Participation of Rural Women in Income Generating Activities from Agricultural Model Farm Project

Abstract

This study was conducted mainly to have an understanding about the participation of rural women in Bangladesh in income generating activities initiated by Agricultural Model Farm (AMF) project of Sabalamby Unnayan Samity (SUS), a famous NGO in Bangladesh. This also explained the relationship between extent of women participation in income generating activities initiated by AMF project of SUS and their selected characteristic. Data were collected from a sample of 90 rural women from 12 selected SUS groups in two unions namely Amtala and Singher Bangla of Sadar upazila of Netrokona district in Bangladesh. Data were collected through interview schedule during 20 April 2008 to 20 May 2008. Majority (47.78 percent) rural women had favorable participation, while 36.67 percent had moderate favorable participation and there was no respondent under unfavorable participation. Findings also indicate that 80 percent rural women had high participation in AMF project activities, (81.11 percent) had medium training exposure. Correlation analysis indicates that the characteristics of the rural women such as age, family size, family farm size, farming experience, duration of involvement with SUS and training exposure had no significant relationship with the extent of participation in AMF project activities. On the other hand farming experience had positive relationship with their participation in income generating activities initiated by AMF project of SUS.