NEED ASSESSMENT FOR CAPACITY BUILDING OF RURAL WOMEN IN PRACTICING POST-HARVEST ACTIVITIES OF POTATO

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to determine the extent of need for capacity building of rural women in practicing Post-Harvest activities of potato. Besides the main focus, the extent of involvement in Post-Harvest activities of women was identified and relationships of the selected characteristics of the women were explored with their extent of need for capacity building. The study was conducted with the women (total 76) of two villages of Dinajpur Sadar Upazila under Dinajpur district. A pre-tested interview schedule was used to collect data from the respondents during February to March 2015. Need for capacity building of women was the dependent variable and the ten selected characteristics of the respondents constituted the independent variables of the study. Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) was computed to explore the relationship of the characteristics of the respondents with their extent of need for capacity building. The highest portion of the respondents (63.2 percent) had medium extent of need while the rest 23.7 percent of them had high and 13.2 percent of them had low extent need for capacity building in Post-Harvest activities of potato. The women had the highest extent of need for the respondent was physical facilities (78.07 percent) and the lowest extent (30.61 percent) of need for decision making ability. All the respondents were involved low to medium in Post-Harvest activities of potato. Among the characteristics of the respondents education, dependency ratio in the family, farm size and decision making capacity in the family showed positive significant relationship with their extent of need for capacity building of rural women in practicing Post-Harvest activities of potato. On the other hand, the rest of the characteristics of women viz. age, annual family income , organizational participation , training exposure , credit received and ability to cope with uncertainty did not show any significant relationship with the extent of need for capacity building in practicing Post-Harvest activities potato. The major causes to moderate involvement in Post-Harvest activities were lack of training on Post-Harvest activities of potato, social/religious barrier, lack of processing equipments and lack of marketing facilities for potato processing. Increased adequate training facilities for rural women according to their needs for increasing their knowledge and skill in practicing Post-Harvest activities of potato.