Participation Of Family-Women In Agricultural Production : A Case Study Of Jaffna District, Sri Lanka
Family women play significant and crucial role in  agricultural development and allied fields. Several factor both economic and non economic factors are responsible for women participation. However, it is most unfortune that role of women in agriculture has not highlighted..Therefore the effort were made to analyse the work performed by women in agriculture. This study was under taken in Valikamam area of Jaffna district. A total of 185 household were selected through proportionate random sampling. The selected respondents were interview personally using pre tested well structured questionnaire. The data were analysed using appropriate statistical tool -probit model. The finding showed that the women contribution to the agricultural production is highly in family-women. The family-women age, income level and tenure rights had inverse relationship with participation in agriculture while, educational level, years of experience, distance of the woman’s farm from homestead, member of cooperative ,woman contribution in agriculture ,extension services and level of contribution had positive and significant relationship. Keywords :agricultural production , family-women, valikamam , probit.
Determinants of Women’s Contribution to Farming Decisions in Cocoa Based Agroforestry Households of Ekiti State, Nigeria
Women are key players in the agricultural sector of most developing countries of the world. However, despite this major role, men have reportedly continued to dominate farm decision making, even in areas where women are the largest providers of farm labour. This could be counter-productive, because there is bound to be conflict when women, as key players, carry out farm tasks without being part of the decision process, especially when the decisions fail to recognize their other peculiar household responsibilities. Previous efforts at estimating women’s role in agriculture have tended to concentrate on evaluating their labour contributions. There has been little farm-level information regarding their role in decision making, particularly in male dominated cash crop environments like cocoa agro-forestry households. This paper identified socioeconomic factors affecting their contribution to farm decision making. The paper is based on farm level data collected in Ekiti State, southwest Nigeria, from 120 randomly selected farm units. The results of the analysis show that the household socio-economic factors that encouraged high women contributions to farm decision making were their number of years of formal education and farming experience, financial contributions to household farming activities, number of hours spent in the farm, and farm size. Also, the societal constraints militating against women’s contributions to farm decisions were identified and grouped into (a) techno-institutional constraints such as lack of extension programmes and access/awareness of non-governmental organisation (NGO) programmes for women, insufficient knowledge of farm credit sources etc.; (b) socio-personal constraints such as misconceptions that women farmers do not have farming ideas, women are supposed to be subordinate to men in farming, low self confidence by women etc.; (c) economic/financial constraints such as low or lack of financial contributions to farming activities and access to credit support groups such as cooperatives, unwillingness of women to invest in a male-dominated cocoa farming environment. These observations underscore the need for special programmes that empower and recognise women, especially through education, finance and information.
Reforming universities is key to technology transfer
This article explores the role universities in building indigenous capacity in science and technology in developing countries. Key players in the knowledge-based global economy, universities have an opportunity to participate in the effort of using technology to help alleviate poverty, create wealth, improve public health and ensure long-term environmental well-being. But, according to the author, they can only do so if they become stronger learning and research institutions, and engage in fundamental reforms to become both superior sources of information and unique mechanisms for promoting innovation.