Abstract

A survey was conducted under coastal district Khorda in Odisha to study the perception on the participation of men and women in various activities of crop production. The study revealed that both men and women of a farming family took part in different activities of crop production and women participated in 26 out of 31 farming activities. Participation of men exceeded women in all activities of rice cultivation except transplanting, drying harvest at threshing floor, drying produce at home, storing seed and aftercare of seeds. Mutual understanding among family members recorded the highest (46.84%) score of perception followed by easiness of operation (28.85%). Activity wise perception recorded against various reasons of participation revealed that out of 26 activities where women had participation, 17 activities were perceived on mutual understanding and 9 activities on easiness.  The correlation between participation of women in various field operations revealed that the correlation between participation and reasons of participation like easiness of operation, suitability of technology to human body and distribution of work on mutual understanding was positive and highly significant even at p= 0.001(0.1%) level. The correlation between participation and socially assignment of work among men and women was also positive and significant at p=0.05 (5%0 level. Whereas correlation between participation and skill specificity or traditionalism was not significant.