1

Capacity Strengthening of Rural Women in Carrying out Post Harvest Activities of

Vegetables and Fruits towards Food Security

Final Report PR # 8/07

By

M Zulfikar Rahman, Principal InvestigatorSuraia Akhter, Research Assistant

Md. Atikur Rahman, Research Fellow Must. Effat Sharmin, Research Fellow

Department of Agricultural Extension EducationBangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh

andAfroza Begum, Co-Investigator

Bangladesh Agricultural University Extension CenterBangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh

October 2009

This study was carried out with the support of the

National Food Policy Capacity Strengthening Programme

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This study was financed under the Research Grants Scheme (RGS) of the National Food Policy Capacity Strengthening Programme (NFPCSP). The purpose of the RGS was to assist in improving research and dialogue within civil society so as to inform and enrich the implementation of the National Food Policy. The NFPCSP is being implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Food Planning and Monitoring Unit (FPMU), Ministry of Food and Disaster Management with the financial support of EU and USAID.

The designation and presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of FAO nor of the NFPCSP, Government of Bangladesh, EU or USAID and reflects the sole opinions and views of the authors who are fully responsible for the contents, findings and recommendations of this report.

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Executive Summary

Capacity Strengthening of Rural Women in Carrying out Post Harvest Activities of Vegetables and Fruits towards Food Security

The main endeavor of the research project was to assess the need for capacity strengthening of rural women in conducting post harvest activities (PHAs) of vegetables and fruits. However, the specific objectives were to investigate the extent of women involvement at field level in PHAs of vegetables and fruits, to find out the need of capacity strengthening for women in carrying out PHAs of vegetables and fruits, to explore the relationships between some selected socio-economic characteristics of the women and their need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs, to determine the training need and to offer training to strengthen capacity of women in conducting PHAs and to find out the problems faced by the women in performing the PHAs for vegetables and fruits.

Data for the investigation were collected from the rural women of selected nine areas in nine districts of the country. The vegetables selected for this investigation were brinjal, potato, spinach and tomato, and their respective study areas were Fulbaria (Mymensingh), Khetlal (Joypurhat), Monirumpur (Jessore) and Godagari (Rajshahi). The selected fruits were mango, pineapple, guava, banana and orange. Their respective study areas were Shibganj (Nawabganj), Madhupur (Tangail), Nesrabad (Pirpojpur), Shibganj (Bogra) and Juri (Moulavibazar). For every fruit or vegetable 50 rural women were interviewed personally. Other than this interview, focus group discussions, case studies were conducted for data collection. Their problems encountered in involving themselves in PHAs were explored through constructing scored causal diagrams (SCDs). Appropriate statistical measures were set to analyze data towards achieving the objectives. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) was computed to find out relationships between the personal characteristics of the women and their felt need for capacity building. Training and demonstration programs were also conducted against each fruit and vegetable in each site.

Involvement of rural women was mostly low to medium in PHAs of vegetables and fruits. Yet, their extent of involvement varied a little bit from vegetable to vegetable and fruit to fruit. Their major specific activities in the post harvest operations of different vegetables and fruits also varied as the nature of activities varied from vegetable to vegetable and fruit to fruit. All the respondents did not attend any training on the PHAs of any vegetable or fruit. But almost all the respondents showed their overall high to medium need of training. The major areas of training varied slightly from item to item, yet these were skill development in product processing, storage, techniques of increasing shelf-life, handling of products, disease and pest control in store and others. They also expressed their desire to receive the training in their own locality.

The major portion of the women felt high to medium need for their capacity strengthening in conducting PHAs of vegetables and fruits. The ranking exercise revealed that the different aspects of need for capacity strengthening and the corresponding expected specific areas of need were Management skill (processing of fruits and vegetables, preservation of seeds, handling of post harvest equipments, operational ability etc.), Physical facilities (processing materials, store house, processing ground, transports/vehicles, sales centers etc.), Financial ability (processing equipment, capital, credit and labor purchase etc.), Decision making ability (collection, sorting, grading, packaging, processing, selling of fruits etc.), and Access to support services (preservation facilities or cold storage, access to credit, development workers for advice, labor market, marketing channel etc.).

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Lack of training on PHAs, social/religious barrier, less or no cold storage, financial shortage, absence of farmer/women groups in locality, lack of prospect in marketing of products etc. were the major problems encountered by women towards low involvement in PHAs of vegetables and fruits. The women of the study areas suggested that localized spot training, motivation of male counterpart and other leaders of the society, formation of women group and provision of credit to the group or individual women might be some of the ways to lessen the problems. DAE and some related and capable NGOs may take their functional role to resolve the problems in this regard.

Age, education, annual family income, credit received, daily time allocation, involvement of women in PHAs, training need of women etc. were some of the personal characteristics of the women found to be linked to their felt need for capacity strengthening in conducting PHAs of vegetables and fruits.

Spot training and demonstration were conducted for the women engaged or had potentiality to be engaged in different nine locations for specific vegetable or fruit. Two three-day training cum demonstration programs were conducted at each site for each vegetable or fruit. In each batch, 30 women were included. Thus, in total 540 women participated in the training and demonstration in nine sites. As an extra output, training and demonstration materials/handout have also been prepared which may be referred to for future similar programs. Additionally, three MS theses have been prepared in the Department of Agricultural Extension Education, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh from the data support of the project. Another PhD dissertation will also be finalized soon based on the project data.

Strategic campaign is needed to get rural women more involved in PHAs of vegetables and fruits. Mass media awareness creation, group discussion, motivation through local leaders and elites may be some of the ways to create the approving situation. DAE along with other similar organizations may take lead in this matter. Scope should be created by empowering women through their development of and involvement in farmer and/or women managed associations (cooperatives) at local level. Specialized NGO can help out form and nurture the associations while DAE and allied government organizations can support technically. The felt needs for capacity escalation must be fulfilled to ensure better involvement of women in PHAs. But it is not an easy task for government alone to discharge the responsibilities. NGO and other may come forward to help government.

Almost all the respondents of the study showed their overall high to medium need of training on various aspects of PHAs. Appropriate and specific on-the-spot training may be arranged for the women on various aspects of capacity scale-up to carry out the PHAs of vegetables and fruits. To train the women, extension agents should be trained first to develop skill through ‘training of trainer’ (TOT). To flourish post harvest processing of agricultural products by the women in rural areas, community based and social support services to working women should be extended to lessen their load of household chores.

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary iList of Tables v List of Figures viiList of Photos viiiAbbreviations and Acronyms ix

Chapters Page

Chapter 1: Introduction

1 Background 12 Women’s Contributions to Agricultural Production and Food Security 22.1 As food producers 22.2 Women’s other contributions to food security 32.2.1 By preserving biological diversity 32.2.2 Processing and preparing food 32.2.3 Caring the basic needs of the households 43 Agriculture Status of Bangladesh in Respect of Food Security 44 Post Harvest Operations and Technology 55 Post Harvest Losses 76 Processing of Fruits and Vegetables 87 Agricultural Development Policies and Research 98 Objectives of the Study 109 Justification of the Study 1110 Scope of the Study 1211 Definitions of Important Terms 13

Chapter 2: Review of Literature

1 The Gender Dimensions of Food Security 152 Food Safety and Food Quality for Food Security 153 Role of Women in Post Harvest Activities 174 Post Harvest and Storage Technologies of Vegetables and Fruits 175 Training Needs of Women 196. Nutritional Values of Fruits and Vegetables 19

Chapter 3: Methodology

1 Locales of the Study 212 Sample and Sampling Procedure 213 Variables and Measurement Techniques 233.1 Measurement of independent variables 233.2 Measurement of dependent variable 264 Measurement of Involvement of Women in PHAs 275 Measurement of Training Need 286 Measurement of Problem Confrontation 287 Statement of Hypothesis 308 Instrument for Data Collection 309 Collection of Data 3010 Data Processing and Statistical Analyses 3311 Conduction of Training and Method Demonstrations 34

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Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion

VegetablesSection 1: Brinjal 35Section 2: Tomato 50Section 3: Spinach 64Section 4: Potato 80

FruitsSection 5: Mango 94Section 6: Banana 111Section 7: Pineapple 125Section 8: Guava 140Section 9: Orange 154

Focus Group Discussion 168

Key Findings 170

Chapter 5: Policy implications, Recommendations and Conclusion

1. Policy Implications and Recommendations 172

2. Areas for Further Research 174

3. Conclusion 175

Acknowledgments 176

References 178

Appendix A 183

Appendix B 190

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List of Tables

Methodology

Table 3.1 Locales of fieldwork 21

Table 3.2 Schedule of data collection 31

Results and Discussion

BrinjalTable 4.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of brinjal 35Table 4.2 Ranking of total score of participation of rural women in different PHAs of brinjal

36

Table 4.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of brinjal

36

Table 4.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of brinjal

37

Table 4.5 Ranking of the issues of need for capacity strengthening of the respondents 38Table 4.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of brinjal 39Table 4.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of brinjal 41Table 4.8 Ranking of areas of training need regarding PHAs of brinjal 41Table 4.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables 42Table 4.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve them 48

TomatoTable 5.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of tomato 50Table 5.2 Ranking of total score of involvement of rural women in different PHAs of tomato

50

Table 5.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of tomato

51

Table 5.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of tomato

52

Table 5.5 Ranking of issues of the extent of need of the respondents 52Table 5.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of tomato 55Table 5.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of tomato

56

Table 5.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of tomato 56Table 5.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables 57Table 5.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve them 62

SpinachTable 6.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of spinach

64

Table 6.2 Ranking of total score of the extent of involvement in different PHAs of spinach 65Table 6.3 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of spinach 65Table 6.4 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs spinach

68

Table 6.5 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in PHAs of spinach 69Table 6.6 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondents 70Table 6.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of spinach

72

Table 6.8 Ranking of areas of training need regarding PHAs of Spinach 72Table 6.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables 73Table 6.10 Suggested solutions with ways to achieve them 78

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PotatoTable 7.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of potato 80Table 7.2 Ranking of total score of involvement of rural women in different PHAs of potato 80Table 7.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs

of potato81

Table 7.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of potato

82

Table 7.5 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondents 82Table 7.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of potato 84Table 7.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of potato 86Table 7.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs Potato 86Table 7.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables 87Table 7.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve them 92

MangoTable 8.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of mango

94

Table 8.2 Ranking of total score of the extent of involvement in different PHAs of mango 95Table 8.3 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of mango 96Table 8.4 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of mango

99

Table 8.5 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of Mango

100

Table 8.6 Ranking of the issues of need for capacity strengthening of the respondents 101Table 8.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of mango

102

Table 8.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of mango 103Table 8.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables 104Table 8.10 Suggested solutions with ways to achieve them 109

BananaTable 9.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of banana 111Table 9.2 Ranking of total score of involvement of rural women in different PHAs of banana

111

Table 9.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of banana

112

Table 9.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of banana

113

Table 9.5 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondents 113Table 9.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of banana 116Table 9.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of banana

117

Table 9.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of banana 117Table 9.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables 118Table 9.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve them 123

PineappleTable 10.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of pineapple

125

Table 10.2 Ranking of total score of involvement of rural women in different PHAs of pineapple

126

Table 10.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of pineapple

127

Table 10.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of pineapple

127

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Table 10.5 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondents 128Table 10.6 Personal characteristics of pineapple farmers 129Table 10.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of pineapple

131

Table10.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of pineapple 131Table 10.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables 132Table 10.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve them 137

GuavaTable 11.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of guava 140Table 11.2 Ranking of total score of involvement of rural women in different PHAs of 140Table 11.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of guava

141

Table 11.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of guava

142

Table 11.5 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondents 142Table 11.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of guava 145Table 11.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training in PHAs of guava 146Table 11.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of guava 146Table 11.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables 147Table 11.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve them 150

OrangeTable 12.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of orange

154

Table 12.2 Ranking of total score of the extent of involvement in different PHAs of orange 154Table 12.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of orange

155

Table 12.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of orange

156

Table 12.5 Ranking of the issuse of need of the respondents 156Table 12.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of orange 159Table 12.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of orange

160

Table 12.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of orange 160Table 12.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables 161Table 12.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve them 166

List of Figures

Figure 3.1 Map showing the districts of study areas 22

Figure 4.1 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of rural women 39

Figure 4.2 SCDs showing the barrier of involvement of rural women in PHAs of brinjal 47

Figure 5.1 Extent of need for capacity strengthening regarding various dimensions 54

Figure 5.2 SCDs showing the barrier of involvement of rural women in PHAs of tomato 61

Figure 6.1 Pie graph showing dimension wise need for capacity strengthening 71

Figure 6.2 SCDs showing the reasons of low involvement in PHAs of spinach 77

Figure 7.1 Aspect-wise need status of the respondents for capacity building 84

Figure 7.2 SCDs showing the reasons of low involvement in PHAs of potato 91

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Figure 8.1 Status of women participation in different organizations 97

Figure 8.2 Pie graph showing dimension wise need for capacity strengthening 102

Figure 8.3 Scored Causal Diagrams showing the involvement barrier of women in PHAs of mango

108

Figure 9.1 Need for capacity strengthening regarding various dimensions 115

Figure 9.2 SCDs showing the involvement barrier of rural women in PHAs of banana 122

Figure10.1 Involvement index of the respondents 129

Figure 10.2 SCDs showing the involvement barrier of rural women in PHAs of pineapple 138

Figure 11.1 Need for capacity strengthening regarding various dimensions 144

Figure 11.3 SCDs showing the involvement barrier of rural women in PHAs of guava 151

Figure 12.1 Need for capacity strengthening regarding various dimensions 158

Figure 12.2 SCDs showing the involvement barrier of rural women in PHAs of orange 165

List of Photos

Photo 3.1: The process of making SCDs by the rural women 29

Photo 3.3: A sight of interview to collect information from rural women 31

Photo 3.3: A view of Focus Group Discussion with women 32

Photo 3.4: Showing the process of data collection for case study 33

Photo 4.1: Training and demonstration activities in photographs 199

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Abbreviations and Acronyms

BBS Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics

BSTI Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institute

DAS Days After Storage

DAE Department of Agricultural Extension

EU European Union

FGD Focus Group Discussion

FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

FS Food Security

GoB Government of Bangladesh

GO Government Organization

GDP Gross Domestic Product

HYV High Yielding Variety

IGAs Income Generating Activities

IFPRI International Food Policy Research Institute

II Involvement Index

MDG Millennium Development Goal

MoA Ministry of Agriculture

MAP Modified Atmosphere Packaging

NFP National Food Policy

NFPCSP National Food Policy Capacity Strengthening Programme

NICS Need Index for Capacity Strengthening

NGO Non Government Organization

NCDP Northwest Crop Diversification Project

PFM Participatory Farm Management Methods

PE Polyethylene

PHAs Post Harvest Activities

PHT Post Harvest Technologies

RH Relative Humidity

RSM Response Surface Methodology

SCDs Scored Causal Diagrams

SPSS Statistical Package for Social Sciences

SAAO Sub-Assistant Agriculture Officer

TMSS Thengamara Mohila Sabuj Sangha

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

USAID United States Agency for International Development

UAO Upazila Agriculture Officer

WFS World Food Summit

WHO World Health Organization

WRI World Resources Institute

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Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

1. Background

Bangladesh is one of the developing countries of the third world. It is the most densely-

populated non-industrialized country in the world. Its economy is vulnerable and

characterized by high population growth, low natural resource base and highly prone to

natural disasters like flood, cyclone, river erosion and drought etc. As a result, a large number

of people in Bangladesh cannot not afford subsistence level of income for meeting their basic

needs and live below the poverty line. Though the situation has been improving over the

years, there is a long way to go. Some progress has taken place in recent years with poverty

incidence having decreased by 10% points in the last decade (1990-2000). Bangladesh is one

of the world's most densely populated countries with 150 million people, 49 percent of whom

live below the national poverty line (The Hunger Project, 2009).

Food security (FS) exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to

sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an

active and healthy life.

Physical Access obtains at national or individual levels when a nation or individual has the

ability unimpaired by any physical barriers to get hold of food

Social Access obtains when an individual or household is able to access food by one or

another of political/communal/familial/other social-institutional mechanism

Economic Access obtains when an individual or household is able to access food by the

exercise of purchasing power in markets

Utilization/Nutrition refers to both processes and outcome whereby food consumed is

converted into health, nutrition and well-being (Rao, 2007).

Food security as a concept emerged at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization

(FAO) World Food Conference in 1974. It is centered around two sub-concepts; food

availability and food entitlement. The first, food availability refers to the supply of food

available at local, national or international levels. The second, food entitlement refers to the

capability of individuals and households to obtain food. It suggests that people do not usually

starve because of an insufficient supply of food but because they have insufficient resources,

including money (‘entitlements’) to acquire it (Sen, 1981). Thus, food security in a single

country, or in the world as a whole, reflects the ability of food-deficit countries, or food

deficit regions within countries, or food-deficit households within them, to meet target

consumption levels on a year-to-year basis.

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According to FAO, only seven countries in the Asia and the Pacific are on course to meet

hunger target. In as many as eight countries, the absolute number of those experiencing

hunger is actually increasing. Nearly two-thirds of undernourished in the world live in Asia.

Most of Asia’s population suffers from iron deficiency and a large proportion is also subject

to vitamin A and iodine deficiency. These gaps in regard to the Millennium Development

Goal on hunger entail that other MDGs will also be difficult to fulfill. A DFID report on

progress on prospects for the Millennium Development Goal on Hunger provides a

comparative understanding across Asian countries (Gill, 2003). The countries included in the

study are Bangladesh, India, Nepal, China, Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam. The MDG1

on hunger reduction requires that the proportion of people suffering from hunger be halved

between 1990 and 2015. The complexity of this goal arises from differences along many

dimensions: the poor/non-poor divide; the rural/urban axis, the quantity/quality of food

distinction etc.

Food insecurity refers to a lack of access to enough food. There are two kinds of food

insecurity: chronic and transitory. Transitory food insecurity is a temporary decline in a

household’s access to enough food. Transitory food insecurity can be further divided into

temporary food insecurity and cyclical or seasonal food insecurity. Temporary food

insecurity occurs when there are sudden and unpredictable shocks, such as wars, drought or

pest attack etc. Seasonal food insecurity occurs when there is regular pattern of inadequate

access to food. This is often linked to agricultural seasons. Chronic food insecurity is a

continuously inadequate diet caused by the inability to acquire food. It affects households that

persistently lack the ability either to buy enough food or to produce their own. Hence,

poverty is considered the root cause of chronic food insecurity. Transitory food insecurity

may lead to chronic food insecurity, depending on how severe it is and how frequently it

occurs. If a household suffers two drought years in a row, and is forced to sell some of its

assets to survive, then it may move from a situation of transitory food insecurity to one of

chronic food insecurity (Rahman and Schmitz, 2007).

2. Women’s Contributions to Agricultural Production and Food Security

2.1 As food producers

Women produce more than 50% of the food grown worldwide, according to FAO estimates

(FAO, 1995). Women’s contributions to farming, forestry, and fisheries may be

underestimated, as many surveys and censuses count only paid labour. Women are active in

both the cash and subsistence agricultural sectors and much of their work in producing food

for the household and community consumption, important as it is for food security, is not

counted in statistics.

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The roles that women play in agriculture vary from region to region and country to country.

Men and women often have complementary roles, sharing or dividing tasks in crop

production, livestock raising, fishing and the care and use of the forests. Women are

responsible for the more time-consuming and labour-intensive tasks of crop and livestock

production: sowing, application of fertilizer, weeding, harvesting, transporting, threshing,

winnowing, cleaning, sorting grading and bagging. These tasks are carried out manually or

with simple tools.

2.2 Women’s other contributions to food security

In addition to their crucial roles in food production, women contribute to food security in

other significant ways, such as

By preserving biological diversity Processing and preparing food Caring for the basic needs of the household

2.2.1 By preserving biological diversity

The preservation of biological diversity and plant genetic resources is now widely recognized

as essential to food security. Because women are responsible for supplying their families with

food and care, they often have special knowledge of the value and diverse uses of plants for

nutrition, health and income. Consequently, they are frequently the preservers of traditional

knowledge of indigenous plants. Women’s knowledge of biodiversity comes from their roles

as wild plant gatherers, home gardeners and plant domesticators, herbalists and seed

custodians. Women across the globe possess knowledge on wild and domesticated species of

edible and non-edible plants and animals, contributing to their abilities to propagate, collect,

process, preserve, cook and store food items.

2.2.2 Processing and preparing food

While women produce more than 50% of food worldwide, they also perform the

overwhelming majority of the work in food processing in developing countries. Food

processing contributes to food security through reducing food losses, contributing to diversity

of diet and supplying important vitamins and minerals. Women process and preserve the fruit

and vegetable produce from their home gardens and from the forests. Moreover, women are

almost universally responsible for preparing food for their households and thus for the

nutritional well-being of household members.

2.2.3 Caring for the basic needs of the household

Women perform virtually all the tasks required for household food security and for ensuring

good nutrition and healthy lives. These tasks include gathering fuel and fetching water,

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cleaning, cooking, housekeeping, child raising and caring for the sick and overall household

resource management. Both rural and urban women in waged labour dedicate a substantial

portion of their incomes to the purchase of food for their families. In Bangladesh, fully half

the country's population cannot afford an adequate diet (Working Group on Targeted Food

Intervention, 1993). Over 95% of women headed households, which account for about 8% of

rural households, fall below the poverty line. Of these, 30% are amongst the hard core poor

with cash incomes 40% below those of poor male-headed households. Women share only

23.1% in total earned income in the country (UNDP, 1997).

Recently, women in the poor households have been identified as the 'victims' as well as

'managers' of household food security. Women as producers of food and livestock as well as

primary meal makers have important responsibilities to ensure household food security. As

primary managers of livestock, women ensure a supply of high-quality protein to the country.

Women dominate home garden production thus improving the variety and quality of the

family diet. Women adopt diverse and intense household resource-use strategies to cope with

food deficit situations, such as during the lean season and natural disasters. Women intensify

their efforts in homestead production and seek non-farm production options (Anonymous,

2008).

3. Agriculture Status of Bangladesh in Respect of Food Security

Bangladesh has made substantial progress in enhancing food security by increasing

production of food grains, particularly rice, improving infrastructure, making food delivery to

the poor more efficient and liberalizing agricultural input and output markets (removal of

food rationing and abolishment of the monopoly in import and export of food grains).

The contribution of agricultural sectors to the GDP in 2003-04 was 22.83 % at 1995-96

constant prices, while they provided over 72% 0f the total employment. About 85% of the

population lives in rural areas and continues to depend largely, whether directly or indirectly,

on agriculture for its livelihood. Many rural areas lack education and health resources. They

also lack of modern food and grain storage facilities and adequate roads leading to larger

market areas. Only 19% of rural homes have electricity. Thus, concerted efforts to ensure a

sustainable and equitable development of agricultural and rural sectors, especially agro-based

industries and Micro Small and Medium sized Enterprises (MSMEs), will be key to food

security in the foreseeable future (NFP, 2006).

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Since pre-historic days, agriculture has been the main source of livelihood for the vast

majority of the people of the geographical area that now constitutes the sovereign

Bangladesh. Agriculture has continued to be the lifeline of the economy the country. Farmers

themselves are the biggest investors in agriculture. Through their investment and hard labour,

they have, in the past thirty plus years, more than doubled the production of food grains (rice

and wheat) to feed the nation.

The important causes for food insecurity in about “half of the households” in the country are:

(i) the rate of increase in annual food grain production is below the annual growth rate of

population; (ii) availability of other varieties of food such as fish, livestock and poultry,

vegetables etc. is much below the demand; (iii) Lack of purchasing power of poor households

to have access to required food; (iv) incapability of the ultra poor comprising the destitute

sick, old and infirm to participate in income generating opportunities; (v) inadequate food

safety net programs; (vi) irrationality in intra-house food allocation; (vii) dietary imbalance;

and (viii) storage, processing and cooking practices affecting food utilization.

4. Post Harvest Operations and Technology

Post harvest operations are assuming importance due to their higher yields and increased

cropping intensity. Due to introduction of modern technology, yield levels have substantially

increased resulting in a marketable surplus which has to be stored till prices are favorable for

sale. With increase in irrigation facilities and easy availability of fertilizers, intensive

cropping is being practiced. The important operations carried out after harvesting of the fruits

and vegetables are storage, transportation, marketing, grading and quality control, pest

control, packaging.

Harvesting assumes considerable importance because the crop has to be harvested as early as

possible to make way for another crop. Sometimes, harvesting time may also coincide with

heavy rainfall or severe cyclone and floods. In view of these situations suitable technology is,

therefore, necessary for reducing the harvesting time and safe storage at farm level. The

development of marketing and post harvest management has become an area of increasing

importance for supplying safe food and quality products for local and international markets.

Horticulture-based food varieties, namely fruit, vegetables and nuts, are important for the

daily diet as these contain micronutrients, fiber, vegetable proteins and bio-functional

components. Consumption of fruits and vegetables is vital for a diversified and nutritious

diet. Increasing dietary diversification is the most important factor in providing a wide range

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of micronutrients and this requires an adequate supply, access to and consumption of a

variety of foods. However, food surveys show continuing low consumption of fruits and

vegetables in many regions of the developing world.

Horticultural interventions combined with extensive nutrition education offer a long-term,

food-based strategy to control and eliminate micronutrient malnutrition. Horticultural

production, relatively easy for unskilled people, can play an important role in poverty

alleviation programmes and food security initiatives, providing work and income

opportunities. (Bhattacharjee et al., 2007)

Most of the horticultural products are grown seasonally. Some items are produced throughout

the year but the volume is large in some months and even some are produced only during a

very short period of time. This uneven supply of horticultural products also represents a

problem for smooth marketing.

Post harvest technology is inter-disciplinary “Science and Technology” applied to

agricultural produce after harvest for its protection, conservation, processing, packaging,

distribution, marketing and utilization to meet the food and nutritional requirements of the

people in relation to their needs. It has to be developed in consonance with the needs of each

society to stimulate agricultural production; prevent post-harvest losses, improve nutrition

and add value to the products.

Importance of post-harvest technology lies in the fact that it has capability to meet food

requirement of growing population by eliminating avoidable losses making more nutritious

food items from low grade raw commodities by proper processing and fortification, diverting

portion of food material being fed to cattle by way of processing and fortifying, low grade

food and organic wastes and by-products into nutritive animal feed. Post-harvest technology

has potential to create rural industries.

5. Post Harvest Losses

Proper methods of processing, storage, packaging, transport and marketing are required for

export of crops such as jute, tea, cashew nuts, tobacco, mango, litchi, nut, spices and

condiments. One of the attributes to this post harvest system, as it is now constituted, is the

large amount of wastage it involves. In case of food grains, some estimates suggest that in

developing countries as much as 1/4 to 1/3 of total crop may be lost as a result of

inefficiencies in the post harvest system. Whereas in Bangladesh losses of food crops refer to

7

many different kinds of loss produced by a variety of factors. These include weight loss, loss

of food values, loss of economic value, loss of quality or acceptability and actual loss of

seeds themselves. The post-harvest losses for crops are huge ranging from 13.5% for grain to

40% for fruits and vegetables. The losses occur during the operation of handling,

transportation, milling, drying, parboiling, harvesting, field stacking, threshing, and storage,

about 75% of the tuber crops are stored at home and remaining 25% are stored in the cold

storage (Mazed, 2004a).

The absence of scientific drying and meager public storage for cereals is a key source of post

harvest loss. Rudimentary processing in respect of fruits and vegetable is another factor.

Though 53 industrial processing units for fruits and vegetables have been established, they

operate below installed capacities. Cottage, small, medium and large-scale industries are

engaged in the processing of products marketed in local village, national and export markets.

Vegetable production is one of the most important income generating activities (IGAs) in

alleviating poverty. Agriculture sector of the country is incurring huge post harvest loss

amounting to Taka 30,000 crore annually due to unplanned and haphazard collection and

preservation of at least 15 food grains. On an average 17 percent of total production of the

food grains suffers loss and due to this, the country had to count an aggregate loss of Taka 2,

50,000 crore during the last decade.

According to the research findings, among the crop losses, fruit is dominating the top list as

25 percent of fruits become rotten after harvest while nine percent rice incurs post harvest

loss in the country. Among the total production, seven percent of wheat, 12.05 percent

oilseeds, 25 percent each of vegetables and potato, 22.05 percent fish, 10 percent meat, 25

percent prices, 12.05 percent pulses and 10.05 percent of chili accumulate post harvest loss

due to poor handling of these produces. The report however, said the country would be able

to meet required food supply of its total population up to four months in a year if it can

prevent the post harvest loss of the crops. It will also help increase income of farmers up to

19 percent. In his recommendation, Dr. Roy suggested the authorities concerned to impart

training to the farmers about how to preserve these crops properly reducing the post harvest

loss. Besides, he also recommended for providing modern agricultural equipment to the

farmers and expansion of agri-education, setting up markets for agri-produces and agro-based

industries across the country to reduce the post harvest loss (Anonymous, 2008).

8

High perishability of vegetables, lack of storage facilities, mechanical injury due to improper

handling, packaging, transportation and microbial infection are major causes of post harvest

losses in vegetables. The post harvest losses include significant quantitative, qualitative and

economic losses. If these losses could be minimized, the growers as well as the intermediaries

of the marketing channel could get a better economic return.

6. Processing of Fruits and Vegetables

(a) Status of commercial processing of fruits

The existing fruits and vegetables processing industries in the country mainly produce jam,

jelly and squash, ready to serve fruit drinks, ketchup and pickles. Present situations of the

industries are as follows:

They produce food items mainly from mango, pineapple, orange and some other exotic fruit

commodities. In some cases the products are prepared using only flavors and emulsions

instead of original fruits. From the under-utilized groups, olive is processed into oil pickles

and chutneys, bar and tamarind is processed into chutneys.

A small number of fruits and vegetables processing industries use very few indigenous fruit

commodities for processing into jam, jelly, fruit drinks and pickles. Vegetables, except

potatoes, are not at all processed in the existing industries, although there is good prospect for

processing these commodities. A small number of seasonal fruits is not sufficient for efficient

running of the industry. As a result, considerable amount of time of the year is spent idly in

these factories.

Most of the industries are located only in and around big cities especially in the capital city

where fruit and vegetable reach through different channels of marketing. The freshness of the

commodities deteriorates and post harvest loss occurs to a great extent due to excessive

handling and transportation in the marketing process. Also the producers of fruit and

vegetables are not in direct contact with the processing industries and hence, they do not get

the profitable price for their produce.

The quality of processed products produced by majority of fruit processing industries is not

improved in comparison to the foreign products. As a result, foreign products predominate in

the local market.

(b) Processing technologies of fruits and vegetables

Presently the processed products of fruits, vegetables include jam, jelly, fruit cheese, fruit

leather, chutney preserves and candies, fruit drink and pickle. The fruits are mainly jackfruit,

9

pineapple, papaya, golden apple, muskmelon, watermelon and guava. Pineapple juice is

prepared with the help of low cost solar dryer. The technology has been transferred to home

and industry level. Proper dehydration of cabbage retaining more vitamin C has been

developed. The dehydration technology of cauliflower has been standardized both in

mechanical and solar dryer method. The procedure for preparation of formulated products

from cabbage has been standardized. The technology is very efficient, inexpensive and

simple and hence there is ample scope for wide adoption by the growers and housewives.

7. Agricultural Development Policies and Research

Development policy-markers and planners are becoming increasing aware of the crucial

contributions of women farmers of agricultural production and food security. Nevertheless,

agricultural policies on the whole still do not address the needs of women farmers adequately.

Where the roles and needs of women farmers are recognized in policy, this tends not to be

adequately translated into practices in agricultural development programmes and planning.

Agricultural research, too, gives inadequate attention to women farmers and their needs. As

has been pointed out, for instance women and men farmers are often responsible for different

agricultural tasks and crops. Research is generally focused on the improvement of production

and technologies for men’s crop tasks, while those of women are neglected.

The lack of collection and dissemination of gender-disaggregated data is one of the

underlying causes of the neglect of women’s contributions of agricultural production and

food security in agricultural development policies and research. Another root cause of this

neglect is the lack of women’s participation in policy-making and decision-marking bodies at

national and international levels

The World Food Summit (WFS) 1996 has set the target of halving, no later than 2015, the

number of undernourished people. To achieve that goal the needed total gross investment in

agriculture of the developing countries, including primary agriculture as well as storage,

processing and support infrastructure, has been estimated by FAO at $180.4 billion annually

for the period up to 2015.

8. Objectives of the Study

a) To investigate the extent of women involvement at the field level in post harvest activities of vegetables and fruits

b) To find out the need of capacity strengthening for women in carrying out post harvest activities of vegetables and fruits

10

c) To determine the training needs and to offer training to strengthen capacity of women in conducting post harvest activities of women

d) To explore the relationships between selected socio-economic characteristics of the women with their need for capacity strengthening towards post harvest facilities of vegetables and fruits

e) To find out the problems faced by the women related to their involvement in post harvest facilities for vegetables and fruits

9. Justification of the Study

Appropriate production practices, careful harvesting, and proper packaging, storage and

transport all contribute to produce of good quality. High quality, disease-free produce with a

good shelf-life is a result of sound production practices, proper handling during harvest and

appropriate post harvest handling and storage. Use of appropriate post harvest technology

reduces the post harvest and storage losses, adds value to the product, generate employment

in village and reestablishes agro-industries in rural sector (Bachmann and Earles, 2000).

Presently, the farmers sell their products without processing. If they do primary processing

and value addition in the villages, it will generate more income and employment in rural

sector. Expensive machinery is not always required. More efficient and better utilization of

the existing facilities is often sufficient. The problem of post harvest losses of vegetables is

critical. Inadequate knowledge about post harvest handling and storing of vegetables is also

responsible for this loss. The processing of food, feed, fiber, oilseeds and sugarcane will

generate enough employment in rural areas. If an agro-processing center is established in

each big village or a cluster of small villages for primary processing, it will generate

employment to about 4-5 persons and will increase income of the farmer/processor by about

15-20%. Use of proper post harvest technology of perishables and semi-perishables will

reduce the wastage to a great extent.

Fruits and vegetables are highly perishable in nature which cannot be retained without

technological arrangement for storing and processing to achieve better market price and

nutrition at household level. Aside from this, due to farmers’ cash need and seasonal glut they

are compelled to sell their produce at low price during harvest. On the other side, during the

lean period they have nothing to sell when price is very high. So, they are deprived of getting

the share of high price paid by the consumers. Moreover, it is very regrettable that post

harvest losses of fruits and vegetables are about 30% due to the lack of proper post harvest

management and marketing system. In effect, it means that 30% of land, input and labor used

to produce fruits and vegetables go to misuse (Anonymous, 2005).

11

On the other hand, the participation of women in post harvest activities of fruits and

vegetables is dominated by their male counterparts. A study shows that women’s

participation in vegetable production is 70% (Hossain, 1995). Under the circumstances it

becomes an urgent need to reduce post harvest losses and to extend marketing and

technological support to strengthen the capacity of rural women in carrying out post harvest

activities of vegetables and fruits.

Women’s involvement is much more significant than is widely known or acknowledged. In

fact, the role of women in contributing to food security is often not appreciated. However, for

greater achievement in food security support should be provided to rural women who are

closely associated to food production systems. The National Food Policy (2006) of

Bangladesh relates that the Government is firmly committed to remove the problems of

women to bring them in mainstream production systems. It aims to:

o improve women’s participation in all kinds of activities in agricultural sector and provide opportunity and tools for rural women to improve productivity in production, processing and marketing activities

o ensure women-focused targeted training and their control over and access to production resources

o initiate women responsive projects with a view to increasing their participation in economic activities

o initiate appropriate supportive measures to increase the capacity of women to strengthen food security at household levels, and

o invest in development of packaging and safe storage facilities.

Keeping the above policy issues in view, the study plans to investigate the needs of rural

women in carrying out post harvest operations and strengthen their capacity in conducting

these operations towards food security.

The fruits of increased production of fruits and vegetable and other agricultural produce will

be realized only when they reach the consumer in good condition and at a reasonable price.

The existing post harvest loss of fruits and vegetables could be considerably reduced by

adopting improved packaging, handling and efficient system of transport. Packaging of fruits

and vegetables is undertaken primarily to assemble the produce in convenient units for

marketing and distribution.

12

10. Scope of the Study

Bangladesh has an extremely favorable environment and climate for growing various kinds of

fruits, like mango, banana, guava, jackfruit, pineapple, coconut, orange, litchi, papaya, water

melon, tamarind and many other vegetables like potato, tomato, cabbage, cauliflower, carrot,

bean, brinjal, lady’s finger/ okra, bitter gourd and so many others which are also considered

as high value crops comparison to other field crops. All these have also very good demand in

export markets. The flow of the farm products has been liberalized after globalization and

market economy which has created new potential for us to enter into export market with

fruits and vegetables both in fresh and processed form. But this new opportunity of exporting

horticultural products require improved marketing system and post harvest management.

Hence, the development of marketing and post harvest management has become an area of

increasing importance for supplying safe food and quality products for local and international

markets. In short, increased production of horticultural products will increase chief supply of

protein, minerals, vitamins and other essential nutrients to address malnutrition problem of

the common people of the country. These are also important crops for increasing farm

income particularly for the small and marginal farmer.

Adoption of post-harvest technologies and value additive measures are very strong tools for

rural and social development through employment and income generation. Development and

sustain food security even at the household level. Fruits and vegetables processing industries

have a good deal of potential in serving the rural economy. First, it helps in generating more

employment for rural people. It will also check mobility of rural masses towards urban areas

in search of employment. Employment opportunities offered by agro-processing industries

are plenty to the farm population and entrepreneur seeking self-employment. Cottage scale

units particularly offer self-employment opportunities. Traditionally women handle food and

are familiar with skills of food processing. In order to improve the status of living of woman

and rural food processing, low cost appropriate fruit and vegetable processing technologies

offer excellent opportunities for production of processed food. The improvement of status of

socially backward and landless labor classes will be possible only through providing non-

farm employment at their doorsteps. This will generate a sense of security and confidence

amongst rural people for overcoming uncertainty in agricultural income and providing self-

employment to the landless labor. The locally available untapped resources should be used

effectively.

13

11. Definitions of Important Terms

Capacity strengthening: Capacity Strengthening of the women in carrying out post harvest

activities of vegetables and fruits is defined as the extent to which they have the accessibility

to financial, physical, managerial support services as well as the ability to make decision to

conduct the post harvest activities of vegetables and fruits.

Homestead garden: It is the place where different types of vegetables and fruits are grown,

and poultry and fish in small pond are raised to meet the requirements of the family all the

year round.

Homestead: A homestead is a land owned or occupied by a dwelling unit of the household

along with adjoining area, including garden, courtyard, pond and threshing floor. Normally

the area of homestead in Bangladesh remains within 2000 sq m (Bhattacharjee et al., 2007).

Knowledge on fruits and vegetable harvest: It is the extent of basic understanding of the

respondent on different aspects of fruits and vegetable harvesting (i.e. from collection to

marketing the produced).

Management skill: It expresses the knowledge on post harvest activities, operational ability,

market facility exploitation and financial management.

Need assessment: It is defined as the measurement of prerequisites required by the rural

women towards post harvest activities of vegetables and fruits.

Organizational participation: It expresses the nature and duration of participation in

different organizations.

Participation: Participation is referred to the taking part by an individual in different

activities both physically and mentally. In this study participation referred to the extent of

involvement in performing the household and farming activities specially post harvest

activities of vegetables and fruits.

Physical facilities: Processing materials or equipments, processing ground, transporting

vehicles, store house and sales centers are collectively termed as physical facilities.

Post harvest activities of vegetables and fruits: These include the access to and availability

of processing equipments and ground, cold storage, marketing channel, credit, transport,

labor market etc.

14

Rural women: It refers to those women lived in village and engaged in different post harvest

activities of vegetables and fruits to improve their life style.

15

Chapter 2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

1. The Gender Dimensions of Food Security

Gender relates to the socially assigned position and behavior of men and women. It affects

the allocation of resources and work, decision-making and power, and the enjoyment of

rights and entitlements within the family as well as in public life. Men and women have

different roles and responsibilities in their individual lives, in their families and households,

and in their communities. Both men and women are income earners and agricultural

producers. Within the family, the women’s responsibilities often involve care and provision

for their families and intra-household food distribution.

Women also play a vital role in the processing and preparation of food, and frequently use

their own earned income in support of their children. Women seeking to make these

significant family contributions frequently have only limited access to the necessary

resources, or to the related decision-making processes of family resource allocation and use.

Individual and household food security is affected by individual actions and choices men and

women make in producing food, earning income or acquiring assets, and feeding and caring

for family members. Thus, it is critical to ensure equitable access to- and control over- the

resources needed to meet their respective roles and responsibilities. Indeed, overcoming

gender-based inequities in resource access and decision making could very much enhance

women’s contributions to food security and ultimately result in significant nutritional benefits

to the family.

