CONSTRAINTS FACED BY THE WOMEN IN PRACTICING HOMESTEAD AQUACULTURE IN THAKURGAON DISTRICT

Abstract

The research was undertaken to explore the involvement of rural women in different aquaculture activities and to determine the extent of constraints faced by the women in practicing homestead aquaculture. The survey was conducted in five upazila under Thakurgaon district. For questionnaire interviews, simple random sampling method was use for selection of sample from the population. A total number of 100 women, 20 form each upazila were selected and were interviewed during November 2015 to April 2016. The study was tried to explore the relationships of selected characteristics (independent variables) with constraints for practicing homestead aquaculture (dependent variable). The independent variables were age, educational qualification, family size, knowledge of aquaculture, extension contact, cosmopoliteness, pond size, and marketing orientation. Among the total 13 constraints “unavailability of training on fish culture” occupied the highest (CFI=225) score and is the first in the ranking while “lack of help from family members” had the lowest (CFI=145) score. Slightly around half (49 percent) of the respondents had medium constraints, 17 percent had low constraints and 34 percent of the respondents had high constraints for practicing homestead aquaculture. Among the eight characteristics of the farmer’s educational qualification, aquaculture knowledge, extension contact and marketing orientation showed significantly negative relationship with the constraints. On the other hand age, family size, cosmopoliteness, pond size of the respondents did not show any significant relationship with their constraints.