Farm women's participation in watershed programme and their extent of adoption of soil and water conservation technologies in Sithayankottai watershed, Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Watershed development is essentially a group and community oriented programme. Rural women actively participate in different activities. To achieve the success of the programme people's participation especially women's participation and adoption of resource conservation technologies are to be ensured. With this background, this study was conducted in Sithayankottai watershed, Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu, to assess the farm women socio economic profile, their attitude, participation in watershed programmes, knowledge level, extent of adoption of soil and water conservation (SWC) technologies and constraints faced by them. The data was collected from fifty farm women who were selected randomly from Sithayankottai watershed and for comparison purpose, 25 farm women were selected from outside the watershed. Results indicate that majority of the farm women in the watershed and outside the watershed were having medium level of socio-economic status, social participation, risk preference and attitude towards people's participation in SWC programmes. As a whole, knowledge level of the farm women of watershed and outside the watershed was found to be 43.76% and 32.05%, respectively. Overall adoption level of the farm women of watershed and outside the watershed was 38.64% and 25.64%, respectively with considerable difference between two samples. Farm Women's participation in watershed programme was recorded to be 41.1%. Farm women's role in adopting SWC technologies was very less and reason could be attributed to the more drudgery in execution of these activities. Major constraints perceived by the farm women in adoption of SWC technologies were lack of fund, non availability of inputs in time, lack of awareness and knowledge about the technologies, small and fragmented holdings, and poor extension service. As the farm women's knowledge on SWC technologies was low, it could be improved through exposure visits, awareness camps, imparting intensive trainings, etc. and accordingly Adoption level could be improved.