision making ability .115Training exposure .109Credit received .065Ability to cope with uncertainty .019Daily time allocation .259Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits
-.026
** Correlation is significant at 1% level of probability* Correlation is significant at 5% level of probability
Based on the computed ‘r’ value the relationship between age and extent of need for capacity
strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple towards food security was non-significant and
followed a negative trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could be rejected. Thus, it
could be said that age the respondents was not an important indicator for the extent of need
for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple towards food security. Sarkar (2005),
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Naoroze (2004), Asaduzzaman (2003), Begum et al. (2000) and Kumari (1999) found similar
relationships between age and need in their respective studies.
The relationship between education and extent of need for capacity strengthening towards
PHAs of pineapple towards food security was non-significant and followed a negative trend.
Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be accepted. Thus, it could be concluded that
education level of the women had no significant relationship with their extent of need for
capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple. In the present research, the respondent
women were mostly housewives. They had been continuing their livelihoods from the similar
social background utilizing similar resources and facilities. So, their level of education could
not play a significant role in their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of
pineapple.
The relationship between dependency ratio of the family and extent of need for capacity
strengthening towards PHAs of vegetables and fruits was non-significant and followed a
positive trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was
concluded that dependency ratio of the family of the women could not play significant role
on their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple.
It should be noted that dependency ratio of the family was computed using the total number
of family members and of earning members of the family. When the number of earning
members of the family increases the need for capacity strengthening decreases. It was also
reflected in this study.
The relationship between farm size and extent of need for capacity strengthening towards
PHAs of pineapple was significant at 1% level of probability and followed a negative trend.
Hence, the concerned null hypothesis was rejected. Thus, it was decided that farm size of the
women affect their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple.
Farm size is an important indicator of power. When the farm size increases the owners bear
an increased extent of power. Thus, the women having more farm size felt less need for
capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple.
The relationship between family income and extent of need for capacity strengthening
towards PHAs of vegetables and fruits towards food security was significant at 5% level of
probability and followed a negative trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis was rejected.
Thus, it could be said that family income of the women played a significant role on their
133
extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple. Similar relationships
were observed by Naoroze (2004), Asaduzzaman (2003) in their respective studies. It was so,
because the families having higher income might need fewer amounts of PHAs of pineapple.
Thus, annual family income exerted significant negative effect on the need for capacity
strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple.
The relationship between organizational participation and extent of need for capacity
strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple was non-significant and followed a negative trend.
Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was inferred that
organizational participation of the women did not significantly influence the extent of need
for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple. Bhowmick (2004) mentioned similar
relationship in his study. The respondents of the present study were affiliated with different
organizations which did not deal with the PHAs of pineapple towards food security rather just
with micro-credit programs. Accordingly, organizational participation of the respondents had
no significant relationship with their need for capacity strengthening.
The relationship between decision making capacity in the family and extent of need for
capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple was non-significant and followed a
positive trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was
inferred that decision making capacity in the family of the women did not influence
significantly their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple. A
woman may have the capacity to make decision regarding household activities and she may
form this capacity from her educational status, parents socio-economic position etc.
Moreover, need for capacity strengthening depends on the availability and accessibility of the
facilities. Therefore, decision making capacity of the women in their family was not
significantly related with their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of
pineapple.
The relationship between training exposure and extent of need for capacity strengthening
towards PH facilities of pineapple was non-significant and followed a positive trend. Hence,
the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was inferred that training
exposure of the respondents was not influential to their extent of need for capacity
strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple. Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between
training exposure and need of the respondents in his study. The respondents got training from
different organizations they were affiliated but a very little training was conducted
specifically regarding post harvest facilities of pineapple. This is why need for capacity
134
strengthening of women towards PHAs of pineapple had no significant relationship with their
previous training experience.
The relationship between credit received and extent of need for capacity strengthening
towards PHAs of pineapple was non-significant and followed a positive trend. Hence, the
concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it could be said that credit received of
the women did not play significant role on their extent of need for capacity strengthening
towards PHAs of pineapple towards food security. Sarkar (2005), Mahmud (2002), Hashemi
et al. (1996) and Pitt and Khandker (1995) also stated similar relationships in their respective
studies.
The relationship between ability to cope with uncertainty and extent of need for capacity
strengthening towards post harvest facilities of pineapple was non-significant and followed a
positive trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was
concluded that ability to cope with uncertainty of the women played non-significant role on
their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple.
Ability to cope with uncertainty was non-significantly related with the extent of need for
capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of pineapple because the most of the
respondents had similar ability to cope with uncertain situations like accidents, crop failure,
scarcity of money, unavailability of labor etc.
The relationship between daily time allocation and extent of need for capacity strengthening
in carrying out PHAs of pineapple was non-significant and followed a positive trend. Hence,
the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was inferred that daily time
allocation of the respondents was not influential to their extent of need for capacity
strengthening in carrying out PHAs of pineapple. Ahmed (2007) and Naoroze (2004) also
found this relation between training exposure and need of the respondents in his study.
As there was lack of post harvest facilities of pineapple in the study area, the women did not
take participate in PHAs of pineapple. That is why daily time allocation did not significantly
influence need of women for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of pineapple.
The relationship between awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits of the women and
their extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of pineapple was non-
significant and followed a negative trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be
rejected. Thus, it was inferred that awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits of the
135
respondents were not influential to their extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying
out PHAs of pineapple.
6. Problems of Involvement in PHAs of Pineapple
Problems faced by the women in involving themselves in the PHAs of pineapple towards
food security were measured through making Scored Causal Diagrams (SCDs) of
Participatory Farm Management methods. Problems in participating PHAs of pineapple
towards food security were discussed with the respondents, assuming the ‘end problem’
being ‘low participation in PHAs of pineapple towards food security’. Firstly the problems
mentioned by the respondents were listed, secondly diagrams were drawn by them on the
plain ground to show causal relationships between the problems, and finally scoring of
selected problems was performed again by them. In this way SCDs was prepared by the
group of respondents (Figure10.2). The problems identified by the group has been listed here
with their relative importance indicated by the original score numbers as shown inside the
parentheses.
End problem: Low participation in PHAs of pineapple (100)
Intermediary problems(i) Less skill and knowledge (40)
(ii) Inability to conduct PHAs (10)
(iii) Difficulty carrying products (10)
(iv) Less social cohesion (10)
Root causes(i) Training lacking (40)
(ii) Lack of processing establishment (15)
(iii) Lack of capital (10)
(iv) Handling difficulty for spines (10)
(v) Remote production area (10)
(vi) Ethnic issues (10)
(vii) Need of transport (5)
‘Training lacking on PHAs of pineapple’ got the highest score among the ‘root’ causes then
‘lack of processing establishment’. It was reasonable because training lacking caused less
skill and knowledge. Lack of processing establishment and lack of capital creates inability to
conduct PHAs of pineapple. Handling difficulty for spines and lack of transport produces
lower involvement in PHAs of pineapple because those are not suitable for PHAs of
136
pineapple. If the transport facilities could be improve then involvement in PHAs might be
increase. Remote production area hinders the pineapple growers to involve themselves in
PHAs. Ethnic issues also have impact on PHAs of pineapple as this study was conducted in
Madhupur upazila where most of the farmers from ‘Garo’ community. Less cohesion results
low involvement in PHAs of pineapple.
Suggested solutions to the ‘root’ causes
Participants of the group engaged in the preparation of Scored Causal Diagram (SCD) were
requested to mention possible solutions to the ‘root’ causes of low participation in PHAs of
pineapple. The respondents expressed different opinions on how these problems could be
overcome. The suggestions for the solution of the problems made by the respondent women
have been given here:
Table 10.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve them
Sl. No.
Suggested solutions Way to achieve
1. Increased training facilities according to their needs for increasing their knowledge and skill towards PHAs of pineapple as well as to have efficient manpower.
GOs and NGOs collaboration is needed
2. Establishing processing centers for the rural women to build their capacity in PHAs.
Government can create special programs with the well known NGOs[
3. Increased credit availability according to the need of the rural women regarding post harvest facilities of pineapple.
GOs and NGOs can take proper steps in this matter
4. Involving rural women in different PHAs of pineapple towards food security to increase their operational ability.
Government and private organization should take initiatives
5. Emphasizing the necessities of women participation among the rural people with the help of local leaders, imams, purohit etc.
Farmers should be motivated to aware the women by different communication media
5. Establishing different community organization to create unity for the pineapple growers
Government can take proper initiatives
6. Improve road and transportation system for pineapple growing area
Go and NGOs should take collaborative steps
Involvement of the rural women in PHAs is an important concern for controlling PHAs and
improvement of socio-economic situation of the rural people. The study reveals that
participation of the rural women in PHAs was low to medium, which is encouraging. Thus,
proper strategy and need-based support should be ensured in order to secure full participation
of the rural women in PHAs. Linkage between GO and NGOs need to be strengthened to
ensure valuable contribution of the rural women. The issues that might be dealt with are
technical information and credit supply, training, inspiration movement and others.
137
Low involvement in PHAs of pineapple [100]
Need of transport [5]
Ethnic issues [10]
Lack of capital [10]
Lack of processing
establishment [15]
Training lacking [40]
Remote production area [10]
Handling difficulty for spines [10]
Less social cohesion [10]
Difficulty carrying products [10]
Less skill and knowledge [40]
Inability to conduct PHAs [25]
Figure 10.2: Scored Causal Diagrams showing the involvement barrier of rural women in PHAs of pineapple
138
7. Case Study
Name of women: Ms Maria RemaHusband’s name: Mr Bipul MriAddress: Dokhola, Madhupur, Tangail
Ms Maria Rema, a lady of 27 years was engaged in PHAs (PHAs) of pineapple. She was mainly a house wife and assisted her husband in farming. She also used to manage her small homestead where she planted some fruit trees only. She completed her Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and then was married to Mr Bipul Mri who was a farmer of 40 years old and used to grow pineapple.
Ms Maria Rema had only one son and he had been working at Dhaka. They had cultivated about 2.75 ha of land in which pineapple was cultivated along with other crops. Other than pineapple only some vegetables and banana were cultivated. Their main income was from pineapple, job in NGO and small business. The annual income of the family was about Taka 2,20,000 and only from pineapple was about Taka 1,00,000 and the return was considered profitable.
Ms Rema used to remain engaged in harvest and PHAs of pineapple. She was a credit borrower of Grameen Bank and received training from DAE on IPM and poultry rearing. She possessed a moderate ability to cope with any uncertainty either in her family or farming.
Ms Maria Rema used to engage herself mostly in home and homestead activities. But a considerable time had been spent in harvest and PHAs of pineapple in its peak season. She helped his husband in harvesting pineapple along with other laborers. In the PHAs of pineapple, her involvement was mostly in sorting and packing. She needed to spend a very long hours in early morning during the harvest of pineapple. She could only process some the pineapples in making juice at house level and she did not know other processing. In spite of her moderate participation in PHAs of pineapple she showed her high interest in pineapple processing. She averred:
“I can handle the harvesting, sorting, grading and packing, and other activities in a good manner through working experience. But I do not how to process the pineapple for its better preservation and consumption in different ways. I heard of pineapple products like jam, jelly and juice. I am eager to learn how to process pineapple to prepare these things. It needs skill and am willing to learn the skill. I also need some materials and equipments to process pineapple. Some relevant organizations can provide credit and training supports to make groups to conduct such processing activities.”
Ms Maria did not receive any training on PHAs of vegetables or fruits. Her expected training areas were about to realizing maturity of fruit, sorting, grading and packing of pineapple for better transportation; disease control; processing and preservation of pineapple and its products. She was moderately aware of nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits but she wanted to take due care to maintain nutritive value of fruits and vegetables during harvest, cooking or consumption.
Regarding need for overall capacity building to conduct PHAs of vegetables and fruits, she expressed high need for it. About different aspects of need for capacity building she expected mostly for skill development and physical facilities like equipments, cool chamber etc. Skill development was for preparation, packaging and storing of products. Marketing information and exploration of marketing channels were also felt as very important need to do well in processing of pineapple.
She expected training support on various aspects of PHAs of different fruits, especially on pineapple. She thought that related government and non-government organizations can trainup and help them to manage PHAs of fruits in a successful and commercial manner. This would ultimately ensure enhanced participation of rural women in PHAs of vegetables and fruits which may direct to earn better livelihood.
139
Section 8: GUAVA
This Chapter contains the findings and their logical interpretations according to the objectives
of the present study regarding guava.