2. Food Safety and Food Quality for Food Security

A recent wide-ranging survey of farming practices in respect of 820 Boro (winter rice),

potato, bean, egg plant, cabbage, sugarcane and mango in Bangladesh, over 47% of farmers

were found to be overusing pesticides (Dasgupta et al., 2005). Given that a mere 4% of

farmers have received any formal training in pesticide use or handling whilst over 87% freely

admitted using little or no protective measures while applying pesticides, such as overuse

represents a real threat to the health of both farmers and the environment.

Analyzing the pesticide overuse using a 3-equation tri-variate probit model the findings were

as follows: health effects (the 1st equation) were shown to be a function of the amount of

pesticides used in production while risk misperception (the 2nd equation) varied according to

the health impairments from pesticides and the toxicity of chemicals used. The significant

16

determinants of pesticide overused, crop composition and geographical location. The policy

implication of the results is the need to design an effective outreach program for raising risk

awareness and promoting best practices in the safe handling of pesticides. The results also

indicate the specific crops and geographical locations most in need of such outreach in view

of relatively higher prevalence of overuse- bean and eggplant in general, and all crops

produced in the districts of Chapainawabganj, Chittagong, Comilla, Jessore, Narshingdhi,

Rajshahi and Rangpur.

Arsenic contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh threatens the health of nearly 30

million people (Kowk et al., 2006). Based on a wide-ranging review of studies in Asian

countries not confined to Bangladesh, FAO has concluded that arsenic exposure is not

through drinking water alone but also via the irrigation of crops with contaminated

groundwater. Soil and water concentrations of arsenic are highly correlated with high arsenic

content in crops, particularly irrigation rice and vegetables.

As food trade is becoming more globalized, food safety issues are increasingly producing

cross-border skirmishes between countries and regions. These constitute a growing threat

especially to developing country food and agricultural exports. High value exports including

fresh and processed vegetables, fish, meat, nuts, and spices that now collectively account for

more than half the total value of agri-food exports from the countries. There is concern that

food safety and health standards may be enforced and even enacted in the first place as trade

protection measures. There is also fear that such measures are or will be applied in

discriminatory ways. On the one hand, many developing countries lack the requisites

capacities (administrative, technical, financial) for compliance with the new or more stringent

requirements while on the other, when compliance is achieved, the costs incurred may well

nullify the comparative advantage of these countries in the food trade. These obstacles may

end up further marginalizing the low-income countries, farms and farmers.

Lands, water, labour, seeds and fertilizer are most important components for agriculture and

except fertilizer and high yield seeds, all other elements are available in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is currently deploying all efforts to secure an adequate availability of food grains

in domestic markets and to protect low income and vulnerable people’s access to food

through widening the scope of public food distribution operations and other social safety nets.

Our continuous efforts are necessary, if we are to achieve the objective of halving hunger by

2015 (Spijkers, 2008).

17

3. Role of Women in Post Harvest Activities

Begum (2002) reported that the division of labor by sex in Bangladesh indicates that women

perform all (100%) of domestic work, 80% of processing and storing crops, 60% of weeding,

80% of harvesting, 80% caring for livestock and 55% of planting works in agriculture sector

of the country.

Naher (2000) found that most of the rural women participated in each of the four selected

homestead activities such as 62% in post harvest activities, 54% in poultry rearing, 47% in

goat rearing and 40% in case of homestead vegetable cultivation. Their extent of participation

was also high.

4. Post Harvest and Storage Technologies of Vegetables and Fruits

Rai et al. (2002) studied on Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) and its effect on quality

and shelf life of fruits and vegetables. MAP is intended to create an appropriate to enhance

shelf-life and to conserve the quality of the packaged produce. This review is intended to

cover the important facets of MAP so that its application to a wide range of fruits and

vegetables may help in ensuring maximum returns to the producer and a long lasting quality

product for the consumer.

Kamran and Syed (2002) studied to determine the effect of modified atmosphere packaging

technology on post harvest preservation of carrots. It was observed that peeling treatment,

film type and days of storage had significant effect on CO2 and O2 percentages within bags of

carrots stored at 70C. The bags with peeled carrots contained significantly lesser CO2 (9.4%)

and more O2 (16.1%) than non-peeled carrots (17.6% CO2 and 14.3% O2) during the 28-day

storage period.

Krumbein and Peters (2003) experimented on changes of aroma volatiles in tomato in post-

harvest. To ensure good flavor, it is recommended that harvesting take place at the red

ripening stage. During a 10-day post-harvest period under retail and home conditions, 12

aroma volatiles and the titratable acid were found to have changed significantly in the cherry

tomato Mickey when harvested at the red ripening stage. The changes detected in the flavor

substances during the post harvest period are expected to produce differences in the sensory

qualities of the tomato.

Swagatam et al. (2004) studied on prepackaging, storage losses and physiological changes of

fresh bitter gourd as influenced by post harvest treatments. Bitter gourds (Momordica

charantia) were collected immediately after harvest, transferred to the laboratory and

subjected to different pre-packaging post harvest handling treatments, consisting of (1)

18

control; (2) perforated polyethylene bag, (3) unperforated polyethylene bag, (4) wet gunny

bag, (5) polyester bag and (6) splashing of water. The physical appearance of bitter gourd

(colour and degree of shrinkage) at 6 days after storage (DAS) was better in perforated

polyethylene and wet gunny bags.

Nyalala and Wainwright (1998) studied that the shelf-life of two tomato cultivars (Money

Maker and Cal-J) at 4.50C, room temperature (18-250C) and 300C. They found that, weight

loss was significantly higher at increased temperatures, and there was an interaction between

cultivar and temperature at room temperatures and 300C. They also found that, loss of fruit

firmness was greatest at the 2 higher temperatures, but there was no significant difference

between the cultivars.

Sarkar et al. (1997) conducted an experiment to determine the suitable color of polythene

film used to extent the shelf-life of banana cv. Giant governor. Bananas were packed (2

kg/pack) using polythene film with or without perforations, and packed in film of different

colours (yellow, light yellow, red and pink). It was observed that physiological weight loss

was least for fruits packed in non-perforated polythene packs, fruits remaining marketable

condition up to 28 days after harvest.

Effective post-harvest treatments play a key role in increasing productivity and combating

food shortages. A great deal of harvested produce is still lost due to decay. The role of post-

harvest protection in the food chain is often underestimated. Innovative and safe solutions are

vital to protect healthy fruits and vegetables in view of the ever-increasing demand for these

important food commodities all year round. Modern crop protection solutions based on

innovative active ingredients from Bayer crop science’s portfolio make an important

contribution to food quality and thus toward ensuring healthy, nutrition and safeguarding the

food supply (Bayer, 2009).

Providing environmentally sound, economically viable systems, treatments, ensure product

quality and food safety and increase product value. The three broad objectives to be

addressed include (1) Develop new or improved post harvest treatments, including

alternatives to methyl bromide fumigation, for fruit, vegetable and ornamental crop imports

and exports to ensure security against quarantine pests; (2) Develop new or improved post

harvest treatments for fruits, vegetable, nut and ornamental crops to improve product quality

and shelf life, reduce or eliminate post harvest disorders or decay and enhance product value

and (3) Identify, develop or improve pre harvest methods for fruit, vegetable, nut and

ornamental crops that enhance post harvest quality and reduce the incidence of quarantine

pests that limit exports.

19

5. Training Needs of Women

Due to the growing responsibilities of women for household well-being they are considered

as effective vehicles for ensuring household food security. Women also play a central role in

determining intra-household food security and nutrition for individual family members. It is

necessary to initiate women-focused development programmes including involvement at a

larger scale of women in ever increasing economic activities through better access to provide

resources, inputs and services. Women have less access to extension services and vocational

training, credits and technologies (Anonymous, 2006).

Supekar (2002) mentioned that to enable women to undertake the agricultural or other

income-generating programs, it is very essential that specific need based training courses are

to be prepared and conducted. These training programs shall include interalia cropping

management patterns, agro-processing and preservation, marketing, packaging, advertisement

for entrepreneurship development, seed collection and selection, nursery activities, forestry,

appropriate low-cost technology, organic farming etc. In short, in addition to adult literacy

among women the “Agriculture Literacy” program has to be undertaken as a special

campaign.

Verma et al. (1992) stated that in India, women have a crucial role to play in post harvest

technology particularly in areas related to winnowing and storage of grains. However, little

attention has been paid to food losses. It is suggested that proper handling and management

needs to be taught systematically to rural women. A study of needs of training in PHT (Post

Harvest Technologies) for farm women was launched which covered the involvement of

women in operations, the effectiveness of the messages on PHT transmitted in terms of

knowledge gain and associated factors influencing knowledge acquisition and attitudinal

change. This study was undertaken to examine women’s role in PHT and the results inferred

that the message of PHT can be transmitted effectively without any consideration for age,

caste, education or family type, implying that need based training can overcome the barriers

of personal factors or limitations. PHT is, therefore, relevant to farm women irrespective of

their personal profile variables.

6. Nutritional Values of Fruits and Vegetables

Today, dietitians agree that plant foods should comprise the major part of the healthy human

diet. Fruits and vegetables are the keys to obtaining not just vitamins and minerals, but a wide

variety of other elements that can contribute therapeutically to human health. With the

20

increasing emphasis on good nutrition and healthy eating, this handy guide is crucial to

ensuring optimal nutrition from a plant-based diet.

Banana is a very popular fruit due to its low price and high nutritive value. It is a rich source

of carbohydrate and also rich in vitamins, particularly vitamin B. It is also a good source of

minerals like potassium, phosphorus, calcium and magnesium. The fruit is easy to digest free

from fat and cholesterol. Banana powder is used as baby food. (Doan, 2007). Household food

consumption studies show that cereals make up the largest share (62 percent) of the diet,

followed by non-leafy vegetables, roots tubers, which together comprise more than four-fifths

of the rural people’s total diet. Protein and micronutrient-rich foods like fish, meat, eggs,

milk, milk products, fats and oils account for less than 10 percent of the rural person’s diet,

and the consumption of vegetables and fruits is declining steadily (Bhattacharjee et al., 2007).

Rural consumption of leafy and non-leafy vegetables has remained more or less the same

over the past two decades after increasing over the preceding 30 years. Fruit consumption has

declined in rural areas after more than doubling in the 1970s. With an average national per

capita consumption of 23g of leafy vegetables, 89g of non-leafy vegetables and 14g of fruit,

the average Bangladeshi eats a total of 126g fruit and vegetables daily. This is far below the

minimum daily consumption of 400g of vegetables and fruit recommended by FAO and the

World Health Organization.

Low birth weight is more common among adolescent mothers. Marriage at very young age

has serious consequences for pregnancy, future survival, health, growth and development.

When combined with positive energy balance (adequate energy intake) in later life, LBW

increases the risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and coronary heart disease.

Between 1990 and 2004, underweight levels among children fell from 67 to 48 percent and

child stunting fell from 66 to 43 percent, but the levels are still unacceptably high.

21

Chapter 3

METHODOLOGY

The methods and procedures followed in this study have been described in this Chapter.

1. Locales of the Study

Fieldworks of the investigation were carried out in different nine locations of nine Upazilas

of Bangladesh. The basis of selecting study areas were the production prevalence/abundance

of the respective vegetable and fruit. Thus, the locations of fieldwork were considered in the

following Table 3.1 and corresponding districts are shown in Figure 3.1.

Table 3.1 Locales of fieldwork

Items Names (vegt/fruit) District Upazila Village/Block

Veg

etab

les Brinjal Mymensingh Fulbaria Shreepur,

Koiarchala and Taltala

Tomato Rajshahi Godagari Lalbag and Achua Taltala

Spinach Jessore Monirampur Nadra

Potato Joypurhat Khetlal Kusum Shahor

Fru

its

Mango Nawabganj Shibganj Pithali Tala, Kansat Bazar and House Nagar

Banana Bogra Shibganj Chandihara

Pineapple Tangail Madhupur Pirgacha, Dokhola and Chunia,

Guava Pirojpur Nesarabad Kuriana

Orange Moulavibazar Juri Shuknachara, Hayachara and Kachurgul

2. Sample and Sampling Procedure

Considering the limited scope, resource and time of the study, one study area had been

selected for each of the vegetables and fruits. Fifty women, engaged in post harvest activities

(PHAs) of respective vegetable or fruit, were selected randomly for data collection through

personal interview. Eight women were also been selected for conducting focus group

discussion (FGD) and preparing scored causal diagrams (SCDs). One women also been

selected randomly for case study. The total process of sample selection and data collection

had been conducted with the guidance and cooperation of Upazila Agricultural Office and

help of Sub-Assistant Agricultural Officer (SAAO) at field level. A total sample size stood to

450 for all the nine sites for nine vegetables and fruits to collect data through interview.

22

Figure 3.1: Map showing the districts of study areas.

= District of study areas

23

3. Variables and Measurement Techniques

Twelve personal characteristics of the women were considered as independent variables

(Garrett and Woodworth, 1981) which included age, education, dependency ratio of the

family, farm size, annual family income, organizational participation, decision making

capacity in the family, training exposure, credit received, ability to cope with uncertainty,

daily time allocation for PHAs and awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits. ‘Need for

capacity strengthening of women in carrying out post harvest activities of selected vegetables

and fruits’ was considered as the dependent variable of the study. The following two sections

contain procedures of measurement for dependent and independent variables.

3.1 Measurement of independent variables

The procedures followed in measuring the independent variables have been discussed in this

section.

Age: Age of a respondent was measured in terms of years from birth to the time of interview

which was found on the basis of response (Azad, 2003). A unit score was assigned for each

year of one’s age. This variable appears in item no. 1 in the interview schedule (Appendix-A).

Education: Education was measured in terms of one’s year of schooling. One score was

given for passing each level in an educational institution (Amin, 2004). For example, if a

respondent passed the SSC examination, educational score was given as 10. If a respondent

did not know how to read and write, her educational score was given as ‘0’ (Item no. 2 in

Appendix-A).

Dependency ratio of the family: Dependency ratio of the family is the proportion of

dependent family members to the total earning members (item no. 3 in Appendix-A). The

family members included family head and other dependent members like husband/wife,

children, etc. who lived and ate together. Dependent family members were those who were

unemployed in the family. It was determined by subtracting the number of earning members

from total number of family members (Ahmed, 2007). Finally, dependency ratio was

computed with the following formula:

membersearningofnumberTotal

membersearningofnumberTotalmembersfamilyofnumberTotalratioDependency

24

Farm size: Farm size of a respondent referred to the total area of land on which her family

carried out farming operation, the area being in terms of full benefit to the family. It was

measured in hectares for each respondent using the following formula (Hasan, 2006):

FS = A + B + 1/2C + D

Where,

FS= Family farm and homestead sizeA= Homestead areaB= Own crop landC= Crop land given to or taken from others on mortgage, lease, share- cropping etc.D= Garden, pond and others

This variable has been presented in the item no. 4 in Appendix-A.

Annual family income: Income referred to the total financial return of a household from

farm (crops, livestock, poultry and fish) and non-farm sources (service, business, selling

labor, bank interests, remittance, financial help from relatives, etc.). It was expressed in

thousand (‘000’) taka (Waheduzzaman, 2004). This variable appears in the item no. 5 in

interview schedule (Appendix-A).

Organizational participation: Organizational participation of a respondent was measured

on the basis of the nature of her involvement and duration of participation in different

organizations. Organization participation was operationalized by using the following formula

(Afique, 2006).

Organizational participation score = (A D)

Where, A= Activities score, D= Duration score

Activities score were assigned in the following manner

Nature of participation Scores assignedNo participation 0Ordinary member 1Executive committee member 2Executive committee officer/ President / Secretary/ Treasurer 3

Duration scores were assigned in the following manner

Duration of participation Scores assignedNo participation 0Participation up to 3 years 1Participated from 4-6 years 2Participated above 6 years 3

25

Organizational participation score of a respondent was obtained by summing scores of the

organizations according to the above mentioned formula for her activities in the respective

organization. The variable appears in the question no. 6 of the interview schedule of

Appendix-A.

Decision making capacity in the family: Decision making capacity in the family was

measured on the basis of the respondent’s ability to make decision in the family regarding 10

selected family activities. A score was given against each of the activities by asking question

on the same, such as, ‘0’ for not at all, ‘1’ for joint decision, mainly by other family

members, ‘2’ for joint decision, equally by self and others ‘3’ for joint decision, mainly by

self, and ‘4’ for full decision by self. Finally sum of the scores was given to each respondent.

In this variable the total scores might range between 0 to 40, where ‘0’ indicated no capacity

to make decision and ‘40’ indicated full capacity to make decision in the family. This

variable appears in the item no. 7 in interview schedule (Appendix-A).

Training exposure: Training exposure was computed by total number of days a respondent

attended in different training programs in her life from different organizations (Akter, 2003).

This variable appears in the question no. 8 of the interview schedule (Appendix-A).

Credit received: Credit received of a respondent woman was measured in terms of the

amount of money received by her as loan from different sources. It was expressed in

thousand Taka (Afique, 2006). This variable appears in question no. 9 of the interview

schedule as presented in Appendix-A.

Ability to cope with uncertainty: Ability to cope with uncertainty referred to the

psychological strength of a woman to withstand unprecedented hardship or crisis that could

arise in her life. It was measured on 4-point rating scale. Score was assigned as ‘0’ for not at

all, ‘1’ for weak, ‘2’ for moderate and ‘3’ for strong ability to cope with uncertainty. Thus a

total score might vary from 0 to 24 in this scale (item no. 10 of Appendix-A), where ‘0’

indicated no ability and ‘24’ indicated strong ability to cope with uncertainty.

Daily time allocation for PHAs: The daily time allocation for PHAs was meant for the

approximate daily time utilization in different PHAs of vegetables and fruits. It was measured

on the basis of total hours spent per day for any selected activity of any fruit or vegetable.

This variable appears in question no. 11 of the interview schedule as presented in Appendix-

A.

26

Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits: The awareness referred to the rural

women’s knowing of first hand information on nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits.

The awareness was measured against 15 various statements related to nutrition of vegetables

and fruits. For each statement ‘yes’ or ‘no’ agreement was sought from the respondents.

Thus, the total score could range from 0 to 15 (item no. 12, Appendix-A)

3.2 Measurement of dependent variable

Need for capacity strengthening of women in carrying out post harvest activities (PHAs) of

selected vegetable or fruit was the dependent variable of the present study. To measure the

extent of need for capacity strengthening of women five dimensions of capacity strengthening

were included. They were: a) need for financial ability (capital, credit, labor purchase and

processing equipment purchase), b) need for decision making ability (collection, grading,

packaging, processing, storing, selling of fruits), c) need for access to support services

(preservation facilities or cold storage, labor market, marketing channel/facilities, access to

credit, transport, development workers for advice), d) need for management skill (handling of

post harvest equipments, operational ability, market facility exploitation, preservation of

seeds, processing of fruits and vegetables, financial management), e) need for physical

facilities (processing materials, processing ground, transports/vehicles, store house, sales

centers). The dimensions were measured on a four-point rating scale (item no. 13, Appendix-

A). Scores were assigned as 0, 1, 2 and 3 for ‘no’, ‘low’, ‘medium’ and ‘high’ respectively.

The scores of all items of each dimension were added to obtain the total score of a single

dimension. Finally, scores of all the five dimensions formed the total score of the extent of

need for capacity strengthening of women for a respondent. Then total score was converted to

percent using following formula.

The Need Index for capacity strengthening (NICS) can mathematically be expressed as

follows:

Where, NICS = Need Index for capacity strengthening

Na = Actual need

Np = Possible need

Thus, total score of a subject for this variable could range from 0 to 100, where ‘0’ indicated

‘no need’ and ‘100’ indicated ‘high need’ of women for capacity strengthening.

100N

NNICS

p

a

27

4. Measurement of Involvement of Women in PHAs

To measure the extent of involvement in post harvest activities, three dimensions of

participation namely (i) frequency of performance, (ii) part of work done, and (iii) control

over decision (Hasan, 2006) were used as shown in the interview schedule in item no. 14

(Appendix-A). The first dimension included involvement, the second ensured action, and the

last dimension covered the psychological aspect of involvement. Each of the dimensions was

quantified separately with four-point rating scale against 13 broad categories of post harvest

activities of selected vegetable or fruit.

Frequency of performance, the first dimension of involvement, was defined as the regularity

of performing certain post harvest activities. Scores were assigned to the column of frequency

of performance for respondent on the basis of responses furnished by subjects in such a way

that 0 (zero) was assigned for ‘not at all’, 1 for ‘rarely’, 2 for ‘sometimes’ and 3 for

‘regularly/frequently’.

The second dimension of involvement, part of work done, was defined as how much amount

of work done by the respondent regarding the selected post harvest activities. The scores

were made in the following way:

Part of work done ScoreNot at all 0Less than half of the requirement 1More than half of the requirement 2Completely 3

In accordance with the third dimension, control over decision, was measured on the basis of

decision taken by the respondent in a family. Scores were made in the following way:

Control over decision ScoreAbsolutely no decision by self 0Shared decision, mainly by others 1Shared decision, mainly by self 2Full decision by self 3

Involvement Index (II) has been used to determine the extent of involvement. It was defined

as the ratio of ‘actual involvement’ to ‘possible involvement’ in any issue expressed as%.

The Involvement Index can mathematically was expressed as follows:

100d

d

w

w

f

f

3

1II

p

a

p

a

p

a

……………………. (i)

Where, II = Involvement Indexfa = Actual frequency of performancefp = Possible frequency of performance

28

wa = Actual part of work donewp = Possible part of work doneda = Actual control over decisiondp = Possible control over decision

In the present study, extent of involvement in post harvest activities by rural women has been

computed according to the formula of Involvement Index (II). In this way, II could vary from

0 to 100%, 0 indicating no involvement and 100 indicated full involvement in post harvest

activities by rural women.

5. Measurement of Training Needs

The extent of training needed by rural women in carrying out PHAs was measured by adding

their expression against some training item/topic related to PHAs. The extent of training

needs of rural women was measured with four-point rating scale. Score was assigned to each

of the items as follows:

Extent of training needs Assigned score

No 0Low 1Medium 2High 3

Thus, total extent of training needs of a respondent woman was computed through adding

scores of all items/topics.

6. Measurement of Problem Confrontation

To measure problem confrontation in carrying out post harvest activities of selected fruit or

vegetable, Scored Causal Diagrams (SCDs) of Participatory Farm Management (PFM)

methods were used (Galpin et al., 2000). SCDs were used to examine in detail the causes and

effects of problems and to identify the ‘root’ cause which need to be addressed, and to

analyze the relative importance of the problems and prioritize them.

First, the topic, participation in post harvest activities of fruit or vegetable, was critically

discussed with the participants in a small group consists of six members in order to construct

the SCDs. Various problems of participation in post harvest activities were listed through

discussion with the respondents. Assuming the end problem ‘low participation in post harvest

activities’ and writing it on a piece of white paper, they were asked to mention the direct

causes of this problem. As the direct causes were identified and written on separate pieces of

29

paper by the respondent, the pieces of paper were placed on a large white paper on the ground

and arrows were drawn to represent the causal relationships between the problems.

Each problem was represented on the paper once only. The causes of those problems were

identified and added to the diagram. These might be from the original list or might be newly

identified. The process was continued until the participants were satisfied that all the

problems had been included and all the connections identified. The problems at the edge of

the diagram with no identified ‘causes’ were determined as the ‘root’ causes. Scoring was

done by moving counters (pieces of broken bricks) up from the end problem by dividing

them between the causes of each subsequent problem. In this study hundred (100) broken

bricks were used as counters as the total score for the end problem.

The procedural steps of scoring used in this research study were as follows (Photo 3.1):

Photo 3.1: The process of making SCDs by the rural women.

i. After drawing the causal diagram, even number (100) of broken bricks were placed on the end problem.

ii. The females were asked to divide the 100 pieces of bricks between the causes of that problem (i.e. the arrows entering the problem), to represent how important the causes of that problems were.

iii. The scores were then taken back a further step and divided between the causes of the next problem using the same procedure as in step-2.

iv. If no causes of the problem had been identified on the diagram i.e. there was no arrow entering the problem, then the score remained on that problem. If there was only one cause of the problem, the whole score is moved back to that cause. At each stage the scores were written on the diagram before the pieces of bricks were moved on.

30

v. If a cause had more than one effect, the scores from those effects arrows were added together. This total was then divided between the different causes of the problem as in step-2.

vi. The scoring was continued until all the problems on the diagram had been scored. The pieces of bricks were ended up on the ‘root’ causes.

vii. On completion of the scoring process, the relative scores of the ‘root’ causes were compared. The higher the score the more important the problem. These scores and the reasoning behind the scores (i.e. the causes and effects on the diagram) were clarified with the participants.

viii. Finally possible solutions of the ‘root’ causes were traced back on the diagram.

7. Statement of Hypothesis

The following null hypothesis (Ray and Mondal, 2004) was formulated and tested to explore

the relationship between the selected characteristics and the need for capacity strengthening

of women in carrying out post harvest activities:

H0: There is no relationship between the selected characteristics of the women and their need for capacity strengthening in carrying out post harvest activities.

8. Instrument for Data Collection

A structured interview schedule was used for collection of relevant data from the women

engaged in respective vegetable or fruit for the study. Closed form questions were included in

the schedule. Simple and direct questions were also included to ascertain the opinions of the

women regarding a number of aspects. Scales were developed to determine the need for

capacity strengthening of women in carrying out PHAs. The draft interview schedule was

prepared in accordance with the objectives of the study. The interview schedule was pre-

tested with 10 respondents. Necessary corrections, additions and modification were made in

the interview schedule based on the pretest results. The modified and corrected interview

schedule was then printed in final form (Appendix-A).

9. Collection of Data

Data were collected by the project personnel (mainly Research Fellows) through personal

interview schedule from the women of the selected villages. The interviews were conducted

with the respondents individually in their respective houses or house premises (Photo 3.2).

Wherever the respondents felt any difficulty in understanding any questions, the utmost care

was taken to explain and clarify the same properly. Data were collected as per following

schedule.

31

Table 3.2 Schedule of data collection.

Items Names (vegt/fruit)

Upazila Village/Block Date

Veg

etab

les Brinjal Fulbaria Shreepur, Koiarchala and

Taltala16.3.08 to 25.3.08

Tomato Godagari Lalbag and Achua Taltala 25.7.08 to 31.7.08Spinach Monirumpur Nadra 11.5.08 to 16.5.08Potato Khetlal Kusum Shahor 4.6.08 to 9.6.08

Fru

its

Mango Shibganj Pithali Tala, Kansat Bazar and House Nagar

27.3.08 to 5.4.08

Banana Shibganj Chandihara 12.6.08 to16.6.08Pineapple Madhupur Pirgacha, Dokhola and Chunia, 6.3.0 to to15.3.08Guava Nesarabad Kuriana 6.4.08 to14.4.08Orange Juri Shuknachara, Hayachara and

Kachurgul25.1.09 to 31.1.09

Photo 3.3: Interview to collect information from rural women.

Personal interview was conducted to gather data on women’s need for training and capacity

strengthening to conduct post harvest activities (PHAs) of vegetables and fruits. Additionally,

Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with the women engaged in PHAs of vegetables and fruits

were conducted for triangulation of data. FGD is structured discussions led by a facilitator.

The purpose of the focus group is to stimulate discussion around issues concerned. An FGD

functions like a “group interview” with the facilitator posing questions and participants

responding with their thoughts and opinions. The focus group generally consists of a small

number (6-12) of relatively similar individuals who provide information during a directed and

moderated interactive group discussion (Anonymous, 2003 and Popham, 1993).

32

In this study, focus group participants were typically chosen based on their ability to provide

specialized ideas or insight into the needs of training and overall capacity strengthening in

conducting PHAs of vegetables and fruits. Women from similar backgrounds or experiences

were brought together to discuss the topic (Photo 3.3). Homogeneity of samples was

preferred.

Photo 3.3: A view of Focus Group Discussion with women

An FGD was conducted for each of the selected vegetables and fruits in their respective study

areas, having each group of at least eight women. Thus, a total of nine FGDs were conducted

in nine areas to achieve additional information on training and capacity needs of the rural

women who were engaged in PHAs of vegetables and fruits. Finally, the outcomes of nine

FGDs were merged together to make a comprehensive report.

Purpose of discussion was explained and the specific discussions were done on the said

objectives with the participating women. Then the responses and consensus were listed down.

The outcomes of group discussions were noted down by the investigator. Sub-Assistant

Agriculture Officer (SAAO) of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) of the

respective Block assisted to form and mobilize the groups.

Addition to these, case studies (Yin, 2002 and Ray and Mondal, 2004) were also conducted

with the women engaged in PHAs of vegetables and fruits. A case study is one of several

ways of doing research whether it is social science related or even socially related. It is an

intensive study of a single group, incident, or community. Other ways include experiments,

surveys, multiple histories, and analysis of archival information (Wikipedia, 2009). In

33

another word, case study is a research strategy, an empirical inquiry that investigates a

phenomenon within its real-life context.

Photo3.4: Showing the process of data collection for case study.

One woman from each site (i.e. one for each selected fruit or vegetable) was studied to

achieve in-depth ideas about her needs for training and overall capacity building for carrying

out PHAs. Thus, a total of nine case studies were conducted in this investigation and

comprehensive nine separate reports were also prepared.

10. Data Processing and Statistical Analyses

Qualitative data were converted to quantitative one wherever necessary. Data obtained from

the respondents were first put to a master sheet, then compiled, tabulated and analyzed in

accordance with the objectives of the study.

Descriptive statistical methods like range, mean, percent distribution and standard deviation

were used in describing the dependent and independent variables. For clarity of

understanding, tables and graphs were used in presenting data. For exploring the relationship

between the selected characteristics of the women with their need for capacity strengthening

in carrying out post harvest activities Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation

(r) (Ray and Mondal, 2004) was used.

34

The analysis of data was performed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences)

computer program. Throughout the study, at least five% (0.05) level of probability was used

as a basis of rejecting a null hypothesis.

11. Conduction of Training and Method Demonstrations

Two training programs were conducted in two separate batches of women engaged in PHAs

of each of the selected vegetables and fruits. A three-day training program was conducted for

30 women in each batch. Thus, a total of 18 training programs were conducted for nine

vegetables and fruits covering a total population of 540. The participants of the training were

selected by the concerned SAAO of the respective Block with prior guidance from

Agriculture Office of the Upazila.

Demonstrations were conducted simultaneously with the training activities mainly

concentrating on the third day of training program. On the afternoon of second day of

training, the theoretical aspects and the processes were taught and on the next day the product

demonstrations were done practically. In the same way of training, a total of 540 women took

part in product demonstrations in nine sites on selected fruits and vegetables.

35

Chapter 4

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Section 1: BRINJAL

This chapter contains the findings and their logical interpretations according to the objectives

of the present study regarding brinjal.

1. Involvement of Rural Women in PHAs of Brinjal

Involvement score of the respondents in different PHAs ranged from 17.17 to 49.49 with a

mean of 35.68 and standard deviation of 7.39 (Table 4.1). On the basis of involvement, the

respondents were divided into three categories.

Table 4.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of brinjal Range of score: Possible 0-100, Observed 17.17-49.49

Respondents MeanStandard deviation

Categories Number Percent

35.68 7.39Low (≤ 33) 19 38

Medium (34-67) 31 62

High (>67) 0 0

Data in the Table 4.1 show that the highest (62%) proportion of the women had moderate

involvement while 38% of them had low and none of them had high involvement in any post

harvest activities. Most of the respondents had similar involvement in post harvest activities

like transport from field to house, sorting and grading, cleaning, packaging and seed storage

etc.

In order to investigate the involvement of rural women in various post harvest activities of

vegetables and fruits towards food security, the works are categorized into three dimensions,

such as frequency of performance, part of work done and control over decision. Each of

these three categories also has four sub-dimensions with score 0 to 3. Most of the respondents

had similar involvement in post harvest activities like seed storage, sorting and grading, water

cooling and transport from field to house, etc.

36

Table 4.2 Ranking of total score of participation of rural women in different PHAs of brinjal

Post harvest activities Frequency of performance

Part of work done

Control over decision

Total score

Rank order

Seed storage 149 149 142 440 1

Water cooling 130 133 79 342 2

Sorting and grading 134 137 67 338 3

Transport from field to house

66 62 41 169 4

Table 4.2 shows that the highest participation of rural women was in seed storage and then

water cooling and the lowest was in transport from field to house. According to their total

score of involvement the women were mostly involved in seed storage because they can

easily do it inside their household. Due to their social status and conservativeness women are

restricted to go out from the house. So their involvement in transportation from field to house

is inferior to other activities.

2. Need for Capacity Strengthening of Rural Women

Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to measure the extent of need for

capacity strengthening of women. The findings have been presented in the following

subsections.

2.1 Overall need for capacity strengthening

The extent of need for capacity strengthening of women was assessed in terms of need index

for capacity strengthening (NICS). The NICS values could range from 0 to 100. The observed

NICS values ranged from 70.37 to 95.06 with an average of 83.23 and standard deviation of

6.65. Based on their NICS values the respondents were classified into three categories as

shown in Table 4.3.

Table 4.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of brinjal Score range: Possible 0-100, Observed 70.37-95.06

RespondentsMean Std. Dev.

Categories No. %Low (≤33)

Medium (34-67)

High (>67)

0

0

50

0

0

100

83.23 6.65

Presented data show that the cent% of the respondents had high extent of need and none of

them had medium or low extent of need for capacity strengthening in PHAs of brinjal.

37

The findings clearly indicate that all of the respondents had high need for capacity

strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal. While collecting the data, it was observed in the study

area that there was scarcity of post harvest facilities of brinjal towards food security and even

a little facility was available but those were not in accessible form for the rural women. Thus,

the respondents logically felt high need for their capacity strengthening towards post harvest

facilities of brinjal.

2.2 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of rural women

Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to assess the extent of need for

capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of brinjal. The computed NICS values of all

the dimensions have been shown in Table 4.4.

Table 4.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of brinjal

Dimension of capacity strengthening(measuring unit)

Range Respondents

MeanStd.Dev.Possible Observed Categories

No.%

Need for financial ability (%) 0-100 58.33-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)

0347

06

9489.00 10.30

Need for decision making ability (%) 0-100 55.56-77.78

Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)

01139

02278

73.22 5.69

Need for access to support services (%) 0-100 61.11-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)

0842

01684

79.67 9.43

Need for management skill (%) 0-100 72.22-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)

0050

00

10088.11 7.86

Need for physical facilities (%) 0-100 66.67-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)

0149

02

9889.07 8.70

Data presented in Table 4.4 indicate that almost all of the women fell in high need category

for all the dimensions of capacity strengthening. The highest average need for capacity

strengthening (89.07) was for physical facilities and the lowest average (73.22) was for need

for decision making ability. Findings evidently specify that need for capacity strengthening

was about similar for most of the components but need for physical facilities like storage

facilities was essential because physical facilities were absent in this study area.

Data presented in Table 4.5 indicates that capital shows higher score in need for financial

ability, processing and storing shows higher score in need for decision making ability,

preservation facilities of cold storage shows higher score in need for access to support

38

services, handling of post harvest equipments and processing of fruits and vegetables shows

higher score in need for management skill and finally store house shows higher score in need

for physical facilities.

Table 4.5 Ranking of the issues of need for capacity strengthening of the respondentsItems Score Rank

Need for financial abilityCapital 146 1Processing-equipment 145 2Credit 141 3Labor purchase 102 4Need for decision making abilityProcessing 149 1Storing 149 1Packaging 147 2Selling of vegetables fruits 130 3Grading 43 4Collection 41 5Need for access to support services Preservation facilities of cold storage 150 1Access to credit 140 2Development workers for advice 136 3Marketing channel/facilities 116 4Transport 114 5Labor market 61 6Need for management skill Processing of fruits and vegetables 150 1Handling of post harvest equipments 150 1Financial management 142 2Operational ability 134 3Market facility exploitation 109 4Preservation of seeds 108 5Need for physical facilitiesStore house 150 1Processing materials/ equipment 149 2Processing ground 129 3Sales centers 123 4Transport/vehicles 117 5

Figure 4.1 represents that the highest extent of need of the respondents was for physical

facilities and lowest extent of need was for decision making ability. It might be worthy to

mention here that the differences among the components of capacity strengthening in respect

of need felt by the respondents was less. Therefore, the respondents women felt need more or

less same for all the dimensions of capacity strengthening towards PHAs.

39

Figure 4.1 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of rural women

20%

19%

19%

22%

20%

Financial ability

Decision making ability

Access to support services

Management skill

Physical facilities

3. Characteristics of the Rural Women

There were various characteristics of the rural women that influenced their extent of need for

capacity strengthening towards post harvest activities of brinjal towards food security. In the

present study, twelve characteristics of the rural women were selected as independent

variables, which included age, education, dependency ratio of the family, farm size, annual

family income, organizational participation, decision making capacity in the family, daily

time allocation, training experience, awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits, credit

received and ability to cope with uncertainty. The characteristics of the respondents have

been presented in Table 4.6.

The study was conducted with the rural women who were more or less involved in brinjal’s

PHAs. Among the respondents most of them were either middle or young aged (40 and 52%

respectively) whereas 50% of them had education at primary level (Table 4.6). About half of

the respondents (48%) had medium and 44% had low dependency ratio in their family

respectively. The highest proportion (52%) of the respondents had been observed in small

farm size while 38% and 8% of them in marginal and medium farm size respectively.

Majority of the respondents (56%) had low annual family income while 36% and 8% of them

had medium and high annual family income respectively. In case of organizational

involvement most of the respondents (92%) had less involvement while 2% had moderate

and 6% had high involvement in any organization.

40

Table 4.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of brinjalCharacteristics (Measurement

units)

Range RespondentMean

Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %

Age(year) - 19-50

Young (≤30)Middle aged(31-45)Old (>45)

26204

52408

33.16 8.07

Education(year of schooling)

- .00-9

Illiterate (0)Primary (1-5)Secondary (6-10)Higher secondary (>10)

192560

3850120

2.26 2.76

Dependency ratio of the family (ratio)

- 0.5-6Low (≤2)Medium (2.1-4)High (>4)

22244

44488

2.71 1.24

Farm size(hectare)

- 0.08-4.76

Landless ( < 0.02)Marginal (.021-.2)Small (0.21-1.0)Medium (1.1-3.0)Large (>3.0)

0192641

0385282

0.46 0.68

Annual family income (‘000’ Taka)

- 17.05-141Low (≤50)Medium (51-100)High (>100)

28184

56368

54.6728.2

0

Organizational participation (score)

- .00-12Low (≤2)Moderate (3-4)High (>4)

4613

9226

1.36 2.15

Awareness (score) 0-15 3-15

Less(≤5)Medium(6-10)High(>10)

33215

66430

9.06 2.88

Daily time allocation (hours) - 3-8

Low(≤3)Medium(3.1-6)High(>6)

4379

87418

5.27 1.36

Decision making capacity in the family (score)

0-40 4-36Weak (≤13)Moderate (14-26)Strong (>26)

3416

68212

21.54 5.28

Training exposure (score) - .00-17

Null (0)Short-term (1-3)Mid-term (>3)

381

11

76222

3.24 6.14

Credit received(‘000’ Taka) - .00-40

Small (≤10)Medium (11-20)High (>20)

4451

88102

6.10 7.08

Ability to cope with uncertainty (score)

0-24 7-17Less (≤8)Moderate (9-16)Strong (>16)

12371

24742

10.34 2.10

Women were moderately aware on nutrition of vegetables and fruits (64%). Six percent had

low awareness and only 30% had high awareness. Highest (74%) proportion of the women

had moderate time allocation while 18% of them had high and the rest 8% of them had low

time allocation for PHAs of brinjal (Table 4.6). Most of the respondents (82%) of the women

had medium decision making capacity while 6% of them had weak and 12% of the women

had highest decision making capacity in their family. Majority of the respondents (76%) had

no training exposure while 2% and 22% of them had short-term and mid-term training

experience. A large number (88%) of the women had small credit received while 10% had

41

medium and 2% of them had high credit received circumstance. Most of the respondents

(74%) had moderate while 24% had less and only 2% of them had strong ability to cope with

uncertainty.

4. Training needs of women

The training need for capacity strengthening of women ranged from 27 to 36 and average of

32.18 and standard deviation of 2.02. Based on their NICS values the respondents were

classified into three categories as shown in Table 4.7.

Table 4.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of brinjal

Range of score RespondentMean

Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %

0-100 27-36

Low(≤24)

Medium(25-30)

High(>30)

0

11

39

0

22

78

32.18 2.02

Findings show that almost all (78%) of the respondents have high training need for all of the

activities. There were only 22% of respondents who had medium training need and no

respondent had low training need for any of the activities. This was because; most of the

respondents had low participation in any developmental organization. Therefore, they

received low training facilities and thus training need was high (Ahmed, 2007).

Table 4.8 Ranking of areas of training need regarding PHAs of brinjal

ActivitiesTotal Score

Rank

Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control 150 1

Biological treatments for disease and pest control 150 1

Processing of brinjal 149 2

Storage 149 2

Increasing of shelf-life of brinjal 146 3

Using packaging materials 145 4

Chemical treatments for disease and pest control 140 5

Handling of modern equipment 134 6

Transportation and marketing of brinjal 132 7

Preservation of seed 119 8

Sorting and grading 63 9

Washing and drying 46 10

Cooling 31 11

Determination of maturity index 55 12

42

5. Selected Characteristics of the Rural Women and Their Extent of Need for Capacity Strengthening

Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation (r) was computed in order to explore

the relationships between the selected characteristics of the women and their extent of need

for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security. The coefficient of

correlation (r) was used to test the null hypothesis regarding the relationship between two

concerned variables. The null hypothesis was formulated as H0: There is no relationship

between the selected characteristics of the women and their need for capacity strengthening

towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security. The relationship between the dependent and

independent variables has been presented in Table 4.9.

