Assessment of Constraints Faced by Rural Women of Assam in Adoption of Technology

Abstract

The present study was conducted to explore the level of adoption of technology by rural women and constraints faced by them in technology adoption. Three vocational trainings namely ‘Food processing and preservation’, ‘Mushroom cultivation’ and ‘Vermicompost production’ were selected to study the constraints faced by the respondents in adopting the technologies learnt in the vocational trainings conducted by the Krishi Vigyan Kendras(KVKs). The study reveals that 69.33 per cent respondents belonged to medium socio economic category. Respondents of ‘Food processing and preservation’ training belonged to medium level of adoption, followed by low level (21.67%), whereas among the trainees of Mushroom production and Vermicompost production, highest percentage belonged to low level of adoption. Data on constraints faced by the respondents in adoption of technologies reveals that highest percentage of respondents faced medium level of constraints. ‘Lack of financial resource for starting a new venture’ was reported as a major constraint with mean score 1.33 by the rural women. Regarding the vocation specific constraints, ‘Raw materials not available round the year’ and ‘Do not have adequate knowledge about registration and licensing’, ‘Preservatives and packaging materials not easily available’ were some of the major constraints of food processing and preservation reported by the trainees. ‘Seasonal nature of income from mushroom production’ and ‘disease attack and insect infestation’, ‘Shelf life is very short’ were the constraints reported by the mushroom production trainee. ‘Not getting sufficient earthworm in local area’ and “Marketing is not smooth were the highly reported constraints of the participants of vermicompost production training.