Rural Women’s Participation in Boosting Homestead Vegetable Cultivation in Moulvibazar District

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to determine the extent of participation of the rural women in homestead vegetable cultivation in two villages namely Esubpur and Noagaon of Bhunobir union of Sreemangal upazila under Moulvibazar district. Data were collected from randomly selected 100 rural women by using a pre-tested interview schedule during the period from 10 January to 22 February; 2018. The extent of participation was measured by using a five-point rating scale. Results revealed that, 75% of the respondent had medium participation in homestead vegetable cultivation as compared to 21% low participation and 4% high participation. Participation in irrigation and drainage among all other activities required for homestead gardening ranked first that might have an impact in boosting vegetable cultivation. Some socio-economic characteristics of the respondent rural women like educational level, farm size, annual family income, cosmopoliteness, extension media contact, knowledge, attitude and training experience had a significant positive relationship with their extent of participation in homestead vegetable cultivation. Need-based training program depending on the varied socio-economic background of rural women will help in boosting vegetable cultivation in the vegetable scarce Moulvibazar district, and rural women may find homestead gardening as the core income generating activity.