Table 4.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variablesIndependent variables Computed ‘r’ values with

48 d.f.Age 0.185Education -0.305*Dependency ratio 0.360*Farm size -0.119Annual income 0.025Organizational participation 0.017Decision making ability 0.018Training exposure -0.146Credit received 0.078Ability to cope with uncertainty -0.241Daily time allocation -0.207Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits

-0.372**

** Correlation is significant at 1% level of probability * Correlation is significant at 5% level of probability

Based on the computed ‘r’ value the relationship between age and extent of need for capacity

strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security was non-significant and

followed a positive trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it

could be said that age the respondents was not an important indicator for the extent of need

for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security.

Sarkar (2005), Naoroze (2004), Asaduzzaman (2003), Begum et al. (2000) and Kumari

(1999) found similar relationships between age and need in their respective studies. The

findings were interesting and logical because, all of the respondents were middle and old-

aged category and they were involved in using PHAs of brinjal in more or less similar

pattern.

43

The relationship between education and extent of need for capacity strengthening towards

PHAs of brinjal towards food security was significant at 5% level of probability and followed

a negative trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis was rejected. Thus, it could be told

that education level of the women had significant relationship with their extent of need for

capacity strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security.

In this research, the respondent women were mostly housewives. They had been continuing

their livelihoods from the similar social background utilizing similar resources and facilities.

But, their level of education could play a significant role in their extent of need for capacity

strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security. Normally, the educated person

is conscious about their needs and facilities. But in this study, the significant negative

relationship between the need for capacity strengthening and education of the women showed

a different trend. Maybe, the small sample size was not enough to represent an appropriate

association among the variables or the indirect influence of other variables might have effect

on the desired outcome.

Dependency ratio in the family was positively significant at 5% level of probability with the

extent of need for capacity building towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security. Hence,

the concerned null hypothesis was rejected. Thus, it was concluded that dependency ratio of

the family of the women play significant role on their extent of need for capacity

strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal.

It should be noted that dependency ratio of the family was computed using the total number

of family members and of earning members of the family. When the number of earning

members of the family increases, the need for capacity strengthening decreases. It was also

reflected in this study. On the other hand, need for capacity strengthening had significant

negative relationship with the total number of family members.

The relationship between farm size and extent of need for capacity strengthening towards

PHAs of brinjal was nonsignificant and followed a negative trend. Hence, the concerned null

hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was decided that farm size of the women did not

affect their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal. Farm size is an

important indicator of power. When the farm size increases the owners bear an increased

extent of power. Thus, the women having more farm size felt less need for capacity

strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal.

44

The relationship between family income and extent of need for capacity strengthening

towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security was nonsignificant but followed a positive

trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it could be said that

family income of the women did not play any significant role on their extent of need for

capacity strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal. Similar relationships were observed by

Naoroze (2004), Asaduzzaman (2003) in their respective studies.

The relationship between organizational participation and extent of need for capacity

strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security was non-significant. Hence, the

concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was inferred that organizational

participation of the women did not significantly link to the extent of need for capacity

strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal.

Bhowmick (2004) mentioned similar relationship in his study. The respondents of the present

study were affiliated to different organizations which did not deal with the PHAs of brinjal

rather just with micro-credit programs. Accordingly, organizational participation of the

respondents had no significant relationship with their need for capacity strengthening.

The relationship between decision making capacity in the family and extent of need for

capacity strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal was non-significant. Hence, the concerned

null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was inferred that decision making capacity in

the family of the women did not influence significantly their extent of need for capacity

strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security.

A woman may have the capacity to make decision regarding household activities, but she

may form this capacity from her educational status, parents socio-economic position etc.

Moreover, need for capacity strengthening depends on the availability and accessibility of the

facilities. Therefore, decision making capacity of the women in their family was not

significantly related with their extent of need for capacity strengthening of PHAs of brinjal.

The relationship between training exposure and extent of need for capacity strengthening

towards post harvest facilities of brinjal was non-significant. Hence, the concerned null

hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was inferred that training exposure of the

respondents was not linked to their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs

of brinjal. Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between training exposure and need of the

respondents in his study.

45

The relationship between credit received and extent of need for capacity strengthening

towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security was non-significant and followed a positive

trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it could be said that

credit received of the women did not play significant role on their extent of need for capacity

strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security. Sarkar (2005), Mahmud

(2002), Hashemi et al. (1996) and Pitt and Khandker (1995) also stated similar relationships

in their respective studies.

The relationship between ability to cope with uncertainty and extent of need for capacity

strengthening towards post harvest facilities of brinjal was not significant and followed a

negative trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was

concluded that ability to cope with uncertainty of the women played non-significant role on

their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of brinjal towards food security.

The relationship between daily time allocation and extent of need for capacity strengthening

in conducting PHAs of brinjal towards was non-significant. Hence, the concerned null

hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was inferred that daily time allocation of the

respondents was not associated to their extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying

out PHAs of brinjal. Ahmed (2007), Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between training

exposure and need of the respondents in his study.

The relationship between awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits of the women and

their extent of need for capacity strengthening in conducting PHAs of brinjal was significant

at 1% level of probability and followed a negative trend. Hence, the concerned null

hypothesis was rejected. It was inferred that awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits of

the respondents were influential to their extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying

out PHAs of brinjal.

6. Problems of Involvement in PHAs of Brinjal

Problems faced by the women of involvement in PHAs of brinjal towards food security were

measured through constructing Scored Causal Diagrams (SCDs) of Participatory Farm

Management methods. Problems in involving in PHAs of brinjal were discussed with a group

of respondents, assuming the ‘end problem’ being ‘low participation in PHAs of brinjal’.

Firstly the problems mentioned by the respondents were listed, secondly diagrams were

drawn by them on the plain ground to show causal relationships between the problems, and

46

finally scoring of selected problems was performed again by them. In this way SCDs was

prepared by the group of respondents (Figure 4.2). The problems identified by the group has

been listed here with their relative importance indicated by the original score numbers as

shown inside the parentheses.

End problem: Low participation in PHAs of brinjal (100)

Intermediary problems

(i) Low decision-making ability (30)(ii) Lack of interest (10)(iii) Inefficient manpower (15)(iv) Women are restricted to go outside (15)(v) Low market price (25)(vi) Conservativeness (5)

Root causes

(i) Lack of training on PHAs (35)(ii) Lack of cold storage (25)(iii) Social/religious barrier (15)(iv) Lack of processing materials (10)(v) Scarcity of money (10)(vi) Lack of operational ability (5)

Among the ‘root’ causes ‘lack of training on PHAs' got the highest score then ‘lack of cold

storage’. It was logical because lack of training caused lack of knowledge and skill resulting

in low decision-making in PHAs and due to lack of cold storage respondents’ perceived

complexity in PHAs and accordingly there was low participation in PHAs. According to the

score, in third position was placed social/religious barrier which keeps away the women from

any development work, so their participation in PHAs were restricted by this problem.

Scarcity of money results in lack of interest as a result the women lose heart to involve in

PHAs of brinjal. Lack of processing materials and lack of operational ability make rural

women inefficient.

Other causes namely conservativeness, inefficient manpower and low market price can be

minimized with the help of proper communication with the women and they should be aware

of their need. Absence of any kind of cold storage is the great problems for the farmers. Also

rural women have low decision making ability in their family and this is a main problem for

them to build their capacity in any developmental activities.

47

Figure 4.2 Scored Causal Diagrams showing the barrier of involvement of rural women in PHAs of brinjal

Suggested solutions to the ‘root’ causes

Participants of the group engaged in the preparation of Scored Causal Diagram (SCD) were

requested to mention possible solutions to the ‘root’ causes of low participation in PHAs of

brinjal. The respondents expressed different opinions on how these problems could be

overcome. The suggestions for the solution of the problems made by the respondent women

have been given here:

Lack of training on PHAs (35)

Lack of knowledge and skill (35)

Low decision-making ability (30)

Conservativeness (5)

Low involvement in post harvest activities

of Brinjal (100)

Lack of interest (10)

Women are restricted to go outside (15)

Social/religious barrier (15)

Lack of cold storage (25)

Low market price (25)

Inefficient manpower (15)

Scarcity of money (10)

Lack of processing

materials (10)

Lack of operational ability (5)

48

Table 4.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve them

Sl No.

Suggested solutions Way to achieve

1. Increased training facilities according to their needs for increasing their knowledge and skill towards PHAs of brinjal as well as to have efficient manpower.

Need GOs and NGOs collaboration

2. Involving rural women in different PHAs of brinjal to increase their operational ability.

Government and private organizations should take initiatives

3. Establishing processing centers for the rural women to build their capacity in PHAs.

Government can create special programs with the well known NGOs

4. Emphasizing the necessities of women participation with the rural people with the help of local leaders, imams, purohit etc

Women should be motivated to aware the women by different communication media

5. Establishing storage facilities for the rural women by the government.

Government can take proper initiatives

6. Increased credit availability according to the need of the rural women regarding post harvest facilities of brinjal towards food security.

GOs and NGOs can take proper steps in this matter

Participation of the rural women in PHAs is an important issue for controlling PHAs and

development of socio-economic condition of the rural people. The study reveals that

participation of the rural women in PHAs was low to medium, which is quite disheartening.

Thus, right policy and need-based support should be ensured in order to secure better

participation of the rural women in PHAs. Linkage between GO and NGOs need to be

strengthened to ensure effective participation of the rural women. The issues that might be

dealt with are input and technical information supply, training, incentive campaign and

others.

49

7. Case Study

Name of women: Ms Rokeya Begum Husband’s name: Mr Md Abdul HamidAddress: Village-Taltala, Fulbaria, Mymensingh

Ms Rokeya Begum was a lady of 35 years engaged in PHAs of brinjal along with home and homestead management. She does not have any formal education except for signing her name. Her husband, Mr Abdul Hamid was a farmer and cultivated brinjal along with other crops.

Ms Rokeya lived with her husband and two children- one son and one daughter. They had about 0.40 ha of land for cultivation with an homestead area of about 0.10 ha. The mostly grown crops are rice, vegetables of different types, sugarcane and garlic. The annual income of the family was about Taka 1,00,000.

Ms Rokeya Begum had a great zeal for processing and other PHAs of brinjal and other vegetables. She helped her husband in taking care of different crops even at field. Specially, she used to take special care of collected brinjal to sale in the market and to be used in the house for consumption. Normally she kept the brinjal in cool dry place so that it did not lose moisture and looked fresh. She did not know the processing of brinjal other than some cooking like making fry and curry.

She used to do all these PHAs through her own initiatives. She agreed that she could do some of the activities but lacked a many of the modern techniques of PHAs. She told in the way:“I learned some of the activities of post harvest from my mother. I like to do all these PHAs in a better way through increasing my capacity and skill. But I do not have enough skill, money and thus, limited scope to do more of brinjal’s PHAs in a better way. I believe that if I could increase my capacity to do PHAs of brinjal, better preservation and consumption of brinjal could be done at my house. Again, through processing of brinjal I could make some products which can be used at house and earn good amount of money from selling products. To make my motivation true I need help from any organization or person.”

Unfortunately, she did not receive any training on PHAs of vegetables or fruits. Yet her expected training areas were about sorting, grading, packing and storage of vegetables in scientific ways; vegetable disease control at house; processing and preservation of vegetables and vegetable products. She did not borrow any credit from any organization except for Taka five thousand from neighbor. She showed a moderate role of decision-making in the family. Ms Rokeya was aware on nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits and used to take due care to maintain nutritive value of vegetables and fruits during harvest, cooking and consumption.

Regarding need for overall capacity building to conduct PHAs of vegetables and fruits, Ms Rokeya expressed high need of it. Again about different aspects of capacity building (i.e. need for financial and decision making abilities, access to support services, management skill and physical facilities) she aspired mostly for skill development and financial facilities.

With moderate involvement in overall PHAs of vegetables and fruits, she expected training support on various issues of PHAs of vegetables, especially on brinjal. She thinks that related government and non-government organizations can train and help them manage PHAs of vegetables in a successful and profitable style. This would ultimately increase the enhanced participation of rural women in PHAs of brinjal leading to earn a better livelihood.

50

Section 2: TOMATO

This Chapter contains the findings and their logical interpretations according to the objectives

of the present study regarding tomato.

1. Involvement of rural women in PHAs of tomato

Involvement score of the respondents in different PHAs of tomato ranged from 6.67 to 38.89

with a mean of 25.73 and standard deviation of 8.39 (Table 5.1). On the basis of involvement,

the respondents were divided into three categories.

Table 5.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of tomato

Score Range: Possible 0-100, Observed: 6.67-38.89Respondents Mean Standard deviation

Categories Number %

Low (≤ 33) 48 96

25.73 8.39Medium (34-66) 2 4

High (>66) 0 0

Data in the Table 5.1 show that almost all (96%) of the women had low involvement and the

rest 4% of them had medium involvement in the PHAs of tomato. Most of the respondents

had similar involvement in PHAs like sorting, grading, packaging, insect and disease control,

transport from field to house.

Among the selected PHAs of tomato, the highest involvement of rural women was in sorting

and grading of tomato followed by packaging and insect and disease control (Table 5.2). On

the other hand, involvement of rural women in seed storage was the lowest because it was

noticed in the study area that most of the rural women buy their seed from market.

Table 5.2 Ranking of total score of involvement of rural women in different PHAs of tomato

Post Harvest Activities Total score Rank order

Sorting and grading 270 1Packaging 122 2Insect and disease control 97 3Processing of tomato 33 4Washing and cleaning of tomato 32 5Transport from field to house 276 6Transport to the market 25 7Storage of tomato (by processing) 14 8Seed storage 7 9

51

2. Need for Capacity Strengthening of Rural Women

Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to measure the extent of need for

capacity strengthening of women. The findings have been presented in the following two

subsections.

2.1 Overall need for capacity strengthening

The extent of need for capacity strengthening of women was assessed in terms of need index

for capacity strengthening (NICS). The NICS values could range from 0 to 100. The observed

NICS values ranged from 60.49 to 92.49 with an average of 81.68 and standard deviation of

10.47. Based on their NICS values the respondents were classified into three categories as

shown in Table 5.3.

Table 5.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of tomato Score Range: Possible: 0-100, Observed: 60.49- 92.49

RespondentsMean Std. Dev.

Categories No. %Low (≤33)

Medium (34-67)

High (>67)

0

9

41

0

18

82

81.68 10.47

Presented data show that most (82%) of the respondents had high extent of need while 18%

of them had medium and none of them had low extent of need for capacity strengthening in

PHAs of tomato towards food security.

The findings clearly indicate that all the respondents had medium to high need for capacity

strengthening towards PHAs of tomato. It was noticed that there was acute scarcity of post

harvest facilities of tomato and their storage facilities also insufficient. The respondents are

not getting appropriate price according their labor and cost of production. Thus, the

respondents logically felt high need for their capacity strengthening towards PHAs of tomato.

2.2 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of rural women

Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to assess the extent of need for

capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of tomato. The computed NICS values of all

the dimensions have been shown in Table 5.4.

52

Table 5.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of tomato

Dimension of capacity strengthening(measuring unit)

Range Respondents MeanNICS Std.

Dev.Possible Observed Categories No. %

Need for financial ability (%) 0-100 58.33-91.67

Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)

01436

02872

80.83 12.17

Need for decision making ability (%) 0-100 55.56-94.44

Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)

01139

02278

79.22 10.15

Need for access to support services (%) 0-100 55.56-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)

01337

02674

79.56 9.68

Need for management skill (%) 0-100 50-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)

01436

02872

85.22 13.36

Need for physical facilities (%) 0-100 60-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)

01535

03070

83.60 12.50

Data presented in Table 5.4 indicate that majority of the women fell in high need category for

all the dimensions of capacity strengthening. In case of need for financial ability, 72% of the

respondents had high need while 78% of them had high need for decision making ability. In

case of need for access to support services, 74% of the women fell in high need category and

72% of them were in high need category for management skill while 70% were in high need

category for physical facilities. The highest average need for capacity strengthening (85.22)

was for management skill and the lowest average (79.22) was for decision making ability.

Findings clearly indicate that need for capacity strengthening was about similar for all the

components but need for management skill was crucial because most of the women in the

study area faced problems in managing tomato cultivation or its PHAs.

Data presented in Table 5.5 show that in case of need for financial ability, processing

equipment was highest and processing was highest in case of need for decision making

ability. In case of need for access to support services, preservation facilities of cold storage

was scored highest and in case of need for management skill, handling of post harvest

equipments and processing of fruits and vegetables were scored highest and finally

processing materials/equipment had the highest score in case of need for physical facilities.

This indicates that the rural women need to be immediately strengthened regarding handling

of post harvest equipments and processing materials/equipment.

53

Figure 5.1 illustrates that need for management skill was dominated over other dimensions of

need for capacity strengthening of the rural women in conducting PHAs of tomato towards

food security. Need for decision making ability was the lowest among five dimensions of

need for capacity strengthening. The rural women did not receive adequate training on the

management of PHAs of tomato. So, they had little skill in this regard. On the other hand, the

rural women generally know when to harvest, how to collect and when to sell the harvested

tomato. That is why need for capacity strengthening was highest for physical facilities and

the lowest for decision making ability.

Table 5.5 Ranking of issues of the extent of need of the respondentsItem Score Rank

Financial abilityProcessing-equipment 133 1Credit 123 2Capital 112 3Labor purchase 107 4Decision making ability regarding Processing 142 1Storing 140 2Selling of vegetables fruits 115 3Packaging 110 4Collection 51 5Grading 49 6Access to support servicesAccess to credit 122 1Development workers for advice 111 2Transport 106 3Marketing channel/facilities 106 3Labor market 87 4Management skillHandling of post harvest equipments 144 1Processing of fruits and vegetables 144 1Operational ability 137 2Preservation of seeds 118 3Market facility exploitation 113 4Financial management 113 4Access to physical facilitiesProcessing materials/equipment 142 1Store house 137 2Transport/vehicles 107 3Processing ground 106 4Sales centers 106 4

54

80.83

79.22 79.56

85.22

83.6

76

78

80

82

84

86

Finan

cial a

bility

Decisi

on mak

ing a

bility

Acces

s to su

pport

serv

ices

Man

agem

ent s

kill

Physica

l fac

ilitie

s

Ave

rage

sco

re

Figure 5.1 Extent of need for capacity strengthening regarding various dimensions

3. Selected Characteristics of the Rural Women

The selected rural women pose various characteristics that influenced their extent of need for

capacity strengthening towards PHAs of tomato. For the present study, only 12 characteristics

of the rural women were selected as independent variables viz. age, education, dependency

ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income, organizational participation, awareness

on nutrition of vegetables and fruits, daily time allocation, decision making capacity in the

family, training exposure, credit received and ability to cope with uncertainty. The selected

characteristics of the respondents have been presented in Table 5.6.

The study was conducted with the rural women who were more or less involved in PHAs of

tomato. About half (46%) of the respondents were middle aged while 38% and 16% of them

were young and old, respectively. Among the respondents 60% had education at primary

level while 16% of them were illiterate and 22% of them had secondary level of education.

About half (48%) of the respondents had low dependency ratio of the family and 40% of

them had medium dependency ratio. Most (56%) of the respondents had small farm size and

36% of them had marginal farm size. The annual family income of the respondents was

mostly medium to high.

55

Table 5.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of tomato

Characteristics (Measurement

units)

Range RespondentMean

Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %

Age(year) - 18-55

Young (≤30)Middle aged(31-45)Old (>45)

19238

384616

35.36 10.18

Education(year of schooling)

- .00-11

Illiterate (0)Primary (1-5)Secondary (6-10)Higher secondary (>10)

830111

166022 2

3.76 3.46

Dependency ratio of the family (ratio)

- .00-6Low (≤2)Medium (2.1-4)High (>4)

24206

484012

2.53 1.51

Farm size(hectare)

- .05-3.47

Landless ( < 0.02)Marginal (.021-.2)Small (0.21-1.0)Medium (1.1-3.0)Large (>3.0)

0182831

0365662

.44 .56

Annual family income (‘000’ Taka)

- 33-405Low (≤50)Medium (51-100)High (>100)

52124

104248

115.55

73.18

Organizational participation (score)

- .00-4Low (≤2)Moderate (3-4)High (>4)

40100

80200

.98 1.25

Awareness (score)0-15 7-15

Less(≤5)Medium(6-10)High(>10)

0941

01882

12.64 2.01

Daily time allocation (hours/day)

- 2-8Low(≤3)Medium(3.1-6)High(>6)

5432

10864

4.47 1.22

Decision making capacity in the family (score)

0-40 10-30Weak (≤13)Moderate (14-26)Strong (>26)

7403

14806

19.22 4.57

Training exposure (score) - .00-30

Null (0)Short-term (1-3)Mid-term (>3)

4901

9802

.60 4.24

Credit received(‘000’ Taka) - .00-16

Small (≤10)Medium (11-20)High (>20)

4640

9280

2.92 4.88

Ability to cope with uncertainty (score)

0-24 7-21Less (≤8)Moderate (9-16)Strong (>16)

261410

522820

12.16 5.13

In case of organizational participation, majority (80%) of the respondents had low

organizational participation. Among the selected women 82% were highly aware of nutrition

of vegetables and fruits while 18% of them had medium awareness. The highest (86%)

proportion of the women had moderate time allocation for PHAs of tomato in the period of

harvesting. Majority (80%) of the women had moderate decision making capacity in the

family. Almost all (98%) of the respondents had no training experience while only 2% of

them had mid-term training experience. Among the respondents, 92% received small credit

while 8% medium and none of them received high amount of credit. The average score of

56

ability to cope with uncertainty by the respondents was 12.16 and more than half (52%) of

the respondents had less ability to cope with uncertainty.

4. Training Need of the Women

The training need score for capacity strengthening of women ranged from 22 to 38 with an

average of 33.66 and standard deviation 4.74. Based on their NICS values the respondents

were classified into three categories as shown in Table 5.11.

Table 5.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of tomato

Range RespondentMean

Std.

Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %

0-100 22-38

Low(≤24)

Medium(25-30)

High(>30)

4

9

37

8

18

74

33.66 4.74

Findings show that about three-fourths (74%) of the respondents had high training need for

all of the activities while 18% of them had medium and 8% of them had low training need.

Most of the respondents had low involvement in any developmental organization. They did

not receive any training on PHAs of vegetables and fruits. Therefore, their training need was

high.

Table 5.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of tomato

Post Harvest Activities Total Score

Rank

Increasing of shelf-life of tomato 137 1

Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control 137 1

Processing and preservation of tomato 137 1

Preservation and care taking of seeds 137 1

Using packaging materials 136 2

Storage of seeds 136 2

Biological treatments for disease and pest control 135 3

Handling of modern equipment 133 4

Chemical treatments for disease and pest control 112 5

Transportation and marketing of tomato 109 6

Cooling 103 7

Determination of maturity index 95 8

Washing 92 9

Sorting and grading 84 10

57

Data contained in Table 5.8 show that extent of training need of the rural women regarding

increasing of shelf-life of tomato, mechanical treatments for disease and pest control,

processing and preservation of tomato, and preservation and care taking of seeds were the

highest and ranked in first position. On the other hand, sorting and grading was the lowest. It

is obvious that training on the activities which require high technical knowledge was highly

needed by the rural women. For this reason, sorting and grading of tomato was needed by the

rural women to the lowest extent.

5. Relationships between the Selected Characteristics of the Rural Women and Their Extent of Need for Capacity Strengthening

Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation (r) was computed in order to explore

the relationships between the selected characteristics of the women and their extent of need

for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of tomato towards food security. The coefficient of

correlation (r) was used to test the null hypothesis regarding the relationship between two

concerned variables. The null hypothesis was formulated as H0: There is no relationship

between the selected characteristics of the women and their need for capacity strengthening

towards PHAs of tomato towards food security. The relationship between the dependent and

independent variables has been presented in Table 5.9.

Table 5.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables

Independent variables ‘r’ value with 48 df

Age .128Education .152Dependency ratio of the family .103Farm size .143Annual family income .084Organizational participation .215Decision making capacity in the family -.012Training exposure .116Credit received .174Ability to cope with uncertainty -.811**Daily time allocation -.141Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits

.309*

** Significant at the 0.01 level * Significant at the 0.05 level

The computed ‘r’ values for ability to cope with uncertainty, awareness on nutrition of

tomato were significant. Hence, the concerned null hypotheses were rejected. Therefore,

58

there was significant relationship between these characteristics of the rural women and their

extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of tomato. However, awareness on

nutrition of tomato had positively significant relationship whereas ability to cope with

uncertainty had negatively significant relationship with their need for capacity strengthening

towards PHAs of tomato. The rest of the characteristics namely age, education, dependency

ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income, organizational participation, decision

making capacity in the family, training exposure and daily time allocation of the respondents

did not have any significant relationship with the same.

The women who had better ability to cope with uncertainty and more aware on nationals

aspects of vegetables and fruits felt their less need for capacity strengthening in conducting

post harvest activities of fruits and vegetables. Thus, it could be said that ability to cope with

uncertainty and awareness on nutrition of tomato were important indicators for the extent of

need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of tomato.

The rural women in the study area were involved in tomato cultivation irrespective of their

age and they felt more or less similar extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs

of tomato. So, age of the women did not significantly influence their need for capacity

strengthening. Sarkar (2005), Naoroze (2004), Asaduzzaman (2003), Begum et al. (2000) and

Kumari (1999) found similar relationships between age and need in their respective studies.

In the present research, the respondent women were mostly housewives. They had been

continuing their livelihoods from the similar social background utilizing similar resources

and facilities. So, their level of education could not play a significant role in their extent of

need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of tomato.

It should be noted that dependency ratio of the family was computed using the total number

of family members and of earning members of the family. However, when the number of

earning members of the family increases the need for capacity strengthening did not

remarkably decrease. On the other hand, need for capacity strengthening was not noticeably

influenced by the total number of family members.

In case of annual family income similar relationships were observed by Naoroze (2004),

Asaduzzaman (2003) in their respective studies. It was so, because the families having higher

income might need fewer amounts of PHAs of tomato towards food security. Thus, annual

59

family income exerted insignificant negative effect on the need for capacity strengthening

towards PHAs of tomato.

The respondents of the present study were affiliated with different organizations which did

not deal with the PHAs of tomato towards food security rather just with micro-credit

programs. Accordingly, organizational participation of the respondents had no significant

relationship with their need for capacity strengthening.

A woman may have the capacity to make decision regarding household activities, but she

may form this capacity from her educational status, parents’ socio-economic position etc.

Moreover, need for capacity strengthening depends on the availability and accessibility of the

facilities. Therefore, decision making capacity of the women in their family was not

significantly related with their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of

tomato towards food security. Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between training

exposure and need of the respondents in his study.

The respondents got training from different organizations they were affiliated but a very little

training was conducted specifically regarding post harvest facilities of vegetables. This is

why need for capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of tomato towards food

security had no significant relationship with their previous training experience. Ahmed

(2007), Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between training exposure and need of the

respondents in his study.

The credit received also did not play any significant role on their extent of need for capacity

strengthening in carrying out PHAs of tomato. Sarkar (2005), Mahmud (2002), Hashemi et

al. (1996) and Pitt and Khandker (1995) also stated similar relationships in their respective

studies. The woman who received more credit had more facilities regarding PHAs of tomato

towards food security to utilize her credit effectively. Thus, credit received was not

significantly related with the extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of

tomato.

As there was lack of post harvest facilities of tomato in the study area, the women did not

involve themselves in PHAs of tomato towards. That's why daily time allocation did not

significantly influence need of women for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of

tomato. However, with the decrease of ability to cope with uncertainty and increase of

60

awareness on nutrition of tomato need for capacity strengthening of the women was greatly

increased.

6. Problems of Low Involvement in PHAs of Tomato

Problems faced by the women towards involvement in PHAs of tomato were measured

through making Scored Causal Diagrams (SCDs) of Participatory Farm Management

methods. Problems in participating PHAs of tomato were discussed with a selected group of

respondents, assuming the ‘end problem’ being ‘low involvement in PHAs of tomato’. Firstly

the problems mentioned by the respondents were listed, secondly diagrams were drawn by

them on the plain ground to show causal relationships between the problems, and finally

scoring of selected problems was performed again by them. In this way SCDs was prepared

by the group of respondents (Figure 5.2). The problems identified by the group has been

listed here with their relative importance indicated by the original score numbers as shown

inside the parentheses.

End problem: Low involvement in PHAs of tomato (100)

Intermediary problems(i) Lack of knowledge and skill [35](ii) Inability to operate PHAs [35](iii) Ready cash from harvest [20](iv) No cooperative initiatives [15](v) Inability to do PH processing [15](vi) Less interest for PH processing [20](vii) No processing establishment [15](viii) Hesitation to work [5](ix) Less scope to do processing [10]

Root causes(i) Need of training [35](ii) Commercialization of raw tomato [20](iii) No women group to do PHAs [15](iv) Lack of processing materials [15](v) Lack of capital [10](vi) Religious barrier [5]

‘Need of training on PHAs' secured the highest score among the ‘root’ causes and then

‘Commercialization of raw tomato’. It was very reasonable because training facilitated

knowledge and skill which results in high decision-making capacity in PHAs and due to

‘Commercialization of raw tomato’ respondents were not interested in PHAs because they

got cash money from supplying tomato from their field for that reason there was low

involvement in PHAs. According to the score, in third position were placed for ‘No women

group to do PHAs’ and ‘Lack of processing materials’. Due to lack of any women group, no

cooperative cluster was found to do any development work for the women related to PHAs of

tomato in that study area. Lack of processing materials makes rural women inefficient. Due to

61

Low involvement of women in PHAs of tomato [100]

Lack of processing materials [15]

Need of training [35]

Religious barrier[5]

Lack of capital[10]

Commercialization of raw tomato [20]

No women group to do PHAs [15]

Lack of knowledge and

skill [35]

Inability to operate PHAs

[35]

Less scope to do processing

[10]Hesitation to work [5]

Inability to do PH processing [15]

Less interest for PH processing

[20]

Ready cash from harvest [20]

No cooperative

initiatives [15]

No processing establishment

[15]

this problem, women who interested in PHAs of tomato could not do anything even with

huge amount of tomato during harvesting season.

Figure 5.2: Scored Causal Diagrams showing the barrier of involvement of rural women in PHAs of tomato

62

Lack of capital consequences less scope to process their product as a result farmers lose heart

to involve in PHAs of tomato. So most of their products were rotten. Religious barrier kept

away the women from any development work and they hesitate to come out from the

household to work for processing so their involvement in PHAs was restricted. Consequently

there was unsatisfactory involvement in PHAs of tomato in the study area.

Suggested solutions to the ‘root’ causes

Participants of the selected group for the preparation of Scored Causal Diagram (SCD) were

requested to mention possible solutions to the ‘root’ causes of low involvement in PHAs of

tomato towards food security. The respondents uttered diverse opinions on how these

problems could be overcome. The suggestions for the solution of the problems made by the

respondent women have been given here:

Table 5.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve them

Sl. No.

Suggested solutions Way to achieve

1. Increased training facilities according to their needs for increasing their knowledge and skill towards PHAs of tomato as well as to have efficient manpower.

Need GOs and NGOs collaboration

2. Increase facilities to preserve tomato for long term use to minimize commercialization.

GO and NGO and Donor organizations can take proper steps

3. Involving rural women in different PHAs of tomato to increase their operational ability.

Government and private organizations should take initiatives

4. Establishing processing centers for the rural women to build their capacity in PHAs.

Government can create special programs with the well known NGOs

5. Emphasizing the necessities of women involvement among the rural people with the help of local leaders, imams, purohit etc.

Farmers should be motivated to aware the women by different communication media

6. Women group formation with the help of different Go and NGOs

Government should concern with NGOs and Donor organizations

7. Increased credit availability according to the need of the rural women regarding post harvest facilities of tomato

GOs and NGOs can take proper steps in this matter

Involvement of the rural women in PHAs is a vital topic for controlling PHAs and

development of socio-economic condition of the rural people. The study reveals that

participation of the rural women in PHAs was low to medium which is not so hopeful. Thus,

appropriate approach should be ensured in order to secure complete involvement of the rural

women in PHAs. Linkage between GO and NGOs and Donor organization need to be

strengthened to ensure effective involvement of the rural women. The issues that might be

dealt with are credit and technical information supply, training and demonstration, motivation

campaign and others.

63

7. Case Study

Name of women: Ms Marzina ; Husband: Mr Abdul MalekAddress: Village- Achua, Godagari, Rajshahi

Ms Marzina was a lady of 30 years engaged in PHAs (PHAs) of tomato. She was basically a house wife and assisted her husband in farming. She also used to manage her small homestead where she planted some fruit trees only. She completed her primary education and then was married to Mr Abdul Malek. Mr Malek (40 years) was a farmer and had been cultivating rice for long time and recently rice and tomato.

Ms Marzina had three children of which the first one (11 years) was a school boy. The other two were daughters of ages 10 and 6 years. They had cultivated about 0.65 ha of land of which 50% was on lease basis. Tomato was cultivated in the entire land. The mostly grown crops were rice, tomato and other vegetables. The annual income of the family was about Taka 1,75,000 and only from tomato was about Taka 1,20,000. The family felt the cultivation of tomato profitable.

The family land was occupied mostly by rice in season and then the full land went under tomato cultivation. In the recent days, tomato had been cultivated with high interest as the farmers earned good profit through scientific cultivation.

Although Marzina used to do her family works and PHAs of tomato, she was not involved in any organization of the locality. She also did not receive any training from any organization. She also did not borrow any credit form any organization and was unaware of access to borrowing facilities. Yet she articulated very good mind to cope with any uncertainty either in her family or farming.

Ms Marzina used to engage herself mostly in home and homestead activities. But a substantial time had been spent in harvest and PHAs of tomato in its main season. In the PHAs of tomato, her involvement was mostly in grading, ripening and packing. She needed to spend a very long hours during the harvest of tomato. Especially, she used to manage the heap of tomato when kept at homestead. Spraying hormone, drying under sun, shed management and sorting for sale were felt tiresome jobs, she pointed out. In spite of her considerable participation in PHAs of tomato she showed her deep interest in tomato processing. She indicated:“Now I can handle the grading, packing, and other activities in a good manner through working on it. But I am almost unable to process the tomato for its better preservation and consumption in different ways. I heard of tomato products like ketchup, sauce, juice and preservation in vinegar etc. I like to learn how to process tomato to prepare these things. It needs skill and I am willing to earn the skill through training. I also need some materials and equipments to process tomato. I think, women interested in PHAs can form group to materialize their idea of conducting processing in our locality. While, GO or NGO can provide credit and training supports to make the group working.”

Ms Marzina did not receive any training on PHAs of vegetables or fruits. Her expected training areas were about sorting, grading, ripening and packing of tomato scientifically; disease control at storehouse; processing and preservation of tomato and tomato products. Ms Marzina was not so aware on nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits but she wanted to take due care to maintain nutritive value of fruits and vegetables during harvest, cooking or consumption.

Regarding need for overall capacity building to conduct PHAs of vegetables and fruits, Ms Marzina expressed high need of it. Again on different aspects of need for capacity strengthening, she wanted mostly for skill development and physical facilities. Skill development in preparation, packaging and storing of products. Marketing information and exploration of marketing channels were also felt very important need to succeed in processing of tomato.

With high involvement in PHAs of tomato, she expected training support on various aspects of PHAs of vegetables, especially on tomato. She thinks that related government and non-government organizations can train and help them to manage PHAs of vegetables in a successful and cost-effective manner. This would ultimately ensure enhanced participation of rural women in PHAs of brinjal leading to better living values.

64

Section 3: SPINACH

This section includes the outcome and their rational interpretations according to the

objectives of the study regarding spinach.

1.1 Involvement of Women in PHAs of Spinach

The term ‘involvement’ referred to take part fully or partially in different types of PHAs of

spinach for this study. For getting a lucid image of extent of involvement in PHAs, total score

and Involvement Index (II) of all PHAs for the respondents were computed which have

described in the following subsections.

Involvement Index was expressed as percentage and thus, it could vary from 0 to 100. The

computed II of the respondents ranged from 11.11- 49.07 with an average of 33.20 and

standard deviation 11.06. Based on their II the respondents were classified into three

categories. Data presented in Table 6.1 show that 44% of the respondents had low

involvement in PHAs compared to 56% medium involved while none of them were highly

involved.

Table 6.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of spinach Range of score: Possible 0~100, Observed: 11.11-49.07

Respondents MeanStandard deviation

Categories Number %

33.20 11.06

Low (≤ 33) 22 44

Medium (34-66) 28 56

High (>67) 0 0

The findings clearly indicate that 100% of the respondents had involvement in PHAs of

spinach from medium to low extent. It was factual in the study area while collecting the data

that there was insufficiency of post harvest facilities of spinach for the rural women. Spinach

is perishable leafy vegetables. The spinach growing fields were mostly used for other crops

and vegetables in a certain period of time. Most of the families are switching over other crops

for more profit. For these reasons involvement of women in PHAs of spinach were low to

medium. The economic, social, religious and psychological statuses of the respondents were

also responsible for this low participation.

In the study area, it was found that very few families made themselves involved in PHAs of

spinach. Some women were involved in processing of spinach (dust, chutney, pickles) only to

65

serve their family. In order to rank involvement status in PHAs total score was calculated for

involvement in each of the PHAs (Table 6.2).

Table 6.2 Ranking of total score of the extent of involvement in different PHAs of spinach

Post Harvest Activities Total score

Rank order

Washing and cleaning of spinach 319 1Cooling of spinach (using water) 311 2Sorting and grading 273 3Transport from field to house 226 4Packaging 166 5Storage of spinach 79 6

Table 6.2 shows that highest score of participation was found in washing and cleaning of

spinach. It is enormously balanced for the study area because most of the respondents’ fields

were adjacent to their households where they grow spinach. Then the second highest score

was found in cooling of spinach. This job is totally done by women and teenagers of the

house. Sorting and grading and transport from field to house got the third and fourth

positions.

1.2 Characteristics of the Women

There were various characteristics of the women that influenced their extent of need for

capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of spinach. For this study, twelve personal

characteristics of the respondent women were selected as independent variables, such as: age,

education, dependency ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income, organizational

participation, awareness, daily time allocation, decision making capacity in the family,

training exposure, credit received and ability to cope with uncertainty. The relevant features

of the respondents have been presented in Table 6.3.

Based on their age the women were classified into three categories as young, middle-aged

and old. Table 6.3 revealed that more than half of the respondents (52%) were middle-aged,

42% were young and 6% and rest of them were old (6%). Sharmin (2008), Hasan (2006),

Sharmin (2005), Rasel (2004) and Akter (2003) found similar distribution of respondents in

different age categories in their respective studies. According to national standard of

classification, among the respondents, 4% were illiterate, 42% had education at primary level,

50% had education at secondary level. Table 6.3 indicated that half of the respondents (50%)

secured secondary level of education. This finding was similar to Sharmin (2008), Rahman

(2008), Alam (2001) and Hossain (2000). Based on the dependency ratio value, the

respondents were classified into three categories. Computed data indicate that 42% of the

respondents had low dependency ratio, 44% of the respondents had medium and 14% of them

66

had high dependency ratio of the family (Table 6.3). The findings supported by Sharmin

(2008), Rahman (2008) and Ahmed (2007). According to the farm size occupied by the

respondents, they were classified into five categories (indicated by DAE, 1999) as shown in

Table 6.3. Data indicates that almost half of the respondents (48%) had small farm size while

30% of them were marginal. It indicates that most of the families (about 80%) possess a

small sized cultivable land. Rahman (2008), Sharmin (2008), Akhter (2007), Rasel (2004),

Parvin (2004) and Rashid (2004) also found similar findings in their respective studies.

Table 6.3 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of spinachCharacteristics (Measurement units)

Range Respondent Mean

Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %

Age(year) - 20-55

Young (≤30) Middle aged (31-45)Old (>45)

21263

42526

33.86

8.40

Education(year of schooling)

- 0-12

Illiterate (0)Primary (1-5)Secondary (6-10)Higher secondary (>10)

221252

442504

5.90 3.12

Dependency ratio of the family (ratio) - 1-6

Low (≤2)Medium (2.1-4)High (>4)

21227

424414

2.83 1.34

Farm size(hectare)

- 0.04-4.34

Landless ( < 0.02)Marginal (.021-.2)Small (0.21-1.0)Medium (1.1-3.0)Large (>3.0)

01524101

03048202

0.66 0.79

Annual family income (‘000’ Taka) -

9.00-3227.90

Low (≤50)Medium (51-100)High (>100)

241214

482428

143.50

450.44

Organizational participation (score) - 0-12

Low (≤2)Moderate (3-4)High (>4)

3983

78166

1.82 2.26

Awareness (score)0-15 5-14

Less(≤5)Medium(6-10)High(>10)

12128

24256

10.92

1.81

Daily time allocation (hours) - 0-12

Low(≤3)Medium(3.1-6)High(>6)

12371

24742

4.19 1.85

Decision making capacity in the family (score)

0-40 10-30Weak (≤13)Moderate (14-26)Strong (>26)

5441

10882

19.52

3.76

Training exposure (score) - 0-90

Null (0)Short-term (1-3)Mid-term (>3)

4055

801010

2.90 12.98

Credit received(‘000’ Taka) - 0-62

Small (≤10)Medium (11-20)High (>20)

29156

583012

11.58

12.32

Ability to cope with uncertainty (score) 0-24 7-21

Less (≤8)Moderate (9-16)Strong (>16)

31172

62344

10.14

3.39

67

On the basis of annual family income, the respondents were divided into three categories.