1. Involvement of Rural Women in PHAs of Guava
Involvement score of the respondents in different PHAs of guava ranged from 6.06 to 51.52
with a mean of 28.61 and standard deviation of 10.32 (Table 11.1). On the basis of
involvement, the respondents were divided into three categories.
Table 11.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of guava
Score Range: Possible 0-100, Observed: 6.06-51.52
Respondents MeanStandard deviation
Categories Number %
28.61 10.32Low (≤ 33) 29 58
Medium (34-66) 21 42
High (>66) 0 0
Data in the Table 11.1 show that more than half (58%) of the women had low involvement
and the rest 42% of them had medium involvement in the PHAs of guava. Most of the
respondents had similar involvement in PHAs like storage of seed, sorting and grading, insect
and disease control, transport from field to house, processing etc.
Among the selected PHAs of guava, the highest involvement of rural women was in storage
of seed followed by sorting and grading and that was lowest in trimming of stem of guava
(Table 11.2). Seed storage is vital task in guava cultivation. Without healthy seed desired
yield can never be obtained. Besides, right price cannot be obtained without proper sorting
and grading. That is why involvement of rural women in storage of seed and sorting and
grading were higher than other PHAs.
Table 11.2 Ranking of total score of involvement of rural women in different PHAs of guava
Post Harvest Activities Total score
Rank order
Storage of seed 349 1Sorting and grading 298 2Packaging 135 3Washing and drying of guava 124 4Insect and disease control 115 5Transport to the market 85 6Processing of sauce, pickles and chutney 49 7Trimming of stem 27 8
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2. Need for Capacity Strengthening of Rural Women
In the present study, ‘capacity strengthening’ of the rural women towards PHAs of guava was
defined as the extent to which they have the accessibility to financial, physical, managerial
and support services as well as the ability to make decision about utilizing the PHAs of
guava. Need for capacity strengthening of women was the main focus of the present research
work. Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to measure the extent of need
for capacity strengthening of women. The findings have been presented in the following
subsections.
2.1 Overall need for capacity strengthening
The extent of need for capacity strengthening of women was assessed in terms of need index
for capacity strengthening (NICS). The NICS values could range from 0 to 100. The observed
NICS values ranged from 54.32 to 100 with an average of 80.44 and standard deviation of
13.11. Based on their NICS values the respondents were classified into three categories as
shown in Table 11.3.
Table 11.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of guava Score Range: Possible: 0-100, Observed: 54.32-100
RespondentsMean Std. Dev.
Categories No. %Low (≤33)
Medium (34-67)
High (>67)
0
12
38
0
24
76
80.44 13.11
Presented data showed that the most (76%) of the respondents had high extent of need and
24% of them had medium and none of them had low extent of need for capacity
strengthening in PHAs of guava.
The findings clearly indicate that most of the respondents had high need for capacity
strengthening towards PHAs of guava. It was noticed that there was scarcity of post harvest
facilities of guava and their storage facilities also insufficient. The respondents are not getting
appropriate price according their labour and cost of production. Thus, the respondents
logically felt high need for their capacity strengthening towards PHAs of guava.
2.2 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of rural women
Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to assess the extent of need for
capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of guava. The computed NICS values of all
the dimensions have been shown in Table 11.4.
141
Table 11.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of guavaDimension of capacity strengthening(measuring unit)
Range RespondentsMeanNICS
Std.Dev.Possible Observed Categories
No.%
Need for financial ability (%) 0-100 41.67-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)
01337
02674
80.67 19.38
Need for decision making ability (%) 0-100 22.22-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)
11435
22870
75.67 15.42
Need for access to support services (%) 0-100 55.56-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)
0941
01882
78.89 12.85
Need for management skill (%)
0-100 55.56-100Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)
0743
01486
83.78 12.29
Need for physical facilities (%) 0-100 53.33-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)
01238
02476
83.87 14.32
Table 11.5 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondentsItems Score Rank
Need for financial capitalCapital 134 1Credit 123 2Processing-equipment 126 3Labor purchase 101 4Need for decision making abilitySelling of guava 143 1Processing 141 2Storing 136 3Packaging 122 4Collection 72 5Grading 72 5Need for access to support servicesPreservation facilities of cold storage 143 1Marketing channel/facilities 125 2Transport 122 3Access to credit 115 4Development workers for advice 112 5Labor market 93 6Need for management skill Processing of guava 143 1Handling of post harvest equipments 141 2Market facility exploitation 127 3Financial management 119 4Operational ability 118 5Preservation of seeds 115 6Need for physical facilitiesStore house 139 1Sales centers 136 2Transport/vehicles 118 3Processing ground 100 4Processing materials/equipment 82 5
142
Data presented in Table 11.4 indicate that most of the women fell in high need category for
all the dimensions of capacity strengthening. The highest proportion (86%) of the
respondents was in high need for management skill. The average need index for capacity
strengthening ranged from 75.67 to 83.87. The highest index was for physical facilities and
the lowest was for decision making ability. Findings clearly indicate that need for capacity
strengthening was about similar for all the components but need for physical facilities like
storage facilities was crucial because physical facilities were lacking in the study area.
Data presented in Table 11.5 show that in case of need for financial ability, capital had the
highest score and selling of guava was highest in case of need for decision making ability. In
case of need for access to support services, preservation facilities of cold storage was scored
highest and in case of need for management skill, processing of guava was highest and finally
store house had the highest score in case of need for physical facilities. However, selling of
guava, preservation facilities of cold storage and processing of guava were ranked in the first
position since they had the highest score. This indicates that the rural women need to be
immediately strengthened regarding these PHAs of guava.
Figure 11.1 illustrates that need for physical facilities were dominated over other dimensions
of need for capacity strengthening of the rural women in carrying out PHAs of guava towards
food security. Need for decision making ability was the lowest among five dimensions of
need for capacity strengthening. The physical facilities including processing materials, store
house, sales center, transport vehicles etc. were lacking in the study area. Eventually they
were being deprived from getting appropriate price of their produces. On the other hand, the
rural women decide upon harvesting, processing and selling of guava based on their
experience. That is why need for capacity strengthening was highest for physical facilities
and the lowest for decision making ability.
3. Selected Characteristics of the Women
The selected rural women possessed various characteristics that influenced their extent of
need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of guava. For the present study, only 12
characteristics of the rural women were selected as independent variables viz. age, education,
dependency ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income, organizational participation,
awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits, daily time allocation, decision making
capacity in the family, training exposure, credit received and ability to cope with uncertainty.
The selected characteristics of the respondents have been presented in Table 11.6.
143
80.67
75.67 78.89 83.78
83.87
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Financ
ial ab
ility
Decisi
on m
aking
abili
ty
Acces
s to s
uppo
rt se
rvice
s
Man
agem
ent s
kill
Physic
al fa
ciliti
es
Figure 11.1 Need for capacity strengthening regarding various dimensions
The study was conducted with the rural women who were more or less involved in PHAs of
guava. About half (48%) of the respondents were middle aged while 36% and 16% of them
were young and old, respectively. Among the respondents 46% had education at secondary
level while 38% of them had primary level of education. Half (50%) of the respondents had
medium dependency ratio of the family. Most (60%) of the respondents had small farm size.
Majority (52%) of the respondents had low annual family income while 30% and 18% of
them had medium and high annual family income, respectively. In case of organizational
participation, more than three-fourths (80%) of the respondents had low organizational
participation. Among the selected women 62% were highly aware of nutrition of vegetables
and fruits while 36% of them had medium awareness. The highest (80%) proportion of the
women had moderate time allocation for PHAs of guava in the period of harvesting.
Majority (86%) of the respondents did not have any training experience and rest of them had
short-term to mid-term training exposure. Among the respondents, 56% received small credit
while 16% medium and the rest 28% received high amount of credit. The average score of
144
ability to cope with uncertainty by the respondents was 9.52 and majority (70%) of the
respondents had less ability to cope with uncertainty.
Table 11.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of guava
Characteristics (Measurement
units)
Range RespondentMean
Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %
Age(year) - 21-65
Young (≤30)Middle aged(31-45)Old (>45)
18248
364816
37.1610.7
0
Education(year of schooling)
- 0-14
Illiterate (0)Primary (1-5)Secondary (6-10)Higher secondary (>10)
519233
1038466
5.34 4.48
Dependency ratio of the family (ratio) - 0-9.00
Low (≤2)Medium (2.1-4)High (>4)
19256
385012
3.02 1.48
Farm size (hectare)
- .02-4.92
Landless ( < 0.02)Marginal (.021-.2)Small (0.21-1.0)Medium (1.1-3.0)Large (>3.0)
17
30111
21460222
0.75 0.80
Annual family income (‘000’ Taka) - 4.0-282.5
Low (≤50)Medium (51-100)High (>100)
26159
523018
62.8451.3
3
Organizational participation (score) - 0-8
Low (≤2)Moderate (3-4)High (>4)
4082
80164
1.26 1.61
Awareness (score)0-15 6-15
Less(≤5)Medium(6-10)High(>10)
01832
03664
11.18 2.55
Daily time allocation (hours) - 0-8
Low(≤3)Medium(4-6)High(>6)
16313
32626
3.71 1.80
Decision making ability in the family (score)
0-40 0-40Weak (≤13)Moderate (14-26)Strong (>26)
6404
12808
20.28 6.0
Training exposure (score) - 0-21
Null (0)Short-term (1-3)Mid-term (>3)
4325
864
101.50 4.53
Credit received(‘000’ Taka) - 0-80
Small (≤10)Medium (11-20)High (>20)
288
14
561628
15.5019.0
6
Ability to cope with uncertainty (score) 0-24 6-21
Less (≤8)Moderate (9-16)Strong (>16)
35132
70264
9.52 3.27
4. Training need of the women
The training need for capacity strengthening of women ranged from 17 to 36 with an average
of 27.80 and standard deviation of 3.77. Based on their NICS values the respondents were
classified into three categories as shown in Table 11.7.
145
Table 11.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of guava
Range RespondentMean Std. Dev.
Possible Observed Category No. %
0-100 17-36
Low(≤24)
Medium(25-30)
High(>30)
7
31
12
14
62
24
27.80 3.77
Findings show that most (62%) of the respondents had medium training need for all of the
activities while 24 and 14% of them had high and low training need, respectively. Most of the
respondents had low involvement in any developmental organization. They (86% of the
respondents) received no training on PHAs of guava (Table 11.6). Therefore, their training
need was medium to high.
Table 11.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of guava
Activities Total Score Rank
Storage 142 1
Increasing shelf-life of fruits 140 2Processing and preservation of guava 140 2Using packaging materials 130 3Transportation and marketing of guava 120 4Biological treatments for disease and pest control 119 5Handling of modern equipment for harvesting 114 6Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control 114 6Chemical treatments for disease and pest control 113 7Preservation and care taking of seeds 113 7Sorting and grading 78 8
Determination of maturity index 67 9
Data contained in Table 11.8 show that extent of training need of the rural women regarding
increasing storage was the highest and ranked in first position followed by increasing shelf-
live of fruits and processing and preservation of guava. On the other hand, determination of
maturity index was the lowest. It is obvious that training on the activities which require high
technical knowledge was highly needed by the rural women. For this reason, training on
sorting and grading and determination of maturity index was needed by the rural women to
the lowest extent.
5. Selected Characteristics of the Rural Women and Their Extent of Need for Capacity Strengthening
Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation (r) was computed in order to explore
the relationships between the selected characteristics of the women and their extent of need
146
for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of guava towards food security. The relationship
between the dependent and independent variables has been presented in Table 11.9.
The computed ‘r’ values for age, ability to cope with uncertainty and daily time allocation for
PHAs of vegetables and fruits of the rural women were significant. Hence, the concerned null
hypotheses were rejected. Those meant that there was significant relationship between these
characteristics of the rural women and their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards
PHAs of guava. However, age had positively significant relationship whereas ability to cope
with uncertainty and daily time allocation for PHAs of vegetables and fruits had negatively
significant relationship with their need for capacity strengthening. The rest of the
characteristics namely dependency ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income,
organizational participation, decision making capacity in the family, training exposure, credit
received and awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits of the respondents did not have
any significant relationship with the same.
Table 11.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables
Independent variables ‘r’ value with 48 df
Age 0.428**
Education 0.045
Dependency ratio of the family 0.157Farm size -0.105
Annual family income -0.119
Organizational participation 0.024 Decision making capacity in the family 0.108 Training exposure 0.039 Credit received -0.163 Ability to cope with uncertainty -0.462**
Daily time allocation -0.497** Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits
-0.192
** Significant at the 0.01 level * Significant at the 0.05 level
Thus, it could be said that age, ability to cope with uncertainty, daily time allocation for
PHAs of vegetables and fruits were important indicators for the extent of need for capacity
strengthening towards PHAs of guava.
