Women entrepreneurship in medicinal and aromatic plants in rural Haryana

Pages: 318-322
Ritu, Lali Yadav, and S. Kaushik (Department of Extension Education and Communication Management, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University Hisar, Haryana)

In Indian context, women are major producers of food in terms of value, volume and number of hours worked. Nearly 78.0 per cent of women are engaged in agriculture as compared to 63.0 per cent of all economically active men. Almost 50.0 per cent of rural female workers are classified as agricultural labourers and 37.0 per cent as cultivators. About 70.0 per cent of farm work was performed by the women. Though they participate in a variety of economic activities yet their potential is still underutilized as most of their work remains unpaid and never measured in socio-economic and technological terms. In this study efforts have been made to recognize the entrepreneurial attributes and to enhance capacity building of women in medicinal and aromatic plants activities in diversified agriculture for entrepreneurship. Hisar district of Haryana was selected purposively having State Agriculture University and other State and Central institutions pertaining to agriculture and allied areas. A sample of 200 respondents was selected from four villages namely Mangali, Kaimri, Rawalwas and Shapur. Results revealed that majority of the respondents reported high category for Creativity (57.5%), Self-confidence (53.5.0%), Change proneness (47.0%) and Rationality in thinking (46.50%) for personal competencies, launching competencies, commitment competencies and managerial competencies, respectively. Significant gain in knowledge of the respondents was observed for all the ten components about medicinal and aromatic plants diversified agricultural activities for capacity building of the respondents.