Gender-Based Knowledge Disparities about Micro Scale Water Conservation and Mitigation Strategies of Farming Community in Punjab, India

Abstract

Climate change is being considered as a serious threat to the livelihood of Indian farmers. Depleting groundwater table is one of the consequences of climate change. Practicing water saving technologies at the farm and household level can mitigate the effects of climate change. Thus, to study the gender-based knowledge disparities of the farming community regarding water saving technologies at the farm and household level, the present research was conducted in three villages each from three water zones of Punjab namely north-east, central and south-west zone. A sample of 240 respondents was randomly selected with equal representation from each zone. Pre and post knowledge test was administered to measure the knowledge level of the farming community. The findings revealed that most of the respondents belonged to the general category, were middle-aged, studied till matriculation, had a joint family system and family size in the range of 2-6 members. Furthermore the findings revealed that the knowledge of most of the farmers and farm women regarding water saving technologies was low to medium level, but after intervention, the knowledge level of most of the respondents increased to high to medium level. The study concluded that although the knowledge level of the farming community regarding water saving technology was low to medium yet, it can be increased by imparting knowledge through various communication strategies. Thus the extension workers should make efforts to work on different communication strategies to increase the knowledge level of the farming community so that they can be capacitated to mitigate the effects of climate change.