The aged respondents had more experience in guava cultivation but they lacked in technical
information regarding different issues of guava cultivation. So, aged women required more
capacity strengthening for PHA of guava.
147
In the present research, the respondent women were mostly housewives. They had been
continuing their livelihoods from the similar social background utilizing similar resources
and facilities. So, their level of education could not play a significant role in their extent of
need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of guava.
The respondents of the present study were affiliated with different organizations which did
not deal with the PHAs of guava rather just with micro-credit programs. Accordingly,
organizational participation of the respondents had no significant relationship with their need
for capacity strengthening.
A woman may have the capacity to make decision regarding household activities and she
may form this capacity from her educational status, parents socio-economic position etc.
Moreover, need for capacity strengthening depends on the availability and accessibility of the
facilities. Therefore, decision making capacity of the women in their family was not
significantly related with their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of
guava. Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between training exposure and need of the
respondents in his study.
The respondents got training from different organizations they were affiliated but a very little
training was conducted specifically regarding post harvest facilities of vegetables. This is
why need for capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of guava had no significant
relationship with their previous training experience. Ahmed (2007) and Naoroze (2004) also
found this relation between training exposure and need of the respondents in his study.
The credit received also did not play any significant role on their extent of need for capacity
strengthening in carrying out PHAs of guava. Sarkar (2005), Mahmud (2002), Hashemi et al.
(1996) and Pitt and Khandker (1995) also stated similar relationships in their respective
studies. The women who had more ability to cope with uncertainty required less capacity
strengthening and vise versa. So, the negative significant relationship was found between
ability to cope with uncertainty and need for capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs
of guava. Probably, their better ability to cope with uncertainty led them to feel less need for
capacity strengthening. The women respondents were involved in PHAs of guava actively.
That is why daily time allocation significantly influenced the extent of need of women for
capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of guava. Those who were more involved in
148
PHAs gained more experience and skill in it and thus, felt lesser need for further capacity
development in the same area.
6. Problems in Using up PHAs of Guava towards Food Security
Problems faced by the women in using up the PHAs of guava towards food security were
measured through making Scored Causal Diagrams (SCDs) of Participatory Farm
Management methods. Problems in involving PHAs of guava were discussed with a selected
group of respondents, assuming the ‘end problem’ being ‘low involvement in PHAs of
guava’. Firstly the problems mentioned by the respondents were listed, secondly diagrams
were drawn by them on the plain ground to show causal relationships between the problems,
and finally scoring of selected problems was performed again by them. In this way SCDs was
prepared by the group of respondents (Figure 11.2). The problems identified by the group has
been listed here with their relative importance indicated by the original score numbers as
shown inside the parentheses.
End problem: Low involvement in PHAs of guava (100)
Intermediary problems(i) Less skill and knowledge [35](ii) Less motivation for PHAs [60](iii) Less cooperation to work [15]
Root causes(i) Lack of training on PHAs [35](ii) Poor transportation [20](iii) No local women group [20](iv) Lack of processing material [10](v) Lack of capital [10](vi) Religious barrier [5]
‘Lack of training on PHAs' secured the highest score among the ‘root’ causes then ‘poor
transportation’. It was much rational because lack of training caused less skill and knowledge
and resulting in less motivation for PHAs of guava. Due to ‘poor transportation’ the people of
Sharupkathi failed to get appropriate cost of production. Their major transport systems were
by boat, steamer, launch etc. No ‘pacca’ road yet developed from the selected site to carry
their products from the farmers. So guava farmers deprived to get their cost of production day
by day. The women expressed with grief that they need urgently a good communication with
other districts especially Dhaka to export their products. So they are not motivating to PHAs
of guava. ‘no local women group’ found in the area. Lack of any women group no supportive
group found to do any advance work for the women related to PHAs of Guava.
149
Lack of processing material creates unproductive rural women. Due to this problem women
who are interested in PHAs of guava could not prepare any items with huge amount of guava
after harvesting. For that reason there was low involvement in PHAs.
Lack of capital and lack of processing materials also results less involvement in PHAs of
tomato. So most of their products decomposed and due to lowest price they destroy their
guava thrown in river. It is very much pathetic experience from the site. Religious barrier
kept away the women from any development work and they became less motivated to involve
themselves in PHAs of guava. As a result there was unacceptable involvement in PHAs of
guava.
Table 11.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve the suggested solutionSl. No.
Suggested solutions Way to achieve
1. Increased training facilities according to their needs for increasing their knowledge and skill towards PHAs of guava as well as to have efficient manpower.
GOs and NGOs collaboration is needed
2. Increase facilities to preserve guava for long term use to minimize loss of production
GO and NGO and Donor organizations can take proper steps
3. Road and transportation system should be developed Go and Donor organization should go ahead immediately
4. Involving rural women in different PHAs of guava to increase their operational ability.
Government and private organizations should take initiatives
5. Establishing processing centers for the rural women to build their capacity in PHAs.
Government can create special programs with the well known NGOs
6. Emphasizing the necessities of women involvement among the rural people with the help of local leaders and others.
Farmers should be motivated to aware the women by different communication media
7. Women group formation with the help of different Go and NGOs
Government should concern with NGOs and Donor organizations
8. Increased credit availability according to the need of the rural women regarding PH facilities of Guava.
GOs and NGOs can take proper steps in this matter
Suggested solutions to the ‘root’ causes
Participants of the selected group occupied in the preparation of Scored Causal Diagram
(SCD) were requested to mention possible solutions to the ‘root’ causes of low involvement
in PHAs of guava. The respondents uttered diverse opinions on how these problems could
be overcome. The suggestions for the solution of the problems made by the respondent
women have been given Table 11.10.
Involvement of the rural women in PHAs is a fundamental issue for controlling PHAs and
development of socio-economic circumstance of the rural people. The study reveals that
150
involvement of the rural women in PHAs was low to medium which is not so optimistic.
Thus, proper move toward should be ensured in order to secure inclusive involvement of the
rural women in PHAs. Linkage between GO and NGOs and donor organization need to be
strengthened and need-based system should be developed to ensure supportive involvement
of the rural women. The issues that might be dealt with are credit and technical information
supply, training and demonstration, motivation campaign and others.
Low participation of women in PHAs of
Guava [100]
Lack of training on PHAs [35]
Busy with household works [15]
Religious barrier[10] Less skill and
knowledge [35]
Less motivation for PHAs [60]
Lack of processing material [15]
No local women group [20]
Lack of capital[5]
Less cooperation to work [20]
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7. Case Study
Name of women: Ms Kazal Mazumder Husband’s name: Mr Anil Chandra MazumderAddress: Kuriana. Nesarabad, Pirojpur
Ms Kazal Mazumder, a lady of 40 years was engaged in PHAs (PHAs) of guava. She was basically a house wife and assisted her husband in farming. She also used to manage her small homestead where she planted some fruit trees only. She completed her primary education and then was married to Mr Anil Chandra Mazumder. Mr Mazumder (50 years) was a guava farmer.
Ms Mazumder had only one son and he had been working at Dhaka. They had cultivated about 0.25 ha of land in which only guava was cultivated. Other than guava only some vegetables were cultivated in the trench of guava land. Their main income was from guava and small business. The annual income of the family was about Taka 1,00,000 and only from guava was about Taka 40,000. Cultivation of guava is profitable but it depends on whim of nature. If there is any natural calamity like flood, tidal bore or cyclone the total production might come down to almost zero.
The total land was under guava cultivation in the form of trench as it was a low-lying area which remains under water almost around the year. Yet, in the recent days, guava had been cultivated with good profit if it was not hit by any natural disaster.
Although Ms Mazumder used to maintain her family and homestead activities, she remained engaged in harvest and PHAs of guava. She was a credit borrower of BRAC and thus, was a member women group of the locality but did not receive any training from any organization. She expressed a moderate will to cope with any uncertainty either in her family or farming.
Ms Mazumder used to engage herself mostly in home and homestead activities. But a substantial time had been spent in harvest and PHAs of guava in its main season. She helped his husband in harvesting guava along with other laborers. In the PHAs of guava, her involvement was mostly in sorting, grading and packing. She needed to spend a very long hours in early morning during the harvest of guava. Especially, she was to manage the sorted out junk of guava for home consumption. She could only process some the guavas in making jam at house level. Other processing she did not know. In spite of her moderate participation in PHAs of guava she showed her high interest in guava processing. She averred:
“I can handle the harvesting, sorting, grading and packing, and other activities in a good manner through working experience. But I do not how to process the guava for its better preservation and consumption in different ways. I am aware of guava products like jam, jelly and juice. I shall be happy to learn how to process guava to prepare these things. It needs skill and am willing to learn the skill. I also need some materials and equipments to process guava. I feel, women interested in PHAs can form group to materialize their idea of conducting processing. Some relevant organizations can provide credit and training supports to make functional.”
Ms Mazumder did not receive any training on PHAs of vegetables or fruits. Her expected training areas were about to realizing maturity of fruit, sorting, grading and packing of guava for better transportation; disease control at house store; processing and preservation of guava and guava products. Ms Mazumder was moderately aware of nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits but she wanted to take due care to maintain nutritive value of fruits and vegetables during harvest, cooking or consumption.
Regarding need for overall capacity building to conduct PHAs of vegetables and fruits, Ms Mazumder expressed high need of it. About different aspects of need for capacity building she expected mostly for skill development, capital support and physical facilities. Skill development areas were regarding preparation, packaging and storing of products. Marketing information and exploration of marketing channels were also felt as very important need to do well in processing of guava.
With moderate involvement in PHAs of guava, she expected training support on various aspects of PHAs of fruits, especially on guava. She thought that related government and non-government organizations can train up and help them to manage PHAs of fruits in a successful and cost-effective manner. This would ultimately ensure enhanced participation of rural women in PHAs of vegetables and fruits which may direct to earn better livelihood.
152
Section 9: Orange
This Chapter contains the findings and their logical interpretations according to the objectives
of the present study regarding orange.
1. Involvement of Rural Women in PHAs of Orange
Involvement score of the respondents in different PHAs of orange ranged from 20.51 to 52.14
with a mean of 31.37 and standard deviation of 6.43 (Table 12.1). On the basis of
involvement, the respondents were divided into three categories.
Table 12.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of orange
Score Range: Possible 0-100, Observed: 20.51-52.14Respondents Mean Standard deviation
Categories Number %
31.73 6.43
Low (≤ 33) 39 78
Medium (34-66) 11 22
High (>66) 0 0
Data in the Table 12.1 show that more than three-fourths (78%) of the women had low
involvement and the rest 22% of them had medium involvement in the PHAs of orange. Most
of the respondents had similar involvement in PHAs like sorting and grading, insect and
disease control and packaging etc.
Among the selected PHAs of orange, the highest involvement of rural women was in sorting
and grading of orange. Insect and disease control of orange was in the second position (Table
12.2). On the other hand, transport to the market was the lowest because it was noticed in the
study area that the transportation system was so tough due to no well-developed road
construction. Rural women did not did not come out from their house due to social barrier.
Table 12.2 Ranking of total score of the extent of involvement in different PHAs of orange
PHAs Total score Rank order
Sorting and grading 384 1Insect and disease control 292 2Packaging 288 3Ripening 230 4Transport from field to processing house 114 5Cooling 73 6Drying 64 7Transport to the market 23 8
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2. Need for Capacity Strengthening of Rural Women
In the present study, ‘capacity strengthening’ of the rural women towards PHAs of orange
was defined as the extent to which they have the accessibility to financial, physical,
managerial and support services as well as the ability to make decision about utilizing the
PHAs of orange. Need for capacity strengthening of women was the main focus of the
present research work. Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to measure
the extent of need for capacity strengthening of women. The findings have been presented in
the following subsections.
2.1 Overall need for capacity strengthening
The extent of need for capacity strengthening of women was assessed in terms of need index
for capacity strengthening (NICS). The NICS values could range from 0 to 100. The observed
NICS values ranged from 66.67 to 100 with an average of 85.75 and standard deviation of
9.01. Based on their NICS values the respondents were classified into three categories as
shown in Table 12.3.
Table 12.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of orange Score Range: Possible: 0-100, Observed: 66.67-100
RespondentsMean Std. Dev.
Categories No. %Low (≤33)
Medium (34-67)
High (>67)
0
0
50
0
0
100
85.75 9.01
Presented data showed that all (100%) of the respondents had high extent of need and none of
them had low and medium extent of need for capacity strengthening in PHAs of orange.
