Abstract

An Economic Analysis of Female Labour Participation in Rice Cultivation in Raigarh District of Chhattisgarh

Author(s): Ram Patel P* and Pathak H

The present study examines the economic analysis of female labour participation in rice cultivation in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh state. The survey for this purpose was conducted in three blocks i.e. Dharamjaigarh, Pussore and Baramkela block of Raigarh district. Primary data were collected from 148 farmers from 11 villages of these three selected blocks through personal interview method with the help of a pre-structural schedule for the crop year 2015-16. The simple mean and average methods was used to calculate the cost of cultivation. The human labour contribution was estimated to be 108 man-days, which was 36 (33.33%) and 72 (66.67%) man-days in case of male and female labour contribution, respectively. The total economic contribution of labour participation including both male and female in terms of cost incurred for performing various agricultural operations was ₹ 16017.23 per farm. On an average, the cost of female labour participation was estimated much higher ₹ 9771.28 (61.00 per cent) than male labour at ₹ 6245.95 (39 per cent). The decision making in different farming operations was taken by the male members across all farm size groups in the study area. However, it was observed that the female participation was comparatively higher in marginal (43.74 per cent) and small farmers (44.12 per cent) as compared to medium (33.19 per cent) and large farmers (14.93 per cent) in rice cultivation. 48.65 per cent female have ownership of agricultural productive resources. It was found that 100 per cent female labour earned lower wage rate than male labour.