Table 6.3 shows that the highest (48%) proportion of the women had low annual family

income while 24% and 28% of them had medium and high annual family income

respectively. Sharmin (2008), Akhter (2007), Parvin (2004) and Rashid (2004) supported this

distribution of the respondents. Data contained in the Table 6.3 show that most of the

respondents (78%) had less participation while 16% had moderate and only 6% of them had

high participation in different organizations. Sharmin (2008), Rahman (2008), Rasel (2004)

and Hossain (2000) observed similar findings in their respective studies.

Majority of the women (74%) had moderate time allocation while 2% of them had high and

the rest 24% of them had low time allocation in the family. Akhter (2007) also found same

findings. Their daily time allocation for PHAs was low to medium due lack of proper post

harvest techniques for spinach. Moreover PHAs depend on season. During harvesting of

Spinach they worked hard. But in other season they spent their time in other purposes. As a

result their average daily time allocation for PHAs was low to medium. The highest

proportion of the women (88%) had moderate decision making capacity while 2% of them

had strong and the rest 10% of them had weak decision making capacity in the family. This

study supported studies of Sharmin (2008), Rahman (2008), Ahmed (2007) and Sharmin

(2005). Table 6.3 shows that the highest (80%) proportion of the women had no training

exposure while 10% of them had short-term training experience and 10% of them had mid-

term training exposure. Sharmin (2008), Sharmin (2005) and Akter (2003) mentioned similar

findings in their study. Data furnished in the Table 6.3 indicate that the highest (58%)

proportion of the women received small credit while 30% received medium credit and the

rest 12% of them received high credit. Rahman (2008) and Ahmed (2007) also found similar

findings in their respective studies. The table shows that the highest proportion (62%) of the

respondents had less ability, while the rest 34% had moderate ability to cope with

uncertainty.

Table 6.3 shows that more than half of the respondents (56%) had high awareness and 42%

had medium and only 2% of them were less aware on nutrition of vegetables and fruits. The

results were satisfactory because most of the women were literate and has some knowledge

about the nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits. But in practical situation they did not or

could not practice according to their awareness and knowledge due to their prejudice, family

options and lack of willingness due to a little labor-some efforts. For example, the rural

women know that draining off the water coming out of boiling leafy vegetables is not

68

scientific. Yet they practice it as the family members might like the non-sticky and good-

looking cooked leafy vegetables even at the cots essential minerals and other nutrients.

1.3 Need for Capacity Strengthening of Women

In the present study, ‘ capacity strengthening’ of the rural women towards PHAs of spinach

was defined as the extent to which they have the accessibility to financial, physical,

managerial and support services as well as the ability to make decision about utilizing the

PHAs of spinach. Need for capacity strengthening of women was the main focus of the

present research work. Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to measure

the extent of need for capacity strengthening of women. The findings have been interpreted in

the following subsections.

1.3.1 Overall need for capacity strengthening

The extent of need for capacity strengthening of women was assessed in terms of need index

for capacity strengthening (NICS). The NICS values could range from 0 to 100, while the

observed NICS values ranged from 55.56 to 100 with an average of 77.31 and standard

deviation of 8.70. Based on their NICS values the respondents were classified into three

categories as shown in Table 6.4.

Data presented in the Table 6.4 show that the highest proportion (86%) of the respondents

had high extent of need while the rest 14% of them had medium and none of them had low

extent of need for capacity strengthening of women. Ahmed (2007) found similar distribution

in her respective study.

Table 6.4 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of spinach Range of score: Possible: 0~100, Observed: 55.56-100.00

RespondentsMean Std. Dev.

Categories No. %

Low (≤33)

Medium (34-66)

High (>67)

0

7

43

0

14

86

77.31 8.70

The findings clearly indicate that more than four-fifths of the respondents had high need for

capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of spinach. It was observed in the study area

while collecting the data that there was insufficiency of post harvest techniques of spinach for

the rural women. Moreover the respondents of this study were less involved in PHAs of

spinach. But they wished to involve themselves in income generating activities like PHAs to

increase their family income. But they could not do due to lack of information and adequate

69

conveniences of PHAs of spinach. Thus, the respondents logically felt high need for their

capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of spinach.

1.3.2 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women

Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to assess the extent of need for

capacity strengthening of women in carrying out PHAs of Spinach. The computed NICS

values of all the dimensions have been shown in Table 6.5. However, for more clarifying

picture has been presented in Figure 6.1 in order to have a contrasting view of dimension-

wise need for capacity building of women.

Data presented in Table 6.5 indicate that most of the women fell in high need category for all

the dimensions of capacity strengthening. The highest proportion (90%) of the respondents

was in high need for management skill while only 10% of them had medium need for this

dimension. It is due to lack of knowledge and enough training facilities in carrying out PHAs

of Spinach in the study area. Then second highest proportion (82) of the respondents was in

high need for physical facilities while 18% of them had medium need for this dimension.

Table 6.5 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in PHAs of spinach

Dimension of capacity strengthening(measuring unit)

Range Respondents

MeanStd.Dev.Possible Observed Categories No. %

Need for financial ability (%)

0-10041.67-

100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)

01436

02872

79.17 12.96

Need for decision making ability (%)

0-10044.44-

100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)

03713

07426

67.44 10.59

Need for access to support services (%)

0-100 50-100Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)

0941

01882

75.78 10.98

Need for management skill (%)

0-10066.67-

100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)

0545

01090

85.44 9.25

Need for physical facilities (%)

0-10053.33-

100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)

0941

01882

79.73 11.43

The reason behind the findings was the lack of sufficient support services such as

preservation facilities, marketing facilities, transport, access to credit and development

workers for advices. For rest of the dimension of need, the majority of the respondents felt

high need for capacity strengthening. It was normal that the women did not have low need for

70

any dimensions of capacity strengthening. It was felt logical because none of the dimensions

existed in satisfactory level rather than in low level. Thus, it was a simple analogy that the

components available in low quantity would be felt as high need components.

Table 6.6 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondents

Items Score Rank

Financial abilityProcessing-equipment 133 1Credit 123 2Capital 112 3Labor purchase 107 4Decision making ability Processing 142 1Storing 140 2Selling of vegetables fruits 115 3Packaging 110 4Collection 51 5Grading 49 6Access to support servicesPreservation facilities of cold storage 150 1Handling of post harvest equipments 144 2Operational ability 137 3Access to credit 122 4Preservation of seeds 118 5Market facility exploitation 113 6Management skillHandling of post harvest equipments 144 1Processing of fruits and vegetables 144 1Operational ability 137 2Preservation of seeds 118 3Market facility exploitation 113 4Financial management 113 4Access to physical facilitiesProcessing materials/equipment 142 1Store house 137 2Transport/vehicles 107 3Processing ground 106 4Sales centers 106 5

Table 6.5 shows that highest score was obtained in case of processing-equipment regarding

financial ability, preservation facilities of cold storage regarding access to support services,

processing regarding decision making ability, handling of post harvest equipments and

processing of fruits and vegetables regarding management skill and processing materials

regarding access to physical facilities. It is due to lack of cold storage facilities and

processing equipment in the study area. Second highest score was obtained in case of credit

71

20%

17%

20%

22%

21%

Financial ability

Decision making ability

Access to support services

Management skill

Physical facilities

regarding financial ability, storing regarding decision making ability; operational ability

regarding management skill and access to support services and store house regarding access

to physical facilities due to lack of knowledge and training and low involvement in different

organizations and commercial activities of spinach. Then capital regarding financial ability;

selling of vegetables and fruits regarding decision making ability; operational ability

regarding access to support services, preservation of seeds regarding management skill,

transport regarding access to physical facilities got third position due to lack of training on

the topic of PHAs of spinach. In the study area it was found that no training was provided by

any organization to the respondents on PHAs of spinach to change their skill and attitude.

Again there were no storage facilities in the Monirampur upazila for storage of spinach.

That’s why the farmers felt high extent of need in management skill and physical facilities.

Figure 6.1 Pie graph showing dimension wise need for capacity strengthening

Figure 6.1 shows that the highest extent of need (85) of the respondents was in management

skill having the relative weight of need 22% and the lowest extent of need (67) was for

decision making ability with relative weight of need 17%. It might be creditable to mention

here that the differences among the components of capacity strengthening in respect of need

felt by the respondents were not so distant. Therefore, the respondent women felt need more

or less same for all the dimensions of capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of spinach.

1.4 Training Need in carrying Out PHAs of Spinach

The training need values ranged from 25 to 45 with a mean 33.64 and standard deviation of

5.41. More than half (52%) of the women felt high need training in carrying out PHAs of

spinach.

72

Table 6.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of spinach

Range of score RespondentMean Std. Dev.

Possible Observed Category No. %

0-100 25-45

Low(≤24)

Medium(25-30)

High(>31)

0

24

26

0

48

52

33.64 5.41

The findings clearly indicate that most of the respondents were in high need of training for

their involvement in PHAs of spinach. This might be due to inadequate training offered by

Government organization or other NGOs. Most of the respondents had short-term training

experience as stated earlier. The rural women in the study area kept desire to take part in

income generating activities such as PHAs of Spinach but they could not do due to lack of

awareness and adequate information about the expected activities. Thus, more than half of the

respondents felt in the high training need category.

Table 6.8 Ranking of areas of training need regarding PHAs of Spinach

Post Harvest Activities Total Score Rank

Storage of vegetables 149 1

Processing of vegetables 148 2

Increasing of shelf-life of vegetables 147 3

Handling of modern equipment 133 4

Care taking of seed 127 5

Chemical treatments for disease and pest control 125 6

Using packaging materials 125 6

Transportation and marketing of spinach 125 6

Biological treatments for disease and pest control 124 7

Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control 124 7

Cooling 89 8

Washing and cleaning 68 9

Determination of maturity index 62 10

Table 6.8 shows that the extent of training need of the respondents in carrying out PHAs of

spinach more or less similar in all the activities. They had done all the activities traditionally.

They did not know about modern technology of PHAs of spinach. Even they did not receive

any training regarding PHAs of spinach from any organization. That’s why they felt high

extent of training need. But they felt less extent of training need in case of cooling, washing

and cleaning and determination of maturity index. Because, they had been doing these

traditionally. But in case of storage, processing and increasing of shelf-life of vegetables, they

felt high extent of need.

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1.5 Relationships between the Selected Characteristics of the Women and Their Extent of Need for Capacity Strengthening

Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation (r) was computed in order to explore

the relationships between the selected characteristics of the women and their extent of need

for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of spinach. The coefficient of correlation (r)

was used to test the null hypothesis regarding the relationship between two concerned

variables. The null hypothesis was formulated as H0: There is no relationship between the

selected characteristics of the women and their need for capacity strengthening in carrying

out PHAs of spinach. The relationship between the dependent and independent variables has

been presented in Table 6.9. However, the correlation matrix of dependent and independent

variables for the women has been presented in Appendix-B in order to have a clear

exploration of the inter-correlation and multi co-linearity among the variables.

Table 6.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables

Independent variables ‘r’ value with 48 df

Age -.172

Education .036

Dependency ratio of the family -.045Farm size -.224

Annual family income -.095

Organizational participation .291*Decision making capacity in the family .013Training exposure .059Credit received -.039Ability to cope with uncertainty -.243

Daily time allocation .415**Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits -.112

** Significant at the 0.01 level * Significant at the 0.05 level

Among the twelve selected characteristics of the respondents, the ‘r’ values of age, education,

dependency ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income, awareness, decision

making capacity in the family, training exposure, credit received and ability to cope with

uncertainty with their extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of

spinach were non-significant. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected for

these variables. Based on the computed ‘r’ value the relationship between age and extent of

need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of spinach was and followed a negative

74

trend. Sharmin (2008), Rahman (2008), Akhter (2007), Hasan (2006), Sarkar (2005),

Naoroze (2004), Khatun (2004), Alam (2004), Islam (2003) and Yeasmin (2002) found

similar relationships between age and need in their respective studies. Thus, it could be said

that age the respondents was not an important indicator for the extent of need for capacity

strengthening in carrying out PHAs of spinach. Women found in that area were mostly

literate but due to their lack of less involvement in PHAs, they felt less need for capacity

strengthening in carrying out PHAs of Spinach.

Dependency ratio was significantly correlated with the number of family members and

negatively correlated with earning member. It is shown in Appendix B. On the other hand,

need for capacity strengthening had no significant relationship with the total number of

family members. Finally, dependency ratio of the family had no significant effect on the need

for capacity strengthening of women due to irregular pattern of number of earning members

of the family with their respective family size.

Based on the computed ‘r’ value the relationship between organizational participation and

extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of spinach was significant.

Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could be rejected. Thus, it was inferred that

organizational participation of the women significantly influenced the extent of need for

capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of Spinach. When women come in contact with

different organizations or source of information they can felt their need. It is very much

rational that women could expose their need after getting some information or knowledge

about what should be or which could help to uplift their life-style. The respondents of the

present study were affiliated with some organizations which dealt with the micro-credit

programs rather PHAs of vegetables. From their organizational involvement of the

respondents made significant relationship with their need for capacity strengthening.

Daily time allocation and extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of

spinach was significantly and positively related. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis was

rejected. Thus, it was conditional that daily time allocation of the respondents was prominent

to their extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of spinach. Akhter

(2007) also found this type relation in her study.

During the harvesting season women in the study area were mostly involved in PHAs of

spinach. They have to pay great attention to get more profit from their product. The women’

75

involvement in PHAs of spinach was enthusiastically. That's why daily time allocation played

a significant role on their need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of spinach.

1.6 Problem Confrontation in Involvement of PHAs of Spinach

Constraints faced by the respondents in involving themselves in PHAs were explored through

making Scored Causal Diagrams (SCDs) of Participatory Farm Management (PFM) methods.

The problems identified by the group has been listed here with their relative importance

indicated by the original score numbers as shown inside the parentheses (Figure 6.3).

End problem: Low involvement in PHAs of spinach (100)

Intermediary problems

(i) Less scope for processing (45)(ii) Less skill and knowledge (40)(iii) Less motivation for PHAs of spinach (40)(iv)) Less interest in PHAs (10)(v) Less prospect of preservation (15)

Root causes

(i) Lack of training on PHAs (40)(ii) Unavailability of processing facilities (20)(iv) Short duration spinach availability (15)(v) Lack of money (10)(vi) Unknown scope for marketing (10)(vii) Highly perishable in nature (5)

‘Lack of training on PHAs of spinach’ got the highest score among the ‘root’ causes then

‘unavailability of processing facilities’. It was logical because lack of training caused less

skill and knowledge and resulting in less motivation for PHAs of spinach. Unavailability of

processing facilities, unknown scope for marketing and short duration spinach availability

caused less scope for processing of spinach. Lack of money creates lack of interest in PHAs

of spinach. Due to highly perishable in nature spinach can not be preserved for long time and

it also results less profit which led to lower involvement in PHAs.

1.6.1 Suggested solutions to the ‘root’ causes

Participants of the group engaged in the preparation of SCDs were requested to mention

possible solutions to the ‘root’ causes of low involvement in PHAs. They made the following

suggestions through discussing with one another. Giving priority to their needs the

suggestions are presented in the following Table 6.9.

Involvement of the rural women in PHAs is an important factor for the progress of socio-

economic condition of the rural people at least for this study area. The study revealed that

76

Low Involvement in PHAs of spinach [100]

Lack of training on PHAs of spinach [40]

Less skill and knowledge [40]

Less motivation for PHAs [40]

Lack of capital[10]

Less interest in PHAs [10]

Highly perishable nature [5]

Less prospect of preservation [5]

Unknown scope for marketing [10]

Unavailability of processing

facilities [20]Short duration

spinach availability [15]

Less scope for processing [45]

Figure 6.2: SCDs showing the involvement barrier of rural women in PHAs of spinach

77

participation of the rural women in PHAs was low to medium, which was not encouraging.

Now it is the time to take proper policy and need-based support in order to secure full

participation of the rural women in PHAs. Linkage between GOs, NGOs and private sectors

need to be strengthened to ensure efficient involvement of the rural women. The issues that

might be dealt with are input and technical information supply, training and motivation

campaign.

Table 6.10 Suggested solutions with ways to achieve them

Sl. No.

Suggested solutions Way to achieve

1. Arranging special training programs on PHAs of spinach Collaboration is needed with GOs and NGOs

2. Encouraging the rural women to involve in PHAs through different extension communication media like personal contact of extension personnel, result demonstrations, block demonstrations, television, radio, newspaper, leaflet, booklet etc.

Extension personnel should be more careful about women participation in PHAs

3. Establishment of cold storage GOs, NGOs andprivate sectorscollaboration is needed

4. Emphasizing the necessities of women participation among the rural people with the help of local leaders, imams, purohit etc.

Government can create special programs with the well known NGOs

5. Creating micro-credit facilities especially for the women on spinach processing and exploitation of marketing facilities.

GOs and NGOs can take proper steps in this regaard

78

7. Case Study

Name of women: Ms AnwaraHusband’s name: Mr Solaiman AliAddress: Village- Nadra, Monirampur, Jessore

Ms Anwara, a lady of 45 years was engaged in PHAs (PHAs) of spinach. She was basically a house wife and assisted her husband in farming. She also used to manage her small homestead. She completed her primary education of three years and then was married to Mr SolaimanAli (50 yrs) who was a guava farmer.

Ms Anwara had two sons. They had cultivated about 0.20 ha of land in which spinach was cultivated only in one-fourth of land in winter season. Their main income was from various crops and masonry work of husband. The annual income of the family was about Taka 70,000 and only from spinach was about Taka 15,000. Cultivation of spinach is profitable but climatic favor is important.

Although Ms Anwara used to maintain her family and homestead activities, she remained engaged in harvest and PHAs of spinach in season. She was a credit borrower of BRAC and thus, was a member women group of the locality but did not receive any training from any organization. She expressed a moderate will to cope with any uncertainty either in her family or farming and possessed a good authority in decision-making in the family.

Ms Anwara used to engage herself mostly in home and homestead activities. But a substantial time had been spent in harvest and PHAs of spinach in its main season. She helped her husband in harvesting spinach along with other laborers. In the PHAs of spinach, her involvement was mostly in cleaning, sorting and packing. She had to manage the sorted out junk of spinach for home consumption. She did not know processing of spinach. In spite of her moderate participation in PHAs of spinach she showed her high interest in spinach processing. She asserted:

“I can handle the sorting, grading and packing, and other activities in a good manner through work experience. But I do not how to process the spinach for its better preservation and consumption in different ways. I am not so aware of spinach products. I shall be happy to learn how to process spinach to prepare various things. It needs skill and I am willing to learn the skill. I also need some materials and equipments to process spinach. I feel, women interested in PHAs can form group to materialize their idea of conducting processing. Some relevant organizations can provide credit and training supports to make it effective.”

Ms Anwara did not receive any training on PHAs of vegetables or fruits. Her expected training areas were about sorting, grading and modern packing of spinach for better transportation; processing and preservation of spinach and spinach products. She was moderately aware of nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits but she wanted to take due care to maintain nutritive value of fruits and vegetables during harvest, cooking or consumption.

Regarding need for overall capacity building to conduct PHAs of vegetables and fruits, Ms Anwara expressed high need of it. About different aspects of need for capacity building she expected mostly for skill development, capital support and physical facilities. Skill development was for preparation, packaging and storing of products. Marketing information and exploration of marketing channels were also felt as very important need to do well in processing of spinach.

With moderate involvement in PHAs of spinach, she expected training support on various aspects of PHAs of vegetables and fruits, especially on spinach. She thought that related government and non-government organizations can train and help them to manage PHAs of vegetables in a successful and cost-effective manner.

79

Section 4: POTATO

This Chapter contains the findings and their logical interpretations according to the objectives

of the present study regarding potato.

1. Involvement of Rural Women in PHAs of Potato

Involvement score of the respondents in different PHAs ranged from 13.89 to 40.28 with a

mean of 26.13 and standard deviation of 6.85 (Table 7.1). On the basis of involvement, the

respondents were divided into three categories.

Table 7.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of potato

Score Range: Possible 0-100, Observed: 13.89-40.28

Respondents MeanStandard deviation

Categories Number %

26.13 6.85Low (≤ 33) 46 91

Medium (34-66) 4 8

High (>66) 0 0

Data in the Table 7.1 show that the highest (91%) proportion of the women had low

involvement while 8% of them had moderate and none of them had high involvement in any

PHAs of potato. Most of the respondents had similar involvement in PHAs like sorting and

grading, seed storage, packaging, processing, insect and disease control etc.

In order to investigate the involvement of rural women in various PHAs of potato, the works

are categorized into three dimensions such as frequency of performance, part of work done

and control over decision. Each of these three categories also has five sub-dimensions with a

score of 0 to 3. Most of the respondents were found to involve themselves in PHAs like

sorting and grading, seed storage, storage vegetables, processing, packaging etc.

Table 7.2 Ranking of total score of involvement of rural women in different PHAs of potato

Post Harvest Activities Frequency of performance

Part of work done

Control over decision

Total score

Rank order

Sorting and grading 130 127 90 347 1Seed storage 108 83 37 228 2Storage potato 110 65 32 207 3Processing 66 70 69 205 4Packaging 93 83 19 195 5Insect and disease control 85 68 27 180 6

80

Table 7.2 shows that the highest involvement of rural women was sorting and grading then

seed storage and the lowest was in insect and disease control of potato towards food security.

Table 7.2 represents the status of the respondents’ in different PHAs of potato. Incase of

sorting and grading their involvement is highest due to less laborious work than other field

job like harvesting, insect and disease control, curing, drying etc. Among other activities

insect and disease control and harvesting is less because women’s level of knowledge about

pest management was found low and due to physical and social problem most of the families

did not come out to field.

2. Need for Capacity Strengthening of Rural Women

Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to measure the extent of need for

capacity strengthening of women. The findings have been presented in the following

subsections.

2.1 Overall need for capacity strengthening

The extent of need for capacity strengthening of women was assessed in terms of need index

for capacity strengthening (NICS). The NICS values could range from 0 to 100. The observed

NICS values ranged from 44.44 to 98.77 with an average of 73.60 and standard deviation of

11.63. Based on their NICS values the respondents were classified into three categories as

shown in Table 7.3.

Table 7.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of potato Score Range: Possible: 0-100, Observed: 44.44-98.77

RespondentsMean

Standard

DeviationCategories Number %

Low (≤33)

Medium (34-66)

High (>66)

0

12

38

0

24

76

73.60 11.63

Presented data show that the most of the respondents had high extent of need and a few of

them had medium and none of them had low extent of need for capacity strengthening in

PHAs of potato. The findings clearly indicate that most of the respondents had high need for

capacity strengthening towards PHAs of potato towards food security. While collecting the

data, it was observed in the study area that there was scarcity of post harvest facilities of

potato towards food security and their storage facilities also insufficient. The respondents are

not getting appropriate price according their labour and cost of production. Thus, the

respondents logically felt high need for their capacity strengthening towards PHAs of potato.

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2.2 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of rural women

Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to assess the extent of need for

capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of potato towards food security. The

computed NICS values of all the dimensions have been shown in Table 7.4.

Table 7.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of potato

Dimension ofcapacity strengthening(measuring unit)

Range Respondents

MeanStd.Dev.Possible Observed Categories No. %

Need for financial ability (%) 0-100 50-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)

01238

02476

79.33 15.08

Need for decision making ability (%) 0-100 38.89-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)

03614

07228

66.00 12.23

Need for access to support services (%) 0-100 50-100

Low (≤33)Medium (33-66)High (>66)

02525

05050

73.33 12.65

Need for management skill (%)

0-100 22.22-100Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)

21335

42670

77.22 15.72

Need for physical facilities (%) 0-100 0-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)

12128

24256

74.13 17.02

Data presented in Table 7.4 indicate that most of the women fell in high need category for

most of the dimensions of capacity strengthening. The highest proportion (76%) of the

respondents was in high need for financial ability while only 72% of them had medium need

for decision making ability. Fifty% of the respondent had medium and the rest 50% had high

need for access to support services and 26% had medium need for management skill and 42%

had medium need for physical facilities respectively. Thus, it was simple that the components

available in low quantity would be felt as high need components.

Table 7.5 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondentsItems Score Rank

Need for financial abilityProcessing-equipment 138 1Labor purchase 115 2Capital 113 3Credit 110 4

Need for decision making abilityProcessing 135 1

Selling of vegetables fruits 118 2Storing 112 3

Packaging 97 4Collection 71 5

Grading 61 6

82

Need for access to support services Access to credit 123 1

Transport 120 2

Marketing channel/facilities 117 3

Development workers for advice 109 4

Preservation facilities of cold storage 98 5

Labor market 93 6

Need for management skill Handling of post harvest equipments 129 1Processing of potato 129 1Operational ability 120 2Market facility exploitation 110 3Financial management 110 3Preservation of seeds 97 4Need for physical facilitiesProcessing materials/equipment 132 1

Processing ground 111 2

Sales centers 109 3

Transport/vehicles 106 4Store house 98 5

Table 7.5 shows that in case of need for financial ability, processing-equipment was scored

highest and processing was highest in case of need for decision making ability. In case of

need for access to support services, access to credit scored highest and in case of need for

management skill handling of post harvest equipments and processing of potato scored

highest and finally processing materials/equipment scored highest in case of need for physical

facilities.

Figure 7.1 shows the variation of different needs for capital strengthening. Women mostly

felt high need to increase their involvement in various PHAs of potato. They are trying to get

support from GO and NGOs to activate their potentialities. From the following graphical

representation (Figure 7.1) it might be clear to us that the respondents’ dimension of need

varied according to their need for different components. However, they had highest need for

physical facilities and lowest for management skill.

83

3. Selected Characteristics of the Rural Women

The selected rural women possessed various characteristics that might influence their extent

of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of potato. For the present study, only

twelve characteristics of the rural women were selected as independent variables which have

been presented in Table 7.6.

Table 7.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of potato

Characteristics (Measurement units)

Range RespondentMea

nStd. Dev.Possible Observed Category

No.

%

Age(year) - 18-62

Young (≤30)Middle aged (31-45)Old (>45)

20237

404614

35.6011.2

9

Education(year of schooling)

- 0-12

Illiterate (0)Primary (1-5)Secondary (6-10)Higher second. (>10)

1123142

2246284

4.36 3.93

Dependency ratio of the family (ratio)

- 0-5Low (≤2)Medium (2.1-4)High (>4)

30182

60364

2.12 1.26

Farm size - .01-3.92 Landless ( < 0.02) 1 2 0.84 0.74

74.13

77.22

73.33

66

79.33

0 20 40 60 80 100

Financial ability

Decision makingability

Access to supportservices

Management skill

Physical facilities

Figure 7.1 Aspect-wise need status of the respondents for capacity building

84

(hectare) Marginal (.021-.2)Small (0.21-1.0)Medium (1.1-3.0)Large (>3.0)

1020181

2040362

Annual family income (‘000’ Taka)

- 2-662.5Low (≤50)Medium (50.1-100)High (>100)

5936

101872

190.73

134.84

Organizational involvement (score)

- 0-5Low (≤2)Moderate (3-4)High (>4)

4361

86122

0.80 1.25

Awareness (score)0-15 4-15

Less(≤5)Medium(6-10)High(>10)

12128

24256

10.38 2.43

Daily time allocation (hours) - 1-7

Low(≤3)Medium(3.1-6)High(>6)

12371

24742

4.36 1.64

Decision making capacity in the family (score)

0-40 10-23Weak (≤13)Moderate (14-26)Strong (>26)

27230

54460

14.80 5.15

Training exposure (score) - 0-60

Null (0)Short-term (1-3)Mid-term (>3)

4037

806

142.72 9.28

Credit received(‘000’ Taka) - 0-50

Small (≤10)Medium (11-20)High (>20)

3578

701416

8.8612.0

8

Ability to cope with uncertainty (score)

0-24 7-21Less (≤8)Moderate (9-16)Strong (>16)

24179

483418

12.06 4.51

The study was conducted with the rural women who were more or less involved in potato

PHAs. Among the respondents most of them were either middle or young aged (46 and 40%

respectively) whereas 46% of them had education at primary level. More than half of the

respondents (60%) had low dependency ratio in their family. The highest proportion (40%)

of the respondents had been observed in small farm size while 20% and 36% of them in

marginal and medium farm size. Majority of the respondents had (72%) had high annual

family income while 18% and 10% of them had medium and low annual family income

respectively. In case of organizational involvement most of the respondents (86%) had less

involvement while 12% had moderate and 2% had high involvement in any organization

(Table 7.6).

Women were highly aware in maintaining nutrition of vegetables and fruits (56%) while they

used to handle, preserve or eat, 42% of them had medium awareness and only 2% had low

awareness. About three-fourths (74%) of the women had moderate time allocation while 2%

of them had high and the rest 24% of them had low time allocation for PHAs of potato in the

period of harvesting (Table 7.6). More than half of the respondents (54%) of the women had

weak decision making capacity while 46% of them had medium and it was noticeable that no

respondent was found to take highest decision making capacity in their family. Majority of

85

the respondents (80%) had no training exposure while 6% and 14% of them had short-term

and mid-term training experience. A large number (70%) of the women had small credit

received while 14% had medium and 16% of them had high credit received circumstance.

About half (48%) of the respondents had less ability, while 34% had moderate and only 18%

of them had great ability to cope with uncertainty (Table 7.6).

4. Training Need of the Women

The training need for capacity strengthening of women ranged from 17 to 36 with an average

of 31.34 and standard deviation of 3.61. Based on their NICS values the respondents were

classified into three categories as shown in Table 7.7.

Table 7.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of potato

Range Respondent MeanStd. Dev.

Possible Observed Category No. %

31.34 3.610-100 17-36

Low(≤24)Medium(25-30)High(>30)

12029

24058

Findings show that most (58%) of the respondents has high training need for all of the

activities. There were 40% of the respondents who had medium training need and only 2%

had low training need for the PHAs. The reason behind this condition was that most of the

respondents had low involvement in any developmental organization. Therefore, they

received low training facilities and ultimately their training need was high.

Table 7.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs Potato

Post Harvest Activities Total Score

Rank

Processing of potato 149 1

Increasing of shelf-life of potato 145 2

Transportation and marketing of potato 126 3

Biological treatments for disease and pest control 123 4

Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control 123 4

Using packaging materials 123 4

Preservation of seed 122 5

Chemical treatments for disease and pest control 122 6

Handling of modern equipments for harvesting 121 7

Storage 112 8

Determination of maturity index 76 9

Sorting and grading 63 10

Curing 60 11

Cooling 53 12

Washing and drying 49 13

86

Most of the women were interested in training on processing of potato as it was unknown to

them. They were also deprived from the knowledge of long term preservation as a result they

have to pay great loss of their product every year. Because, the DAE and concerned other

organizations do not have their regular extension approach to teach and motivate the rural

women on various key issues of preservation of fruits and vegetables. So, training on

increasing shelf-life got the second position. Transportation and marketing also suffers the

women so it got the third rank. Among other items of training biological and mechanical

treatments for disease and pest control were important as women are so poor to control

disease and pest. They fully depend on their male-counterpart of family for this purpose.

Washing and drying got last rank as they do these in traditional process.

5. Characteristics of the Rural Women and Their of Need for Capacity Strengthening

Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation (r) was computed in order to explore

the relationships between the selected characteristics of the women and their extent of need

for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of potato. The relationship between the dependent

and independent variables has been presented in Table 7.9.

Table 7.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables

Independent variables ‘r’ value with 48 df

Age -.143

Education .090Dependency ratio of the family -.119

Farm size -.078 Annual family income -.253Organizational involvement .263

Decision making capacity in the family .097Training exposure .058

Credit received -.208

Ability to cope with uncertainty -.248Daily time allocation .159Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits -.193

** Significant at the 0.01 level * Significant at the 0.05 level

The computed ‘r’ values between the selected twelve characteristics of the rural women and

their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of potato were non-significant.

Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it could be said that all the

characteristics of the respondents were not important indicators for the extent of need for

capacity strengthening towards PHAs of potato. Among the variables, age, dependency ratio

87

of the family, farm size, annual family income, ability to cope with uncertainty, credit

received and awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits showed non-significant negative

trend and rest of the characteristics viz. education, organizational involvement, decision

making capacity in the family, training exposure and daily time allocation showed non-

significant positive relationship with their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards

PHAs of potato.

Sarkar (2005), Naoroze (2004), Asaduzzaman (2003), Begum et al. (2000) and Kumari

(1999) found similar relationships between age and need in their respective studies. In the

present research, the respondent women were mostly housewives. They had been continuing

their livelihoods from the similar social background utilizing similar resources and facilities.

So, their level of education could not play a significant role in their extent of need for

capacity strengthening towards PHAs of potato towards food security. It should be noted that

dependency ratio of the family was computed using the total number of family members and

of earning members of the family. Need for capacity strengthening was not noticeably

influenced by their family dependency ratio. Farm size is an important indicator of power.

When the farm size increases the owners bears an increased extent of power. Thus, the

women having more farm size tended to feel less need for capacity strengthening towards

PHAs of potato towards food security. In case of annual family income similar relationships

were observed by Naoroze (2004) and Asaduzzaman (2003) in their respective studies. It was

so, because the families having higher income might need fewer amounts of PHAs of potato

towards food security. Thus, annual family income exerted non-significant negative effect on

the need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of potato.

The respondents of the present study were affiliated with different organizations which did

not deal with the PHAs of potato rather just with micro-credit programs. Accordingly,

organizational involvement of the respondents had no influencing relationship with their need

for capacity strengthening.

A woman may have the capacity to make decision regarding household activities and she

may form this capacity from her educational status, parents socio-economic position etc.

Moreover, need for capacity strengthening depends on the availability and accessibility of the

facilities. Therefore, decision making capacity of the women in their family was not

significantly related with their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of

potato towards food security. Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between training

exposure and need of the respondents in his study.

88

The respondents got training from different organizations they were affiliated but a very little

training was conducted specifically regarding post harvest activities of vegetables. This is

why need for capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of potato towards food

security had no significant relationship with their previous training experience. Ahmed

(2007), Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between training exposure and need of the

respondents in his study.

The credit received also did not play any significant role on their extent of need for capacity

strengthening towards PHAs of potato towards food security. Sarkar (2005), Mahmud (2002),

Hashemi et al. (1996) and Pitt and Khandker (1995) also stated similar relationships in their

respective studies.

Ability to cope with uncertainty was non-significantly related with the extent of need for

capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of potato because the most of the

respondents had similar ability to cope with uncertain situations like accidents, crop failure,

scarcity of money, unavailability of labor etc. As there was lack of post harvest facilities of

potato in the study area, the women did not involve themselves in PHAs of potato actively.

That's why daily time allocation did not significantly influence need of women for capacity

strengthening in carrying out PHAs of potato. However, awareness on nutrition of vegetables

and fruits was not influential to the need for capacity strengthening of rural women in PHAs

of potato.

6. Problems in Involvement in PHAs of Potato

Problems faced by the women in using up the PHAs of potato towards food security were

measured through making Scored Causal Diagrams (SCDs) of Participatory Farm

Management methods. The problems identified by the group has been listed here with their

relative importance indicated by the original score numbers as shown inside the parentheses

(Figure 7.2).

End problem: Low involvement in PHAs of potato (100)

Intermediary problems

(i) Lack of knowledge and skill in PHAs of potato (40)(ii) Less motivated to PHAs of potato (40)(iii) Less potato for PHAs (20) (iv) Less cooperation in operating of PHAs (10)(v) Less interest with less unity (5)(vi) Less interest in PHAs (5)

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Root causes(i) Lack of training on PHAs of potato (40)(ii) Inadequate number of cold storage (20)(iii) Scarcity of capital (15)(iv) No community organization for women (10)(v) Low marketing system (10)(vi) Low wage for women (5)

Among the ‘root’ causes ‘lack of training on PHAs of potato’ got the highest score then

‘inadequate number of cold storage’. It was highly logical because lack of training caused

lack of knowledge and skill resulting less motivation to PHAs of Potato and accordingly there

was low involvement in PHAs.

Inadequate number of cold storage results in their low involvement due to their loss of potato

so it was perceived complexity in PHAs. According to the score, in third position ‘scarcity of

capital’ was placed. Scarcity of capital keeps away the women from any progress work so

their involvement in PHAs was less. No community organization for women and low

marketing system make rural women unproductive. Low wage for women results less interest

in PHAs of potato.

Other causes less motivated to PHAs of potato, less potato for PHAs, less cooperation in

operating of PHAs and less interest with less unity can be minimize with the help of proper

cooperation with farmers and the farmers should be aware about proper channel of

information. Absence of any kind of organization for women and storage facilities is the great

problems for the farmers.

Suggested solutions to the ‘root’ causes

Participants of the group engaged in the preparation of Scored Causal Diagram (SCD) were

requested to mention possible solutions to the ‘root’ causes of low involvement in PHAs of

potato towards food security. The respondents expressed different opinions on how these

problems could be overcome. The suggestions for the solution of the problems made by the

respondent women have been given in Table 7.10.

90

Scarcity of capital (15)

Low wage for women (5)

Low Involvement in PHAs of Potato

(100)

No community organization for women (10)

Low marketing facilities (10)

Lack of training on PHAs (40)

Inadequate number of cold storage (20)Lack of knowledge

and skill in PHAs (40)

Less interest in PHAs (5)

Less potato for PHAs (20)

Less cooperation in operating of PHAs (10)

Less interest with less unity (10)

Less motivated to PHAs (40)

Figure 7.2: Scored Causal Diagrams showing the involvement barrier of rural women in PHAs of potato

91

Table 7.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve issues

Sl. No.

Suggested solutions Way to achieve

1. Increased training facilities according to their needs for increasing their knowledge and skill towards PHAs of potato as well as to have efficient manpower.

GOs and NGOs collaboration is needed

2. Establishing cold storage for the rural people Government and NGO can take proper initiatives to organize the community and offer soft loan to establish cold store under community management

3. Involving rural women in different PHAs of potato towards food security to increase their operational ability.

Government and private organization should take initiatives

4. Establish community organization for rural women GO and NGOs can take proper initiatives for them

5. Establishing processing centers for the rural women to build their capacity in PHAs.

Government can create special programs with the well known NGOs

6. Emphasizing the necessities of women involvement among the rural people with the help of local leaders.

Farmers should be motivated to aware the women by different communication media

7. Increased credit availability according to the need of the rural women regarding post harvest facilities of potato towards food security.

GOs and NGOs can take proper steps in this matter

Involvement of the rural women in PHAs is an important concern for controlling PHAs and

progress of socio-economic condition of the rural people. The study reveals that involvement

of the rural women in PHAs was medium to high, which is encouraging. Thus, proper

strategy and need-based support should be ensured in order to secure full involvement of the

rural women in PHAs. Linkage between GO and NGOs need to be strengthened to make sure

successful contribution of the rural women. The issues that might be dealt with are input and

technical information supply, training, inspiration operation and others.

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7. Case Study

Name of women: Ms Beauty RaniHusband’s name: Mr Parimol ChandraAddress: Kusum Shahor, Khetlal, Joypurhat

Ms Beauty Rani was a lady of 32 years and engaged in PHAs (PHAs) of potato along with home and homestead management. She completed her class eight education before she was married to Mr Parimol Cahndra. Mr Chandra was a farmer and had been cultivating potato along with other crops.

Ms Rani had three sons of which the first one (24 years) after completing his 10 years schooling got involved in farming. They had about 0.50 hectare of land for cultivation with an homestead area of about 0.15 ha. The mostly grown crops were rice, potato and vegetables of different types. Her homestead was occupied by some fruit trees, threshing ground and bamboo bush. The annual income of the family was about Taka 1,00,000.

The family land was occupied mostly by rice and potato cultivation. In the recent days, potato had been cultivated with high enthusiasm as the farmers counted good profit through modern cultivation. In potato season, her all crop land was covered by potato cultivation. She got a total production of 8,000 kg in 0.50 ha of land.

Other than family works and PHAs of potato, Ms Rani was not involved in any organization. She also did not receive any training from any organization on agricultural issues. She also did not borrow any credit form any organization. But she expressed very good mind to cope with any uncertainty either in her family or farming.