The findings clearly indicate that all the respondents had high need for capacity strengthening
towards PHAs of orange. It was noticed that there was acute scarcity of post harvest facilities
of orange and their storage facilities also insufficient. The respondents are not getting
appropriate price according their labour and cost of production. Thus, the respondents
logically felt high need for their capacity strengthening towards PHAs of orange.
2.2 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of rural women
Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to assess the extent of need for
capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of orange towards food security. The
computed NICS values of all the dimensions have been shown in Table 12.4.
154
Table 12.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of orange
Dimension of capacity strengthening(measuring unit)
Range RespondentsMeanNICS
Std.Dev.Possible Observed Categories
No.%
Need for financial ability (%) 0-100 66.67-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)
00
50
00
10089.67 9.90
Need for decision making ability (%) 0-100 66.67-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)
00
50
00
10084.89 10.83
Need for access to support services (%) 0-100 66.67-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)
00
50
00
10081.00 9.66
Need for management skill (%)
0-100 66.67-100Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)
00
50
00
10084.78 8.82
Need for physical facilities (%) 0-100 66.67-100
Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)
00
50
00
10090.53 10.27
Data presented in Table 12.4 indicate that all (100%) the women fallen in high need category
for all the dimensions of capacity strengthening. The highest average need for capacity
strengthening (90.53) was for physical facilities and the lowest average (81) was for access to
support services. Findings clearly indicate that need for capacity strengthening was about
similar for all the components but need for physical facilities like storage facilities was
crucial because physical facilities were lacking in the study area.
Table 12.5 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondents
Item Score Rank
Financial abilityCapital 143 1Credit 143 1Processing-equipment 142 2Labor purchase 110 3Decision making ability Processing 143 1Storing 143 1Selling of vegetables fruits 138 2Grading 114 3Packaging 113 4Collection 113 4Access to support servicesPreservation facilities of cold storage 142 1Access to credit 136 2Marketing channel/facilities 118 3Transport 113 4Development workers for advice 112 5Labor market 108 6
155
Management skillProcessing of fruits and vegetables 142 1Handling of post harvest equipments 141 2Operational ability 140 3Financial management 118 4Market facility exploitation 115 5Preservation of seeds 107 6Access to physical facilitiesProcessing materials/equipment 143 1Store house 141 2Sales centers 141 2Processing ground 140 3Transport/vehicles 114 4
Data presented in Table 12.5 show that in case of need for financial ability, capital and credit
had the highest score and processing and storing were highest in case of need for decision
making ability. In case of need for access to support services, preservation facilities of cold
storage was scored highest and in case of need for management skill, processing of fruits and
vegetables was highest and finally processing materials/equipment had the highest score in
case of need for physical facilities. However, capital, credit, processing, storing, and
processing materials/equipments were ranked in the first position since they had the highest
score. This indicates that the rural women need to be immediately strengthened regarding
these PHAs.
Figure 12.1 illustrates that need for physical facilities was dominated over other dimensions
of need for capacity strengthening of the rural women in carrying out post harvest activities
of orange. Need for access to support services was the lowest among five dimensions of need
for capacity strengthening. The physical facilities including processing materials, store house,
sales center etc. were lacking in the study area. Eventually they were being deprived from
getting appropriate price of their produces. On the other hand, the rural women had better
access to different support services such as labor market, transport facilities, advice from
development workers etc. That is why need for capacity strengthening was highest for
physical facilities and the lowest for access to support services.
156
20%
20%
19%
20%
21%
Financial ability
Decision making ability
Access to supportservices Management skill
Physical facilities
Figure 12.1 Need for capacity strengthening regarding various dimensions
3. Selected Characteristics of the Rural Women
The selected rural women posed various characteristics that influenced their extent of need
for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of orange. For the present study, only 12
characteristics of the rural women were selected as independent variables viz. age, education,
dependency ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income, organizational participation,
awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits, daily time allocation, decision making
capacity in the family, training exposure, credit received and ability to cope with uncertainty.
The selected characteristics of the respondents have been presented in Table 12.6.
The study was conducted with the rural women who were more or less involved in PHAs of
orange. Half (50%) of the respondents were middle aged while 34% and 16% of them were
young and old, respectively. Among the respondents 68% had education at primary level
while 18% of them were illiterate. More than half (56%) of the respondents had medium
family size and 46% of them had medium dependency ratio of the family. Most (84%) of the
respondents had small to medium farm size. The respondents remarkably varied regarding
their annual family income with standard deviation of 137.84. Among them 32, 34 and 34%
had low, medium and high annual family income, respectively.
157
Table 12.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of orange
Characteristics (Measurement units)
Range RespondentMean
Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %
Age(year) - 18-65
Young (<31)Middle aged(31-45)Old (>45)
25178
503416
33.84 12.04
Education(year of schooling)
- 0-12
Illiterate (0)Primary (1-5)Secondary (6-10)Higher secondary (>10)
93443
186886
3.00 3.42
Dependency ratio of the family (ratio) - 0-7
Low (≤2)Medium (2.1-4)High (>4)
152312
304624
3.27 1.67
Farm size (hectare)
- 0.03-2.82
Landless ( < 0.02)Marginal (.021-.2)Small (0.21-1.0)Medium (1.1-3.0)Large (>3.0)
08
21210
01642420
0.87 0.65
Annual family income (‘000’ Taka) - 8-820
Low (≤50)Medium (51-100)High (>100)
161717
323434
122.97 137.84
Organizational participation (score) - 0-3
Low (≤2)Moderate (3-4)High (>4)
4910
9820
0.54 0.76
Awareness (score)0-15 6-15
Less(≤5)Medium(6-10)High(>10)
07
43
01486
13.42 2.28
Daily time allocation (hour) - 2-7.50
Low(≤3)Medium(3.1-6)High(>6)
6413
12826
4.09 1.26
Decision making capacity in the family (score)
0-40 10-30Weak (≤13)Moderate (14-26)Strong (>26)
3443
6886
20.18 3.48
Training exposure (score) - 0-6
Null (0)Short-term (1-3)Mid-term (>3)
11363
22726
2.22 1.59
Credit received(‘000’ Taka) - 0-20
Small (≤10)Medium (11-20)High (>20)
4370
86140
2.74 5.40
Ability to cope with uncertainty (score) 0-24 7-19
Less (≤8)Moderate (9-16)Strong (>16)
36122
72244
9.24 2.68
In case of organizational participation, overwhelming majority (98%) of the respondents had
low organizational participation. Among the selected women 86% were highly aware of
nutrition of vegetables and fruits while 14% of them had medium awareness. The highest
(82%) proportion of the women had moderate time allocation for PHAs of orange in the
period of harvesting. Majority (72%) of the respondents had short-term training experience
and 22% of them had no training experience. Among the respondents, 86% received small
credit while 14% medium and none of them received high amount of credit. The average
score of ability to cope with uncertainty by the respondents was 9.24 and majority (72%) of
the respondents had less ability to cope with uncertainty.
158
4. Training Needs of Women
The training need for capacity strengthening of women ranged from 26 to 37 with an average
of 32.96 and standard deviation of 2.39. Based on their NICS values the respondents were
classified into three categories as shown in Table 12.7.
Table 12.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of orange
Range RespondentMean
Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %
0-100 26-37
Low(≤24)
Medium(25-30)
High(>30)
0
5
45
0
10
90
32.96 2.39
Findings show that most (90%) of the respondents had high training need for all of the
activities while the rest 10% of them had medium training need. Most of the respondents had
low involvement in any developmental organization. They received very limited training on
PHAs of vegetables and fruits. Therefore, their training need was high.
Data contained in Table 12.8 show that extent of training need of the rural women regarding
biological treatments for disease and mechanical treatments for disease and pest control was
the highest and ranked in first position followed by processing of orange. On the other hand,
determination of maturity index was the lowest. It is obvious that training on the activities
which require high technical knowledge was highly needed by the rural women. For this
reason, biological and mechanical treatment for disease and pest control was needed by the
rural women to the highest extent.
Table 12.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of orange
ActivitiesTotal Score
Rank
Biological treatments for disease and pest control 145 1
Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control 145 1
Processing of orange 143 2
Storage 142 3
Increasing of shelf-life of orange 141 4
Handling of modern equipments for harvesting 138 5
Preservation by drying and dehydration 134 6
Chemical treatments for disease and pest control 116 7
Transportation and marketing of orange 116 7
Sorting and grading 115 8
Using packaging materials 109 9
Ripening 106 10
Determination of maturity index 98 11
159
5. Relationships between the Selected Characteristics of the Rural Women and Their Extent of Need for Capacity Strengthening
Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation (r) was computed in order to explore
the relationships between the selected characteristics of the women and their extent of need
for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of orange. The coefficient of correlation (r) was
used to test the null hypothesis regarding the relationship between two concerned variables.
The null hypothesis was formulated as H0: There is no relationship between the selected
characteristics of the women and their need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of
orange towards food security. The relationship between the dependent and independent
variables has been presented in Table 12.9.
The computed ‘r’ values for dependency ratio of the family, credit received, daily time
allocation and awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits of the rural women were
significant. Hence, the concerned null hypotheses were rejected. Therefore, there was
significant relationship between these characteristics of the rural women and their extent of
need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of orange. However, dependency ratio of the
family, daily time allocation, awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits had positively
significant relationship whereas credit received had negatively significant relationship with
their need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of orange. The rest of the characteristics
namely age, education, farm size, annual family income, organizational participation,
decision making capacity in the family, training exposure and ability to cope with uncertainty
of the respondents did not have any significant relationship with the same.
Table 12.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables
Independent variables ‘r’ value with 48 df
Age 0.044Education -0.105Dependency ratio of the family 0.345**
Farm size 0.037Annual family income -0.087
Organizational participation 0.164
Decision making capacity in the family -0.073Training exposure -0.084Credit received -0.372**
Ability to cope with uncertainty 0.050Daily time allocation 0.290*Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits 0.288*
** Significant at the 0.01 level * Significant at the 0.05 level
160
Thus, it could be said that dependency ratio of the family, credit received, daily time
allocation and awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits of the rural women were
important indicators for the extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of
orange.
In the present research, the respondent women were mostly housewives. They had been
continuing their livelihoods from the similar social background utilizing similar resources
and facilities. So, their level of education could not play a significant role in their extent of
need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of orange.
Higher dependency ratio indicates more active income earning member of the family. They
have more possibility of utilizing their skill in carrying out PHAs of orange towards food
security. So, with the increase of dependency ratio of the family need for capacity
strengthening was increased.
The respondents of the present study were affiliated with different organizations which did
not deal with the PHAs of orange towards food security rather just with micro-credit
programs. Accordingly, organizational participation of the respondents had no significant
relationship with their need for capacity strengthening.
A woman may have the capacity to make decision regarding household activities and she
may form this capacity from her educational status, parents socio-economic position etc.
Moreover, need for capacity strengthening depends on the availability and accessibility of the
facilities. Therefore, decision making capacity of the women in their family was not
significantly related with their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of
orange. Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between training exposure and need of the
respondents in his study.
The respondents got training from different organizations they were affiliated but a very little
training was conducted specifically regarding post harvest facilities of vegetables and fruits.
This is why need for capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of orange had no
significant relationship with their previous training experience. Ahmed (2007) and Naoroze
(2004) also found this relation between training exposure and need of the respondents in their
study.
161
The woman who received more credit needed more facilities regarding PHAs of orange
towards food security to utilize her credit effectively. Otherwise, she would misuse the credit
leading herself in a more critical and uncertain situation that she was in before. Thus, credit
received was significantly and negatively related with the extent of need for capacity
strengthening towards PHAs of orange.
The women respondents were involved in PHAs of orange. That is why daily time allocation
significantly influenced the extent of need of women for capacity strengthening in carrying
out PHAs of orange. However, with the increase of awareness on nutrition of vegetables and
fruits their need for capacity strengthening was greatly increased.
6. Problems of Involvement in PHAs of Orange
Problems faced by the women in using up the PHAs of orange towards food security were
measured through making Scored Causal Diagrams (SCDs) of Participatory Farm
Management. Problems in participating PHAs of orange were discussed with a selected group
of respondents, assuming the ‘end problem’ being ‘low involvement in PHAs of orange’.
Firstly the problems mentioned by the respondents were listed, secondly diagrams were
drawn by them on the plain ground to show causal relationships between the problems, and
finally scoring of selected problems was performed again by them. In this way SCDs was
prepared by the group of respondents (Figure 12.2). The problems identified by the group has
been listed here with their relative importance indicated by the original score numbers as
shown inside the parentheses.
