Submitted by:-

Swati Sucharita

M.Sc 2nd year

Decision-making is the power of an individual to decide any matter in his/ her daily life. It can be regarded as an identifying and choosing alternatives based on the values and preferences of a decision-maker. It is an important segment of every household because the functioning of family resource management depends on the efficiency of decision-making progress (Abhey et al., 2014).

Women are key players in the agricultural sector of most developing countries of the world. The roles that rural women play and their position in meeting the challenges of agricultural production and development are quite prominent..

Their activity typically include

producing agricultural crops,

tending animals,

processing and preparing food,

working for wages in agricultural and other rural enterprises,

collecting fuel and water,

engaging in trade and marketing,

caring for family members and maintaining their homes.

Rural women play key role in agricultural production by working with full passion starting from soil preparation to post-harvest activities.

In rural society, there has been noticed a considerable fluctuation regarding the decision-making power of women.

They are mostly illiterate of semi literate. Besides this, in present agricultural scenario, the contribution of rural women has not taken seriously because it is considered very disgraceful to accept the decision of women.

This is because the abilities of women have been neglected and undermined as the responsibility of forming the policies is always regarded the job of male traditionally.

The lack of information’s about the new technologies such as drudgery reducing equipments for them etc is also considered as one factor.

The decision making capacity of rural women shows their empowerment level and their position in family.

Despite of their many efforts in family they take very less part in decision making process in the family. Keeping in view, the present study has been planned with the following research questions;

What are the various factors that are affecting decision making of rural women?

What are the different problems face by the farm women in decision-making?

To find out the various factors affecting decision-making on farm women.

To inquire different problems faced by farm women in decision-making

Hypothesis is a proposition or principle which is assumed in order to draw logical or empirical consequences, and by this method to test its accord with facts which are known or may be determined.

H0: There is a relationship between various factors

and decision-making on farm women.

H1: There is no relationship between various factors

and decision-making on farm women.

Jyoti et. al., (1991) indicated that Women in age group 36-45 year old as compared to younger women and belonging to small farms and agricultural labour took decision on important matters as they earn cash income and had control over resources.

Sethi (1991) found that Division of labour within the household reflected the pattern of authority structure. Women perform a greater part of domestic work and took care of children. They were intensely involved with the maintenance of household.

Samanta (1994) observed that they are still remained invisible workers. Over the years women cultivators are typically and wrongly characterized as economically inactive and women cultivator play only a supportive role in agriculture as farmers’ wives.

Lubbock (1998) stated that the poorer the household, the greater the importance of the role of women in ensuring survival and in carrying out fundamental productive activities and, consequently the greater the influence women actually have on important household decisions, although women may not be recognized either culturally or socially as the ones who make such decisions.

FAO (2000) stated that Very few studies on decision-making at the household level have been conducted in countries of the Near East region. Consequently, it is extremely difficult to make conclusive statements regarding who makes decisions and in which areas. However, since family structures for the majority of the households in the region are male-headed and patriarchal, one could infer that men generally control decision making, although in many situations, decisions are often made jointly (as in Morocco, for example, where 75% of women surveyed consulted with men prior to attending extension meetings).

Choudhary and Singh (2003) said that, women are responsible for 70 percent of actual farm work and constitute up to 60 percent of the farming population. Despite women’s critical contribution to the family income through productive activities, no recognition is given to them as an important contributor and their contribution is not recorded.

Ahmed and Hussain (2004) indicated that, women are key players in agriculture and allied fields. Rural women play key role by working with full passion in production of crops right from the soil preparation till post harvest activities.

The study seeks to examine the role and participation of women of the cultivating households in decision making and to examine the socio-economic factors which determine female participation in decision making in household activities.

Selection of Locale:

The state Odisha, will be selected purposively for the study because it is having more number of marginal, small and medium level farm holding farm women. Also the investigator hails from the same state, familiar with regional language and cultural patterns, which avoids the problem in rapport development.

Selection of District and Villages:

Nayagarh district of Odisha will be selected for the study purposively and five villages i.e., Harekrushnapur, Itamati, Janhipada, Balugaon, and Durgaprasadwill be selected randomly.

Selection of Respondents:

20 respondents from each village will be selected by using simple random sampling method thus in total, there will be 100 samples.

Collection of Data:

Information from the selected households will be collected with the help of detailed survey schedule. Data on various aspects of socio-economic conditions of the households, their income levels, cropping pattern, female participation in agricultural and allied activities and domestic work and other related dimensions was collected personally by the researcher with the help of the detailed structured schedule. Information will be collected from the head of the household and his wife or daughter in law as required.