Ms Rani used to engage herself mostly in home and homestead activities. But a substantial time had been spent in PHAs of potato in its peak season. In the PHAs of potato, her involvement was mostly in sorting, grading, drying, packing, and storing. She needed to spend a long hours during the harvest. Specially, she manages the heap of potato when kept at house. Its temperature control, shed management and sorting for sale were tough and tiresome tasks, she mentioned. Another important activity of potato in house was keeping seed for next year, both for sale and own plantation. In spite of her substantial involvement in PHAs of potato she showed her deep interest in potato processing. She indicated:

“I can mange the grading, packing, storing and other activities more or less in a good way. But I am almost unable to process the potato for its better preservation and consumption in different ways. I heard of potato products like chip, flour, bread, fry etc. I like to learn how to process potato to prepare these things. It needs skill and am eager to achieve skill though training. I also need some materials and equipments to process potato. As a community need, I think, government should prepare more cold storage in our locality.”

Ms Rani did not receive any training on PHAs of vegetables or fruits. Her expected training areas were about sorting, grading, packing and storage of potato scientifically; disease control at house store; processing and preservation of potato and its products. Ms Rani was aware on nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits and used to take due care to maintain nutritive value of fruits and vegetables during harvest, cooking or consumption.

Regarding need for overall capacity building to conduct PHAs of vegetables and fruits, Ms Rani desires high need of it. Again on different aspects of need for capacity building she wanted mostly for skill development and marketing techniques. Skill development in preparation, packaging and storing of products and also handling of equipments if needed. Marketing information and exploration of marketing channels were also felt very important need to succeed in processing of potato.

With high involvement in PHAs of potato, she expected training support on various aspects of PHAs of vegetables, especially on potato. She thinks that related government and non-government organizations can train and help them to manage PHAs of vegetables in a successful and cost-effective manner. This would ultimately ensure enhanced participation of rural women in PHAs of vegetables and fruits leading to better living values.

93

Section 5: MANGO

This Chapter contains the findings and their logical interpretations according to the objectives

of the study regarding mango.

1.1 Involvement of Women in PHAs of Mango

In order to have a clear picture of extent of involvement in PHAs, total score and

Involvement Index (II) of all PHAs for the respondents were computed which have described

in the following subsections. Involvement Index was expressed as%age and thus, it could

vary from 0 to 100. The computed II of the respondents ranged from 16.24 to 40.17 with an

average of 31.54 and standard deviation 4.70. Based on their II the respondents were

classified into three categories. Data presented in Table 8.1 show that 62% of the respondents

had low involvement in PHAs compared to 38% medium involved while none of them were

highly involved in PHAs of mango.

Table 8.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of mango Possible Range: 0-100, Observed Range: 16.24-40.17

Respondents MeanStandard deviation

Categories Number %

31.54 4.70Low (≤ 33) 31 62

Medium (34-67) 19 38

High (>67) 0 0

The findings clearly indicate that 100% of the respondents had involvement in PHAs of

mango low to medium. It was observed in the study area while collecting the data that there

was scarcity of post harvest facilities of mango and even a little facility was available but

those were not in accessible form for the rural women. Moreover the mango trees of this

study area were sold out for several years to the mango traders. For this reason involvement

of women in PHAs of mango were low to medium. Economic, social/religious and

psychological status of the respondents were also responsible for low participation.

In the study area, it was found that more or less every family had been involved themselves in

some specific PHAs. Most of the women had been involved in processing of mango (pickles,

chutney, amta or amchur), seed storage or raising seedling, ripening and short term storage of

mango only for homestead use. In some cases they had been participated in sorting and

94

grading of mango. In order to rank involvement status in PHAs total score was calculated for

involvement in each of the PHAs (Table 8.2).

Table 8.2 Ranking of total score of the extent of involvement in different PHAs of mango

Post Harvest Activities Total score Rank order

Processing of mango (pickles, chutney, amta, etc.) 450 1Seed storage or raising seedling 413 2Short-term storage for homestead use 405 3Ripening of mango for homestead use 399 4Sorting and grading 164 5Packaging 16 6

Table 8.2 shows that highest score of participation was found in processing of mango. It is

very much rational that the women were mainly involved in preparation of pickles from green

mango and amta from ripe mango for homestead use. Then the second highest score was

found in seed storage or raising seedling. In previous days, seed of mango was useless but

now-a-days it is very important as the seedling of mango is used as ‘root stock’. This is

totally done by women and children of the house. Then ripening of mango used got the third

and fourth position respectively. And finally sorting and grading and packaging got fifth and

sixth position respectively.

1.2 Characteristics of the Women

There were various characteristics of the women that influenced their extent of need for

capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango. In the present study, twelve

characteristics of the women were selected as independent variables, which included age,

education, dependency ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income, organizational

participation, decision making capacity in the family, training exposure, credit received,

ability to cope with uncertainty, daily time allocation for PHAs, awareness on nutrition of

vegetables and fruits. The salient features of characteristics of the respondents have been

presented in Table 8.3.

The Table 8.3 revealed that 32% of the respondents were middle-aged, 60% were young and

8% of them were old-aged. Akhter (2007), Hasan (2006) and Sharmin (2005) found similar

distribution of respondents in different age categories in their respective studies. Data

indicate that more than half of the respondents were young-aged and only 8% were old-aged

and rest of them were middle-aged. This is fairly logical, because it is expected that the

young and middle-aged women are more active, energetic and enthusiastic in performing

PHAs of mango. It was observed from the research that most of the young women were very

95

much interested in mango processing training and also paying attention to involve them in

carrying out PHAs of mango. Data presented in Table 8.3 indicate that more than half of the

respondents (52%) of the study area secured primary level of education. These findings were

supported by Alam (2001) and Hossain (2000). It was interesting that 92% of the respondents

were literate. It was logical, because only few of the respondents were old-aged and

education was generally negatively correlated with age. So, most of the respondents were

literate.

Table 8.3 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of mango

Characteristics (Measurement units)

Range RespondentMean

Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %

Age (year)- 20-55

Young (≤30)Middle aged(31-45)Old (>45)

30164

60328

32.16 8.39

Education(year of schooling)

- 0-14

Illiterate (0)Primary (1-5)Secondary (6-10)Higher secondary (>10)

426182

852364

4.64 3.98

Dependency ratio of the family (ratio) - 0.33-7

Low (≤2)Medium (2.1-4)High (>4)

21236

424612

2.95 1.53

Farm size (hectare)

- 0.01-3.71

Landless ( < 0.02)Marginal (.021-.2)Small (0.21-1.0)Medium (1.01-3.0)Large (>3.0)

3172442

6344884

0.59 0.82

Annual family income (‘000’ Taka) - 26-475.20

Low (≤50)Medium (51-100)High (>100)

17267

345214

76.92 65.03

Organizational participation (score) - 1-6

Low (≤2)Moderate (3-4)High (>4)

3893

76186

1.86 1.25

Daily time allocation (hours) - 2-7.5

Low(≤3)Medium(3.1-6)High(>6)

18293

36586

4.02 1.40

Decision making capacity in the family (score)

0-40 11-31Weak (≤13)Moderate (14-26)Strong (>26)

1409

28018

21.50 4.42

Training exposure (score) - 0-8

Null (0)Short-term (1-3)Mid-term (>3)

11381

22762

1.28 1.36

Credit received(‘000’ Taka) - 0-30

Small (≤10)Medium (11-20)High (>20)

4631

9262

4.88 5.6

Ability to cope with uncertainty (score) 0-24 7-16

Less (≤8)Moderate (9-16)Strong (>16)

15350

30700

10.06 2.12

Awareness (score)0-15 7-14

Low (≤5)Medium(6-10)High (>10)

03726

07426

9.50 2.11

96

49

0

4844

1

50

26

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

ASA PROSHIKA Grameen Bank Others

No participationParticipation

Figure 8.1: Status of women participation in different organizations

Table 8.3 reveals that most of the respondents had medium dependency ratio of their family.

It was due to higher unemployment rate of the study area. The findings supported by Ahmed

(2007). Almost half of the respondents (48%) had small farm size while 34% of them had

marginal farm size. It indicates that most of the families (about 82%) possess a small sized

cultivable land. For this reason there were only a few (4%) large farm families and 8%

medium farm families. Akhter (2007), Rasel (2004), and Rashid (2004) also found similar

findings in their respective studies. The highest (52%) proportion of the women had medium

annual family income while 34% and 14% of them had low and high annual family income

respectively. Akhter (2007), Rashid (2004) and Akter (2003) supported this distribution of

the respondents. Most of the respondents (76%) had less participation while 18% had

moderate and only 6% of them had high participation in different organizations. Rasel (2004)

and Hossain (2000) observed similar findings in their respective studies.

Figure 8.1 graphically represents the status of the respondent women involvement in different

organizations. As all the respondents were the members of NCDP and here PROSHIKA was

the partner NGO of NCDP. That is why all the respondents were involved with PROSHIKA.

But some of them were also involved with Grameen Bank, Association for Social

Advancement (ASA), TMSS (Thengamara Mohila Sabuj Sangha) etc. Though all

respondents were members of NCDP, most of the respondents were involved with less

number of organizations for less number of years. It might be due to women who are

normally less affiliated with organizations than those of male were the respondents of the

present study.

97

The highest (80%) proportion of the women had moderate capacity while 18% of them had

strong and the rest 2% of them had weak decision making capacity in the family. The

distribution of the respondents regarding decision making capacity in the family was

supported by Ahmed (2007) and Sharmin (2005). Data contained in the Table 8.3 show that

the highest (76%) proportion of the women had short-term training exposure while only 2%

of them had mid-term training experience and 22% of them had no training exposure.

Training exposure is directly related with organizational affiliation. Though most of the

respondents involve in NCDP group their training exposure was very low in case of PHAs of

mango. The highest (92%) proportion of the women had received small credit while 6%

received medium credit and the rest 2% of them received high credit. Ahmed (2007) also

found similar findings in her respective study. It was found that majority of the women in the

study area were in moderate category of decision making capacity in the family. Most of the

respondents (70%) were found to have moderate ability to cope with uncertainty. Data

contained in the Table 8.3 show that 74% women had medium awareness and 26% had high

and none of them had low awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits. The results were

satisfactory because most of the women were literate and they know about the nutritional

aspects of vegetables and fruits. But in practical situation they didn't practice according to

their knowledge due to proper awareness. Moreover most of the women were very

traditional.

Table 8.3 show that the highest (58%) proportion of the women had moderate time allocation

while 6% of them had high and the rest 36% of them had low time allocation in the family.

Their daily time allocation for PHAs were low to medium due lack of proper post harvest

facilities for mango. Moreover PHAs are seasonal activities. During mango season they

worked all day long. But in other times they spent their time in other purposes. As a result

their average daily time allocation for PHAs was low to medium.

1.3 Need for Capacity Strengthening of Women

Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to measure the extent of need for

capacity strengthening of women. The findings have been interpreted in the following

subsections.

1.3.1 Overall need for capacity strengthening

The extent of need for capacity strengthening of women was assessed in terms of need index

for capacity strengthening (NICS). The NICS values could range from 0 to 100. The observed

NICS values ranged from 55.56 to 97.53 with an average of 84.25 and standard deviation of

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11.81. Based on their NICS values the respondents were classified into three categories as

shown in Table 8.4.

Data presented in the Table 8.4 show that the highest proportion (86%) of the respondents

had high extent of need while the rest 14% of them had medium and none of them had low

extent of need for capacity strengthening of women. Ahmed (2007) found similar distribution

in her respective study.

Table 8.4 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of mango Score range: Possible: 0-100, Observed: 55.56-97.53

RespondentsMean Std. Dev.

Categories No. %

Low (≤33)

Medium (34-66)

High (>66)

0

7

43

0

14

86

84.25 11.81

The findings clearly indicate that majority of the respondents had high need for capacity

strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango. It was observed in the study area while

collecting the data that there was scarcity of post harvest facilities of mango and even a little

facility was available but those were not in accessible form for the rural women. Moreover

the respondents of this study were less involved in PHAs of mango. But they kept desire to

participate in income generating activities like PHAs to increase their family income. But

they could not do due to lack of knowledge and sufficient facilities of PHAs of mango. Thus,

the respondents logically felt high need for their capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs

of mango.

1.3.2 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women

Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to assess the extent of need for

capacity strengthening of women in carrying out PHAs of mango. The computed NICS

values of all the dimensions have been shown in Table 8.5. However, for more clarifying

picture has been presented in Figure 8.2 in order to have a contrasting view of dimension-

wise need for capacity building of women.

Data presented in Table 8.5 indicate that most of the women fell in high need category for all

the dimensions of capacity strengthening. The highest proportion (86%) of the respondents

was in high need for management skill while only 14% of them had medium need for this

dimension. It is due to lack of knowledge and sufficient training facilities in carrying out

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PHAs of mango in the study area. Then second highest proportion (80) of the respondents

was in high need for physical facilities while 20% of them had medium need for this

dimension.

Table 8.5 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of Mango

Dimension of capacity strengthening(measuring unit)

Range Respondents

MeanStd.Dev.Possible Observed Categories No. %

Need for financial ability (%) 0-100 50-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)

01535

03070

85.33 18.64

Need for decision making ability (%)

0-100 55.56-88.89Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)

01634

03268

76.89 10.84

Need for access to support services (%)

0-100 50-100Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)

01139

02278

81.67 12.86

Need for management skill (%)

0-100 66.67-100Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)

0743

01486

92.11 11.12

Need for physical facilities (%) 0-100 46.67-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>66)

01040

02080

85.87 16.86

The reason behind the findings was that, lack of sufficient support services such as cold

storage, marketing facilities, transport, access to credit and development workers for advices.

For rest of the dimension of need, the majority of the respondents felt high need for capacity

strengthening. It was normal that the women did not have low need for any dimensions of

capacity strengthening. It was quite logical because none of the dimensions existed in

satisfactory level rather than in low level. Thus, it was a simple analogy that the components

available in low quantity would be felt as high need components.

Table 8.6 shows that highest score was obtain in case of processing regarding decision

making ability and preservation facilities of cold storage regarding access to support services.

It is due to lack of cold storage facilities and processing equipment in the study area. Second

highest score was obtain in case of packaging regarding decision making ability due to lack

of modern packaging materials and low involvement in commercial activities of mango. Then

storing regarding decision making ability, handling of post harvest equipment regarding

management skill and processing materials or equipment regarding access to support services

got third position due to lack of training on the topic of PHAs of mango. Then fourth and

fifth highest extent of need was in the processing of fruits and vegetables and operational

ability regarding management skill and store house regarding need for physical facilities. In

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the study area it was found that no training was provided by any organization to the

respondents on PHAs of mango to change their skill and attitude. Again there were no storage

facilities in the Shibganj upazila for storage of mango. That is why the farmers felt high

extent of need in management skill and physical facilities.

Table 8.6 Ranking of the issues of need for capacity strengthening of the respondents

Items Score Rank

Need for financial abilityCapital 136 1Processing-equipment 133 2Credit 122 3Labor purchase 121 4Need for decision making abilityProcessing 150 1Packaging 146 2Storing 144 3Selling of vegetables fruits 134 4Collection 59 5Grading 59 6Need for access to support services Preservation facilities of cold storage 150 1Development workers for advice 131 2Access to credit 129 3Marketing channel/facilities 123 4Transport 113 5Labor market 89 6Need for management skill Handling of post harvest equipments 144 1Processing of fruits and vegetables 143 2Operational ability 141 3Preservation of seeds 141 3Financial management 138 4Market facility exploitation 122 5Need for physical facilitiesProcessing materials/ equipment 144 1Store house 141 2Processing ground 122 3Sales centers 122 4Transport/vehicles 115 5

Figure 8.2 shows that the highest extent of need (92) of the respondents was in management

skill having the relative weight of need 23% and the lowest extent of need (77) was for

decision making ability with relative weight of need 18%. It might be worthy to mention here

that the differences among the components of capacity strengthening in respect of need felt

by the respondents were small. Therefore, the respondent women felt need more or less same

for all the dimensions of capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango.

101

20%

18%

19%

23%

20%

Need for financial ability

Need for decision making ability

Need for access to support services

Need for management skill

Need for physical facilities

Figure 8.2 Pie graph showing dimension wise need for capacity strengthening

1.4 Training Need in Carrying out PHAs of Mango

The training need values ranged from 47 to 54 with a mean 50.56 and standard deviation of

1.68. All the women felt high need for training in carrying out PHAs of mango.

Table 8.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of mango

Range RespondentMean

Std.

Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %

0-100 47-54

Low(≤24)

Medium(25-30)

High(>30)

0

0

50

0

0

100

50.56 1.68

Data presented in the Table 8.7 show that all of the respondents had high training need. This

might be due to inadequate training offered by Government organization or other NGOs.

Most of the respondents had short-term training experience as stated earlier. The rural women

in the study area kept desire to participate in income generating activities such as PHAs of

mango but they could not do due to lack of knowledge and sufficient information about the

expected activities. Thus, all of the respondents fell in the high training need category.

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Table 8.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of mango

Post Harvest ActivitiesTotal Score

Rank

Dumping and waxing 150 1

Increasing of shelf-life of fruits 150 1

Biological treatments for disease and pest control 150 1

Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control 150 1

Chemical treatments for disease and pest control 150 1

Using packaging materials 150 1

Processing of mango (jam, jelly, pickles, sauces and chutney etc.) 150 1Heat treatments for preservation 150 1

Low temperature treatment for preservation 150 1

Chemical treatment for preservation 150 1Preservation by drying, dehydration and fermentation 150 1

Storage 150 1

Handling of modern equipment 148 2

Degreening and ripening 148 2

Care taking of seed 148 2

Transportation and marketing of mango 145 3

Sorting and grading 59 5

Table 8.8 shows that the extent of training need of the respondents in carrying out PHAs of

mango more or less similar in all the activities. They had done all the activities traditionally.

They did not know about modern technology of PHAs of mango. Even they did not receive

any training regarding PHAs of mango from any organization. That is why they felt high

extent of training need. But they felt less extent of training need in case of sorting and

grading and determination of maturity index. Because they had been doing these traditionally.

But in case of dumping and waxing, handling of modern equipment, disease and pest control,

processing, increasing of shelf-life, they felt high extent of need.

1.5 Relationships between the Selected Characteristics of the Women and Their Extent of Need for Capacity Strengthening

Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation (r) was computed in order to explore

the relationships between the selected characteristics of the women and their extent of need

for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango. The coefficient of correlation (r)

was used to test the null hypothesis regarding the relationship between two concerned

variables. The relationship between the dependent and independent variables has been

presented in Table 8.9. However, the correlation matrix of dependent and independent

variables for the women has been presented in Appendix-B in order to have a clear

exploration of the inter-correlation among the variables.

103

Table 8.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables

Independent variables ‘r’ value with 48 df

Age -.062Education -.362**

Dependency ratio of the family -.017

Farm size -.447**

Annual family income -.613**

Organizational participation -.134

Decision making capacity in the family -.166Training exposure -.095

Credit received -.324*

Ability to cope with uncertainty -.285*

Daily time allocation .041Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits .245

** Significant at the 0.01 level * Significant at the 0.05 level

Based on the computed ‘r’ value the relationship between age and extent of need for capacity

strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango was non-significant and followed a relative

trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it could be said that

age the respondents was not an important indicator for the extent of need for capacity

strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango. Sarkar (2005), Naoroze (2004), Asaduzzaman

(2003) and Begum et al. (2000) found similar relationships between age and need in their

respective studies.

The relationship between education and extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying

out PHAs of mango was significant and followed a negative trend. Hence, the concerned null

hypothesis could be rejected. Thus, it could be said that at least for the present study,

education of the respondents did not play significant role on expressing their extent of need

for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango. Education is positively significant

with family farm size and annual income (Appendix B). The women had high level of

education possess higher farm size and annual income. As a result they felt less need for

capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango as the farm size and annual income

negatively significant with need for capacity strengthening. Moreover, the multi-colinearity

of variables might have impact on such unusual outcomes.

The relationship between dependency ratio of the family and extent of need for capacity

strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango was non-significant and followed a positive

104

trend. Thus, dependency ratio of the family of the women did not play significant role on

their extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango. Ahmed

(2007) similar relationship between dependency ratio and need in her respective study.

The relationship between farm size and extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying

out PHAs of mango was significant and followed a negative trend. Hence, the concerned null

hypothesis could be rejected. Thus, it was decided that family farm and homestead size of the

women play significant role on their extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying out

PHAs of mango. Similar relationships were observed by Ahmed (2007) in her studies. Family

farm size is an important indicator of power. When the farm size increases the owners bear an

increased extent of power. Thus, the women having more family farm size felt less need for

capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango.

Relationship between family income and extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying

out PHAs of mango was significant and followed a negative trend. Hence, the concerned null

hypothesis could be rejected. Thus, it could be said that at least for the present study, family

income of the women played significant role on their extent of need for capacity

strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango. Similar relationships were observed by Ahmed

(2007), Sarkar (2005), Asaduzzaman (2003) in their respective studies. It was so, because the

families having higher income might need fewer amounts of post harvest facilities of mango.

Thus, annual family income exerted significant negative effect on the need for capacity

strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango.

The relationship between organizational participation, decision making capacity, training

exposure and extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango was

non-significant. Thus, it was inferred that these three variables of the women did not

significantly influence the extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of

mango. Bhowmick (2004) mentioned similar relationship incase of organizational

participation in his study. Ahmed (2007) and Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between

training exposures and need of the respondents their respective studies.

The relationship between credit received and extent of need for capacity strengthening in

carrying out PHAs of mango was significant and followed a negative trend. Hence, the

concerned null hypothesis could be rejected. Thus, it could be said that credit received of the

women played significant role on their extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying

out PHAs of mango. During data collection it was observed that, the respondents used loan

mostly in other business than to invest in post harvest or processing of mango due to lack of

105

sufficient facilities. This is may be reason behind the findings that the women who received

high credit felt less need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango. The

relationship between ability to cope with uncertainty and extent of need for capacity

strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango was significant and followed a negative trend.

Thus, it was concluded that ability to cope with uncertainty of the women play a significant

role on their extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of mango.

Ability to cope with uncertainty was significantly related with the extent of need for capacity

strengthening of women in carrying out PHAs of mango because the most of the respondents

had similar ability to cope with uncertain situations like accidents, crop failure, scarcity of

money, unavailability of labor etc. The relationship between daily time allocation, awareness

on nutrition of vegetables and fruits and extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying

out PHAs of mango was non-significant and followed a negative trend

1.6 Problem Confrontation in Involvement in PHAs of Mango

Constraints faced by the respondents in involving PHAs were measured through making

Scored Causal Diagrams (SCDs) of Participatory Farm Management (PFM) method.

Problems in involving PHAs were discussed with a selected group of respondents, assuming

the ‘end problem’ being ‘low involvement in PHAs (PHA) of Mango’. Firstly the problems

mentioned by the respondents were listed, secondly diagrams were drawn by them on the

ground to show causal relationships between the problems, and finally scoring of selected

problems was performed again by them. In this way SCDs was prepared by the group of

respondents (Figure 8.3). The problems identified by the group has been listed here with their

relative importance indicated by the original score numbers as shown inside the parentheses.

End problem: Low involvement in PHAs (100) of Mango.

Intermediary problems

(i) Lack of knowledge and skill (40)(ii) Low market price (25) (iii) Low decision-making ability in family (20) (iv) Conservativeness (20)(v) Lack of interest in mango processing (20)(vi) Women are restricted to go outside (15)

Root causes

(i) Lack of training on PHAs of mango (40)(ii) Social/religious barrier (15)(iii) Lack of cold storage (15)(iv) Lack of processing equipments (12)(v)) Lack of marketing facilities (8)(vi) Lack of proper packaging materials (5)(vii) Disease and pest outbreaks and lack of proper treatment (5)

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Among the ‘root’ causes ‘lack of training on PHAs of mango’ got the highest score then

‘social/religious barrier’ and ‘lack of cold storage’. It was highly logical because lack of

training caused lack of knowledge and skill resulting in low decision-making ability,

conservativeness and accordingly there was low involvement in PHAs. Social/religious

barrier keeps away the women from any improvement so their participation in PHAs were

restricted by this problem. Lack of cold storage in the study area results in low market price

of mango which ultimately resulted in low involvement. According to the score, in third

position ‘root causes’ was placed ‘lack of processing equipments’ results laziness and lack of

interest for mango processing. Then ‘lack of marketing facilities’ also results lack of interest

for mango processing which ultimately results in low involvement in PHAs. Then ‘lack of

proper packaging materials’ and ‘disease and pest out breaks and lack of proper treatment’

also cause low market price of mango and it results in low involvement in PHAs of mango.

Suggested solutions to the ‘root’ causes

Participants of the group engaged in the preparation of SCD were requested to mention

possible solutions to the ‘root’ causes of low involvement in PHAs. They made the following

suggestions through discussing with one another. Giving priority to their needs the

suggestions are presented in the following Table8.10.

Involvement of the rural women in PHAs is an important issue for empowering and

improvement of socio-economic condition of the rural people atlest for this study area. The

study reveals that participation of the rural women in PHAs was low to medium, which was

not encouraging. Now it is the time to take proper strategy and need-based support in order to

secure full participation of the rural women in PHAs. Linkage between GO, NGOs and

private sector need to be strengthened to ensure effective participation of the rural women.

The issues that might be dealt with are input and technical information supply, training,

motivation campaign and others.

107

Figure 8.3 Scored Causal Diagrams showing the involvement barrier of women in PHAs of mango

Low involvement in PHAs of Mango (100)

Lack of knowledge and skill (40)

Conservativeness (20)

Low decision-making in PHAs (20)

Low market price (25)

Lack of interest in mango processing (20)

Lack of proper packaging materials

(5)

Lack of processing

equipments (12)

Lack of marketing facilities (8)

Lack of cold storage (15)

Women are restricted to go outside (15)

Social/religious barrier (15)

Disease and pest outbreak and lack of proper treatment (5)

Lack of training on PHA of mango

(40)

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Table 8.10 Suggested solutions with ways to achieve the issues

Sl. No.

Suggested solutions Way to achieve

1. Arranging special training programs on PHAs of mango Need GOs and NGOs collaboration

2. Encouraging the rural women to participate in PHAs through different extension communication media like personal contact of extension personnel, result demonstrations, block demonstrations, television, radio, newspaper, leaflet, booklet etc.

Extension personnel should be more careful about women participation in PHAs

3. Establishment of cold storage Need GOs, NGOs andprivate sectors collaboration

4. Emphasizing the necessities of women participation among the rural people with the help of local leaders, imams, purohit etc.

Government can create special programs with the well known NGOs

5. Creating micro-credit facilities especially for the women on mango processing and exploitation of marketing facilities.

GOs and NGOs can take proper steps in this matter

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7. Case Study

Name of women: Ms ShahanaraHusband’s name: Mr Md ShahjahanAddress: Pithali Tola, Sadar Upazila, Nawabganj

Ms Shahanara was a middle aged lady of 35 years engaged in PHAs of mango along with home and homestead management. She completed primary education before she was married to Mr Shahjahan who was a farmer and grow mango as well.

Ms Shahanara lived with her husband and two children, one son and one daughter. They had about a hectare of land for cultivation with a homestead area of about 0.25 ha. Another 0.50 ha of land they cultivate under lease. Additionally, they had 0.30 ha orchard of mango. The mostly grown crops were rice, vegetables of different types, sugarcane, garlic and others. The annual income of the family was about Taka 2,50,000.

The mango garden is not so large but they used to take utmost care to produce different types of quality mango. They had trees of mango like langra, fazli, gopalbhog and khirshapat. Some of the trees are old and some are new which yield to a satisfactory level. Major part of the garden was leased out for years. Last year they leased out at Taka 3,50,000 for three years. But some of the trees they kept under their own management for own family consumption, self-sale and some processing.

Ms Shahanara showed a great zeal for processing and other PHAs of mango and other fruits. She helped her husband in taking care of mango orchard. She attended the activities of fertilizing mango trees, spraying small flowers and buds of mango, harvesting, cooling, grading, packing of mango. Especially, she used to take special care of collected mango to keep for ripening in the house which could be used for household consumption or periodic sale. Among the processing of mango she used to prepare juice manually, dense juice as amta/amshatto, amchur (dried green mango) etc.

She used to do all these PHAs through her own initiatives. She agreed that she could do some of the activities but lacked a many of the modern techniques of PHAs. She told in the way:

“I do all these PHAs from my own interest and curiosity. I learned some of these from my mother and presently from my neighbor. I like to do all these PHAs in a better way through increasing my capacity and skill. But I do not have enough skill, money and thus, scope to do more of mango PHAs. I strongly believe that if I could increase my capacity to do PHAs of mango and other fruits, better preservation and consumption of mango could be done at my house. Again, through processing of mango I could make some products which can be used at house and earn good amount of money from selling of products. To make my will true I need help from any organization or person.”

Unfortunately, she did not receive any training on PHAs of vegetables or fruits except only one day training on IPM for some crops. Yet her expected training areas were about determination of maturity index of fruits; sorting, grading, packing and storage of fruits in scientific ways; fruit disease control at house store; processing and preservation of fruits and fruit products. She did not borrow any credit from any organization but had a moderate role of decision-making in the family. Ms Shahanara was aware on nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits and used to take due care to maintain nutritive value of fruits and vegetables during harvest, cooking or consumption.

Regarding need for overall capacity building to conduct PHAs of vegetables and fruits, Ms Shahanara desired high need of it. Again on different aspects of capacity building (i.e. need for financial and decision making abilities, access to support services, management skill and physical facilities) she aspired mostly for skill development and physical facilities.

With moderate involvement in overall PHAs of vegetables and fruits, she expected training support on various aspects of PHAs of fruits, especially on mango. She thinks that related government and non-government organizations can train and help them to manage PHAs of fruits in a successful and profitable manner. This would ultimately increase the enhanced participation of rural women in PHAs of vegetables and fruits leading to better livelihood standards.

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Section 6: BANANA

This Chapter contains the findings and their logical interpretations according to the objectives

of the present study regarding banana.

1. Involvement of Rural Women in PHAs of Banana

Involvement score of the respondents in different PHAs of banana ranged from 0 to 29.17

with a mean of 19.04 and standard deviation of 5.31 (Table 9.1). On the basis of involvement,

the respondents were divided into three categories.

Table 9.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of banana

Score Range: Possible 0-100, Observed: 00-29.17Respondents Mean Standard deviation

Categories Number %

19.04 5.31Low (≤ 33) 50 100

Medium (34-66) 0 0

High (>66) 0 0

Data in the Table 9.1 show that all (100%) the women had low involvement in the PHAs of

banana. Most of the respondents had similar involvement in PHAs like storage and collection

of sucker, insect and disease control, transport from field to house, harvesting etc.

Among the selected PHAs of banana, the highest involvement of rural women was in storage

and collection of sucker followed by insect and disease control and that was lowest in cooling

of banana (Table 9.2). Sucker collection and storage are vital task in banana cultivation.

Without healthy sucker desired yield can never be obtained. Besides, some of the diseases of

banana can drastically reduce the harvest. After harvesting the bananas, they must be

transported to house immediately other wise may be degraded with the scorching sunshine

and reduced humidity. For these reasons the involvement of rural women in these activities

was higher.

Table 9.2 Ranking of total score of involvement of rural women in different PHAs of banana

PHAs Total score Rank orderStorage or collection of sucker 277 1Insect and disease control 263 2Transport from field to house 237 3Sorting and grading 123 4Ripening 71 5Packaging 36 6Washing and cleaning of banana 35 7Cooling 33 8

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2. Need for Capacity Strengthening of Rural Women

In the present study, ‘capacity strengthening’ of the rural women towards PHAs of banana

towards food security was defined as the extent to which they have the accessibility to

financial, physical, managerial and support services as well as the ability to make decision

about utilizing the PHAs of banana towards food security. Need for capacity strengthening of

women was the main focus of the present research work. Five dimensions of capacity

strengthening were selected to measure the extent of need for capacity strengthening of

women. The findings have been presented in the following subsections.

2.1 Overall need for capacity strengthening

The extent of need for capacity strengthening of women was assessed in terms of need index

for capacity strengthening (NICS). The NICS values could range from 0 to 100. The observed

NICS values ranged from 56.79 to 98.77 with an average of 79.46 and standard deviation of

8.85. Based on their NICS values the respondents were classified into three categories as

shown in Table 9.3.

Table 9.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of banana Score Range: Possible: 0-100, Observed: 56.79-98.77

Respondents Mean Std. Dev.Categories No. %

Low (≤33)

Medium (34-67)

High (>67)

0

5

45

0

10

90

79.46 8.85

Presented data showed that the most (90%) of the respondents had high extent of need and a

few (10%) of them had medium and none of them had low extent of need for capacity

strengthening in PHAs of banana towards food security. The findings clearly indicate that

most of the respondents had high need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of banana.

While collecting the data, it was observed that there was scarcity of post harvest facilities

were of banana and their storage facilities also insufficient. The respondents are not getting

appropriate price according their labour and cost of production. Thus, the respondents

logically felt high need for their capacity strengthening towards PHAs of banana.

2.2 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of rural women

Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to assess the extent of need for

capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of banana towards food security. The

computed NICS values of all the dimensions have been shown in Table 9.4.

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Table 9.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of banana

Dimension of capacity strengthening(measuring unit)

Range RespondentsMeanNICS

Std.Dev.Possible Observed Categories No. %

Need for financial ability (%) 0-100 50-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)

01238

02476

79.50 11.32

Need for decision making ability (%) 0-100 50-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)

01634

03268

78.22 14.32

Need for access to support services (%) 0-100 55.56-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)

01139

02278

78.44 13.68

Need for management skill (%)

0-100 55.56-100Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)

09

41

01882

80.22 10.36

Need for physical facilities (%) 0-100 60-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)

01040

02080

81.20 10.75

Data presented in Table 9.4 indicate that most of the women fell in high need category for

most of the dimensions of capacity strengthening. The highest proportion (82%) of the

respondents was in high need for management skill. The average need index for capacity

strengthening ranged from 78.22 to 81.20. The highest index was for physical facilities and

the lowest was for decision making ability. Findings clearly indicate that need for capacity

strengthening was about similar for all the components but need for physical facilities like

storage facilities were crucial.

Table 9.5 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondents

Items Score RankNeed for financial capitalProcessing-equipment 136 1Credit 120 2Labor purchase 112 3Capital 109 4Need for decision making abilityProcessing 141 1Storing 132 2Selling of vegetables fruits 125 3Grading 94 4Collection 92 5Need for access to support servicesAccess to credit 131 1Development workers for advice 122 2Marketing channel/facilities 116 3Preservation facilities of cold storage 114 4Transport 114 4Labor market 109 5

113

Need for management skill Processing of fruits and vegetables 136 1Handling of post harvest equipments 134 2Operational ability 127 3Financial management 112 4Market facility exploitation 111 5Preservation of seeds 102 6Need for physical facilitiesProcessing materials/equipment 136 1Store house 127 2Sales centers 117 3Processing ground 116 4Transport/vehicles 113 5

Data presented in Table 9.5 show that in case of need for financial ability, processing-

equipment scoring highest and processing was highest in case of need for decision making

ability. In case of need for access to support services, access to credit scoring highest and in

case of need for management skill, processing of fruits and vegetables scoring highest and

finally processing materials/equipment scoring highest in case of need for physical facilities.

Figure 9.1 illustrates that need for physical facilities were dominated over other dimensions

of need for capacity strengthening of the rural women in carrying out PHAs of banana. Need

for decision making ability was the lowest among five dimensions of need for capacity

strengthening. The physical facilities including processing materials, store house, sales center

etc. were lacking in the study area. Eventually they were deprived from getting appropriate

price of their produces. On the other hand, the rural women generally know when to harvest,

how to collect and when to sell the harvested banana. That is why need for capacity

strengthening was highest for physical facilities and the lowest for decision making ability.

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76

77

78

79

80

81

82

Fina

ncial a

bility

Decision mak

ing ab

ility

Acces

s to sup

port se

rvice

s

Man

agem

ent s

kill

Physica

l fac

ilities

Ave

rage

sco

re

Figure 9.1 Need for capacity strengthening regarding various dimensions

3. Selected Characteristics of the Rural Women

The selected rural women posed various characteristics that influenced their extent of need

for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of banana. For the present study, only 12

characteristics of the rural women were selected as independent variables viz. age, education,

dependency ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income, organizational participation,

awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits, daily time allocation, decision making

capacity in the family, training exposure, credit received and ability to cope with uncertainty.

The selected characteristics of the respondents have been presented in Table 9.6.

The study was conducted with the rural women who were more or less involved in PHAs of

banana. Among the respondents most of them were either young or middle aged (44 and 40%

respectively) whereas 48 and 44% of them had education at primary and secondary levels,

respectively. Most (70%) of the respondents had medium family size and half (50%) of the

respondents had low dependency ratio of the family. Majority (70%) of them had small farm

size while 12% and 18% of them in marginal and medium farm size, respectively. Farm

income of the respondents was higher than that of non-farm income. Majority of the

respondents had (42%) had medium annual family income while 34% and 24% of them had

high and low annual family income, respectively. In case of organizational participation,

more than three-fourths (76%) of the respondents had low organizational participation.

Women were highly aware of nutrition of vegetables and fruits (70%), 28% of them had

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medium awareness and only 2% had low awareness. Highest (60%) proportion of the women

had moderate time allocation while 40% of them had low time allocation for PHAs of banana

in the period of harvesting. Majority (78%) of the respondents did not have any training

experience and rest of them had short-term to mid-term training exposure.

Table 9.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of banana

Characteristics (Measurement units)

Range RespondentMean

Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %

Age (year)- 20-60

Young (≤ 30)Middle aged(31-45)Old (>45)

22208

444016

34.84 10.17

Education(year of schooling)

- 0-12

Illiterate (0)Primary (1-5)Secondary (6-10)Higher secondary (>10)

324221

648442

5.40 3.60

Family size2-8

Small (≤3)Medium (4-6)large(>6)

10355

207010

4.66 1.39

Dependency ratio of the family (ratio)

- 0-5Low (≤2)Medium (2.1-4)High (>4)

25223

50446

2.42 1.35

Farm size (hectare)

- .05-2.93

Landless ( < 0.02)Marginal (.021-.2)Small (0.21-1.0)Medium (1.1-3.0)Large (>3.0)

06

3590

01270180

0.68 .62

Annual family income (‘000’ Taka)

- 15.7-578.75Low (≤50)Medium (51-100)High (>100)

122117

244234

114 101.12

Organizational participation (score)

- 0-9Low (≤2)Moderate (3-4)High (>4)

38102

76204

1.42 1.76

Awareness (score)0-15 4-15

Less(≤5)Medium(6-10)High(>10)

11435

22870

11.86 2.39

Daily time allocation (hours) - .00-6

Low(≤3)Medium(3.1-6)High(>6)

20300

40600

3.83 1.71

Decision making capacity in the family (score)

0-40 10-40Weak (≤13)Moderate (14-26)Strong (>26)

30191

60382

14.46 6.11

Training exposure (score) - .00-90

Null (0)Short-term (1-3)Mid-term (>3)

3992

78184

2.66 12.89

Credit received(‘000’ Taka) - .00-100

Small (≤10)Medium (11-20)High (>20)

3677

721414

9.02 16.44

Ability to cope with uncertainty (score)

0-24 7-21Less (≤8)Moderate (9-16)Strong (>16)

171518

343036

13.62 5.27

Among the respondents, 72% received small credit while 14% medium and the rest 14%

received high amount of credit. The average score of ability to cope with uncertainty by the

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respondents was 13.62 and the respondents were well distributed among the categories of

ability to cope with uncertainty.

4. Training need of the women

The training need for capacity strengthening of women ranged from 36 to 46 with an average

of 40.32 and standard deviation of 3.25. Based on their NICS values the respondents were

classified into three categories as shown in Table 9.7.

Table 9.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of banana

Range Respondent Mean Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %

0-100 36-46

Low(≤24)

Medium(25-30)

High(>30)

0

0

50

0

0

100

40.32 3.25

Findings show that all of the respondents had high training need for all of the activities. The

reason behind this condition was most of the respondents had low involvement in any

developmental organization. Therefore, they received low training facilities and ultimately

their training need was high.

Data contained in Table 9.8 show that extent of training need of the rural women regarding

increasing shelf-life of fruits was the highest and ranked in first position followed by bottling

and canning and processing of banana. On the other hand, training on sorting and grading

was the lowest. It is obvious that training on the activities which require high technical

knowledge was highly needed by the rural women. For this reason, training on cooling,

sorting and grading was needed by the rural women to the lowest extent.

Table 9.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of banana

Post Harvest Activities Total Score RankIncreasing of shelf-life of fruits 149 1Bottling and canning 146 2Processing of banana (jam, jelly, chanachur etc) 145 3Handling of modern equipments for harvesting 134 4Using packaging materials 123 5Cold storage of banana 120 6Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control 119 7Biological treatments for disease and pest control 116 8Transportation and marketing of banana 116 8Chemical treatments for disease and pest control 113 9Ripening 111 10Storage in pits 108 11Storage care taking of sucker 105 12Determination of maturity index 104 13Cooling 98 14Sorting and grading 96 15

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5. Relationships between the Selected Characteristics of the Women and Their Need for Capacity Strengthening

Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation (r) was computed in order to explore

the relationships between the selected characteristics of the women and their extent of need

for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of banana. The relationship between the dependent

and independent variables has been presented in Table 9.9.