End problem: Low involvement in PHAs of orange [100]Intermediary problems(i) Lack of skill for product processing [30](ii) Less motivation for processing [10](iii)Difficulty in product marketing [10](iv)Less cohesion for initiatives for joint intervention [15](v)Less ability to conduct PHAs [10](vi) Less marketing [5]
Root causes(i)No training on PHAs [30](ii) Lack women organization in village [15](iii) Unawareness of market prospect [10](iv) Transport problem [10] (v) Less capital for investment [10] (vi) Lack of processing equipments [10](vii) Lack of processing materials [10](viii) Remote production area [5]
162
‘No training on PHAs' got the highest score among the ‘root’ causes. It was very practical
because lack of training women deprived of knowledge and skill. Training and demonstration
can make women competitive to do PHAs of orange. According to the score ‘lack of women
organization in village’ secured the second position. Lack of any women group no joint group
originate to initiate them in PHAs of orange. Unawareness of market prospect make women
lost inspiration in PHAs. Women are very far from present agricultural information so they
are not involved in PHAs of orange. Transport problem is a major cause for low involvement
in the hilly areas. It is very tough to carry the products from the farmers’ house to the market.
People are suffering a lot for lack of good transport facilities. So now-a-days, it is a crying
need for the tribal people.
‘Less capital for investment’ results in less ability to conduct PHAs of orange. Lack of
processing equipments and processing materials made the women unproductive for PHAs of
orange. Lack of processing materials women who are concerned in PHAs of orange could not
do anything with vast amount of orange after harvest. So most of their products decomposed.
Remote production area is also a main problem for the respondents. Juri upazila is so far from
the main town that women are restricted to come out from the household and as a result less
involvement was the outcome.
163
Figure 12.2: Scored Causal Diagrams showing the involvement barrier of rural women in PHAs of orange
Low involvement of women in PHAs of
orange [100]
Lack women organization in village [15]
Less capital for investment [10]
Remote production area [5]
Less cohesion for initiatives for
joint intervention [15]
Less ability to conduct PHAs
[10]
Difficulty of product
marketing [5]
Unawareness of market prospect [10]
Lack of processing equipments [10]
No training on PHAs [30]
Transport problem [10]
Lack of processing materials [10]
Lack of skill for product processing
[30]
Less motivation for processing [10]
Less marketing [10]
164
Suggested solutions to the ‘root’ causes
Participants of the selected group occupied in the preparation of Scored Causal Diagram
(SCD) were requested to mention possible solutions to the ‘root’ causes of low involvement
in PHAs of orange towards food security. The respondents uttered diverse opinions on how
these problems could be overcome. The suggestions for the solution of the problems made
by the respondent women have been given here:
Table 12.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve the suggested issues
Sl No.
Suggested solutions Way to achieve
1. Increased training facilities according to their needs for increasing their knowledge and skill towards PHAs of orange as well as to have efficient manpower.
GOs and NGOs collaboration is needed
2. Increase facilities to preserve orange for long term use to minimize their loss of product
GO and NGO and Donor organizations can take proper steps
3. Involving rural women in different PHAs of orange to increase their operational ability.
Government and private organizations should take initiatives
4. Establishing processing centers for the rural women to build their capacity in PHAs.
Government can create special programs with the well known NGOs
5. Need good roads and highway transport system GO and NGO and Donor organizations can take measures
6. Emphasizing the necessities of women involvement among the rural people with the help of local leaders and elites.
Farmers should be motivated to aware the women by different communication media
7. Women group formation with the help of different Go and NGOs
Government should concern with NGOs and Donor organizations
8. Increased credit availability according to the need of the rural women regarding post harvest facilities of orange
GOs and NGOs can take proper steps in this matter
Involvement of the rural women in PHAs is a fundamental issue for controlling PHAs and
development of socio-economic condition of the rural people. The study reveals that
participation of the rural women in PHAs was low to medium which is not so expected. Thus,
suitable approach should be ensured in order to secure inclusive involvement of the rural
women in PHAs. Linkage between GO and NGOs and donor organizations needs to be
strengthened to ensure cooperative involvement of the rural women. The issues that might be
dealt with are credit and technical information supply, training and demonstration, motivation
campaign and others.
165
7. Case Study
Name of women: Ms Halima BegumHusband’s name: Mr Md Ibrahim AliAddress: Village-Shuknachara, Juri, Moulavibazar
Ms Halima Begum (of 35 years age) had been engaged in cultivation of orange including its PHAs (PHAs). She was a house wife and assisted her husband who is hill farmer. She also used to manage her small homestead where she planted some fruit trees only. She completed her six years’ education before she was married to Mr Md Ibrahim. Mr Ibrahim (45 years) was a farmer and had been cultivating different types of fruits on the hill long time. Actually they were the forest-worker in the hill which he inherited form his parents. They were given some hills of forest to work in the forest in British period.
Ms Halima Begum had five children, three daughters and two sons. They had cultivation on the hills and hill side of about two hectares which is actually long term lease from forestry department of the government. Mostly different fruit trees were grown on the hills with some area of orange. The annual income of the family was about Taka 2,50,000 and only from orange was about Taka 60,000. Cultivation of orange was found profitable by them. The family land was occupied mostly by different wild fruit trees and orange for last 30 years. In recent days, the area under orange cultivation had been increased.
Although Ms Halima Begum used to do her home and homestead works, fruit tree management including PHAs of orange, she was not involved in any organization of the locality. She received three training on different issues of orange production from DAE but nothing on PHAs of vegetables or fruits. She did not borrow any credit from any organization although she was aware of access to borrowing facilities. Under her this life and living situation, she expressed good words to cope with any uncertainty either in her family or farming.
Ms Halima Begum used to engage herself mostly in home and homestead activities. But a substantial time had been spent in care taking of trees, harvest and PHAs of orange in its main season. In the PHAs of orange, her involvement was mostly in grading, ripening and packing. She needed to spend a very long hours during the harvest of orange. She used to take immediate care of fruits fallen on ground during harvest. Sometimes she made juice by hand from the distorted or deformed orange. In spite of her considerable participation in PHAs other than processing she showed her keen interest in orange processing. She indicated:
“I know how to handle the grading, packing, and other activities in a good method through my working experience. But I do not know to process the orange for its better preservation and consumption in different ways. I heard of orange products like juice, jam or jelly etc. I like to learn how to process orange to prepare these things. It needs skill and I am willing to learn the skill though training. I also need some materials and equipments to process orange. I think, women interested in PHAs in this hilly area can form group to happen their idea to conduct processing in the locality. Any GO or NGO can provide supports to fulfill our dream to process orange.”
Although Ms Halima did not receive any training on PHAs of vegetables or fruits, her expected training areas were about grading, ripening and packing of orange scientifically; disease control at house store; processing and preservation of orange and orange products. Ms Halima was aware on nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits and she wanted to take care to keep nutritive value of fruits and vegetables during harvest, cooking or consumption.
Regarding need for overall capacity building to conduct PHAs of vegetables and fruits, she wanted mostly for skill improvement, financial and physical facilities. Skill development was regarding preparation, packaging and storing of products. Marketing information and exploration of marketing channels were also felt very important need to succeed in processing of orange.
With enthusiastic involvement in PHAs of orange, she expected training support on various aspects of PHAs of fruits, especially on orange. She thought that related government and non-government organizations can train up and help them manage PHAs of vegetables in a successful and cost-effective manner. This would ultimately ensure enhanced participation of rural women in PHAs of vegetables and fruits leading to better living status.
166
Focus Group Discussions (FGDs)
Focus group discussion (FGD) was conducted to achieve information on training and capacity
needs of the rural women who had been engaged in PHAs of vegetables and fruits. This FGD was
done to collect information additional to data collected through interview. The approach of
conducting FGD has been discussed in Methodology (Chapter 3).
Almost all the women participating in the discussion did not participate in any training program
except that some of them attended one or two-days training on some issues of agriculture
arranged by the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE). In fact all of them did not attend
any training on PHAs of any vegetable or fruit. Consequently, they all expected skill
development through training on different aspects PHAs of different vegetables and fruits.
The women engaged in PHAs of vegetables and fruits expressed their views about training need
and its various aspects. They expected mostly the following areas of training on PHAs of
vegetables and fruits:
Processing techniques of fruits and vegetables e.g. jam, jelly, chips, juice etc. Various types of disease and insect control at store Storing of vegetables and fruits with better nutrition and food value after harvest Storage
of seed at house level Grading techniques to get more market value Grading of seed material to keep as seed Selection of potato to keep at cold store for seed Traditional ways of preserving fruits and vegetables to consume for longer period
DAE and NGO were their preferred organizations through which they liked to get these training.
Although they mentioned these names of organizations, they were actually not well aware about
the agencies which might fit with their demand. They also expressed their willingness to get those
training in the their own locality.
In respect to overall need for capacity strengthening, they expressed their areas of interest. The
first expected area of need was on skill development to conduct PHAs of potato. The second
expectation was about the physical capacity to set up processing facilities so that they could
process potato to make various items.
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As specific issues of need for capacity strengthening, they expected skill development on:
product processing handling grading packaging preservation of seeds.
They expected the equipment for making products, credit to buy the equipments, establishment of
sales center at locality and community based cold stores towards participating and achieving
benefits out of PHAs of vegetables and fruits. Above everything, they wanted a situation where
rural women can engage themselves at village to produce and consume various products of
various fruits and vegetables. They believed that only formation of strong women group could
serve the purpose. Functional cooperation and active help had been sought from NGO in the
formation and keep groups efficient and purposeful.
It was thought that their capacity to preserve vegetables and fruits in a better way and make the
products as per demand of the community would lead them to achieve better livelihood. It would
be good for them if they could borrow money from local banks or NGO with minimum interest to
set the facilities needed to conduct PHAs in a systematic and profitable way.
PHAs would not only improve their sorting, grading, packing or marketing and processing of
products, it would rather improve the nutritional status of consumption at household level. Thus,
a massive awareness campaign was expected from concerned organization to make people aware
of conscious participation in PHAs of vegetables and fruits as part of their food making and
intake at house level.
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Key Findings
Participation in PHAs (PHAs) of vegetables and fruits: Low to medium involvement of the
women in PHAs of vegetables and fruits prevailed in the study areas. But a great potential had
been observed to strengthen women’s involvement in PHA. Although their extent of involvement
varied from vegetable to vegetable and fruit to fruit, the major specific PHAs for specific
vegetables or fruits are shown below:
Vegetables Fruits Brinjal - Seed storage, Sorting and grading,Cleaning, Transport from field to housePackaging.
Mango - Processing of mango, Seed storage or raising seedling, Short-term storage for homestead use, Ripening of mango for homestead use, Sorting and grading etc.
Potato - Sorting and grading, seed storage, storage vegetables, processing, packaging etc.
Pineapple - Processing, sorting and grading, harvesting, ripening, drying, trimming of stem, storage of seed etc.
Spinach - Harvesting, washing and cleaning, Cooling of spinach, sorting and grading, transport from field to house etc.
Guava - Storage of seed, PackagingHarvesting of guava, Sorting and grading etc
Tomato - Harvesting of tomato, Transport from field to house, Sorting and grading,Packaging etc.
Banana - Storage or collection of sucker, Insect disease control, Transport from field to house etc.Orange - Harvesting of orange ,Packaging, Insect and disease control, Sorting and grading etc.
Training need in conducting PHAs: Almost all the respondents showed their overall high to medium need of training. The major areas of training varied slightly from item to item, yet their major expected training areas were:
Vegetables Fruits Brinjal - Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control, Biological treatments for disease and pest control, Processing of brinjal, Storage, increasing of shelf-life of fruits etc.
Mango - Dumping and waxing, Increasing of shelf-life of fruits, Biological treatment for disease and pest control, Mechanical treatment for disease and pest control, Chemical treatment for disease and pest control etc.
Potato -Processing of potato, Increasing of shelf-lifeof potato, Transportation and marketing of potato, Transportation and marketing of potatoBiological treatments for disease and pest control etc.
Pineapple - Storage of vegetables, Handling of modern equipment, Using packaging materialsBiological treatment for disease and pest control, Mechanical treatment for disease and pest control, Transportation and marketing of pineapple, Increasing of shelf-life of fruits
Spinach -Storage of vegetables, Processing of vegetables, Increasing of shelf-life of vegetables, Handling of modern equipment
Guava –Storage, Processing and preservation of guava, Transportation and marketing of guava, Using packaging materials, Increasing of shelf-life of fruits etc.
Tomato -Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control, Processing and preservation of tomato, Preservation and care taking of seeds, Storage in seed, Biological treatments for disease and pest control, Handling of modern equipment
Banana -Increasing of shelf-life of fruits, Bottling and canning, Processing of banana, Handling of modern equipments for harvesting etc.Orange -Biological and mechanical treatments for disease and pest control, Processing of orange Storage, Increasing of shelf-lifeof orange etc.
