MSc

Women play a significant role in the development of agriculture and allied fields. In spite of being a key part of the economy, women face much discrimination in terms of wage, credit support and access to various other services. The migration of male workers to urban areas in search of remunerative jobs is one of the factors contributing to the evolution of a kind of transformation in Indian farm sector. And this emerging phenomenon is nothing but a feminization of farm activities. With an objective to empower women in agriculture, government of India has introduced Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP) scheme in 2011. Analysis of the effectiveness of the scheme can provide key inputs for designing further promotional strategies. Keeping these issues in view, the study entitled “Performance Analysis of Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP) scheme in Thrissur district” has been framed. The present research work was taken up to study about the effectiveness of MKSP scheme in Thrissur district. The components of the scheme were delineated. The study has also analyzed the perception of beneficiary farm women, mission coordinators and facilitators on the effectiveness of MKSP scheme. Various factors influencing the implementation of the scheme were also identified. Knowledge level of beneficiary farm women on cultivation of vegetables and banana and group dynamics of the selected women Joint Liability groups were also analyzed. Along with that influence of profile characteristics on group dynamics were also studied. Apart from this the benefits and constraints of the programme were also analyzed. For this, thirty number each of beneficiary farm women who were cultivating vegetables and banana under MKSP scheme from Nadarhara Panchayat of Ollukkara block were selected as the farmer respondents. Thirty mission coordinators and facilitators from the three blocks viz; Ollukkara, Mala and Iringalakkuda constituted the other category of respondents. The secondary data were collected from the Kudumbashree office and various government websites. The details collected about MKSP scheme implemented in Thrissur district through Kudumbashree mission from 2011-12 onwards revealed that project has
surpassed many of the targets and at the same time it was lag behind in input supply due
to failure in establishing seed banks. The major components identified under MKSP
scheme were training and capacity building, credit support, extension services, market
interventions, input supply and value addition. Scheme feature factors were perceived as
the most influencing factors affecting implementation stage followed by resource aspects,
beneficiary aspect and management approach of mission coordinators and facilitators.
It was found that majority of the vegetable farmers has perceived the
effectiveness of MKSP scheme as excellent while majority of banana farmers and
mission coordinators and facilitators perceived it as good. Percentage analysis was
employed and the result showed that among the out puts, socio economic development
and drudgery reduction were the most received benefits for both vegetable and banana
farmers. Similarly benefits under input supply were the least received component by both
respondent categories.
Majority of both vegetable and banana beneficiary farm women w belonged to
‘middle’ age group (35 to 50), had high school/higher secondary education,), had farming
as major occupation, had middle annual income(50001- 100,000INR), and cultivation
was mainly in leased land. But the family of majority of vegetable farmers was medium
(3 to 4 members) and that of banana farmers was large family (5 to 6 members). They
were also having differences in farm size as majority of vegetable farmers were medium
farmers and banana farmers were small farmers. Both vegetable and banana farmers were
found to have medium level of mass media exposure, extension contact, market
orientation, economic motivation, training received, cosmopoliteness and high level of
social participation.
Majority of respondents in both beneficiary categories belonged to medium
knowledge level and Mann whitney U test revealed that there was a significant difference
in the knowledge level of vegetable and banana farmers at 0.05 level. Similarly, Majority
of the respondents of both beneficiary categories had showed medium level of Group
dynamics Effectiveness. It was revealed that, variables like annual income, farm size,
mass media, social participation, training received, economic motivation, cosmopolitans and market orientation had a significant relationship with group dynamics for both vegetable and banana farmers. Occupation of banana farmers had also showed significant relation with its GDEI. Among the constraints, market, financial and infrastructural constraints were the most influenced constraints for both vegetable and banana farmers. But for the mission coordinators and facilitators the major constraints perceived were financial and infrastructural constraints. Good agricultural practices followed by respondents were identified and recorded as soil and moister conservation, nutrient management, pest and rodent management, disease management, weed management, pre harvest practices, harvest and post harvest practices, and storage and processing practices. The important suggestions include increasing the markets by converting weekly markets in to daily markets, detailed orientation for JLGs on converging agencies for exploitation of more markets, enhancing the input supply through strengthening the seed banks and proper system for availing lease land. In a nutshell, the performance of Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana scheme was effective in Thrissur district and it enhanced the capacities of women in collective farming. Feminization of agriculture sector being a key factor in both agriculture and economic development of the country, MKSP would able to empower the women through its various components. However, need for further development still exists especially in components like input supply and market interventions in Kerala.