The computed ‘r’ values for all the selected characteristics of the rural women were non-

significant. Hence, the concerned null hypotheses could not be rejected. Therefore, there was

no significant relationship between the selected characteristics of the rural women and their

extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of banana. Among the variables age,

education, dependency ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income, decision making

capacity in the family, credit received, ability to cope with uncertainty and daily time

allocation of women carrying out PHAs of banana showed non-significant negative trend and

rest of the characteristics viz. organizational participation, training exposure and awareness

on nutrition of fruits and vegetables and showed non-significant positive relationship with

their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of banana.

Table 9.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables

Independent variables ‘r’ value with 48 df

Age -.184Education -.108

Dependency ratio of the family -.065Farm size -.086Annual family income -.228Organizational participation .059

Decision making capacity in the family -.057Training exposure .266Credit received -.011

Ability to cope with uncertainty -.005Daily time allocation -.106Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits .071

** Correlation is significant at 1% level of probability * Correlation is significant at 5% level of probability

Thus, it could be said that all the characteristics of the respondents were not important

indicators for the extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of banana.

Sarkar (2005), Naoroze (2004), Asaduzzaman (2003), Begum et al. (2000) and Kumari

(1999) found similar relationships between age and need in their respective studies. In the

present research, the respondent women were mostly housewives. They had been continuing

118

their livelihoods from the similar social background utilizing similar resources and facilities.

So, their level of education could not play a significant role in their extent of need for

capacity strengthening towards PHAs of banana. It should be noted that dependency ratio of

the family was computed using the total number of family members and of earning members

of the family. However, when the number of earning members of the family increases the

need for capacity strengthening did not remarkably decrease. On the other hand, need for

capacity strengthening was not noticeably influenced by the total number of family members.

Therefore, dependency ratio could not play remarkable role on the need for capacity

strengthening of rural women. In case of annual family income similar relationships were

observed by Naoroze (2004), Asaduzzaman (2003) in their respective studies. It was so,

because the families having higher income might need fewer amounts of PHAs of banana.

Thus, annual family income exerted insignificant negative effect on the need for capacity

strengthening towards PHAs of banana.

The respondents of the present study were affiliated with different organizations which did

not deal with the PHAs of banana rather just with micro-credit programs. Accordingly,

organizational participation of the respondents had no significant relationship with their need

for capacity strengthening.

A woman may have the capacity to make decision regarding household activities and she

may form this capacity from her educational status, parents socio-economic position etc.

Moreover, need for capacity strengthening depends on the availability and accessibility of the

facilities. Therefore, decision making capacity of the women in their family was not

significantly related with their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of

banana towards food security. Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between training

exposure and need of the respondents in his study.

The respondents got training from different organizations they were affiliated but a very little

training was conducted specifically regarding post harvest facilities of vegetables. This is

why need for capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of banana had no significant

relationship with their previous training experience. Ahmed (2007), Naoroze (2004) also

found this relation between training exposure and need of the respondents in his study.

The credit received also did not play any significant role on their extent of need for capacity

strengthening towards PHAs of banana. Sarkar (2005), Mahmud (2002), Hashemi et al.

(1996) and Pitt and Khandker (1995) also stated similar relationships in their respective

119

studies. The woman who received more credit had more facilities regarding PHAs of banana

to utilize her credit effectively. Thus, credit received was not significantly related with the

extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of banana.

Ability to cope with uncertainty was non-significantly related with the extent of need for

capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of banana because the most of the

respondents had similar ability to cope with uncertain situations like own accidents, crop

failure, scarcity of money, unavailability of labor etc.

As there was lack of post harvest facilities of banana in the study area, the women did not

involve themselves in PHAs of banana actively. That is why daily time allocation did not

significantly influence need of women for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of

banana. However, with the change of awareness on nutrition of banana, involvement of

women in carrying out PHA of banana and training need in carrying out PHA of banana their

need for capacity strengthening was not greatly changed.

6. Problems of Involvement in PHAs of Banana

Problems faced by the women in involvement of the PHAs of banana were measured through

making Scored Causal Diagrams (SCDs) of Participatory Farm Management methods.

Problems in involving PHAs of banana were discussed with a group of respondents,

assuming the ‘end problem’ being ‘low involvement in PHAs of banana’. Firstly the

problems mentioned by the respondents were listed, secondly diagrams were drawn by them

on the plain ground to show causal relationships between the problems, and finally scoring of

selected problems was performed again by them. In this way SCDs was prepared by the

selected group of respondents (Figure 9.3). The problems identified by the group has been

listed here with their relative importance indicated by the original score numbers as shown

inside the parentheses.

End problem: Low involvement in PHAs of banana (100)

Intermediary problems

(i) Lack of skill in PHAs (35)(ii)Less motivated to PHAs (35)(iii)Less banana for PHAs (20)(iv) Less cooperation in conducting PHAs (15)(v)Less investment (10)(vi)Unstable market of products (10)

Root causes

(i) Shortage of training on PHAs (35)

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(ii) Uncertainty of weather condition on banana cultivation (20)(iii) Low wage for women (10)(iv) Scarcity of capital (10)(v) Low marketing facilities (10)(vi) Lack of community organization for women (15)

Among the ‘root’ causes ‘shortage of training on PHAs' got the highest score then

‘uncertainty of weather condition on banana cultivation’. It was extremely rational because

shortage of training caused lack of knowledge and skill resulting less motivated to PHAs of

banana and accordingly there was low involvement in PHAs. Uncertainty of weather

condition on banana cultivation creates less banana production which ultimately results less

involvement in PHAs of banana. Low wage for women results less interest in PHAs of

banana. Scarcity of capital makes less investment in PHAs and also discouraged the women

from any development work so their involvement in PHAs was less.

Low marketing facilities make rural women uncreative. They are not able to create any

suitable marketing system for their products. Lack of community organization for women

was also one kind of barrier to involve themselves in PHAs of banana. Women are not

familiar with the preservation techniques nor any kind of information through local

organization or group. These problems can be minimized with the help of proper

collaboration with farmers and the farmers should be aware about proper channel of

information. Absence of any kind of organization for women and preservation facilities are

the great problems for the farmers.

Suggested solutions to the ‘root’ causes

Participants of the group engaged in the preparation of Scored Causal Diagram (SCD) were

requested to mention possible solutions to the ‘root’ causes of low involvement in PHAs of

banana towards food security. The respondents expressed different opinions on how these

problems could be overcome. The suggestions for the solution of the problems made by the

respondent women have been given here:

121

Figure 9.2: Scored Causal Diagrams showing the involvement barrier of rural women in PHAs of banana

Shortage of training on PHAs (35)

Low wage for women (10)

Lack of community

organization for women (15)

Scarcity of capital (10)

Low marketing facilities (10)

Uncertainty of weather condition

on banana cultivation (20)

Lack of skill in PHAs (35)

Less interest in PHAs (5)

Less banana for PHAs (20)

Less cooperation in conducting PHAs (15)

Less motivated to PHAs (35)

Low involvement in PHAs of

banana (100)

Less investment (10)

Unstable market of products (10)

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Table 9.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve the issues

Sl. No.

Suggested solutions Way to achieve

1. Increased training facilities according to their needs for increasing their knowledge and skill towards PHAs of banana as well as to have productive manpower.

GOs and NGOs collaboration is needed

2. Involving rural women in different PHAs of Banana towards food security to increase their operational ability.

Government and private organization should take initiatives

3. Establishing processing centers for the rural women to build their capacity in PHAs.

Government can create special programs with the well known NGOs

4. Emphasizing the necessities of women involvement among the rural people with the help of local leaders.

Farmers should be motivated to aware the women by different communication media

5. Establishing preservation facilities for the rural women Government and Donor organization can take proper initiatives

6. Increased credit availability according to the need of the rural women regarding post harvest facilities of banana.

GOs and NGOs can take proper steps in this matter

7. Organize rural women to create awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits

Go, NGOs And Donor Groups collaboration is needed

Involvement of the rural women in PHAs is a significant issue for controlling PHAs and

progress of socio-economic condition of the rural people. The study reveals that involvement

of the rural women in PHAs was low, which is discouraging. Thus, proper strategy and need-

based support should be ensured in order to secure full involvement of the rural women in

PHAs. Linkage between GO, NGOs and donor organizations need to be strengthened to make

successful contribution of the rural women. The issues that might be dealt with are

contribution by all and technical information supply, training, inspiration operation and

others.

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7. Case Study

Name of women: Ms MiniHusband’s name: Mr Abdur RahimAddress: Village-Korotkhola, Upazila-Shibganj, District-Bogra

Ms Mini (30 years) was engaged in PHAs (PHAs) of banana. She was basically a house wife and assisted her husband in farming. She also used to manage her small homestead where she planted some fruit trees only. She completed her primary education. Mr A Rahim (35 years) was her husband who was a banana farmer.

Ms Mini had only one son of five years. They had cultivated about 0.25 ha of land in which only banana was cultivated. Other than banana only some vegetables were cultivated. Their main income was from banana and small business. The annual income of the family was about Taka 80,000 and only from banana was about Taka 40,000. Cultivation of banana was profitable but it depended on whim of nature. If there is any natural calamity like storm or heavy rain the total production might come down to almost zero. The banana plants may fall down or the bunch of fruits may be destroyed.

Although Ms Mini used to maintain her family and homestead activities, she remained engaged in harvest and PHAs of banana. She was a credit borrower of Grameen Bank and thus, was a member women group of the locality. She did not receive any training from any organization. She expressed a moderate will to cope with any uncertainty either in her family or farming.

Ms Mini used to engage herself mostly in home and homestead activities. But a substantial time had been spent PHAs of banana in its main season. She helped his husband in harvesting banana along with other laborers. In the PHAs of banana, her involvement was mostly in sorting for ripening and then managing to sale. Especially, she was to manage the sorted out junk of banana for home consumption. She could only process some the bananas in making traditional cakes (pitha) at house level. Other processing she did not know. In spite of her moderate participation in PHAs of banana she showed her high interest in banana processing. She stated:

“I can handle the harvesting, sorting banana for ripening, and other activities in a good manner. But I do not how to process the banana for its better preservation and consumption in different ways. I am aware of banana products like cake, biscuit, chanachur, fry or chips etc. I shall be happy to learn how to process banana to prepare these stuff. It needs skill and am willing to learn the skill. I also need some materials and equipments to process banana. I feel, women interested in PHAs can form group to materialize their idea of conducting processing. Some relevant organizations can provide credit and training supports to make functional.”

Ms Mini did not receive any training on PHAs of vegetables or fruits. Her expected training areas were about to realize maturity of fruit, sorting and packing of banana for better transportation; disease control at house store; processing and preservation of banana and banana products. Ms Mini was moderately aware of nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits and she was eager to take due care to maintain nutritive value of fruits and vegetables during harvest, cooking or consumption.

Regarding need for overall capacity building to conduct PHAs of vegetables and fruits, Ms Mini expressed high need of it. About different aspects of need for capacity building she expected mostly for skill development, capital support and physical facilities. Skill development was in respect of preparation, packaging and storing of products. Marketing information and exploration of marketing channels were also felt as very important need to do well in processing of banana.

She thought that related government and non-government organizations can train up and help them to manage PHAs of vegetables in a successful and cost-effective manner. This would ultimately ensure enhanced participation of rural women in PHAs of vegetables and fruits which may direct to earn better livelihoods.

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Section 7: PINEAPPLE

This Chapter contains the findings and their logical interpretations according to the objectives

of the present study regarding pineapple.

1. Involvement of Rural Women in PHAs of Pineapple

Involvement score of the respondents in different PHAs ranged from 8.89 to 48.89 with a

mean of 27.04 and standard deviation of 9.07 (Table 10.1). On the basis of involvement, the

respondents were divided into three categories.

Table 10.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of Pineapple

Score Range: Possible 0-100, Observed: 8.89-48.89

Respondents MeanStandard deviation

Categories Number %

27.04 9.07

Low (≤ 33) 39 78

Medium (34-66) 11 22

High (>66) 0 0

Data in the Table 10.1 show that the highest (78%) proportion of the women had low

involvement while 22% of them had medium and none of them had high involvement in any

PHAs. Most of the respondents had similar involvement in PHAs like transport from field to

house, sorting and grading, cleaning, packaging and seed storage etc.

In order to investigate the participation of rural women in various PHAs of pineapple towards

food security, the works are categorized into three dimensions such as frequency of

performance, part of work done and control over decision. Each of these three categories

also has five sub-dimensions with score 0 to 3. Most of the respondents had similar

involvement in PHAs like processing, sorting and grading, ripening, drying and trimming of

stem, storage of seed etc.

The following Table 10.2 shows that the highest participation of rural women was in

processing then in sorting and grading and ripening. Insect and disease control of pineapple

was the lowest among the activities.

125

Table 10.2 Ranking of total score of involvement of rural women in different PHAs of pineapple

Post Harvest Activities Total score Rank order

Processing (making of fermented product, chutney, acher)

331 1

Sorting and grading 308 2Ripening 219 3Drying 213 4Trimming of stem 140 5Storage of seed 127 6Packaging 103 7Insect and disease control 73 8

Table 10.2 sharply represents the status of the respondents’ in different PHAs of pineapple. In

case of processing their involvement is highest due to less laborious work than other field job

like harvesting, insect and disease control, drying etc. Among other activities insect and

disease control is less because women’s level of knowledge about pest management found

low and due to physical and societal problem most of the families did not come out to field.

From the field study it was found that ‘Garo’ women were mostly involved in the PHAs of

pineapple.

2. Need for Capacity Strengthening of Rural Women

In the present study, ‘capacity strengthening’ of the rural women towards PHAs of pineapple

was defined as the extent to which they have the accessibility to financial, physical,

managerial and support services as well as the ability to make decision about utilizing the

PHAs of pineapple. Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to measure the

extent of need for capacity strengthening of women. The findings have been presented in the

following subsections.

2.1 Overall need for capacity strengthening

The extent of need for capacity strengthening of women was assessed in terms of need index

for capacity strengthening (NICS). The NICS values could range from 0 to 100. The observed

NICS values ranged from 64.20 to 98.77 with an average of 86.79 and standard deviation of

7.15. Based on their NICS values the respondents were classified into three categories as

shown in Table 10.3.

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Table 10.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of pineapple Score Range: Possible: 0-100, Observed: 64.20-98.77

RespondentsMean Std. Dev.

Categories No. %Low (≤33)

Medium (34-67)

High (>67)

0

2

48

0

4

96

86.79 7.15

Presented data show that the 96% of the respondents had high extent of need and 4% of them

had medium or low extent of need for capacity strengthening in PHAs of pineapple. The

findings clearly indicate that all of the respondents had high need for capacity strengthening

towards PHAs of pineapple. While collecting the data, it was observed in the study area that

there was scarcity of post harvest facilities of pineapple and even a little facility was available

but those were not in accessible form for the rural women. Thus, the respondents logically

felt high need for their capacity strengthening towards post harvest facilities of pineapple.

2.2 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of rural women

Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to assess the extent of need for

capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of pineapple. The computed NICS values of

all the dimensions have been shown in Table 10.4.

Table 10.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of pineappleDimension of capacity strengthening(measuring unit)

Range Respondents

MeanStd.Dev.Possible Observed Categories No. %

Need for financial ability (%) 0-100 50-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>67)

01436

02872

87.50 16.34

Need for decision making ability (%) 0-100 66.67-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>67)

06

44

01288

80.89 8.56

Need for access to support services (%) 0-100 61.11-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>67)

04

46

0892

84.78 10.81

Need for management skill (%) 0-100 72.22-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>67)

00

50

00

10090.33 8.31

Need for physical facilities (%) 0-100 66.67-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-66)High (>67)

03

47

0694

91.47 9.43

Data presented in Table 10.4 indicate that all of the women fell in high need category for all

the dimensions of capacity strengthening. The cent % of the respondents was in high need for

management skill and none of them had medium need for management, 28% had medium

127

need for financial ability and 12% had medium need for decision making ability 8% had

medium need for access to support services and 6% had need for physical abilities

respectively. It was normal that the women did not have low need for any dimensions of

capacity strengthening. It seems logical because none of the dimensions existed in

satisfactory level rather at low level. Thus, it was simple that the components available in low

quantity would be felt as high need components.

Table 10.5 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondentsItems Score Rank

Need for financial abilityProcessing-equipment 135 1Capital 134 2Credit 131 3Labor purchase 125 4Need for decision making abilityPackaging 143 1Storing 141 2Selling of vegetables & fruits 139 3Processing 128 4Collection 90 5Grading 87 6Need for access to support services Preservation facilities of cold storage 147 1Access to credit 135 2Transport 127 3Development workers for advice 125 4Marketing channel/facilities 125 5Labor market 104 6Need for management skill Handling of post harvest equipments 150 1Operational ability 141 2Preservation of seeds 134 3Financial management 133 4Processing of fruits and vegetables 129 5Market facility exploitation 126 6Need for physical facilitiesProcessing materials/equipment 148 1Sales centers 145 2Store house 144 3Transport/vehicles 125 4Processing ground 124 5

Data presented in Table 10.6 show that in case of need for financial ability, processing-

equipment scoring highest and packaging was highest in case of need for decision making

ability. In case of need for access to support services, preservation facilities scoring highest

and in case of need for management skill handling of post harvest equipments scoring highest

128

91.47

90.33

87.5

84.78

80.89

74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94

Phisical facilities

Management skill

Financial ability

Access to supportservices

Decision makingability

and finally processing materials/equipment scoring highest in case of need for physical

facilities.

Figure10.1 Involvement index of the respondents

Figure 10.1 shows that the highest need was for the physical abilities than the other need.

Need for decision making ability show the lowest need.

3. Selected Characteristics of the Rural Women

There were various characteristics of the rural women that influenced their extent of need for

capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple. In the present study, twelve

characteristics of the rural women were selected as independent variables, which included

age, education, dependency ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income,

organizational participation, decision making capacity in the family, daily time allocation,

training experience, awareness on nutrition of pineapple, credit received and ability to cope

with uncertainty. The characteristics of the respondents have been presented in Table 10.6.

Table 10.6 Personal characteristics of pineapple farmersCharacteristics (Measurement units)

Range RespondentMean

Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %

Age (year)- 19-65

Young (≤30)Middle aged(31-45)Old (>45)

20264

40528

36.10 9.28

Education(year of schooling)

- .00-11

Illiterate (0)Primary (1-5)Secondary (6-10)Higher secondary (>10)

1517162

3034324

3.64 4.12

Dependency ratio of - .00-3 Low (≤2) 46 92 1.37 .70

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the family (ratio) Medium (2.1-4)High (>4)

40

80

Farm size (hectare)

- .04-14.21

Landless ( < 0.02)Marginal (.021-.2)Small (0.21-1.0)Medium (1.01-3.0)Large (>3.0)

0224195

04483810

1.52 2.23

Annual family income (‘000’ Taka) - 5.25-482.50

Low (≤50)Medium (51-100)High (>100)

21209

424018

81.0587.2

0

Organizational participation (score) - .00-5

Low (≤2)Moderate (3-4)High (>4)

35141

70282

1.94 1.15

Awareness (score)0-15 5-14

Less(≤5)Medium(6-10)High(>10)

22226

44452

10.40 2.34

Daily time allocation (hours) - 1.5-8

Low(≤3)Medium(3.1-6)High(>6)

81527

163054

5.80 1.98

Decision making capacity in the family (score)

0-40 10-31Weak (≤13)Moderate (14-26)Strong (>26)

41333

82666

26.06 5.89

Training exposure (score) - .00-30

Null (0)Short-term (1-3)Mid-term (>3)

281012

562024

3.40 6.69

Credit received(‘000’ Taka) - .00-41

Small (≤10)Medium (11-20)High (>20)

25178

503416

12.64 9.38

Ability to cope with uncertainty (score) 0-24 6-14

Less (≤8)Moderate (9-16)Strong (>16)

23270

46540

9.10 1.95

The study was conducted with the rural women who were more or less involved in pineapple

PHAs. Among the respondents most of them were either middle or young aged (52 and 40%

respectively) whereas 34% of them had education at primary level (Table 10.6). Most of the

respondents (92%) had low dependency ratio in their family. The highest proportion (48%)

of the respondents had been observed in small farm size while 4% and 38% of them in

marginal and medium farm size. The highest proportion of the respondents had (42%) had

low annual family income while 40% and 18% of them had medium and high annual family

income respectively. In case of organizational involvement most of the respondents (70%)

had less involvement while 28% had moderate and 2% had high involvement in any

organization (Table 10.6).

Women were highly aware on nutrition of vegetables and fruits (52%), 44% of them had

medium awareness and only 4% had low awareness. Highest (54%) proportion of the women

had high time allocation while 30% of them had medium and the rest 16% of them had low

time allocation for PHAs of pineapple in the period of harvesting. About theree-fourths of the

respondents (66%) of the women had strong decision making capacity while 8% of them had

130

weak and 26% of them had medium decision making capacity in their family. Majority of the

respondents (56%) had no training exposure while 20% and 26% of them had short-term and

mid-term training experience. Half (50%) of the women had small credit received while 34%

had medium and 16% of them had high credit received circumstance. About half (46%) of the

respondents had less ability, while 54% had moderate and none of them had great ability to

cope with uncertainty (Table 10.6).

4. Training need of the women

The training need for capacity strengthening of women could range from 48 to 60 with an

average of 52.72 and standard deviation of 2.67. Based on their NICS values the respondents

were classified into three categories as shown in Table 10.7.

Table 10.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of pineapple

Range RespondentMean

Std.

Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %

0-100 48-60

Low(≤24)

Medium(25-30)

High(>30)

0

0

50

0

0

100

52.72 2.67

Findings show that all of the respondents had high training need for all of the activities. This

was because; most of the respondents had low participation in any developmental

organization. Therefore, they received low training facilities and their training need was high.

Table10.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of pineapple

ActivitiesTotal Score Rank

Storage of pineapple 150 1

Handling of modern equipment 149 2Increasing of shelf-life of pineapple 149 2Biological treatments for disease and pest control 149 2Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control 149 2Transportation and marketing of pineapple 146 3Using packaging materials 144 4Dumping and waxing 137 5Care taking of seed 129 6Ripening 127 6Chemical treatments for disease and pest control 126 7Processing of pineapple (jam, jelly, pickles etc.) 125 8Determination of maturity index 96 9Cooling 96 9Trimming of stem 96 9Sorting and grading 91 10

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Training need were ranked (Table10.8 ) according to score and among different aspects of

PHAs, women of Madhupur upazila found enthusiastic to learn techniques of storage of

pineapple and then handling of modern equipment, increasing of shelf-life of pineapple,

biological and mechanical treatments for disease and pest control. Transportation and

marketing of pineapple ranked third position. Similar to other fruits these respondents also

felt lees need for training on sorting and grading as they are habituated to done this job

following traditional methods.

5. Relationships between the Selected Characteristics of the Rural Women and Their

Extent of Need for Capacity Strengthening

Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation (r) was computed in order to explore

the relationships between the selected characteristics of the women and their extent of need

for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple towards food security. The

relationship between the dependent and independent variables has been presented in Table

10.9.

Table 10.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables

Dependent variable

Independent variables Computed ‘r’ values with 48

d.f.

Need assessment for

capacity strengthening

of rural women

Age -.001Education -.155Dependency ratio .007Farm size -.497**Annual income -.338*Organizational participation -.071Decision making ability .115Training exposure .109Credit received .065Ability to cope with uncertainty .019Daily time allocation .259Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits

-.026

** Correlation is significant at 1% level of probability* Correlation is significant at 5% level of probability

Based on the computed ‘r’ value the relationship between age and extent of need for capacity

strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple towards food security was non-significant and

followed a negative trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could be rejected. Thus, it

could be said that age the respondents was not an important indicator for the extent of need

for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple towards food security. Sarkar (2005),

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Naoroze (2004), Asaduzzaman (2003), Begum et al. (2000) and Kumari (1999) found similar

relationships between age and need in their respective studies.

The relationship between education and extent of need for capacity strengthening towards

PHAs of pineapple towards food security was non-significant and followed a negative trend.

Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be accepted. Thus, it could be concluded that

education level of the women had no significant relationship with their extent of need for

capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple. In the present research, the respondent

women were mostly housewives. They had been continuing their livelihoods from the similar

social background utilizing similar resources and facilities. So, their level of education could

not play a significant role in their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of

pineapple.

The relationship between dependency ratio of the family and extent of need for capacity

strengthening towards PHAs of vegetables and fruits was non-significant and followed a

positive trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was

concluded that dependency ratio of the family of the women could not play significant role

on their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple.

It should be noted that dependency ratio of the family was computed using the total number

of family members and of earning members of the family. When the number of earning

members of the family increases the need for capacity strengthening decreases. It was also

reflected in this study.

The relationship between farm size and extent of need for capacity strengthening towards

PHAs of pineapple was significant at 1% level of probability and followed a negative trend.

Hence, the concerned null hypothesis was rejected. Thus, it was decided that farm size of the

women affect their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple.

Farm size is an important indicator of power. When the farm size increases the owners bear

an increased extent of power. Thus, the women having more farm size felt less need for

capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple.

The relationship between family income and extent of need for capacity strengthening

towards PHAs of vegetables and fruits towards food security was significant at 5% level of

probability and followed a negative trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis was rejected.

Thus, it could be said that family income of the women played a significant role on their

133

extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple. Similar relationships

were observed by Naoroze (2004), Asaduzzaman (2003) in their respective studies. It was so,

because the families having higher income might need fewer amounts of PHAs of pineapple.

Thus, annual family income exerted significant negative effect on the need for capacity

strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple.

The relationship between organizational participation and extent of need for capacity

strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple was non-significant and followed a negative trend.

Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was inferred that

organizational participation of the women did not significantly influence the extent of need

for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple. Bhowmick (2004) mentioned similar

relationship in his study. The respondents of the present study were affiliated with different

organizations which did not deal with the PHAs of pineapple towards food security rather just

with micro-credit programs. Accordingly, organizational participation of the respondents had

no significant relationship with their need for capacity strengthening.

The relationship between decision making capacity in the family and extent of need for

capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple was non-significant and followed a

positive trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was

inferred that decision making capacity in the family of the women did not influence

significantly their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple. A

woman may have the capacity to make decision regarding household activities and she may

form this capacity from her educational status, parents socio-economic position etc.

Moreover, need for capacity strengthening depends on the availability and accessibility of the

facilities. Therefore, decision making capacity of the women in their family was not

significantly related with their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of

pineapple.

The relationship between training exposure and extent of need for capacity strengthening

towards PH facilities of pineapple was non-significant and followed a positive trend. Hence,

the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was inferred that training

exposure of the respondents was not influential to their extent of need for capacity

strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple. Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between

training exposure and need of the respondents in his study. The respondents got training from

different organizations they were affiliated but a very little training was conducted

specifically regarding post harvest facilities of pineapple. This is why need for capacity

134

strengthening of women towards PHAs of pineapple had no significant relationship with their

previous training experience.

The relationship between credit received and extent of need for capacity strengthening

towards PHAs of pineapple was non-significant and followed a positive trend. Hence, the

concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it could be said that credit received of

the women did not play significant role on their extent of need for capacity strengthening

towards PHAs of pineapple towards food security. Sarkar (2005), Mahmud (2002), Hashemi

et al. (1996) and Pitt and Khandker (1995) also stated similar relationships in their respective

studies.

The relationship between ability to cope with uncertainty and extent of need for capacity

strengthening towards post harvest facilities of pineapple was non-significant and followed a

positive trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was

concluded that ability to cope with uncertainty of the women played non-significant role on

their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of pineapple.

Ability to cope with uncertainty was non-significantly related with the extent of need for

capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of pineapple because the most of the

respondents had similar ability to cope with uncertain situations like accidents, crop failure,

scarcity of money, unavailability of labor etc.

The relationship between daily time allocation and extent of need for capacity strengthening

in carrying out PHAs of pineapple was non-significant and followed a positive trend. Hence,

the concerned null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, it was inferred that daily time

allocation of the respondents was not influential to their extent of need for capacity

strengthening in carrying out PHAs of pineapple. Ahmed (2007) and Naoroze (2004) also

found this relation between training exposure and need of the respondents in his study.

As there was lack of post harvest facilities of pineapple in the study area, the women did not

take participate in PHAs of pineapple. That is why daily time allocation did not significantly

influence need of women for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of pineapple.

The relationship between awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits of the women and

their extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of pineapple was non-

significant and followed a negative trend. Hence, the concerned null hypothesis could not be

rejected. Thus, it was inferred that awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits of the

135

respondents were not influential to their extent of need for capacity strengthening in carrying

out PHAs of pineapple.

6. Problems of Involvement in PHAs of Pineapple

Problems faced by the women in involving themselves in the PHAs of pineapple towards

food security were measured through making Scored Causal Diagrams (SCDs) of

Participatory Farm Management methods. Problems in participating PHAs of pineapple

towards food security were discussed with the respondents, assuming the ‘end problem’

being ‘low participation in PHAs of pineapple towards food security’. Firstly the problems

mentioned by the respondents were listed, secondly diagrams were drawn by them on the

plain ground to show causal relationships between the problems, and finally scoring of

selected problems was performed again by them. In this way SCDs was prepared by the

group of respondents (Figure10.2). The problems identified by the group has been listed here

with their relative importance indicated by the original score numbers as shown inside the

parentheses.

End problem: Low participation in PHAs of pineapple (100)

Intermediary problems(i) Less skill and knowledge (40)

(ii) Inability to conduct PHAs (10)

(iii) Difficulty carrying products (10)

(iv) Less social cohesion (10)

Root causes(i) Training lacking (40)

(ii) Lack of processing establishment (15)

(iii) Lack of capital (10)

(iv) Handling difficulty for spines (10)

(v) Remote production area (10)

(vi) Ethnic issues (10)

(vii) Need of transport (5)

‘Training lacking on PHAs of pineapple’ got the highest score among the ‘root’ causes then

‘lack of processing establishment’. It was reasonable because training lacking caused less

skill and knowledge. Lack of processing establishment and lack of capital creates inability to

conduct PHAs of pineapple. Handling difficulty for spines and lack of transport produces

lower involvement in PHAs of pineapple because those are not suitable for PHAs of

136

pineapple. If the transport facilities could be improve then involvement in PHAs might be

increase. Remote production area hinders the pineapple growers to involve themselves in

PHAs. Ethnic issues also have impact on PHAs of pineapple as this study was conducted in

Madhupur upazila where most of the farmers from ‘Garo’ community. Less cohesion results

low involvement in PHAs of pineapple.

Suggested solutions to the ‘root’ causes

Participants of the group engaged in the preparation of Scored Causal Diagram (SCD) were

requested to mention possible solutions to the ‘root’ causes of low participation in PHAs of

pineapple. The respondents expressed different opinions on how these problems could be

overcome. The suggestions for the solution of the problems made by the respondent women

have been given here:

Table 10.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve them

Sl. No.

Suggested solutions Way to achieve

1. Increased training facilities according to their needs for increasing their knowledge and skill towards PHAs of pineapple as well as to have efficient manpower.

GOs and NGOs collaboration is needed

2. Establishing processing centers for the rural women to build their capacity in PHAs.

Government can create special programs with the well known NGOs[

3. Increased credit availability according to the need of the rural women regarding post harvest facilities of pineapple.

GOs and NGOs can take proper steps in this matter

4. Involving rural women in different PHAs of pineapple towards food security to increase their operational ability.

Government and private organization should take initiatives

5. Emphasizing the necessities of women participation among the rural people with the help of local leaders, imams, purohit etc.

Farmers should be motivated to aware the women by different communication media

5. Establishing different community organization to create unity for the pineapple growers

Government can take proper initiatives

6. Improve road and transportation system for pineapple growing area

Go and NGOs should take collaborative steps

Involvement of the rural women in PHAs is an important concern for controlling PHAs and

improvement of socio-economic situation of the rural people. The study reveals that

participation of the rural women in PHAs was low to medium, which is encouraging. Thus,

proper strategy and need-based support should be ensured in order to secure full participation

of the rural women in PHAs. Linkage between GO and NGOs need to be strengthened to

ensure valuable contribution of the rural women. The issues that might be dealt with are

technical information and credit supply, training, inspiration movement and others.

137

Low involvement in PHAs of pineapple [100]

Need of transport [5]

Ethnic issues [10]

Lack of capital [10]

Lack of processing

establishment [15]

Training lacking [40]

Remote production area [10]

Handling difficulty for spines [10]

Less social cohesion [10]

Difficulty carrying products [10]

Less skill and knowledge [40]

Inability to conduct PHAs [25]

Figure 10.2: Scored Causal Diagrams showing the involvement barrier of rural women in PHAs of pineapple

138

7. Case Study

Name of women: Ms Maria RemaHusband’s name: Mr Bipul MriAddress: Dokhola, Madhupur, Tangail

Ms Maria Rema, a lady of 27 years was engaged in PHAs (PHAs) of pineapple. She was mainly a house wife and assisted her husband in farming. She also used to manage her small homestead where she planted some fruit trees only. She completed her Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and then was married to Mr Bipul Mri who was a farmer of 40 years old and used to grow pineapple.

Ms Maria Rema had only one son and he had been working at Dhaka. They had cultivated about 2.75 ha of land in which pineapple was cultivated along with other crops. Other than pineapple only some vegetables and banana were cultivated. Their main income was from pineapple, job in NGO and small business. The annual income of the family was about Taka 2,20,000 and only from pineapple was about Taka 1,00,000 and the return was considered profitable.

Ms Rema used to remain engaged in harvest and PHAs of pineapple. She was a credit borrower of Grameen Bank and received training from DAE on IPM and poultry rearing. She possessed a moderate ability to cope with any uncertainty either in her family or farming.

Ms Maria Rema used to engage herself mostly in home and homestead activities. But a considerable time had been spent in harvest and PHAs of pineapple in its peak season. She helped his husband in harvesting pineapple along with other laborers. In the PHAs of pineapple, her involvement was mostly in sorting and packing. She needed to spend a very long hours in early morning during the harvest of pineapple. She could only process some the pineapples in making juice at house level and she did not know other processing. In spite of her moderate participation in PHAs of pineapple she showed her high interest in pineapple processing. She averred:

“I can handle the harvesting, sorting, grading and packing, and other activities in a good manner through working experience. But I do not how to process the pineapple for its better preservation and consumption in different ways. I heard of pineapple products like jam, jelly and juice. I am eager to learn how to process pineapple to prepare these things. It needs skill and am willing to learn the skill. I also need some materials and equipments to process pineapple. Some relevant organizations can provide credit and training supports to make groups to conduct such processing activities.”

Ms Maria did not receive any training on PHAs of vegetables or fruits. Her expected training areas were about to realizing maturity of fruit, sorting, grading and packing of pineapple for better transportation; disease control; processing and preservation of pineapple and its products. She was moderately aware of nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits but she wanted to take due care to maintain nutritive value of fruits and vegetables during harvest, cooking or consumption.

Regarding need for overall capacity building to conduct PHAs of vegetables and fruits, she expressed high need for it. About different aspects of need for capacity building she expected mostly for skill development and physical facilities like equipments, cool chamber etc. Skill development was for preparation, packaging and storing of products. Marketing information and exploration of marketing channels were also felt as very important need to do well in processing of pineapple.

She expected training support on various aspects of PHAs of different fruits, especially on pineapple. She thought that related government and non-government organizations can trainup and help them to manage PHAs of fruits in a successful and commercial manner. This would ultimately ensure enhanced participation of rural women in PHAs of vegetables and fruits which may direct to earn better livelihood.

139

Section 8: GUAVA

This Chapter contains the findings and their logical interpretations according to the objectives

of the present study regarding guava.

1. Involvement of Rural Women in PHAs of Guava

Involvement score of the respondents in different PHAs of guava ranged from 6.06 to 51.52

with a mean of 28.61 and standard deviation of 10.32 (Table 11.1). On the basis of

involvement, the respondents were divided into three categories.

Table 11.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of guava

Score Range: Possible 0-100, Observed: 6.06-51.52

Respondents MeanStandard deviation

Categories Number %

28.61 10.32Low (≤ 33) 29 58

Medium (34-66) 21 42

High (>66) 0 0

Data in the Table 11.1 show that more than half (58%) of the women had low involvement

and the rest 42% of them had medium involvement in the PHAs of guava. Most of the

respondents had similar involvement in PHAs like storage of seed, sorting and grading, insect

and disease control, transport from field to house, processing etc.

Among the selected PHAs of guava, the highest involvement of rural women was in storage

of seed followed by sorting and grading and that was lowest in trimming of stem of guava

(Table 11.2). Seed storage is vital task in guava cultivation. Without healthy seed desired

yield can never be obtained. Besides, right price cannot be obtained without proper sorting

and grading. That is why involvement of rural women in storage of seed and sorting and

grading were higher than other PHAs.

Table 11.2 Ranking of total score of involvement of rural women in different PHAs of guava

Post Harvest Activities Total score

Rank order

Storage of seed 349 1Sorting and grading 298 2Packaging 135 3Washing and drying of guava 124 4Insect and disease control 115 5Transport to the market 85 6Processing of sauce, pickles and chutney 49 7Trimming of stem 27 8

140

2. Need for Capacity Strengthening of Rural Women

In the present study, ‘capacity strengthening’ of the rural women towards PHAs of guava was

defined as the extent to which they have the accessibility to financial, physical, managerial

and support services as well as the ability to make decision about utilizing the PHAs of

guava. Need for capacity strengthening of women was the main focus of the present research

work. Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to measure the extent of need

for capacity strengthening of women. The findings have been presented in the following

subsections.

2.1 Overall need for capacity strengthening

The extent of need for capacity strengthening of women was assessed in terms of need index

for capacity strengthening (NICS). The NICS values could range from 0 to 100. The observed

NICS values ranged from 54.32 to 100 with an average of 80.44 and standard deviation of

13.11. Based on their NICS values the respondents were classified into three categories as

shown in Table 11.3.

Table 11.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of guava Score Range: Possible: 0-100, Observed: 54.32-100

RespondentsMean Std. Dev.

Categories No. %Low (≤33)

Medium (34-67)

High (>67)

0

12

38

0

24

76

80.44 13.11

Presented data showed that the most (76%) of the respondents had high extent of need and

24% of them had medium and none of them had low extent of need for capacity

strengthening in PHAs of guava.

The findings clearly indicate that most of the respondents had high need for capacity

strengthening towards PHAs of guava. It was noticed that there was scarcity of post harvest

facilities of guava and their storage facilities also insufficient. The respondents are not getting

appropriate price according their labour and cost of production. Thus, the respondents

logically felt high need for their capacity strengthening towards PHAs of guava.

2.2 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of rural women

Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to assess the extent of need for

capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of guava. The computed NICS values of all

the dimensions have been shown in Table 11.4.

141

Table 11.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of guavaDimension of capacity strengthening(measuring unit)

Range RespondentsMeanNICS

Std.Dev.Possible Observed Categories

No.%

Need for financial ability (%) 0-100 41.67-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)

01337

02674

80.67 19.38

Need for decision making ability (%) 0-100 22.22-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)

11435

22870

75.67 15.42

Need for access to support services (%) 0-100 55.56-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)

0941

01882

78.89 12.85

Need for management skill (%)

0-100 55.56-100Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)

0743

01486

83.78 12.29

Need for physical facilities (%) 0-100 53.33-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)

01238

02476

83.87 14.32

Table 11.5 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondentsItems Score Rank

Need for financial capitalCapital 134 1Credit 123 2Processing-equipment 126 3Labor purchase 101 4Need for decision making abilitySelling of guava 143 1Processing 141 2Storing 136 3Packaging 122 4Collection 72 5Grading 72 5Need for access to support servicesPreservation facilities of cold storage 143 1Marketing channel/facilities 125 2Transport 122 3Access to credit 115 4Development workers for advice 112 5Labor market 93 6Need for management skill Processing of guava 143 1Handling of post harvest equipments 141 2Market facility exploitation 127 3Financial management 119 4Operational ability 118 5Preservation of seeds 115 6Need for physical facilitiesStore house 139 1Sales centers 136 2Transport/vehicles 118 3Processing ground 100 4Processing materials/equipment 82 5

142

Data presented in Table 11.4 indicate that most of the women fell in high need category for

all the dimensions of capacity strengthening. The highest proportion (86%) of the

respondents was in high need for management skill. The average need index for capacity

strengthening ranged from 75.67 to 83.87. The highest index was for physical facilities and

the lowest was for decision making ability. Findings clearly indicate that need for capacity

strengthening was about similar for all the components but need for physical facilities like

storage facilities was crucial because physical facilities were lacking in the study area.

Data presented in Table 11.5 show that in case of need for financial ability, capital had the

highest score and selling of guava was highest in case of need for decision making ability. In

case of need for access to support services, preservation facilities of cold storage was scored

highest and in case of need for management skill, processing of guava was highest and finally

store house had the highest score in case of need for physical facilities. However, selling of

guava, preservation facilities of cold storage and processing of guava were ranked in the first

position since they had the highest score. This indicates that the rural women need to be

immediately strengthened regarding these PHAs of guava.