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Need for capacity strengthening to conduct PHAs: The major portion of the women felt
high to medium need for their capacity strengthening in conducting PHAs of vegetables and
fruits. The ranking of different aspects of capacity strengthening and their corresponding
mostly expected specific areas of development are shown below:
Aspects of capacity strengthening
Specific areas expected
Management skillProcessing of fruits and vegetables, preservation of seeds, handling of post harvest equipments, operational ability, market facility exploitation, financial management
Physical facilities Processing materials, store house, processing ground, transports/vehicles, sales centers
Financial ability Processing equipment, capital, credit and labor purchase. Decision making ability Collection, storing, grading, packaging, processing, selling of fruits.Access to support services Preservation facilities or cold storage, access to credit, development
workers for advice , labor market, marketing channel/facilities, transport,
Major causes of low participation of women in PHAs: Lack of training on PHAs,
social/religious barrier, lack of cold storage, financial shortage, absence of farmer/women
groups, lack of prospect in marketing of products etc. were the major problems encountered
by women towards low participation in PHAs of vegetables and fruits.
Association of personal characteristics to need for capacity strengthening: Age,
Education, Annual family income, Credit received, Daily time allocation, Involvement of
women in PHAs, Training need of women etc. were some of the personal characteristics of
the women found to be linked to their felt need for capacity strengthening in carrying out
PHAs of vegetables and fruits.
Conduct of training and demonstration: Two training and demonstrations were conducted
in two separate batches of 30 women (for three days) engaged in PHAs of each vegetable and
fruit. Thus, a total of 18 training and demonstrations were conducted for nine vegetables and
fruits covering 540 women in total in nine sites.
Fruits/Vegetables Location
(Upazila)
District Duration
Mango Shibganj Nawabganj 21~26, June 2008
Pineapple Modhupur Tangail 1~6, July 2008
Guava Nesarabad Pirojpur 25~30, August 2008
Brinjal Fulbaria Mymensingh 21~26 October 2008
Potato Khetlal Joypurhat 06~11 February 2009
Banana Shibganj Bogra 02~07 December 2008
Tomato Godagari Rajshahi 21~26 December 2008
Spinach Monirumpur Jessore 03~08 January, 2009
Orange Juri Sylhet 21~26 February, 2009
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Chapter 5
POLICY IMPLICATIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
1. Policy Implications and Recommendations
The National Food Policy (NFP) duly asserted that the role of women in contributing to food security is often not recognized and appreciated. But women play a key role in determining intra-household food security and nutrition for individual family members. Thus, it is necessary to undertake and follow up on women-focused development initiatives including the involvement of rural women on a larger scale in economic activities through better access to resources, inputs and services. In an agro-based country like Bangladesh, rural women can be increasingly involved in agro-processing schemes. The Government of Bangladesh is also firmly committed to removing the barriers towards greater participation of rural women in economic development and food security. The government should play a supportive role in providing opportunities for rural women to improve their efficiency in production, processing and marketing activities.
Keeping the above view in mind, the following recommendations are being made for policy consideration:
Low to medium involvement of the women in post harvest activities (PHAs) of vegetables and fruits indicates a great potentiality of women’s involvement in agricultural and rural development. Strategic campaign is needed to get rural women more involved in PHAs of vegetables and fruits. Mass media awareness creation, group discussion, motivation through local leaders and elites may be some of the ways for creating an enabling situation and enhancing advocacy. DAE along with other similar organizations would need to take lead in this matter.
Specific activity-wise involvement of rural women in PHAs of vegetables and fruits showed that their involvement was mostly in the activities other than product processing. This clearly points out the restricted scope of processing for the women under investigation. Scope should be made possible by empowering women through their involvement in farmer and/or women managed associations (cooperatives) at local levels. Specialized NGOs can help to form and nurture the associations and create enabling mechanisms while DAE and allied government organizations can provide technical support.
Majority of the women felt high to medium need for their capacity strengthening in conducting PHAs of vegetables and fruits although their aspects of capacity strengthening varies slightly. The felt needs for capacity escalation must be fulfilled to ensure better involvement of women in PHAs. But it is not an easy task alone for government to discharge the responsibilities. NGO and others may come forward to help government. The following strategic actions may be recommended during food policy
171
enactment which refer mostly to the Objective 2 of Section D of Key Intervention 2.5 and 2.6 of NFP and its PoA:
o Provision of special credit incentives to develop appropriate storage facilities, packaging and transportation of processed produce: Strengthening government and NGO partnership to scale-up collateral free loans to small enterprises at rural areas is essential.
o Establishment of mini cold storage at locality under management of local associations of farmers. This matter is specifically important for potato for huge producing areas of the country especially in the northern regions of Joypurhat and Bogra. It has generally been observed that these areas in northern region are neglected regarding government initiative for entrepreneurship development inagriculture (refers to NFP 1.2 section and Key intervention area 1.6 in PoA).
o Establishment of processing facilities through government and NGO interventions under community management: Effective supports, both technical and physical, might be provided to existing agro-based processing industries. Establishment of specific processing zone might be created where specific vegetables are grown in abundance.
o Expansion of marketing facilities: Marketing facilities should be expanded for agricultural products sold by women. NGOs can help create such markets through their group members’ network and sales outlets.
o Provision of credit: Micro to medium sized loan facilities may be increased forwomen entrepreneurs who can be supported by local NGOs and banks.
Almost all the respondents of the study showed an overall high to medium need of training on various aspects of PHAs. Appropriate and specific on-the-spot training may be arranged for the women on various aspects of capacity scale-up to carry out the PHAsof vegetables and fruits (it refers to 2.7 of PoA of NFP). To train the women, extension agents should be trained first to improve ‘training of trainers’ (TOT)’ on courses relevant to the PHAs. Such courses might be included in the diploma in agriculture so that the field level officers of DAE can also learn themselves in detail about PHAs of vegetables and fruits.
Furthermore, the relevant academic institutions and capable NGOs may be integrated in the process of strengthening capacities of rural women in performing PHAs in better ways. More nutritional aspects may be included in the courses at school level so that even less educated women can be aware of the issues.
Lack of training on PHAs, social/religious barrier, lack of cold storage, financial shortage, absence of farmer/women groups, lack of prospect in marketing of products etc. were the major problems encountered by women towards better involvement in PHAs of vegetables and fruits. Even other constraints of women should be assessed towards participating in post harvest and other income generating activities. Appropriate actions may also be identified and implemented to remove those constraints as per
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indication of 2.3.1 of PoA of NFP. Otherwise the dream of better and ensured involvement of rural women in PHAs and other rural development activities will remain unachieved.
Age, education, annual family income, credit received, daily time allocation, involvement of women in PHAs, training need of women etc. were some the personal characteristics of the women found to be significantly linked to their felt need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of vegetables and fruits. In formulating any action plan for the women regarding such activities, at least these variables might be considered.
Food processing and nutrition activities should be mainstreamed into the agriculture extension program of DAE. Training and demonstration programs should be conducted in areas where potentiality remains for women's involvement in PHAs of specific vegetables or fruits. DAE and relevant NGOs need to take a pivotal role to offer such training and demonstration to rural women.
2. Areas for Further Research
Based on the experience and observations during the investigation period, the following priority areas are suggested for further research.
The present research was conducted involving some important selected vegetables and fruits regarding women’s involvement and their need for capacity strengthening to conduct PHAs. Other important fruits and vegetables might also be considered for better understanding of rural women’s involvement and their need for capacity strengthening.
The field investigation and other initiatives were limited to only single locations of prominent horticulture (fruits and vegetables) producing areas of the country. More areas could be considered for future research to identify the comprehensive nature and extent of women’s involvement for the same vegetable or fruit.
Extensive training and demonstration of more women involved or having potentiality of involvement in PHAs of vegetables and fruits might be considered as future initiatives. Moreover, comprehensive training and demonstration modules may be prepared to achieve the target successfully. The follow-up mechanism may also be included into the programs to assess the adoption nature of the women of what knowledge and skill they achieved from the training and demonstration.
A deeper and specific further investigation is needed to collect information on how to establish farmers’ or rural women’s organization at village level to run any agro-processing initiatives under community management. The investigation may lead to feasible solutions to attain sustainable targets.
A separate study may be conducted on how the community-based management can be introduced in the establishment of mini-cold storage facilities, setting refrigerator facilities, buying and operating small-scale agro-processing equipment, establishment of procurement and sales centers and related arrangements.
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3. Conclusion
Women could achieve much more skill in food production, processing, and utilization if policy makers could create a conducive environment for their effective participation in the relevant activities. Specifically, the vast potential needs to be tapped for enhancing women’s involvement in PHAs of vegetables and fruits. More support to women in income generating activities (IGAs) through agro-based activities and processing should be an important part of the government’s strategic plan.
Establishment of agro-based industries must be linked with incentives to involve more women folk from the rural areas. Otherwise a great portion of the population will remain under- or un-utilized by not being mainstreamed in rural development. Moreover, year-round supply of processed food items, supply of nutritious food, value addition to agricultural products and enhanced family income can not be attained if the rural women do not get the necessary scope to demonstrate their contribution in PHAs. Massive training and other supportive measures are required to scale up capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of vegetables and fruits for food security at household and national levels.
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Acknowledgments
Everyone who helped in this investigation has made a contribution to this research. The research Team is grateful to all of them although it is not possible to mention all by name. Yet, the Team feels it an obligation to mention some of them specifically.
The Project has been financed as a Programme Funded Research (PR) through the Research Grant Initiative of the National Food Policy Capacity Strengthening Programme (NFPCSP) implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with the Food Planning and Monitoring Unit (FPMU) of the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management with financial support of USAID and European Commission. The team is duly grateful to all the concerned organizations for receiving grant to conduct the research. Without the financial and other supports it would not be possible to conduct such an important research related to food policy agenda in Bangladesh.
The team cannot but recognize the help, cooperation and inspiration of Mr Ad Spijkers, FAO Representative in Bangladesh towards completing the research project. Mr Ciro Fiorillo,Chief Technical Advisor (CTA), NFPCSP, was kind enough to help, criticize, guide and inspire throughout the tenure of the investigations. We sincerely recognize all of his kind cooperation and directions.
Dr. Lalita Bhattacharjee, Nutritionist and Prof Dr Rezaul Karim Talukder, Physical and Social Access Adviser of NFPCSP, FAO, Bangladesh - the two TAT Members for the Project worked as mentors and directed and supervised all the activities, events and reports of the project from the very inception. The Team remains grateful for all their cooperation, guidance, support and sympathy.
Dr Nur A Khondaker, Research Grant Administrator, NFPCSP, FAO competently and professionally administered all the initiatives from the commencement of the Project. The Team found him very prudent and far-sighted in managing all the Projects under NFPCSP. He remained all through vigilant over the progress of the Project. We are very thankful to him for his cautious management, kind help and timely discharge of all the responsibilities.
The Project Team also extends heartfelt thanks to Dr. Kostas G. Stamoulis, Director, Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA), FAO HQ, Rome, for his excellent guidance, suggestions and encouragement to improve the quality of the research on food security in Bangladesh.
The Team expresses heartiest appreciation to Dr Md. Hammadur Rahman, Professor and Head, Department of Agricultural Extension Education, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Mymensingh for his cordial cooperation and encouragement leading to successful completion of the Project. He discharged his responsibilities nicely as Head of the Project implementing institution. As the Head of the Collaborating Institution, Prof Dr A Momen Miah, Director, BAUEC, BAU, Mymensingh rendered excellent cooperation to implement the project. We express due thanks to him.
The Teachers of the Department of Agricultural Extension Education, BAU, Mymensingh showed their cordial cooperation, encouragement and provided suggestions towards completing the activities of the Project. They all participated in all the events of the Project and provided ample supports. We are really grateful to them all.
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The Upazila Agriculture Officers, Sub-Assistant Agriculture Officers and others of the concerned nine Upazilas extended their cordial cooperation in conducting the field investigations and conducting training and demonstrations. Without their help it could be difficult to conduct those activities so smoothly. They helped in locating the places for data collection, selection of women for training and demonstrations and in offering venues to conduct the training and demonstrations. We ever appreciate their cooperation appropriately. The Team desires to express special gratitude to the women of the study areas for their cordial cooperation during the collection of data and participation in the training and demonstration programs.
Ms Suraia Akhter (Research Assistant), Mr Atikur Rahman (Research Fellow) and Ms Effat Sharmin (Research Fellow) did very well in discharging their duties and responsibilities during their period of work in the Project. Additionally, Mr Md Kamrul Hasan, ex-MS student of the Department helped the Project through his nice involvement at various stages of the Project implementation. Sincere appreciation is extended to all of them.
