TRAINING NEEDS FOR RURAL WOMEN IN MODERN AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine and describe the selected characteristics of the rural women, to determine the extent of training needs for rural women in modern agricultural activities, and to explore the relationship between training needs in modern agricultural activities and the selected characteristics of the rural women. Data were collected from a sample of 105 rural women selected from the population of 300 by multistage random sampling procedure from nine villages of the selected three unions under sadar upazila of Rangpur district. A pre-tested and structured interview schedule was used to collect data from the respondents during 10 February to 11 March 2015. Ten selected characteristics of the rural women were the independent variables, and training needs for the rural women in modern agricultural activities was the dependent variable in this study. The dependent variable was determined on two dimensions viz., homestead vegetables cultivation, and dairy and poultry rearing, and subsequently 20 specific activities were included under these two dimensions. The training need index (TNI) for the rural woman in modern agricultural activities was also measured mathematically. In case of homestead vegetable cultivation the findings on TNI indicates that the most important activity was ‘measures of disease control’ (TNI=243) and the least essential training need was ‘irrigation and drainage management’ (TNI=15). On the other hand, dairy and poultry rearing, the findings revealed that the most important activity was ‘poultry feed management’ (TNI=220) and the least essential training need area was ‘dairy products preservation and marketing’ (TNI=63). However, overall training needs it was found that the majority (66.67 percent) of the respondents had medium training need as compared to 18.09 percent having high training need and only 15.24 percent having low training need. According to the computed correlation coefficients (r) among the 10 selected characteristics of the rural women education, daily time use, extension contact and decision making ability had positive significant relationship, and age had negative significant relationship with the training need in modern agricultural activities. The rest characteristics had no significant relationship with their training need.