Figure 11.1 illustrates that need for physical facilities were dominated over other dimensions

of need for capacity strengthening of the rural women in carrying out PHAs of guava towards

food security. Need for decision making ability was the lowest among five dimensions of

need for capacity strengthening. The physical facilities including processing materials, store

house, sales center, transport vehicles etc. were lacking in the study area. Eventually they

were being deprived from getting appropriate price of their produces. On the other hand, the

rural women decide upon harvesting, processing and selling of guava based on their

experience. That is why need for capacity strengthening was highest for physical facilities

and the lowest for decision making ability.

3. Selected Characteristics of the Women

The selected rural women possessed various characteristics that influenced their extent of

need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of guava. For the present study, only 12

characteristics of the rural women were selected as independent variables viz. age, education,

dependency ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income, organizational participation,

awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits, daily time allocation, decision making

capacity in the family, training exposure, credit received and ability to cope with uncertainty.

The selected characteristics of the respondents have been presented in Table 11.6.

143

80.67

75.67 78.89 83.78

83.87

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Financ

ial ab

ility

Decisi

on m

aking

abili

ty

Acces

s to s

uppo

rt se

rvice

s

Man

agem

ent s

kill

Physic

al fa

ciliti

es

Figure 11.1 Need for capacity strengthening regarding various dimensions

The study was conducted with the rural women who were more or less involved in PHAs of

guava. About half (48%) of the respondents were middle aged while 36% and 16% of them

were young and old, respectively. Among the respondents 46% had education at secondary

level while 38% of them had primary level of education. Half (50%) of the respondents had

medium dependency ratio of the family. Most (60%) of the respondents had small farm size.

Majority (52%) of the respondents had low annual family income while 30% and 18% of

them had medium and high annual family income, respectively. In case of organizational

participation, more than three-fourths (80%) of the respondents had low organizational

participation. Among the selected women 62% were highly aware of nutrition of vegetables

and fruits while 36% of them had medium awareness. The highest (80%) proportion of the

women had moderate time allocation for PHAs of guava in the period of harvesting.

Majority (86%) of the respondents did not have any training experience and rest of them had

short-term to mid-term training exposure. Among the respondents, 56% received small credit

while 16% medium and the rest 28% received high amount of credit. The average score of

144

ability to cope with uncertainty by the respondents was 9.52 and majority (70%) of the

respondents had less ability to cope with uncertainty.

Table 11.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of guava

Characteristics (Measurement

units)

Range RespondentMean

Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %

Age(year) - 21-65

Young (≤30)Middle aged(31-45)Old (>45)

18248

364816

37.1610.7

0

Education(year of schooling)

- 0-14

Illiterate (0)Primary (1-5)Secondary (6-10)Higher secondary (>10)

519233

1038466

5.34 4.48

Dependency ratio of the family (ratio) - 0-9.00

Low (≤2)Medium (2.1-4)High (>4)

19256

385012

3.02 1.48

Farm size (hectare)

- .02-4.92

Landless ( < 0.02)Marginal (.021-.2)Small (0.21-1.0)Medium (1.1-3.0)Large (>3.0)

17

30111

21460222

0.75 0.80

Annual family income (‘000’ Taka) - 4.0-282.5

Low (≤50)Medium (51-100)High (>100)

26159

523018

62.8451.3

3

Organizational participation (score) - 0-8

Low (≤2)Moderate (3-4)High (>4)

4082

80164

1.26 1.61

Awareness (score)0-15 6-15

Less(≤5)Medium(6-10)High(>10)

01832

03664

11.18 2.55

Daily time allocation (hours) - 0-8

Low(≤3)Medium(4-6)High(>6)

16313

32626

3.71 1.80

Decision making ability in the family (score)

0-40 0-40Weak (≤13)Moderate (14-26)Strong (>26)

6404

12808

20.28 6.0

Training exposure (score) - 0-21

Null (0)Short-term (1-3)Mid-term (>3)

4325

864

101.50 4.53

Credit received(‘000’ Taka) - 0-80

Small (≤10)Medium (11-20)High (>20)

288

14

561628

15.5019.0

6

Ability to cope with uncertainty (score) 0-24 6-21

Less (≤8)Moderate (9-16)Strong (>16)

35132

70264

9.52 3.27

4. Training need of the women

The training need for capacity strengthening of women ranged from 17 to 36 with an average

of 27.80 and standard deviation of 3.77. Based on their NICS values the respondents were

classified into three categories as shown in Table 11.7.

145

Table 11.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of guava

Range RespondentMean Std. Dev.

Possible Observed Category No. %

0-100 17-36

Low(≤24)

Medium(25-30)

High(>30)

7

31

12

14

62

24

27.80 3.77

Findings show that most (62%) of the respondents had medium training need for all of the

activities while 24 and 14% of them had high and low training need, respectively. Most of the

respondents had low involvement in any developmental organization. They (86% of the

respondents) received no training on PHAs of guava (Table 11.6). Therefore, their training

need was medium to high.

Table 11.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of guava

Activities Total Score Rank

Storage 142 1

Increasing shelf-life of fruits 140 2Processing and preservation of guava 140 2Using packaging materials 130 3Transportation and marketing of guava 120 4Biological treatments for disease and pest control 119 5Handling of modern equipment for harvesting 114 6Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control 114 6Chemical treatments for disease and pest control 113 7Preservation and care taking of seeds 113 7Sorting and grading 78 8

Determination of maturity index 67 9

Data contained in Table 11.8 show that extent of training need of the rural women regarding

increasing storage was the highest and ranked in first position followed by increasing shelf-

live of fruits and processing and preservation of guava. On the other hand, determination of

maturity index was the lowest. It is obvious that training on the activities which require high

technical knowledge was highly needed by the rural women. For this reason, training on

sorting and grading and determination of maturity index was needed by the rural women to

the lowest extent.

5. Selected Characteristics of the Rural Women and Their Extent of Need for Capacity Strengthening

Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation (r) was computed in order to explore

the relationships between the selected characteristics of the women and their extent of need

146

for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of guava towards food security. The relationship

between the dependent and independent variables has been presented in Table 11.9.

The computed ‘r’ values for age, ability to cope with uncertainty and daily time allocation for

PHAs of vegetables and fruits of the rural women were significant. Hence, the concerned null

hypotheses were rejected. Those meant that there was significant relationship between these

characteristics of the rural women and their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards

PHAs of guava. However, age had positively significant relationship whereas ability to cope

with uncertainty and daily time allocation for PHAs of vegetables and fruits had negatively

significant relationship with their need for capacity strengthening. The rest of the

characteristics namely dependency ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income,

organizational participation, decision making capacity in the family, training exposure, credit

received and awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits of the respondents did not have

any significant relationship with the same.

Table 11.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables

Independent variables ‘r’ value with 48 df

Age 0.428**

Education 0.045

Dependency ratio of the family 0.157Farm size -0.105

Annual family income -0.119

Organizational participation 0.024 Decision making capacity in the family 0.108 Training exposure 0.039 Credit received -0.163 Ability to cope with uncertainty -0.462**

Daily time allocation -0.497** Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits

-0.192

** Significant at the 0.01 level * Significant at the 0.05 level

Thus, it could be said that age, ability to cope with uncertainty, daily time allocation for

PHAs of vegetables and fruits were important indicators for the extent of need for capacity

strengthening towards PHAs of guava.

The aged respondents had more experience in guava cultivation but they lacked in technical

information regarding different issues of guava cultivation. So, aged women required more

capacity strengthening for PHA of guava.

147

In the present research, the respondent women were mostly housewives. They had been

continuing their livelihoods from the similar social background utilizing similar resources

and facilities. So, their level of education could not play a significant role in their extent of

need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of guava.

The respondents of the present study were affiliated with different organizations which did

not deal with the PHAs of guava rather just with micro-credit programs. Accordingly,

organizational participation of the respondents had no significant relationship with their need

for capacity strengthening.

A woman may have the capacity to make decision regarding household activities and she

may form this capacity from her educational status, parents socio-economic position etc.

Moreover, need for capacity strengthening depends on the availability and accessibility of the

facilities. Therefore, decision making capacity of the women in their family was not

significantly related with their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of

guava. Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between training exposure and need of the

respondents in his study.

The respondents got training from different organizations they were affiliated but a very little

training was conducted specifically regarding post harvest facilities of vegetables. This is

why need for capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of guava had no significant

relationship with their previous training experience. Ahmed (2007) and Naoroze (2004) also

found this relation between training exposure and need of the respondents in his study.

The credit received also did not play any significant role on their extent of need for capacity

strengthening in carrying out PHAs of guava. Sarkar (2005), Mahmud (2002), Hashemi et al.

(1996) and Pitt and Khandker (1995) also stated similar relationships in their respective

studies. The women who had more ability to cope with uncertainty required less capacity

strengthening and vise versa. So, the negative significant relationship was found between

ability to cope with uncertainty and need for capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs

of guava. Probably, their better ability to cope with uncertainty led them to feel less need for

capacity strengthening. The women respondents were involved in PHAs of guava actively.

That is why daily time allocation significantly influenced the extent of need of women for

capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of guava. Those who were more involved in

148

PHAs gained more experience and skill in it and thus, felt lesser need for further capacity

development in the same area.

6. Problems in Using up PHAs of Guava towards Food Security

Problems faced by the women in using up the PHAs of guava towards food security were

measured through making Scored Causal Diagrams (SCDs) of Participatory Farm

Management methods. Problems in involving PHAs of guava were discussed with a selected

group of respondents, assuming the ‘end problem’ being ‘low involvement in PHAs of

guava’. Firstly the problems mentioned by the respondents were listed, secondly diagrams

were drawn by them on the plain ground to show causal relationships between the problems,

and finally scoring of selected problems was performed again by them. In this way SCDs was

prepared by the group of respondents (Figure 11.2). The problems identified by the group has

been listed here with their relative importance indicated by the original score numbers as

shown inside the parentheses.

End problem: Low involvement in PHAs of guava (100)

Intermediary problems(i) Less skill and knowledge [35](ii) Less motivation for PHAs [60](iii) Less cooperation to work [15]

Root causes(i) Lack of training on PHAs [35](ii) Poor transportation [20](iii) No local women group [20](iv) Lack of processing material [10](v) Lack of capital [10](vi) Religious barrier [5]

‘Lack of training on PHAs' secured the highest score among the ‘root’ causes then ‘poor

transportation’. It was much rational because lack of training caused less skill and knowledge

and resulting in less motivation for PHAs of guava. Due to ‘poor transportation’ the people of

Sharupkathi failed to get appropriate cost of production. Their major transport systems were

by boat, steamer, launch etc. No ‘pacca’ road yet developed from the selected site to carry

their products from the farmers. So guava farmers deprived to get their cost of production day

by day. The women expressed with grief that they need urgently a good communication with

other districts especially Dhaka to export their products. So they are not motivating to PHAs

of guava. ‘no local women group’ found in the area. Lack of any women group no supportive

group found to do any advance work for the women related to PHAs of Guava.

149

Lack of processing material creates unproductive rural women. Due to this problem women

who are interested in PHAs of guava could not prepare any items with huge amount of guava

after harvesting. For that reason there was low involvement in PHAs.

Lack of capital and lack of processing materials also results less involvement in PHAs of

tomato. So most of their products decomposed and due to lowest price they destroy their

guava thrown in river. It is very much pathetic experience from the site. Religious barrier

kept away the women from any development work and they became less motivated to involve

themselves in PHAs of guava. As a result there was unacceptable involvement in PHAs of

guava.

Table 11.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve the suggested solutionSl. No.

Suggested solutions Way to achieve

1. Increased training facilities according to their needs for increasing their knowledge and skill towards PHAs of guava as well as to have efficient manpower.

GOs and NGOs collaboration is needed

2. Increase facilities to preserve guava for long term use to minimize loss of production

GO and NGO and Donor organizations can take proper steps

3. Road and transportation system should be developed Go and Donor organization should go ahead immediately

4. Involving rural women in different PHAs of guava to increase their operational ability.

Government and private organizations should take initiatives

5. Establishing processing centers for the rural women to build their capacity in PHAs.

Government can create special programs with the well known NGOs

6. Emphasizing the necessities of women involvement among the rural people with the help of local leaders and others.

Farmers should be motivated to aware the women by different communication media

7. Women group formation with the help of different Go and NGOs

Government should concern with NGOs and Donor organizations

8. Increased credit availability according to the need of the rural women regarding PH facilities of Guava.

GOs and NGOs can take proper steps in this matter

Suggested solutions to the ‘root’ causes

Participants of the selected group occupied in the preparation of Scored Causal Diagram

(SCD) were requested to mention possible solutions to the ‘root’ causes of low involvement

in PHAs of guava. The respondents uttered diverse opinions on how these problems could

be overcome. The suggestions for the solution of the problems made by the respondent

women have been given Table 11.10.

Involvement of the rural women in PHAs is a fundamental issue for controlling PHAs and

development of socio-economic circumstance of the rural people. The study reveals that

150

involvement of the rural women in PHAs was low to medium which is not so optimistic.

Thus, proper move toward should be ensured in order to secure inclusive involvement of the

rural women in PHAs. Linkage between GO and NGOs and donor organization need to be

strengthened and need-based system should be developed to ensure supportive involvement

of the rural women. The issues that might be dealt with are credit and technical information

supply, training and demonstration, motivation campaign and others.

Low participation of women in PHAs of

Guava [100]

Lack of training on PHAs [35]

Busy with household works [15]

Religious barrier[10] Less skill and

knowledge [35]

Less motivation for PHAs [60]

Lack of processing material [15]

No local women group [20]

Lack of capital[5]

Less cooperation to work [20]

151

7. Case Study

Name of women: Ms Kazal Mazumder Husband’s name: Mr Anil Chandra MazumderAddress: Kuriana. Nesarabad, Pirojpur

Ms Kazal Mazumder, a lady of 40 years was engaged in PHAs (PHAs) of guava. She was basically a house wife and assisted her husband in farming. She also used to manage her small homestead where she planted some fruit trees only. She completed her primary education and then was married to Mr Anil Chandra Mazumder. Mr Mazumder (50 years) was a guava farmer.

Ms Mazumder had only one son and he had been working at Dhaka. They had cultivated about 0.25 ha of land in which only guava was cultivated. Other than guava only some vegetables were cultivated in the trench of guava land. Their main income was from guava and small business. The annual income of the family was about Taka 1,00,000 and only from guava was about Taka 40,000. Cultivation of guava is profitable but it depends on whim of nature. If there is any natural calamity like flood, tidal bore or cyclone the total production might come down to almost zero.

The total land was under guava cultivation in the form of trench as it was a low-lying area which remains under water almost around the year. Yet, in the recent days, guava had been cultivated with good profit if it was not hit by any natural disaster.

Although Ms Mazumder used to maintain her family and homestead activities, she remained engaged in harvest and PHAs of guava. She was a credit borrower of BRAC and thus, was a member women group of the locality but did not receive any training from any organization. She expressed a moderate will to cope with any uncertainty either in her family or farming.

Ms Mazumder used to engage herself mostly in home and homestead activities. But a substantial time had been spent in harvest and PHAs of guava in its main season. She helped his husband in harvesting guava along with other laborers. In the PHAs of guava, her involvement was mostly in sorting, grading and packing. She needed to spend a very long hours in early morning during the harvest of guava. Especially, she was to manage the sorted out junk of guava for home consumption. She could only process some the guavas in making jam at house level. Other processing she did not know. In spite of her moderate participation in PHAs of guava she showed her high interest in guava processing. She averred:

“I can handle the harvesting, sorting, grading and packing, and other activities in a good manner through working experience. But I do not how to process the guava for its better preservation and consumption in different ways. I am aware of guava products like jam, jelly and juice. I shall be happy to learn how to process guava to prepare these things. It needs skill and am willing to learn the skill. I also need some materials and equipments to process guava. I feel, women interested in PHAs can form group to materialize their idea of conducting processing. Some relevant organizations can provide credit and training supports to make functional.”

Ms Mazumder did not receive any training on PHAs of vegetables or fruits. Her expected training areas were about to realizing maturity of fruit, sorting, grading and packing of guava for better transportation; disease control at house store; processing and preservation of guava and guava products. Ms Mazumder was moderately aware of nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits but she wanted to take due care to maintain nutritive value of fruits and vegetables during harvest, cooking or consumption.

Regarding need for overall capacity building to conduct PHAs of vegetables and fruits, Ms Mazumder expressed high need of it. About different aspects of need for capacity building she expected mostly for skill development, capital support and physical facilities. Skill development areas were regarding preparation, packaging and storing of products. Marketing information and exploration of marketing channels were also felt as very important need to do well in processing of guava.

With moderate involvement in PHAs of guava, she expected training support on various aspects of PHAs of fruits, especially on guava. She thought that related government and non-government organizations can train up and help them to manage PHAs of fruits in a successful and cost-effective manner. This would ultimately ensure enhanced participation of rural women in PHAs of vegetables and fruits which may direct to earn better livelihood.

152

Section 9: Orange

This Chapter contains the findings and their logical interpretations according to the objectives

of the present study regarding orange.

1. Involvement of Rural Women in PHAs of Orange

Involvement score of the respondents in different PHAs of orange ranged from 20.51 to 52.14

with a mean of 31.37 and standard deviation of 6.43 (Table 12.1). On the basis of

involvement, the respondents were divided into three categories.

Table 12.1 Distribution of the respondents according to their involvement in PHAs of orange

Score Range: Possible 0-100, Observed: 20.51-52.14Respondents Mean Standard deviation

Categories Number %

31.73 6.43

Low (≤ 33) 39 78

Medium (34-66) 11 22

High (>66) 0 0

Data in the Table 12.1 show that more than three-fourths (78%) of the women had low

involvement and the rest 22% of them had medium involvement in the PHAs of orange. Most

of the respondents had similar involvement in PHAs like sorting and grading, insect and

disease control and packaging etc.

Among the selected PHAs of orange, the highest involvement of rural women was in sorting

and grading of orange. Insect and disease control of orange was in the second position (Table

12.2). On the other hand, transport to the market was the lowest because it was noticed in the

study area that the transportation system was so tough due to no well-developed road

construction. Rural women did not did not come out from their house due to social barrier.

Table 12.2 Ranking of total score of the extent of involvement in different PHAs of orange

PHAs Total score Rank order

Sorting and grading 384 1Insect and disease control 292 2Packaging 288 3Ripening 230 4Transport from field to processing house 114 5Cooling 73 6Drying 64 7Transport to the market 23 8

153

2. Need for Capacity Strengthening of Rural Women

In the present study, ‘capacity strengthening’ of the rural women towards PHAs of orange

was defined as the extent to which they have the accessibility to financial, physical,

managerial and support services as well as the ability to make decision about utilizing the

PHAs of orange. Need for capacity strengthening of women was the main focus of the

present research work. Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to measure

the extent of need for capacity strengthening of women. The findings have been presented in

the following subsections.

2.1 Overall need for capacity strengthening

The extent of need for capacity strengthening of women was assessed in terms of need index

for capacity strengthening (NICS). The NICS values could range from 0 to 100. The observed

NICS values ranged from 66.67 to 100 with an average of 85.75 and standard deviation of

9.01. Based on their NICS values the respondents were classified into three categories as

shown in Table 12.3.

Table 12.3 Distribution of the respondents according to NICS of women in conducting PHAs of orange Score Range: Possible: 0-100, Observed: 66.67-100

RespondentsMean Std. Dev.

Categories No. %Low (≤33)

Medium (34-67)

High (>67)

0

0

50

0

0

100

85.75 9.01

Presented data showed that all (100%) of the respondents had high extent of need and none of

them had low and medium extent of need for capacity strengthening in PHAs of orange.

The findings clearly indicate that all the respondents had high need for capacity strengthening

towards PHAs of orange. It was noticed that there was acute scarcity of post harvest facilities

of orange and their storage facilities also insufficient. The respondents are not getting

appropriate price according their labour and cost of production. Thus, the respondents

logically felt high need for their capacity strengthening towards PHAs of orange.

2.2 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of rural women

Five dimensions of capacity strengthening were selected to assess the extent of need for

capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of orange towards food security. The

computed NICS values of all the dimensions have been shown in Table 12.4.

154

Table 12.4 Dimension-wise need for capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of orange

Dimension of capacity strengthening(measuring unit)

Range RespondentsMeanNICS

Std.Dev.Possible Observed Categories

No.%

Need for financial ability (%) 0-100 66.67-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)

00

50

00

10089.67 9.90

Need for decision making ability (%) 0-100 66.67-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)

00

50

00

10084.89 10.83

Need for access to support services (%) 0-100 66.67-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)

00

50

00

10081.00 9.66

Need for management skill (%)

0-100 66.67-100Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)

00

50

00

10084.78 8.82

Need for physical facilities (%) 0-100 66.67-100

Low (≤33)Medium (34-67)High (>67)

00

50

00

10090.53 10.27

Data presented in Table 12.4 indicate that all (100%) the women fallen in high need category

for all the dimensions of capacity strengthening. The highest average need for capacity

strengthening (90.53) was for physical facilities and the lowest average (81) was for access to

support services. Findings clearly indicate that need for capacity strengthening was about

similar for all the components but need for physical facilities like storage facilities was

crucial because physical facilities were lacking in the study area.

Table 12.5 Ranking of the issues of need of the respondents

Item Score Rank

Financial abilityCapital 143 1Credit 143 1Processing-equipment 142 2Labor purchase 110 3Decision making ability Processing 143 1Storing 143 1Selling of vegetables fruits 138 2Grading 114 3Packaging 113 4Collection 113 4Access to support servicesPreservation facilities of cold storage 142 1Access to credit 136 2Marketing channel/facilities 118 3Transport 113 4Development workers for advice 112 5Labor market 108 6

155

Management skillProcessing of fruits and vegetables 142 1Handling of post harvest equipments 141 2Operational ability 140 3Financial management 118 4Market facility exploitation 115 5Preservation of seeds 107 6Access to physical facilitiesProcessing materials/equipment 143 1Store house 141 2Sales centers 141 2Processing ground 140 3Transport/vehicles 114 4

Data presented in Table 12.5 show that in case of need for financial ability, capital and credit

had the highest score and processing and storing were highest in case of need for decision

making ability. In case of need for access to support services, preservation facilities of cold

storage was scored highest and in case of need for management skill, processing of fruits and

vegetables was highest and finally processing materials/equipment had the highest score in

case of need for physical facilities. However, capital, credit, processing, storing, and

processing materials/equipments were ranked in the first position since they had the highest

score. This indicates that the rural women need to be immediately strengthened regarding

these PHAs.

Figure 12.1 illustrates that need for physical facilities was dominated over other dimensions

of need for capacity strengthening of the rural women in carrying out post harvest activities

of orange. Need for access to support services was the lowest among five dimensions of need

for capacity strengthening. The physical facilities including processing materials, store house,

sales center etc. were lacking in the study area. Eventually they were being deprived from

getting appropriate price of their produces. On the other hand, the rural women had better

access to different support services such as labor market, transport facilities, advice from

development workers etc. That is why need for capacity strengthening was highest for

physical facilities and the lowest for access to support services.

156

20%

20%

19%

20%

21%

Financial ability

Decision making ability

Access to supportservices Management skill

Physical facilities

Figure 12.1 Need for capacity strengthening regarding various dimensions

3. Selected Characteristics of the Rural Women

The selected rural women posed various characteristics that influenced their extent of need

for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of orange. For the present study, only 12

characteristics of the rural women were selected as independent variables viz. age, education,

dependency ratio of the family, farm size, annual family income, organizational participation,

awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits, daily time allocation, decision making

capacity in the family, training exposure, credit received and ability to cope with uncertainty.

The selected characteristics of the respondents have been presented in Table 12.6.

The study was conducted with the rural women who were more or less involved in PHAs of

orange. Half (50%) of the respondents were middle aged while 34% and 16% of them were

young and old, respectively. Among the respondents 68% had education at primary level

while 18% of them were illiterate. More than half (56%) of the respondents had medium

family size and 46% of them had medium dependency ratio of the family. Most (84%) of the

respondents had small to medium farm size. The respondents remarkably varied regarding

their annual family income with standard deviation of 137.84. Among them 32, 34 and 34%

had low, medium and high annual family income, respectively.

157

Table 12.6 Personal characteristics of the women involved in PHAs of orange

Characteristics (Measurement units)

Range RespondentMean

Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %

Age(year) - 18-65

Young (<31)Middle aged(31-45)Old (>45)

25178

503416

33.84 12.04

Education(year of schooling)

- 0-12

Illiterate (0)Primary (1-5)Secondary (6-10)Higher secondary (>10)

93443

186886

3.00 3.42

Dependency ratio of the family (ratio) - 0-7

Low (≤2)Medium (2.1-4)High (>4)

152312

304624

3.27 1.67

Farm size (hectare)

- 0.03-2.82

Landless ( < 0.02)Marginal (.021-.2)Small (0.21-1.0)Medium (1.1-3.0)Large (>3.0)

08

21210

01642420

0.87 0.65

Annual family income (‘000’ Taka) - 8-820

Low (≤50)Medium (51-100)High (>100)

161717

323434

122.97 137.84

Organizational participation (score) - 0-3

Low (≤2)Moderate (3-4)High (>4)

4910

9820

0.54 0.76

Awareness (score)0-15 6-15

Less(≤5)Medium(6-10)High(>10)

07

43

01486

13.42 2.28

Daily time allocation (hour) - 2-7.50

Low(≤3)Medium(3.1-6)High(>6)

6413

12826

4.09 1.26

Decision making capacity in the family (score)

0-40 10-30Weak (≤13)Moderate (14-26)Strong (>26)

3443

6886

20.18 3.48

Training exposure (score) - 0-6

Null (0)Short-term (1-3)Mid-term (>3)

11363

22726

2.22 1.59

Credit received(‘000’ Taka) - 0-20

Small (≤10)Medium (11-20)High (>20)

4370

86140

2.74 5.40

Ability to cope with uncertainty (score) 0-24 7-19

Less (≤8)Moderate (9-16)Strong (>16)

36122

72244

9.24 2.68

In case of organizational participation, overwhelming majority (98%) of the respondents had

low organizational participation. Among the selected women 86% were highly aware of

nutrition of vegetables and fruits while 14% of them had medium awareness. The highest

(82%) proportion of the women had moderate time allocation for PHAs of orange in the

period of harvesting. Majority (72%) of the respondents had short-term training experience

and 22% of them had no training experience. Among the respondents, 86% received small

credit while 14% medium and none of them received high amount of credit. The average

score of ability to cope with uncertainty by the respondents was 9.24 and majority (72%) of

the respondents had less ability to cope with uncertainty.

158

4. Training Needs of Women

The training need for capacity strengthening of women ranged from 26 to 37 with an average

of 32.96 and standard deviation of 2.39. Based on their NICS values the respondents were

classified into three categories as shown in Table 12.7.

Table 12.7 Distribution of the respondents according to their training need in PHAs of orange

Range RespondentMean

Std. Dev.Possible Observed Category No. %

0-100 26-37

Low(≤24)

Medium(25-30)

High(>30)

0

5

45

0

10

90

32.96 2.39

Findings show that most (90%) of the respondents had high training need for all of the

activities while the rest 10% of them had medium training need. Most of the respondents had

low involvement in any developmental organization. They received very limited training on

PHAs of vegetables and fruits. Therefore, their training need was high.

Data contained in Table 12.8 show that extent of training need of the rural women regarding

biological treatments for disease and mechanical treatments for disease and pest control was

the highest and ranked in first position followed by processing of orange. On the other hand,

determination of maturity index was the lowest. It is obvious that training on the activities

which require high technical knowledge was highly needed by the rural women. For this

reason, biological and mechanical treatment for disease and pest control was needed by the

rural women to the highest extent.

Table 12.8 Ranking of total score of the extent of training need regarding PHAs of orange

ActivitiesTotal Score

Rank

Biological treatments for disease and pest control 145 1

Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control 145 1

Processing of orange 143 2

Storage 142 3

Increasing of shelf-life of orange 141 4

Handling of modern equipments for harvesting 138 5

Preservation by drying and dehydration 134 6

Chemical treatments for disease and pest control 116 7

Transportation and marketing of orange 116 7

Sorting and grading 115 8

Using packaging materials 109 9

Ripening 106 10

Determination of maturity index 98 11

159

5. Relationships between the Selected Characteristics of the Rural Women and Their Extent of Need for Capacity Strengthening

Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation (r) was computed in order to explore

the relationships between the selected characteristics of the women and their extent of need

for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of orange. The coefficient of correlation (r) was

used to test the null hypothesis regarding the relationship between two concerned variables.

The null hypothesis was formulated as H0: There is no relationship between the selected

characteristics of the women and their need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of

orange towards food security. The relationship between the dependent and independent

variables has been presented in Table 12.9.

The computed ‘r’ values for dependency ratio of the family, credit received, daily time

allocation and awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits of the rural women were

significant. Hence, the concerned null hypotheses were rejected. Therefore, there was

significant relationship between these characteristics of the rural women and their extent of

need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of orange. However, dependency ratio of the

family, daily time allocation, awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits had positively

significant relationship whereas credit received had negatively significant relationship with

their need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of orange. The rest of the characteristics

namely age, education, farm size, annual family income, organizational participation,

decision making capacity in the family, training exposure and ability to cope with uncertainty

of the respondents did not have any significant relationship with the same.

Table 12.9 Relationship between dependent and independent variables

Independent variables ‘r’ value with 48 df

Age 0.044Education -0.105Dependency ratio of the family 0.345**

Farm size 0.037Annual family income -0.087

Organizational participation 0.164

Decision making capacity in the family -0.073Training exposure -0.084Credit received -0.372**

Ability to cope with uncertainty 0.050Daily time allocation 0.290*Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits 0.288*

** Significant at the 0.01 level * Significant at the 0.05 level

160

Thus, it could be said that dependency ratio of the family, credit received, daily time

allocation and awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits of the rural women were

important indicators for the extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of

orange.

In the present research, the respondent women were mostly housewives. They had been

continuing their livelihoods from the similar social background utilizing similar resources

and facilities. So, their level of education could not play a significant role in their extent of

need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of orange.

Higher dependency ratio indicates more active income earning member of the family. They

have more possibility of utilizing their skill in carrying out PHAs of orange towards food

security. So, with the increase of dependency ratio of the family need for capacity

strengthening was increased.

The respondents of the present study were affiliated with different organizations which did

not deal with the PHAs of orange towards food security rather just with micro-credit

programs. Accordingly, organizational participation of the respondents had no significant

relationship with their need for capacity strengthening.

A woman may have the capacity to make decision regarding household activities and she

may form this capacity from her educational status, parents socio-economic position etc.

Moreover, need for capacity strengthening depends on the availability and accessibility of the

facilities. Therefore, decision making capacity of the women in their family was not

significantly related with their extent of need for capacity strengthening towards PHAs of

orange. Naoroze (2004) also found this relation between training exposure and need of the

respondents in his study.

The respondents got training from different organizations they were affiliated but a very little

training was conducted specifically regarding post harvest facilities of vegetables and fruits.

This is why need for capacity strengthening of women towards PHAs of orange had no

significant relationship with their previous training experience. Ahmed (2007) and Naoroze

(2004) also found this relation between training exposure and need of the respondents in their

study.

161

The woman who received more credit needed more facilities regarding PHAs of orange

towards food security to utilize her credit effectively. Otherwise, she would misuse the credit

leading herself in a more critical and uncertain situation that she was in before. Thus, credit

received was significantly and negatively related with the extent of need for capacity

strengthening towards PHAs of orange.

The women respondents were involved in PHAs of orange. That is why daily time allocation

significantly influenced the extent of need of women for capacity strengthening in carrying

out PHAs of orange. However, with the increase of awareness on nutrition of vegetables and

fruits their need for capacity strengthening was greatly increased.

6. Problems of Involvement in PHAs of Orange

Problems faced by the women in using up the PHAs of orange towards food security were

measured through making Scored Causal Diagrams (SCDs) of Participatory Farm

Management. Problems in participating PHAs of orange were discussed with a selected group

of respondents, assuming the ‘end problem’ being ‘low involvement in PHAs of orange’.

Firstly the problems mentioned by the respondents were listed, secondly diagrams were

drawn by them on the plain ground to show causal relationships between the problems, and

finally scoring of selected problems was performed again by them. In this way SCDs was

prepared by the group of respondents (Figure 12.2). The problems identified by the group has

been listed here with their relative importance indicated by the original score numbers as

shown inside the parentheses.

End problem: Low involvement in PHAs of orange [100]Intermediary problems(i) Lack of skill for product processing [30](ii) Less motivation for processing [10](iii)Difficulty in product marketing [10](iv)Less cohesion for initiatives for joint intervention [15](v)Less ability to conduct PHAs [10](vi) Less marketing [5]

Root causes(i)No training on PHAs [30](ii) Lack women organization in village [15](iii) Unawareness of market prospect [10](iv) Transport problem [10] (v) Less capital for investment [10] (vi) Lack of processing equipments [10](vii) Lack of processing materials [10](viii) Remote production area [5]

162

‘No training on PHAs' got the highest score among the ‘root’ causes. It was very practical

because lack of training women deprived of knowledge and skill. Training and demonstration

can make women competitive to do PHAs of orange. According to the score ‘lack of women

organization in village’ secured the second position. Lack of any women group no joint group

originate to initiate them in PHAs of orange. Unawareness of market prospect make women

lost inspiration in PHAs. Women are very far from present agricultural information so they

are not involved in PHAs of orange. Transport problem is a major cause for low involvement

in the hilly areas. It is very tough to carry the products from the farmers’ house to the market.

People are suffering a lot for lack of good transport facilities. So now-a-days, it is a crying

need for the tribal people.

‘Less capital for investment’ results in less ability to conduct PHAs of orange. Lack of

processing equipments and processing materials made the women unproductive for PHAs of

orange. Lack of processing materials women who are concerned in PHAs of orange could not

do anything with vast amount of orange after harvest. So most of their products decomposed.

Remote production area is also a main problem for the respondents. Juri upazila is so far from

the main town that women are restricted to come out from the household and as a result less

involvement was the outcome.

163

Figure 12.2: Scored Causal Diagrams showing the involvement barrier of rural women in PHAs of orange

Low involvement of women in PHAs of

orange [100]

Lack women organization in village [15]

Less capital for investment [10]

Remote production area [5]

Less cohesion for initiatives for

joint intervention [15]

Less ability to conduct PHAs

[10]

Difficulty of product

marketing [5]

Unawareness of market prospect [10]

Lack of processing equipments [10]

No training on PHAs [30]

Transport problem [10]

Lack of processing materials [10]

Lack of skill for product processing

[30]

Less motivation for processing [10]

Less marketing [10]

164

Suggested solutions to the ‘root’ causes

Participants of the selected group occupied in the preparation of Scored Causal Diagram

(SCD) were requested to mention possible solutions to the ‘root’ causes of low involvement

in PHAs of orange towards food security. The respondents uttered diverse opinions on how

these problems could be overcome. The suggestions for the solution of the problems made

by the respondent women have been given here:

Table 12.10 Suggested solutions with way to achieve the suggested issues

Sl No.

Suggested solutions Way to achieve

1. Increased training facilities according to their needs for increasing their knowledge and skill towards PHAs of orange as well as to have efficient manpower.

GOs and NGOs collaboration is needed

2. Increase facilities to preserve orange for long term use to minimize their loss of product

GO and NGO and Donor organizations can take proper steps

3. Involving rural women in different PHAs of orange to increase their operational ability.

Government and private organizations should take initiatives

4. Establishing processing centers for the rural women to build their capacity in PHAs.

Government can create special programs with the well known NGOs

5. Need good roads and highway transport system GO and NGO and Donor organizations can take measures

6. Emphasizing the necessities of women involvement among the rural people with the help of local leaders and elites.

Farmers should be motivated to aware the women by different communication media

7. Women group formation with the help of different Go and NGOs

Government should concern with NGOs and Donor organizations

8. Increased credit availability according to the need of the rural women regarding post harvest facilities of orange

GOs and NGOs can take proper steps in this matter

Involvement of the rural women in PHAs is a fundamental issue for controlling PHAs and

development of socio-economic condition of the rural people. The study reveals that

participation of the rural women in PHAs was low to medium which is not so expected. Thus,

suitable approach should be ensured in order to secure inclusive involvement of the rural

women in PHAs. Linkage between GO and NGOs and donor organizations needs to be

strengthened to ensure cooperative involvement of the rural women. The issues that might be

dealt with are credit and technical information supply, training and demonstration, motivation

campaign and others.

165

7. Case Study

Name of women: Ms Halima BegumHusband’s name: Mr Md Ibrahim AliAddress: Village-Shuknachara, Juri, Moulavibazar

Ms Halima Begum (of 35 years age) had been engaged in cultivation of orange including its PHAs (PHAs). She was a house wife and assisted her husband who is hill farmer. She also used to manage her small homestead where she planted some fruit trees only. She completed her six years’ education before she was married to Mr Md Ibrahim. Mr Ibrahim (45 years) was a farmer and had been cultivating different types of fruits on the hill long time. Actually they were the forest-worker in the hill which he inherited form his parents. They were given some hills of forest to work in the forest in British period.

Ms Halima Begum had five children, three daughters and two sons. They had cultivation on the hills and hill side of about two hectares which is actually long term lease from forestry department of the government. Mostly different fruit trees were grown on the hills with some area of orange. The annual income of the family was about Taka 2,50,000 and only from orange was about Taka 60,000. Cultivation of orange was found profitable by them. The family land was occupied mostly by different wild fruit trees and orange for last 30 years. In recent days, the area under orange cultivation had been increased.

Although Ms Halima Begum used to do her home and homestead works, fruit tree management including PHAs of orange, she was not involved in any organization of the locality. She received three training on different issues of orange production from DAE but nothing on PHAs of vegetables or fruits. She did not borrow any credit from any organization although she was aware of access to borrowing facilities. Under her this life and living situation, she expressed good words to cope with any uncertainty either in her family or farming.

Ms Halima Begum used to engage herself mostly in home and homestead activities. But a substantial time had been spent in care taking of trees, harvest and PHAs of orange in its main season. In the PHAs of orange, her involvement was mostly in grading, ripening and packing. She needed to spend a very long hours during the harvest of orange. She used to take immediate care of fruits fallen on ground during harvest. Sometimes she made juice by hand from the distorted or deformed orange. In spite of her considerable participation in PHAs other than processing she showed her keen interest in orange processing. She indicated:

“I know how to handle the grading, packing, and other activities in a good method through my working experience. But I do not know to process the orange for its better preservation and consumption in different ways. I heard of orange products like juice, jam or jelly etc. I like to learn how to process orange to prepare these things. It needs skill and I am willing to learn the skill though training. I also need some materials and equipments to process orange. I think, women interested in PHAs in this hilly area can form group to happen their idea to conduct processing in the locality. Any GO or NGO can provide supports to fulfill our dream to process orange.”

Although Ms Halima did not receive any training on PHAs of vegetables or fruits, her expected training areas were about grading, ripening and packing of orange scientifically; disease control at house store; processing and preservation of orange and orange products. Ms Halima was aware on nutritional aspects of vegetables and fruits and she wanted to take care to keep nutritive value of fruits and vegetables during harvest, cooking or consumption.

Regarding need for overall capacity building to conduct PHAs of vegetables and fruits, she wanted mostly for skill improvement, financial and physical facilities. Skill development was regarding preparation, packaging and storing of products. Marketing information and exploration of marketing channels were also felt very important need to succeed in processing of orange.

With enthusiastic involvement in PHAs of orange, she expected training support on various aspects of PHAs of fruits, especially on orange. She thought that related government and non-government organizations can train up and help them manage PHAs of vegetables in a successful and cost-effective manner. This would ultimately ensure enhanced participation of rural women in PHAs of vegetables and fruits leading to better living status.

166

Focus Group Discussions (FGDs)

Focus group discussion (FGD) was conducted to achieve information on training and capacity

needs of the rural women who had been engaged in PHAs of vegetables and fruits. This FGD was

done to collect information additional to data collected through interview. The approach of

conducting FGD has been discussed in Methodology (Chapter 3).

Almost all the women participating in the discussion did not participate in any training program

except that some of them attended one or two-days training on some issues of agriculture

arranged by the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE). In fact all of them did not attend

any training on PHAs of any vegetable or fruit. Consequently, they all expected skill

development through training on different aspects PHAs of different vegetables and fruits.

The women engaged in PHAs of vegetables and fruits expressed their views about training need

and its various aspects. They expected mostly the following areas of training on PHAs of

vegetables and fruits:

Processing techniques of fruits and vegetables e.g. jam, jelly, chips, juice etc. Various types of disease and insect control at store Storing of vegetables and fruits with better nutrition and food value after harvest Storage

of seed at house level Grading techniques to get more market value Grading of seed material to keep as seed Selection of potato to keep at cold store for seed Traditional ways of preserving fruits and vegetables to consume for longer period

DAE and NGO were their preferred organizations through which they liked to get these training.

Although they mentioned these names of organizations, they were actually not well aware about

the agencies which might fit with their demand. They also expressed their willingness to get those

training in the their own locality.