Prof Dr M Zulfikar RahmanPrincipal Investigator
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Verma, T.R. Dahiva and T. Grover. 1992. Post-harvest Technological Advancement and Farm Women. Agricultural Science Digest Karnal, 12(2):85-89.
Waheduzzaman, M. 2004. A Study on Impacts of NGO-Interventions on Livelihoods of Women in a Fishing Community. M.S. (Ag. Ext. Ed.) Thesis, Dept. of Agricultural Extension Education, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh.
WFS (World Food Summit). 1996. “Investing in Agriculture for Food Security”. The Daily Star, 16 October. 2006. Karwan Bazar, Dhaka.
Wikipedia. 2009. Found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_study
Yin, R. K.. 2002. Case Study Research. Design and Methods. Third Edition. Applied Social Research Method Series, Volume 5. California: Sage Publications.
Yeasmin, F. 2002. Participation of Women in Rice Production Activities and Their Training Needs in Some Selected Villages of BAUEC under Sadar Upazila of Mymensingh District. M.S. (Ag. Ext. Ed.) Thesis, Dept. of Agricultural Extension Education, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh.
181
An Interview Scheduleon
Capacity Strengthening of Rural Women in Carrying out Post Harvest Activities of Vegetables and Fruits
1. Age: How old are you? ………….years
2. Education: a) Cannot read and write b) can sign only c) Up to class ……….
3. Dependency ratio of the family: Please mention the number of your family members? …………… members How many earning members are there in your family? Male number……..Female number: ………
4. Farm size: Please furnish the following information about the land area of your family.
Type of land Local unit HectareOwn landHomestead areaShare-cropping/ lease/mortgage inShare-cropping/ lease/mortgage outOthers (garden, pond, fallow land etc.)
5. Annual family income: Please mention your last year’s family income from each of the following sources.
Sources Income (‘000’ Tk.)Farm
a) Crops Cereals Cash crops Pulses Oils
b) Vegetablesc) Fruitsd Livestocke) Fisheriesf) Others
Non-farm a) Business b) Service c) Remittance d) Others
6. Organizational participation: Please mention the nature and duration of your participation (past and/ present) with the following organizations.
Sl. No.
Organization No participation
Nature and duration (year)
Ordinary member
Executive committee member
Executive committee officer(president,
secretary)1 BRAC
2 ASA
3 PROSHIKA
4 Grameen Bank5 World Vision
Sample No.
Appendix A
182
6 Ganasastha Kendra7 Swanirvor Bangladesh8 Palli Mangal Karmasuchi9 Union parishad10 School committee11 Cooperative society12 Mass education committee13 Others
7. Decision making capacity in the family: How do you make decision in your family regarding the following activities? Note: (0) Not at all, (1) Joint decision, mainly by other family members, (2) Joint decision, mainly by
husband (3) Joint decision mainly by self and (3) Full decision by self
Sl. No. Family activitiesExtent of decision making ability
0 1 2 3 41 Purchase, sell or mortgage of land
2 Making furniture
3 Education of children4 Franchise right5 Guest entertainment
6 Family planning and treatment7 Money lending8 Construction of new house9 Daily expenditure10 Selection of crops for cultivation
8. Training exposure: Did you attend any training? Yes / No. If yes, please give the following information.
Sl. No. Subject of training Sponsoring agency Duration (day)1 Use of post harvest instruments2 Proper storage of seeds3 Maturity symptoms of fruits4 Proper storage of vegetables and fruits5 Others
9. Credit received: Did you receive any credit from any sources? Yes / No. If yes, please mention the sources of credit and the amount of credit received.
Sl. No. Sources of credit Amount of credit (Tk.)1 NGOs (please mention name of the NGO)2 Banks3 Money lenders4 Friends5 Neighbors6 Relatives7 Others
10. Ability to cope with uncertainty: How about your psychological strength to overcome the following uncertainties?
# Crises Ability to cope
Not at all Weak Moderate Strong1 Sickness/accidents2 Crop failure3 Drought, flood, hail storm etc.
183
# Crises Ability to cope
Not at all Weak Moderate Strong4 Scarcity of money5 Unavailability of labor in during cropping6 Unemployed for a long time 7 Death of father/husband8 Own accidents
11. Daily time allocation for post harvest activities: Please mention the time you spend for the following post harvest activities.
Name of the activities Hour(s) / dayCuringCooling WashingDrying Sorting,GradingPreservation of fruits and vegetablesStorage of seedsTransportationDisease and pest controlMarketingOthers
12. Need of women for capacity building: (a) Need for financial ability: To what extent the following abilities are required for you to increase
proper utilization of the post harvest activities of vegetables and fruits?
# Financial ability Extent of need
No Low Medium High1 Capital2 Credit3 Labor purchase4 Processing-equipment purchase
(b) Need for decision making ability: To what extent the following abilities are required to make decision by you for proper utilization of the post harvest activities of vegetables and fruits?
# Decision making ability regardingExtent of need
No Low Medium High1 Collection2 Grading3 Packaging4 Processing5 Storing6 Selling of vegetables fruits
(c) Need for access to support services: To what extent you need to increase the accessibility tofollowing support services for proper utilization of the post harvest facilities of vegetables and fruits?
# Access to support servicesExtent of need
No Low Medium High1 Preservation facilities or cold storage2 Labor market3 Marketing channel/facilities
184
# Access to support servicesExtent of need
No Low Medium High4 Access to credit5 Transport6 Development workers for advice
(d) Need for management skill: To what extent the following aspects of management skill are needed for you to increase proper utilization of the post harvest activities of vegetables and fruits?
# Management skillExtent of needNo Low Medium High
1 Handling of post harvest equipments2 Operational ability3 Market facility exploitation4 Preservation of seeds5 Processing of fruits and vegetables6 Financial management
(e) Need for physical facilities: To what extent you need to increase the following physical facilities for proper utilization of the post harvest facilities of vegetables and fruits?
# Access to support servicesExtent of need
No Low Medium High1 Processing materials/equipment2 Processing ground3 Transport/vehicles4 Store house5 Sales centers
13. Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits: Please pass your opinion about the following aspect to keep nutritive value of vegetables and fruits.
Sl No Statements Agree Disagree1. (+) After boiling vegetables water should not be removed from the cooking pot2. (+) To preserve vit-c minimum water should be used for cooking3. (+) Deep peeling of vegetables and fruits can cause significant loss of nutritive
value4. (-) Vegetables must be washed after cutting5. (-) Vegetables should not be cut into big pieces
6. (+) Leafy vegetables should be cooked with sufficient oil7. (+) Some vegetables (such as carrot, tomato, cucumber, lettuce etc) are better to
eat by making ‘salad’ than that of cooking8. (+) Cooking partially destroys vit-c and B1 from raw fruits and vegetables9. (-) After cutting vegetables should be soaked into water10.(+) To preserve vit-c vegetables should be cooked either earthen or aluminium pot11.(-) Most of the vegetables do not wash after harvesting to improve their quality12.(+) Curing should be conducted after harvesting of vegetables and fruits13.(+) Immature, diseased and badly bruised vegetables should be sort out14. (-) The wax emulsion without fungicide protect vegetables against microbial
spoilage15.(-) During ripening of fruits ventilation is essential
185
14. Measures taken by women for maintaining nutritive value of vegetables and fruits: Please reply the following questions.
A. Collection
In which stage do you collect fruits to get maximum benefit?
When do you collect vegetables to get proper nutrition?
How do you wash fruits/vegetables?
How do you collect fruits and vegetables from orchard/field?
B. Grading/Sorting
Which techniques do you follow to sort vegetables and fruits?
C. Packaging
How do you pack vegetables and fruits?
D. Storage
How do you preserve leafy vegetables to retain moisture?
How do you preserve fruits?
E. Processing and preservation
How do you process vegetables to use in off season?
How do you preserve fruits for long time use?
F. Use of pesticides
How do you protect fruits and vegetables from pest and disease infestation?
What type of pesticides do you use for fruits and vegetables ripening?
In which way you delay ripening of fruits and vegetables?
G. Cooking
When do you wash vegetables for cooking?
Do you use oil for frying /cooking leafy vegetables?
How do you cut vegetables for cooking to get more nutrition?
What type of pot do you use for cooking vegetables?
Do you use the water that comes out at boiling vegetables?
How do you try to preserve vit-C during cooking?
186
15. Involvement of rural women in post harvest activities of brinjal: Please indicate appropriate option for the following dimensions of involvement of post harvest activities.
(a) Frequency of performance: 0 = Not at all
1 = Rarely (performs less than half of the requirement)2 = Sometimes (performs more than half of the requirement)3 = Regularly / Frequently (performs completely as required)
(b) Part of work done: 0 = Not at all 1 = Less than half of the requirement
2 = More than half of the requirement3 = Completely
(C) Control over decision0 = Absolutely no decision by self1 = Shared decision, mainly by others 2 = Shared decision, mainly by self3 = Full decision by self
Post harvest activitiesFrequency of performance
Part of work done
Control over
decisionWashing and dryingInsect and disease controlSorting and gradingCuring Cooling i. Water cooling ii. Air coolingPackaging Transport from field to processing houseTransport to the marketStorage of vegetables Seed storage Processing of brinjal
16. Training need: Please indicate your extent of training needs regarding the flowing post harvest activities of vegetables?
Sl.no.
Activities Extent of need
No Low Medium High1 Determination of maturity index2 Handling of modern equipments for harvesting3 Different post harvest activities
a) Curing b) Cooling c) Washing and dryingd) Sorting grading
4 Increasing shelf-life of vegetables5 Disease and pest control
a) Biological treatmentsb) Mechanical treatmentsc) Chemical treatments
187
Sl.no.
Activities Extent of need
No Low Medium High6 Using packaging materials7 Processing and preservation of vegetables8 Preservation and care taking of seeds9 Storage 10 Transportation and marketing of vegetables
Thank you very much for your kind cooperation.
Signature of the interviewer with date
[Note: Small but significant changes were adopted in the interview schedule for each vegetable and fruit during data collection. But the number of interview schedules will be increased to nine and will occupy a big space if those changes are shown here separately. Thus, a general schedule is showed for the major issues of data collection items.]
189
BrinjalCorrelation matrix of dependent and independent variables for the rural women (N= 50)
Variables Age
Edu
catio
n
Dep
ende
ncy
ratio
Far
m s
ize
Ann
ualf
amily
inco
me
Org
aniz
atio
nal
part
icip
atio
n
Dec
isio
n m
akin
g
capa
city
Tra
inin
g ex
posu
re
Cre
dit r
ecei
ved
Abi
lity
to c
ope
with
unce
rtai
nty
Dai
ly ti
me
allo
catio
n
for
PHA
Aw
aren
ess
on
nutr
ition
of
vege
tabl
es a
nd f
ruits
Cap
acity
stre
ngth
enin
g
Age 1
Education -.491** 1
Dependency ratio -.200 -.284* 1
Farm size .104 .193 .056 1
Annual farm income .115 .113 .028 .314* 1
Organizational participation .230 -.016 -.107 -.091 .074 1
Decision making capacity .177 .083 -.134 .021 .144 .383** 1
Training exposure .099 .201 -.224 -.163 -.060 .345* .280* 1
Credit received .024 -.174 .088 .330* .196 .288* .137 -.071 1
Ability to cope with uncertainty .097 .228 .036 -.030 .541** .285* .358* .269 -.055 1
Daily time allocation for PHA .085 -.044 .047 .176 -.035 .494** .254 .333* .204 .211 1
Awareness on nutrition of
vegetables and fruits-.314* .329* -.256 .098 .027 -.033 .245 .182 .116 -.047 .084 1
Capacity strengthening .185 -.305* .360* -.119 .025 -.017 .018 -.146 .078 -.241 -.207 -.372** 1
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Appendix B
190
TomatoCorrelation matrix of dependent and independent variables for the rural women (N= 50)
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
Variables Age
Edu
catio
n
Dep
ende
ncy
ratio
Far
m s
ize
Ann
ual f
amily
inco
me
Org
aniz
atio
n
part
icip
atio
n
Dec
isio
n m
akin
g
capa
city
Tra
inin
g ex
posu
re
Cre
dit r
ecei
ved
Abi
lity
to c
ope
with
unce
rtai
nty
Dai
ly ti
me
allo
catio
n
for
PHA
Aw
aren
ess
on n
utri
tion
of v
eget
able
s an
d fr
uits
capa
city
str
engt
heni
ng
Age 1Education -.529** 1Dependency ratio -.211 -.017 1Farm size .274 .123 -.153 1Annual family income .143 .019 -.176 .360* 1Organization participation .031 -.086 .024 -.199 .127 1Decision making capacity -.036 .031 .213 -.098 -.055 -.006 1Training exposure -.189 .302* -.194 -.058 .027 .002 .025 1Credit received
-.103 .051 .138 -.221 .002 .670** .040-
.0861
Ability to cope with uncertainty-.144 -.099 -.012 -.180 -.259 -.237 .085
-.061
-.240
Daily time allocation for PHA-.242 -.173 -.081 -.026 -.016 -.040 -.298*
-.055
-.029 -.035 1
Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits
-.028 .258 -.152 .061 -.055 .167 .136 .098 .153 -.325* -.229 1
Capacity strengthening .128 .152 .103 .143 .084 .215 -.012 .116 .174 -.811** -.141 .309* 1
191
Spinach
Correlation matrix of dependent and independent variables for the rural women (N= 50)
Variables Age
Edu
catio
n
Dep
ende
ncy
ratio
Far
m s
ize
Ann
ual f
arm
inco
me
Org
aniz
atio
nal
Par
tici
pati
onD
ecis
ion
mak
ing
capa
city
Tra
inin
g
expo
sure
Cre
dit r
ecei
ved
Abi
lity
to c
ope
Dai
ly ti
me
allo
cati
on
Aw
aren
ess
on
nutr
ition
Cap
acity
stre
ngth
enin
g
Age 1
Education -.460** 1
Dependency ratio -.050 .076 1
Farm size -.063 .252 .158 1
Annual farm income .007 .211 -.190 .119 1
Organizational Participation -.070 .067 -.216 -.108 -.045 1
Decision making capacity -.454** .420** .052 .044 .052 .148 1
Training exposure -.086 .213 -.087 .068 .010 .018 .197 1
Credit received .112 .207 .095 -.122 -.124 .393** .179 -.089 1
Ability to cope -.049 .278 -.009 .064 -.055 -.050 .298* .206 .343* 1
Daily time allocation .046 -.069 -.161 .014 .047 .441** -.102 -.152 -.009 -.427** 1
Awareness on nutrition .189 .078 .031 .178 .160 .152 -.141 -.074 .133 -.238 .203 1
Capacity strengthening -.172 .036 -.045 -.224 -.095 .291* .013 .059 -.039 -.243 .415** -.112 1
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
192
Potato
Correlation matrix of dependent and independent variables for the rural women (N= 50)
Variables Age
Edu
catio
n
Dep
ende
ncy
ratio
Far
m s
ize
Ann
ual f
amily
inco
me
Org
aniz
atio
nal
part
icip
atio
n
Dec
isio
n m
akin
g
capa
city
in th
e fa
mil
y
Tra
inin
g ex
posu
re
Cre
dit r
ecei
ved
Abi
lity
to c
ope
with
unce
rtai
nty
Dai
ly ti
me
allo
catio
n
for
PH
A
Aw
aren
ess
on
nutr
itio
n of
vege
tabl
es a
nd f
ruits
Cap
acity
bui
ldin
g
Age 1
Education -.527** 1
Dependency ratio -.296* .223 1
Farm size .199 .328* .029 1
Annual family income .018 .417** .284* .699** 1
Organizational participation .019 -.235 -.094 -.392** -.356* 1
Decision making capacity in -.310* .047 .085 -.275 -.310* .194 1
Training exposure .072 .054 -.184 .139 .047 .343* .143 1
Credit received .071 -.038 .032 .016 .028 .248 -.037 .198 1
Ability to cope with
uncertainty-.189 -.106 -.231 -.161 -.252 .220 .455** .279 .333* 1
Daily time allocation for PHA .220 -.071 -.284* .173 .113 .001 -.551** .053 .045 -.395** 1
Awareness on nutrition of
vegetables and fruits .209 .278 .055 .396** .476** -.453** -.516** .033 -.219 -.498** .322* 1
Capacity building-.143 .090 -.119 -.078 -.253 .263 .097 .058 -.208 -.248 .159 -.193 1
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
193
Mango
Correlation matrix of dependent and independent variables for the rural women (N= 50)
Variables Age
Edu
catio
n
Dep
ende
ncy
ratio
Far
m s
ize
Ann
ual f
arm
inco
me
Org
aniz
atio
nal
part
icip
atio
n
Dec
isio
n
mak
ing
capa
city
in th
e fa
mil
y
Tra
inin
g
expo
sure
Cre
dit r
ecei
ved
Abi
lity
to c
ope
wit
h un
cert
aint
y
Dai
ly ti
me
allo
cati
on f
or
PH
AA
war
enes
s on
nutr
ition
of
vege
tabl
es a
nd
frui
ts
Cap
acity
stre
ngth
enin
g
Age 1
Education -.316* 1
Dependency ratio -.197 .171 1
Farm size -.047 .241 .329* 1
Annual farm income .048 .422** .278 .661** 1
Organizational participation
.297* .023 -.102 -.081 .052 1
Decision making capacity in the family
.247 .154 -.164 -.094 .140 .180 1
Training exposure .134 .299* .178 -.022 .267 .132 .191 1
Credit received .056 .321* .007 -.063 .083 .129 .080 .330* 1
Ability to cope with uncertainty
.214 .268 .066 .170 .455** .428** .367**.405*
*.111 1
Daily time allocation for PHA
-.160 .104 .045 .239 -.146 -.103 -.046 -.287* -.249 -.240 1
Awareness on nutrition of
vegetables and fruits-.362** .646** .157 .344 .427** -.035 .084 .257 .186 .234 .275 1
Capacity strengthening -.062 -362** -.017 -.447** -.613** -.134 -.166 -.095 -.324* -.285* -.041 -.245 1
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
194
Banana
Correlation matrix of dependent and independent variables for the rural women (N= 50)
Vairables Age
Edu
catio
n
Dep
ende
ncy
ratio
Far
m s
ize
Ann
ual f
arm
inco
me
Org
aniz
atio
nal
part
icip
atio
n
Dec
isio
n m
akin
g ca
paci
ty
in th
e fa
mil
y
Tra
inin
g ex
posu
re
Cre
dit r
ecei
ved
Abi
lity
to c
ope
with
unce
rtai
nty
Dai
ly ti
me
allo
catio
n fo
r
PH
A
Aw
aren
ess
on n
utri
tion
of
vege
tabl
es a
nd f
ruits
Cap
acity
Str
engt
heni
ng
Age 1
Education -.223 1
Dependency ratio -.214 .187 1
Farm size .234 .281* .269 1
Annual farm income .052 .375** .216 .291* 1
Organizational participation .181 .057 -.179 -.001 .185 1
Decision making capacity -.065 -.054 -.028 -.108 -.223 -.123 1
Training exposure -.048 .073 -.148 -.097 -.118 .141 -.130 1
Credit received .166 -.149 -.049 -.005 .132 .586** -.149 -.072 1
Ability to cope with uncertainty -.250 .002 -.441** -.154 -.344* .044 .433** .171 -.062 1
Daily time allocation for PHAs .222 -.050 .175 -.078 .328* .332* -.352* -.037 .238 -.543** 1
Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits
.095 .047 .197 .201 .214 -.218-.448**
.088 -.022 -.506** -.056 1
Capacity Strengthening -.184 -.108 -.065 -.086 -.228 .059 -.057 .266 -.011 -.005 -.106 .071 1
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
195
Pineapple
Correlation matrix of dependent and independent variables for the rural women (N= 50)
Variables Age
Edu
catio
n
Dep
ende
ncy
ratio
Far
m s
ize
Ann
ual f
amily
in
com
e
Org
aniz
atio
nal
part
icip
atio
n
Dec
isio
n m
akin
g ca
paci
ty in
the
fam
ily
Tra
inin
g ex
posu
re
Cre
dit r
ecei
ved
Abi
lity
to c
ope
wit
h un
cert
aint
y
Dai
ly ti
me
allo
cati
on f
or
PH
A
Aw
aren
ess
on
nutr
ition
of
vege
tabl
es a
nd
frui
ts
Cap
acity
st
reng
then
ing
Age 1
Education -.270 1
Dependency ratio .103 -.035 1
Farm size -.075 .390** .053 1
Annual family income -.050 .355* .029 .590** 1
Organizational participation -.051 .254 -.180 .248 .232 1
Decision making capacity in
family.311* -.095 .099 -.089 -.043 .061 1
Training exposure -.026 .411** -.092 .087 .019 .117 -.080 1
Credit received .043 -.024 .002 -.110 -.124 .443** .026 .142 1
Ability to cope with uncertainty .280* -.171 .309* .096 .214 .094 .110 -.061 -.049 1
Daily time allocation for PHA .186 -.033 .071 -.061 -.046 -.005 .419** .056 .135 .352* 1
Awareness on nutrition of
vegetables and fruits-.318* .507**
-
.394**.211 .164 .373** -.097 .389** .217 -.434** -.009 1
Capacity strengthening -.001 -.155 .007 -.497** -.338* -.071 .115 .109 .065 .019 .259 -.026 1
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
196
Guava
Correlation matrix of dependent and independent variables for the rural women (N= 50)
Variables Age
Edu
cati
on
Dep
ende
ncy
ratio
Far
m s
ize
Ann
ual f
arm
inco
me
Org
aniz
atio
nal
part
icip
atio
n
Dec
isio
n m
akin
g
capa
city
in th
e fa
mil
y
Tra
inin
g ex
posu
re
Cre
dit r
ecei
ved
Abi
lity
to c
ope
with
unce
rtai
nty
Dai
ly ti
me
allo
catio
n
for
PHA
Aw
aren
ess
on n
utri
tion
of v
eget
able
s an
d fr
uits
Cap
acit
y st
reng
then
ing
Age 1Education -.316* 1
Dependency ratio -.197 .171 1Farm size -.047 .241 .329* 1Annual farm income .048 .422** .278 .661** 1Organizational
participation.297* .023 -.102 -.081 .052 1
Decision making capacity .247 .154 -.164 -.094 .140 .180 1
Training exposure .134 .299* .178 -.022 .267 .132 .191 1Credit received .056 .321* .007 -.063 .083 .129 .080 .330* 1Ability to cope with uncertainty
.214 .268 .066 .170 .455** .428** .367** .405** .111 1
Daily time allocation for PHA
-.160 .104 .045 .239 -.146 -.103 -.046 -.287* -.249 -.240 1
Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits
-.362** .646** .157 .344* .427** -.035 .084 .257 .186 .234 .275 1
Capacity strengthening -.062 -.362** -.017 -.447** -.613** -.134 -.166 -.095 -.324* -.285* -.041 -.245 1
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
197
Orange
Correlation matrix of dependent and independent variables for the rural women (N= 50)
Variables Age
Edu
catio
n
Dep
ende
ncy
rati
o
Far
m s
ize
Ann
ual f
amily
inco
me
Org
aniz
atio
nal
Par
tici
pati
on
Dec
isio
n m
akin
g
capa
city
in th
e
fam
ily
Tra
inin
g ex
posu
re
Cre
dit r
ecei
ved
Abi
lity
to c
ope
with
unc
erta
inty
Dai
ly ti
me
allo
cati
on f
or P
HA
nutr
ition
of
vege
tabl
es a
nd
frui
ts
Cap
acity
stre
ngth
enin
g
Age 1
Education -.554** 1
Dependency ratio .231 -.167 1
Farm size -.200 .331* -.080 1
Annual family income -.246 .279 -.004 .422** 1
Organizational
Participation.210 .149 -.005 -.014 -.237 1
Decision making
capacity in the family.121 -.075 -.019 -.094 -.201 -.068 1
Training exposure .122 -.378** .108 .024 -.090 -.167 .342* 1
Credit received .087 .135 -.273 -.055 .164 .243 .191 .135 1
Ability to cope with uncertainty
-.248 .082 -.294* .174 .347* -.234 -.055 -.127 .109 1
Daily time allocation for PHA
-.264 .124 .168 .247 .363** -.253 .162 -.017 .073 .456** 1
Awareness on nutrition
of vegetables and fruits.179 .110 .412** .069 -.116 .314* .173 .047 .049 -.558** -.064 1
Capacity strengthening .044 -.105 .365** .037 -.087 .164 -.073 -.084 -.372** .050 .290* .288* 1
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
199
Photo : Training session at Nesarabad, Pirojpur
Photo : Training session at Juri, Moulavibazar
Photo 4.1:Training and demonstration activities in photographs
200
Photo: Demonstration session at Juri, Moulavibazar
Photo: Result demonstration of orange products.