In respect to overall need for capacity strengthening, they expressed their areas of interest. The

first expected area of need was on skill development to conduct PHAs of potato. The second

expectation was about the physical capacity to set up processing facilities so that they could

process potato to make various items.

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As specific issues of need for capacity strengthening, they expected skill development on:

product processing handling grading packaging preservation of seeds.

They expected the equipment for making products, credit to buy the equipments, establishment of

sales center at locality and community based cold stores towards participating and achieving

benefits out of PHAs of vegetables and fruits. Above everything, they wanted a situation where

rural women can engage themselves at village to produce and consume various products of

various fruits and vegetables. They believed that only formation of strong women group could

serve the purpose. Functional cooperation and active help had been sought from NGO in the

formation and keep groups efficient and purposeful.

It was thought that their capacity to preserve vegetables and fruits in a better way and make the

products as per demand of the community would lead them to achieve better livelihood. It would

be good for them if they could borrow money from local banks or NGO with minimum interest to

set the facilities needed to conduct PHAs in a systematic and profitable way.

PHAs would not only improve their sorting, grading, packing or marketing and processing of

products, it would rather improve the nutritional status of consumption at household level. Thus,

a massive awareness campaign was expected from concerned organization to make people aware

of conscious participation in PHAs of vegetables and fruits as part of their food making and

intake at house level.

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Key Findings

Participation in PHAs (PHAs) of vegetables and fruits: Low to medium involvement of the

women in PHAs of vegetables and fruits prevailed in the study areas. But a great potential had

been observed to strengthen women’s involvement in PHA. Although their extent of involvement

varied from vegetable to vegetable and fruit to fruit, the major specific PHAs for specific

vegetables or fruits are shown below:

Vegetables Fruits Brinjal - Seed storage, Sorting and grading,Cleaning, Transport from field to housePackaging.

Mango - Processing of mango, Seed storage or raising seedling, Short-term storage for homestead use, Ripening of mango for homestead use, Sorting and grading etc.

Potato - Sorting and grading, seed storage, storage vegetables, processing, packaging etc.

Pineapple - Processing, sorting and grading, harvesting, ripening, drying, trimming of stem, storage of seed etc.

Spinach - Harvesting, washing and cleaning, Cooling of spinach, sorting and grading, transport from field to house etc.

Guava - Storage of seed, PackagingHarvesting of guava, Sorting and grading etc

Tomato - Harvesting of tomato, Transport from field to house, Sorting and grading,Packaging etc.

Banana - Storage or collection of sucker, Insect disease control, Transport from field to house etc.Orange - Harvesting of orange ,Packaging, Insect and disease control, Sorting and grading etc.

Training need in conducting PHAs: Almost all the respondents showed their overall high to medium need of training. The major areas of training varied slightly from item to item, yet their major expected training areas were:

Vegetables Fruits Brinjal - Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control, Biological treatments for disease and pest control, Processing of brinjal, Storage, increasing of shelf-life of fruits etc.

Mango - Dumping and waxing, Increasing of shelf-life of fruits, Biological treatment for disease and pest control, Mechanical treatment for disease and pest control, Chemical treatment for disease and pest control etc.

Potato -Processing of potato, Increasing of shelf-lifeof potato, Transportation and marketing of potato, Transportation and marketing of potatoBiological treatments for disease and pest control etc.

Pineapple - Storage of vegetables, Handling of modern equipment, Using packaging materialsBiological treatment for disease and pest control, Mechanical treatment for disease and pest control, Transportation and marketing of pineapple, Increasing of shelf-life of fruits

Spinach -Storage of vegetables, Processing of vegetables, Increasing of shelf-life of vegetables, Handling of modern equipment

Guava –Storage, Processing and preservation of guava, Transportation and marketing of guava, Using packaging materials, Increasing of shelf-life of fruits etc.

Tomato -Mechanical treatments for disease and pest control, Processing and preservation of tomato, Preservation and care taking of seeds, Storage in seed, Biological treatments for disease and pest control, Handling of modern equipment

Banana -Increasing of shelf-life of fruits, Bottling and canning, Processing of banana, Handling of modern equipments for harvesting etc.Orange -Biological and mechanical treatments for disease and pest control, Processing of orange Storage, Increasing of shelf-lifeof orange etc.

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Need for capacity strengthening to conduct PHAs: The major portion of the women felt

high to medium need for their capacity strengthening in conducting PHAs of vegetables and

fruits. The ranking of different aspects of capacity strengthening and their corresponding

mostly expected specific areas of development are shown below:

Aspects of capacity strengthening

Specific areas expected

Management skillProcessing of fruits and vegetables, preservation of seeds, handling of post harvest equipments, operational ability, market facility exploitation, financial management

Physical facilities Processing materials, store house, processing ground, transports/vehicles, sales centers

Financial ability Processing equipment, capital, credit and labor purchase. Decision making ability Collection, storing, grading, packaging, processing, selling of fruits.Access to support services Preservation facilities or cold storage, access to credit, development

workers for advice , labor market, marketing channel/facilities, transport,

Major causes of low participation of women in PHAs: Lack of training on PHAs,

social/religious barrier, lack of cold storage, financial shortage, absence of farmer/women

groups, lack of prospect in marketing of products etc. were the major problems encountered

by women towards low participation in PHAs of vegetables and fruits.

Association of personal characteristics to need for capacity strengthening: Age,

Education, Annual family income, Credit received, Daily time allocation, Involvement of

women in PHAs, Training need of women etc. were some of the personal characteristics of

the women found to be linked to their felt need for capacity strengthening in carrying out

PHAs of vegetables and fruits.

Conduct of training and demonstration: Two training and demonstrations were conducted

in two separate batches of 30 women (for three days) engaged in PHAs of each vegetable and

fruit. Thus, a total of 18 training and demonstrations were conducted for nine vegetables and

fruits covering 540 women in total in nine sites.

Fruits/Vegetables Location

(Upazila)

District Duration

Mango Shibganj Nawabganj 21~26, June 2008

Pineapple Modhupur Tangail 1~6, July 2008

Guava Nesarabad Pirojpur 25~30, August 2008

Brinjal Fulbaria Mymensingh 21~26 October 2008

Potato Khetlal Joypurhat 06~11 February 2009

Banana Shibganj Bogra 02~07 December 2008

Tomato Godagari Rajshahi 21~26 December 2008

Spinach Monirumpur Jessore 03~08 January, 2009

Orange Juri Sylhet 21~26 February, 2009

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Chapter 5

POLICY IMPLICATIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION

1. Policy Implications and Recommendations

The National Food Policy (NFP) duly asserted that the role of women in contributing to food security is often not recognized and appreciated. But women play a key role in determining intra-household food security and nutrition for individual family members. Thus, it is necessary to undertake and follow up on women-focused development initiatives including the involvement of rural women on a larger scale in economic activities through better access to resources, inputs and services. In an agro-based country like Bangladesh, rural women can be increasingly involved in agro-processing schemes. The Government of Bangladesh is also firmly committed to removing the barriers towards greater participation of rural women in economic development and food security. The government should play a supportive role in providing opportunities for rural women to improve their efficiency in production, processing and marketing activities.

Keeping the above view in mind, the following recommendations are being made for policy consideration:

Low to medium involvement of the women in post harvest activities (PHAs) of vegetables and fruits indicates a great potentiality of women’s involvement in agricultural and rural development. Strategic campaign is needed to get rural women more involved in PHAs of vegetables and fruits. Mass media awareness creation, group discussion, motivation through local leaders and elites may be some of the ways for creating an enabling situation and enhancing advocacy. DAE along with other similar organizations would need to take lead in this matter.

Specific activity-wise involvement of rural women in PHAs of vegetables and fruits showed that their involvement was mostly in the activities other than product processing. This clearly points out the restricted scope of processing for the women under investigation. Scope should be made possible by empowering women through their involvement in farmer and/or women managed associations (cooperatives) at local levels. Specialized NGOs can help to form and nurture the associations and create enabling mechanisms while DAE and allied government organizations can provide technical support.

Majority of the women felt high to medium need for their capacity strengthening in conducting PHAs of vegetables and fruits although their aspects of capacity strengthening varies slightly. The felt needs for capacity escalation must be fulfilled to ensure better involvement of women in PHAs. But it is not an easy task alone for government to discharge the responsibilities. NGO and others may come forward to help government. The following strategic actions may be recommended during food policy

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enactment which refer mostly to the Objective 2 of Section D of Key Intervention 2.5 and 2.6 of NFP and its PoA:

o Provision of special credit incentives to develop appropriate storage facilities, packaging and transportation of processed produce: Strengthening government and NGO partnership to scale-up collateral free loans to small enterprises at rural areas is essential.

o Establishment of mini cold storage at locality under management of local associations of farmers. This matter is specifically important for potato for huge producing areas of the country especially in the northern regions of Joypurhat and Bogra. It has generally been observed that these areas in northern region are neglected regarding government initiative for entrepreneurship development inagriculture (refers to NFP 1.2 section and Key intervention area 1.6 in PoA).

o Establishment of processing facilities through government and NGO interventions under community management: Effective supports, both technical and physical, might be provided to existing agro-based processing industries. Establishment of specific processing zone might be created where specific vegetables are grown in abundance.

o Expansion of marketing facilities: Marketing facilities should be expanded for agricultural products sold by women. NGOs can help create such markets through their group members’ network and sales outlets.

o Provision of credit: Micro to medium sized loan facilities may be increased forwomen entrepreneurs who can be supported by local NGOs and banks.

Almost all the respondents of the study showed an overall high to medium need of training on various aspects of PHAs. Appropriate and specific on-the-spot training may be arranged for the women on various aspects of capacity scale-up to carry out the PHAsof vegetables and fruits (it refers to 2.7 of PoA of NFP). To train the women, extension agents should be trained first to improve ‘training of trainers’ (TOT)’ on courses relevant to the PHAs. Such courses might be included in the diploma in agriculture so that the field level officers of DAE can also learn themselves in detail about PHAs of vegetables and fruits.

Furthermore, the relevant academic institutions and capable NGOs may be integrated in the process of strengthening capacities of rural women in performing PHAs in better ways. More nutritional aspects may be included in the courses at school level so that even less educated women can be aware of the issues.

Lack of training on PHAs, social/religious barrier, lack of cold storage, financial shortage, absence of farmer/women groups, lack of prospect in marketing of products etc. were the major problems encountered by women towards better involvement in PHAs of vegetables and fruits. Even other constraints of women should be assessed towards participating in post harvest and other income generating activities. Appropriate actions may also be identified and implemented to remove those constraints as per

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indication of 2.3.1 of PoA of NFP. Otherwise the dream of better and ensured involvement of rural women in PHAs and other rural development activities will remain unachieved.

Age, education, annual family income, credit received, daily time allocation, involvement of women in PHAs, training need of women etc. were some the personal characteristics of the women found to be significantly linked to their felt need for capacity strengthening in carrying out PHAs of vegetables and fruits. In formulating any action plan for the women regarding such activities, at least these variables might be considered.

Food processing and nutrition activities should be mainstreamed into the agriculture extension program of DAE. Training and demonstration programs should be conducted in areas where potentiality remains for women's involvement in PHAs of specific vegetables or fruits. DAE and relevant NGOs need to take a pivotal role to offer such training and demonstration to rural women.

2. Areas for Further Research

Based on the experience and observations during the investigation period, the following priority areas are suggested for further research.

The present research was conducted involving some important selected vegetables and fruits regarding women’s involvement and their need for capacity strengthening to conduct PHAs. Other important fruits and vegetables might also be considered for better understanding of rural women’s involvement and their need for capacity strengthening.

The field investigation and other initiatives were limited to only single locations of prominent horticulture (fruits and vegetables) producing areas of the country. More areas could be considered for future research to identify the comprehensive nature and extent of women’s involvement for the same vegetable or fruit.

Extensive training and demonstration of more women involved or having potentiality of involvement in PHAs of vegetables and fruits might be considered as future initiatives. Moreover, comprehensive training and demonstration modules may be prepared to achieve the target successfully. The follow-up mechanism may also be included into the programs to assess the adoption nature of the women of what knowledge and skill they achieved from the training and demonstration.

A deeper and specific further investigation is needed to collect information on how to establish farmers’ or rural women’s organization at village level to run any agro-processing initiatives under community management. The investigation may lead to feasible solutions to attain sustainable targets.

A separate study may be conducted on how the community-based management can be introduced in the establishment of mini-cold storage facilities, setting refrigerator facilities, buying and operating small-scale agro-processing equipment, establishment of procurement and sales centers and related arrangements.

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3. Conclusion

Women could achieve much more skill in food production, processing, and utilization if policy makers could create a conducive environment for their effective participation in the relevant activities. Specifically, the vast potential needs to be tapped for enhancing women’s involvement in PHAs of vegetables and fruits. More support to women in income generating activities (IGAs) through agro-based activities and processing should be an important part of the government’s strategic plan.

Establishment of agro-based industries must be linked with incentives to involve more women folk from the rural areas. Otherwise a great portion of the population will remain under- or un-utilized by not being mainstreamed in rural development. Moreover, year-round supply of processed food items, supply of nutritious food, value addition to agricultural products and enhanced family income can not be attained if the rural women do not get the necessary scope to demonstrate their contribution in PHAs. Massive training and other supportive measures are required to scale up capacity strengthening of women in conducting PHAs of vegetables and fruits for food security at household and national levels.

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Acknowledgments

Everyone who helped in this investigation has made a contribution to this research. The research Team is grateful to all of them although it is not possible to mention all by name. Yet, the Team feels it an obligation to mention some of them specifically.

The Project has been financed as a Programme Funded Research (PR) through the Research Grant Initiative of the National Food Policy Capacity Strengthening Programme (NFPCSP) implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with the Food Planning and Monitoring Unit (FPMU) of the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management with financial support of USAID and European Commission. The team is duly grateful to all the concerned organizations for receiving grant to conduct the research. Without the financial and other supports it would not be possible to conduct such an important research related to food policy agenda in Bangladesh.

The team cannot but recognize the help, cooperation and inspiration of Mr Ad Spijkers, FAO Representative in Bangladesh towards completing the research project. Mr Ciro Fiorillo,Chief Technical Advisor (CTA), NFPCSP, was kind enough to help, criticize, guide and inspire throughout the tenure of the investigations. We sincerely recognize all of his kind cooperation and directions.

Dr. Lalita Bhattacharjee, Nutritionist and Prof Dr Rezaul Karim Talukder, Physical and Social Access Adviser of NFPCSP, FAO, Bangladesh - the two TAT Members for the Project worked as mentors and directed and supervised all the activities, events and reports of the project from the very inception. The Team remains grateful for all their cooperation, guidance, support and sympathy.

Dr Nur A Khondaker, Research Grant Administrator, NFPCSP, FAO competently and professionally administered all the initiatives from the commencement of the Project. The Team found him very prudent and far-sighted in managing all the Projects under NFPCSP. He remained all through vigilant over the progress of the Project. We are very thankful to him for his cautious management, kind help and timely discharge of all the responsibilities.

The Project Team also extends heartfelt thanks to Dr. Kostas G. Stamoulis, Director, Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA), FAO HQ, Rome, for his excellent guidance, suggestions and encouragement to improve the quality of the research on food security in Bangladesh.

The Team expresses heartiest appreciation to Dr Md. Hammadur Rahman, Professor and Head, Department of Agricultural Extension Education, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Mymensingh for his cordial cooperation and encouragement leading to successful completion of the Project. He discharged his responsibilities nicely as Head of the Project implementing institution. As the Head of the Collaborating Institution, Prof Dr A Momen Miah, Director, BAUEC, BAU, Mymensingh rendered excellent cooperation to implement the project. We express due thanks to him.

The Teachers of the Department of Agricultural Extension Education, BAU, Mymensingh showed their cordial cooperation, encouragement and provided suggestions towards completing the activities of the Project. They all participated in all the events of the Project and provided ample supports. We are really grateful to them all.

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The Upazila Agriculture Officers, Sub-Assistant Agriculture Officers and others of the concerned nine Upazilas extended their cordial cooperation in conducting the field investigations and conducting training and demonstrations. Without their help it could be difficult to conduct those activities so smoothly. They helped in locating the places for data collection, selection of women for training and demonstrations and in offering venues to conduct the training and demonstrations. We ever appreciate their cooperation appropriately. The Team desires to express special gratitude to the women of the study areas for their cordial cooperation during the collection of data and participation in the training and demonstration programs.

Ms Suraia Akhter (Research Assistant), Mr Atikur Rahman (Research Fellow) and Ms Effat Sharmin (Research Fellow) did very well in discharging their duties and responsibilities during their period of work in the Project. Additionally, Mr Md Kamrul Hasan, ex-MS student of the Department helped the Project through his nice involvement at various stages of the Project implementation. Sincere appreciation is extended to all of them.

Prof Dr M Zulfikar RahmanPrincipal Investigator

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Waheduzzaman, M. 2004. A Study on Impacts of NGO-Interventions on Livelihoods of Women in a Fishing Community. M.S. (Ag. Ext. Ed.) Thesis, Dept. of Agricultural Extension Education, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh.

WFS (World Food Summit). 1996. “Investing in Agriculture for Food Security”. The Daily Star, 16 October. 2006. Karwan Bazar, Dhaka.

Wikipedia. 2009. Found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_study

Yin, R. K.. 2002. Case Study Research. Design and Methods. Third Edition. Applied Social Research Method Series, Volume 5. California: Sage Publications.

Yeasmin, F. 2002. Participation of Women in Rice Production Activities and Their Training Needs in Some Selected Villages of BAUEC under Sadar Upazila of Mymensingh District. M.S. (Ag. Ext. Ed.) Thesis, Dept. of Agricultural Extension Education, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh.

181

An Interview Scheduleon

Capacity Strengthening of Rural Women in Carrying out Post Harvest Activities of Vegetables and Fruits

1. Age: How old are you? ………….years

2. Education: a) Cannot read and write b) can sign only c) Up to class ……….

3. Dependency ratio of the family: Please mention the number of your family members? …………… members How many earning members are there in your family? Male number……..Female number: ………

4. Farm size: Please furnish the following information about the land area of your family.

Type of land Local unit HectareOwn landHomestead areaShare-cropping/ lease/mortgage inShare-cropping/ lease/mortgage outOthers (garden, pond, fallow land etc.)

5. Annual family income: Please mention your last year’s family income from each of the following sources.

Sources Income (‘000’ Tk.)Farm

a) Crops Cereals Cash crops Pulses Oils

b) Vegetablesc) Fruitsd Livestocke) Fisheriesf) Others

Non-farm a) Business b) Service c) Remittance d) Others

6. Organizational participation: Please mention the nature and duration of your participation (past and/ present) with the following organizations.

Sl. No.

Organization No participation

Nature and duration (year)

Ordinary member

Executive committee member

Executive committee officer(president,

secretary)1 BRAC

2 ASA

3 PROSHIKA

4 Grameen Bank5 World Vision

Sample No.

Appendix A

182

6 Ganasastha Kendra7 Swanirvor Bangladesh8 Palli Mangal Karmasuchi9 Union parishad10 School committee11 Cooperative society12 Mass education committee13 Others

7. Decision making capacity in the family: How do you make decision in your family regarding the following activities? Note: (0) Not at all, (1) Joint decision, mainly by other family members, (2) Joint decision, mainly by

husband (3) Joint decision mainly by self and (3) Full decision by self

Sl. No. Family activitiesExtent of decision making ability

0 1 2 3 41 Purchase, sell or mortgage of land

2 Making furniture

3 Education of children4 Franchise right5 Guest entertainment

6 Family planning and treatment7 Money lending8 Construction of new house9 Daily expenditure10 Selection of crops for cultivation

8. Training exposure: Did you attend any training? Yes / No. If yes, please give the following information.

Sl. No. Subject of training Sponsoring agency Duration (day)1 Use of post harvest instruments2 Proper storage of seeds3 Maturity symptoms of fruits4 Proper storage of vegetables and fruits5 Others

9. Credit received: Did you receive any credit from any sources? Yes / No. If yes, please mention the sources of credit and the amount of credit received.

Sl. No. Sources of credit Amount of credit (Tk.)1 NGOs (please mention name of the NGO)2 Banks3 Money lenders4 Friends5 Neighbors6 Relatives7 Others

10. Ability to cope with uncertainty: How about your psychological strength to overcome the following uncertainties?

# Crises Ability to cope

Not at all Weak Moderate Strong1 Sickness/accidents2 Crop failure3 Drought, flood, hail storm etc.

183

# Crises Ability to cope

Not at all Weak Moderate Strong4 Scarcity of money5 Unavailability of labor in during cropping6 Unemployed for a long time 7 Death of father/husband8 Own accidents

11. Daily time allocation for post harvest activities: Please mention the time you spend for the following post harvest activities.

Name of the activities Hour(s) / dayCuringCooling WashingDrying Sorting,GradingPreservation of fruits and vegetablesStorage of seedsTransportationDisease and pest controlMarketingOthers

12. Need of women for capacity building: (a) Need for financial ability: To what extent the following abilities are required for you to increase

proper utilization of the post harvest activities of vegetables and fruits?

# Financial ability Extent of need

No Low Medium High1 Capital2 Credit3 Labor purchase4 Processing-equipment purchase

(b) Need for decision making ability: To what extent the following abilities are required to make decision by you for proper utilization of the post harvest activities of vegetables and fruits?

# Decision making ability regardingExtent of need

No Low Medium High1 Collection2 Grading3 Packaging4 Processing5 Storing6 Selling of vegetables fruits

(c) Need for access to support services: To what extent you need to increase the accessibility tofollowing support services for proper utilization of the post harvest facilities of vegetables and fruits?

# Access to support servicesExtent of need

No Low Medium High1 Preservation facilities or cold storage2 Labor market3 Marketing channel/facilities

184

# Access to support servicesExtent of need

No Low Medium High4 Access to credit5 Transport6 Development workers for advice

(d) Need for management skill: To what extent the following aspects of management skill are needed for you to increase proper utilization of the post harvest activities of vegetables and fruits?

# Management skillExtent of needNo Low Medium High

1 Handling of post harvest equipments2 Operational ability3 Market facility exploitation4 Preservation of seeds5 Processing of fruits and vegetables6 Financial management

(e) Need for physical facilities: To what extent you need to increase the following physical facilities for proper utilization of the post harvest facilities of vegetables and fruits?

# Access to support servicesExtent of need

No Low Medium High1 Processing materials/equipment2 Processing ground3 Transport/vehicles4 Store house5 Sales centers

13. Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits: Please pass your opinion about the following aspect to keep nutritive value of vegetables and fruits.

Sl No Statements Agree Disagree1. (+) After boiling vegetables water should not be removed from the cooking pot2. (+) To preserve vit-c minimum water should be used for cooking3. (+) Deep peeling of vegetables and fruits can cause significant loss of nutritive

value4. (-) Vegetables must be washed after cutting5. (-) Vegetables should not be cut into big pieces

6. (+) Leafy vegetables should be cooked with sufficient oil7. (+) Some vegetables (such as carrot, tomato, cucumber, lettuce etc) are better to

eat by making ‘salad’ than that of cooking8. (+) Cooking partially destroys vit-c and B1 from raw fruits and vegetables9. (-) After cutting vegetables should be soaked into water10.(+) To preserve vit-c vegetables should be cooked either earthen or aluminium pot11.(-) Most of the vegetables do not wash after harvesting to improve their quality12.(+) Curing should be conducted after harvesting of vegetables and fruits13.(+) Immature, diseased and badly bruised vegetables should be sort out14. (-) The wax emulsion without fungicide protect vegetables against microbial

spoilage15.(-) During ripening of fruits ventilation is essential

185

14. Measures taken by women for maintaining nutritive value of vegetables and fruits: Please reply the following questions.

A. Collection

In which stage do you collect fruits to get maximum benefit?

When do you collect vegetables to get proper nutrition?

How do you wash fruits/vegetables?

How do you collect fruits and vegetables from orchard/field?

B. Grading/Sorting

Which techniques do you follow to sort vegetables and fruits?

C. Packaging

How do you pack vegetables and fruits?

D. Storage

How do you preserve leafy vegetables to retain moisture?

How do you preserve fruits?

E. Processing and preservation

How do you process vegetables to use in off season?

How do you preserve fruits for long time use?

F. Use of pesticides

How do you protect fruits and vegetables from pest and disease infestation?

What type of pesticides do you use for fruits and vegetables ripening?

In which way you delay ripening of fruits and vegetables?

G. Cooking

When do you wash vegetables for cooking?

Do you use oil for frying /cooking leafy vegetables?

How do you cut vegetables for cooking to get more nutrition?

What type of pot do you use for cooking vegetables?

Do you use the water that comes out at boiling vegetables?

How do you try to preserve vit-C during cooking?

186

15. Involvement of rural women in post harvest activities of brinjal: Please indicate appropriate option for the following dimensions of involvement of post harvest activities.

(a) Frequency of performance: 0 = Not at all

1 = Rarely (performs less than half of the requirement)2 = Sometimes (performs more than half of the requirement)3 = Regularly / Frequently (performs completely as required)

(b) Part of work done: 0 = Not at all 1 = Less than half of the requirement

2 = More than half of the requirement3 = Completely

(C) Control over decision0 = Absolutely no decision by self1 = Shared decision, mainly by others 2 = Shared decision, mainly by self3 = Full decision by self

Post harvest activitiesFrequency of performance

Part of work done

Control over

decisionWashing and dryingInsect and disease controlSorting and gradingCuring Cooling i. Water cooling ii. Air coolingPackaging Transport from field to processing houseTransport to the marketStorage of vegetables Seed storage Processing of brinjal

16. Training need: Please indicate your extent of training needs regarding the flowing post harvest activities of vegetables?

Sl.no.

Activities Extent of need

No Low Medium High1 Determination of maturity index2 Handling of modern equipments for harvesting3 Different post harvest activities

a) Curing b) Cooling c) Washing and dryingd) Sorting grading

4 Increasing shelf-life of vegetables5 Disease and pest control

a) Biological treatmentsb) Mechanical treatmentsc) Chemical treatments

187

Sl.no.

Activities Extent of need

No Low Medium High6 Using packaging materials7 Processing and preservation of vegetables8 Preservation and care taking of seeds9 Storage 10 Transportation and marketing of vegetables

Thank you very much for your kind cooperation.

Signature of the interviewer with date

[Note: Small but significant changes were adopted in the interview schedule for each vegetable and fruit during data collection. But the number of interview schedules will be increased to nine and will occupy a big space if those changes are shown here separately. Thus, a general schedule is showed for the major issues of data collection items.]

189

BrinjalCorrelation matrix of dependent and independent variables for the rural women (N= 50)

Variables Age

Edu

catio

n

Dep

ende

ncy

ratio

Far

m s

ize

Ann

ualf

amily

inco

me

Org

aniz

atio

nal

part

icip

atio

n

Dec

isio

n m

akin

g

capa

city

Tra

inin

g ex

posu

re

Cre

dit r

ecei

ved

Abi

lity

to c

ope

with

unce

rtai

nty

Dai

ly ti

me

allo

catio

n

for

PHA

Aw

aren

ess

on

nutr

ition

of

vege

tabl

es a

nd f

ruits

Cap

acity

stre

ngth

enin

g

Age 1

Education -.491** 1

Dependency ratio -.200 -.284* 1

Farm size .104 .193 .056 1

Annual farm income .115 .113 .028 .314* 1

Organizational participation .230 -.016 -.107 -.091 .074 1

Decision making capacity .177 .083 -.134 .021 .144 .383** 1

Training exposure .099 .201 -.224 -.163 -.060 .345* .280* 1

Credit received .024 -.174 .088 .330* .196 .288* .137 -.071 1

Ability to cope with uncertainty .097 .228 .036 -.030 .541** .285* .358* .269 -.055 1

Daily time allocation for PHA .085 -.044 .047 .176 -.035 .494** .254 .333* .204 .211 1

Awareness on nutrition of

vegetables and fruits-.314* .329* -.256 .098 .027 -.033 .245 .182 .116 -.047 .084 1

Capacity strengthening .185 -.305* .360* -.119 .025 -.017 .018 -.146 .078 -.241 -.207 -.372** 1

* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Appendix B

190

TomatoCorrelation matrix of dependent and independent variables for the rural women (N= 50)

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Variables Age

Edu

catio

n

Dep

ende

ncy

ratio

Far

m s

ize

Ann

ual f

amily

inco

me

Org

aniz

atio

n

part

icip

atio

n

Dec

isio

n m

akin

g

capa

city

Tra

inin

g ex

posu

re

Cre

dit r

ecei

ved

Abi

lity

to c

ope

with

unce

rtai

nty

Dai

ly ti

me

allo

catio

n

for

PHA

Aw

aren

ess

on n

utri

tion

of v

eget

able

s an

d fr

uits

capa

city

str

engt

heni

ng

Age 1Education -.529** 1Dependency ratio -.211 -.017 1Farm size .274 .123 -.153 1Annual family income .143 .019 -.176 .360* 1Organization participation .031 -.086 .024 -.199 .127 1Decision making capacity -.036 .031 .213 -.098 -.055 -.006 1Training exposure -.189 .302* -.194 -.058 .027 .002 .025 1Credit received

-.103 .051 .138 -.221 .002 .670** .040-

.0861

Ability to cope with uncertainty-.144 -.099 -.012 -.180 -.259 -.237 .085

-.061

-.240

Daily time allocation for PHA-.242 -.173 -.081 -.026 -.016 -.040 -.298*

-.055

-.029 -.035 1

Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits

-.028 .258 -.152 .061 -.055 .167 .136 .098 .153 -.325* -.229 1

Capacity strengthening .128 .152 .103 .143 .084 .215 -.012 .116 .174 -.811** -.141 .309* 1

191

Spinach

Correlation matrix of dependent and independent variables for the rural women (N= 50)

Variables Age

Edu

catio

n

Dep

ende

ncy

ratio

Far

m s

ize

Ann

ual f

arm

inco

me

Org

aniz

atio

nal

Par

tici

pati

onD

ecis

ion

mak

ing

capa

city

Tra

inin

g

expo

sure

Cre

dit r

ecei

ved

Abi

lity

to c

ope

Dai

ly ti

me

allo

cati

on

Aw

aren

ess

on

nutr

ition

Cap

acity

stre

ngth

enin

g

Age 1

Education -.460** 1

Dependency ratio -.050 .076 1

Farm size -.063 .252 .158 1

Annual farm income .007 .211 -.190 .119 1

Organizational Participation -.070 .067 -.216 -.108 -.045 1

Decision making capacity -.454** .420** .052 .044 .052 .148 1

Training exposure -.086 .213 -.087 .068 .010 .018 .197 1

Credit received .112 .207 .095 -.122 -.124 .393** .179 -.089 1

Ability to cope -.049 .278 -.009 .064 -.055 -.050 .298* .206 .343* 1

Daily time allocation .046 -.069 -.161 .014 .047 .441** -.102 -.152 -.009 -.427** 1

Awareness on nutrition .189 .078 .031 .178 .160 .152 -.141 -.074 .133 -.238 .203 1

Capacity strengthening -.172 .036 -.045 -.224 -.095 .291* .013 .059 -.039 -.243 .415** -.112 1

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

192

Potato

Correlation matrix of dependent and independent variables for the rural women (N= 50)

Variables Age

Edu

catio

n

Dep

ende

ncy

ratio

Far

m s

ize

Ann

ual f

amily

inco

me

Org

aniz

atio

nal

part

icip

atio

n

Dec

isio

n m

akin

g

capa

city

in th

e fa

mil

y

Tra

inin

g ex

posu

re

Cre

dit r

ecei

ved

Abi

lity

to c

ope

with

unce

rtai

nty

Dai

ly ti

me

allo

catio

n

for

PH

A

Aw

aren

ess

on

nutr

itio

n of

vege

tabl

es a

nd f

ruits

Cap

acity

bui

ldin

g

Age 1

Education -.527** 1

Dependency ratio -.296* .223 1

Farm size .199 .328* .029 1

Annual family income .018 .417** .284* .699** 1

Organizational participation .019 -.235 -.094 -.392** -.356* 1

Decision making capacity in -.310* .047 .085 -.275 -.310* .194 1

Training exposure .072 .054 -.184 .139 .047 .343* .143 1

Credit received .071 -.038 .032 .016 .028 .248 -.037 .198 1

Ability to cope with

uncertainty-.189 -.106 -.231 -.161 -.252 .220 .455** .279 .333* 1

Daily time allocation for PHA .220 -.071 -.284* .173 .113 .001 -.551** .053 .045 -.395** 1

Awareness on nutrition of

vegetables and fruits .209 .278 .055 .396** .476** -.453** -.516** .033 -.219 -.498** .322* 1

Capacity building-.143 .090 -.119 -.078 -.253 .263 .097 .058 -.208 -.248 .159 -.193 1

* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

193

Mango

Correlation matrix of dependent and independent variables for the rural women (N= 50)

Variables Age

Edu

catio

n

Dep

ende

ncy

ratio

Far

m s

ize

Ann

ual f

arm

inco

me

Org

aniz

atio

nal

part

icip

atio

n

Dec

isio

n

mak

ing

capa

city

in th

e fa

mil

y

Tra

inin

g

expo

sure

Cre

dit r

ecei

ved

Abi

lity

to c

ope

wit

h un

cert

aint

y

Dai

ly ti

me

allo

cati

on f

or

PH

AA

war

enes

s on

nutr

ition

of

vege

tabl

es a

nd

frui

ts

Cap

acity

stre

ngth

enin

g

Age 1

Education -.316* 1

Dependency ratio -.197 .171 1

Farm size -.047 .241 .329* 1

Annual farm income .048 .422** .278 .661** 1

Organizational participation

.297* .023 -.102 -.081 .052 1

Decision making capacity in the family

.247 .154 -.164 -.094 .140 .180 1

Training exposure .134 .299* .178 -.022 .267 .132 .191 1

Credit received .056 .321* .007 -.063 .083 .129 .080 .330* 1

Ability to cope with uncertainty

.214 .268 .066 .170 .455** .428** .367**.405*

*.111 1

Daily time allocation for PHA

-.160 .104 .045 .239 -.146 -.103 -.046 -.287* -.249 -.240 1

Awareness on nutrition of

vegetables and fruits-.362** .646** .157 .344 .427** -.035 .084 .257 .186 .234 .275 1

Capacity strengthening -.062 -362** -.017 -.447** -.613** -.134 -.166 -.095 -.324* -.285* -.041 -.245 1

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

194

Banana

Correlation matrix of dependent and independent variables for the rural women (N= 50)

Vairables Age

Edu

catio

n

Dep

ende

ncy

ratio

Far

m s

ize

Ann

ual f

arm

inco

me

Org

aniz

atio

nal

part

icip

atio

n

Dec

isio

n m

akin

g ca

paci

ty

in th

e fa

mil

y

Tra

inin

g ex

posu

re

Cre

dit r

ecei

ved

Abi

lity

to c

ope

with

unce

rtai

nty

Dai

ly ti

me

allo

catio

n fo

r

PH

A

Aw

aren

ess

on n

utri

tion

of

vege

tabl

es a

nd f

ruits

Cap

acity

Str

engt

heni

ng

Age 1

Education -.223 1

Dependency ratio -.214 .187 1

Farm size .234 .281* .269 1

Annual farm income .052 .375** .216 .291* 1

Organizational participation .181 .057 -.179 -.001 .185 1

Decision making capacity -.065 -.054 -.028 -.108 -.223 -.123 1

Training exposure -.048 .073 -.148 -.097 -.118 .141 -.130 1

Credit received .166 -.149 -.049 -.005 .132 .586** -.149 -.072 1

Ability to cope with uncertainty -.250 .002 -.441** -.154 -.344* .044 .433** .171 -.062 1

Daily time allocation for PHAs .222 -.050 .175 -.078 .328* .332* -.352* -.037 .238 -.543** 1

Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits

.095 .047 .197 .201 .214 -.218-.448**

.088 -.022 -.506** -.056 1

Capacity Strengthening -.184 -.108 -.065 -.086 -.228 .059 -.057 .266 -.011 -.005 -.106 .071 1

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

195

Pineapple

Correlation matrix of dependent and independent variables for the rural women (N= 50)

Variables Age

Edu

catio

n

Dep

ende

ncy

ratio

Far

m s

ize

Ann

ual f

amily

in

com

e

Org

aniz

atio

nal

part

icip

atio

n

Dec

isio

n m

akin

g ca

paci

ty in

the

fam

ily

Tra

inin

g ex

posu

re

Cre

dit r

ecei

ved

Abi

lity

to c

ope

wit

h un

cert

aint

y

Dai

ly ti

me

allo

cati

on f

or

PH

A

Aw

aren

ess

on

nutr

ition

of

vege

tabl

es a

nd

frui

ts

Cap

acity

st

reng

then

ing

Age 1

Education -.270 1

Dependency ratio .103 -.035 1

Farm size -.075 .390** .053 1

Annual family income -.050 .355* .029 .590** 1

Organizational participation -.051 .254 -.180 .248 .232 1

Decision making capacity in

family.311* -.095 .099 -.089 -.043 .061 1

Training exposure -.026 .411** -.092 .087 .019 .117 -.080 1

Credit received .043 -.024 .002 -.110 -.124 .443** .026 .142 1

Ability to cope with uncertainty .280* -.171 .309* .096 .214 .094 .110 -.061 -.049 1

Daily time allocation for PHA .186 -.033 .071 -.061 -.046 -.005 .419** .056 .135 .352* 1

Awareness on nutrition of

vegetables and fruits-.318* .507**

-

.394**.211 .164 .373** -.097 .389** .217 -.434** -.009 1

Capacity strengthening -.001 -.155 .007 -.497** -.338* -.071 .115 .109 .065 .019 .259 -.026 1

* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

196

Guava

Correlation matrix of dependent and independent variables for the rural women (N= 50)

Variables Age

Edu

cati

on

Dep

ende

ncy

ratio

Far

m s

ize

Ann

ual f

arm

inco

me

Org

aniz

atio

nal

part

icip

atio

n

Dec

isio

n m

akin

g

capa

city

in th

e fa

mil

y

Tra

inin

g ex

posu

re

Cre

dit r

ecei

ved

Abi

lity

to c

ope

with

unce

rtai

nty

Dai

ly ti

me

allo

catio

n

for

PHA

Aw

aren

ess

on n

utri

tion

of v

eget

able

s an

d fr

uits

Cap

acit

y st

reng

then

ing

Age 1Education -.316* 1

Dependency ratio -.197 .171 1Farm size -.047 .241 .329* 1Annual farm income .048 .422** .278 .661** 1Organizational

participation.297* .023 -.102 -.081 .052 1

Decision making capacity .247 .154 -.164 -.094 .140 .180 1

Training exposure .134 .299* .178 -.022 .267 .132 .191 1Credit received .056 .321* .007 -.063 .083 .129 .080 .330* 1Ability to cope with uncertainty

.214 .268 .066 .170 .455** .428** .367** .405** .111 1

Daily time allocation for PHA

-.160 .104 .045 .239 -.146 -.103 -.046 -.287* -.249 -.240 1

Awareness on nutrition of vegetables and fruits

-.362** .646** .157 .344* .427** -.035 .084 .257 .186 .234 .275 1

Capacity strengthening -.062 -.362** -.017 -.447** -.613** -.134 -.166 -.095 -.324* -.285* -.041 -.245 1

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

197

Orange

Correlation matrix of dependent and independent variables for the rural women (N= 50)

Variables Age

Edu

catio

n

Dep

ende

ncy

rati

o

Far

m s

ize

Ann

ual f

amily

inco

me

Org

aniz

atio

nal

Par

tici

pati

on

Dec

isio

n m

akin

g

capa

city

in th

e

fam

ily

Tra

inin

g ex

posu

re

Cre

dit r

ecei

ved

Abi

lity

to c

ope

with

unc

erta

inty

Dai

ly ti

me

allo

cati

on f

or P

HA

nutr

ition

of

vege

tabl

es a

nd

frui

ts

Cap

acity

stre

ngth

enin

g

Age 1

Education -.554** 1

Dependency ratio .231 -.167 1

Farm size -.200 .331* -.080 1

Annual family income -.246 .279 -.004 .422** 1

Organizational

Participation.210 .149 -.005 -.014 -.237 1

Decision making

capacity in the family.121 -.075 -.019 -.094 -.201 -.068 1

Training exposure .122 -.378** .108 .024 -.090 -.167 .342* 1

Credit received .087 .135 -.273 -.055 .164 .243 .191 .135 1

Ability to cope with uncertainty

-.248 .082 -.294* .174 .347* -.234 -.055 -.127 .109 1

Daily time allocation for PHA

-.264 .124 .168 .247 .363** -.253 .162 -.017 .073 .456** 1

Awareness on nutrition

of vegetables and fruits.179 .110 .412** .069 -.116 .314* .173 .047 .049 -.558** -.064 1

Capacity strengthening .044 -.105 .365** .037 -.087 .164 -.073 -.084 -.372** .050 .290* .288* 1

* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

199

Photo : Training session at Nesarabad, Pirojpur

Photo : Training session at Juri, Moulavibazar

Photo 4.1:Training and demonstration activities in photographs

200

Photo: Demonstration session at Juri, Moulavibazar

Photo: Result demonstration of orange products.