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The present study under the title 'Gender analysis of rice farmers in
Thiruvananthapuram district' was undertaken to study the role perception
and role performance of rice farmers with regard to rice farming activities
and decision making and its relationship with personal and psychological
factors of rice farmers. The study also revealed their socio-economic
profile, their training need and constraints experienced by the rice farmers.
The study was conducted in Thiruvananthapuram district covering
three sub-divisions by concentrating in three panchayats using stratified
three stage sampling method. A sample of 180 rice farmers, consisting of
60 men farmers in men headed household, 60 women in men headed
household, 30 women in defacto household and 30 women in dejuri
household formed the respondents of this study. Personal interview with
the help of a well structured and pre-tested interview schedule was adopted
to collect the data from the respondents, and suitable statistical techniques
were employed for the analysis of data.
Thirty eight roles in rice farming were identified and it was found
that men farmers perceived roles like ploughing the mam field, levelling,
puddling, trimming and plastering the field bunds, spreading farm manure
and green manure in the field, irrigating the main field, forming drainage





channel, application of manures and fertilizer and marketing the produce
and the men farmers were also perform the above said roles. Majority of
women respondents In men headed, defacto and dejuri households
perceived and performed roles like pulling out seedlings from nursery bed,
transplanting, weeding, winnowing, dehusking, supervising the labourers,
scaring birds, harvesting, storage of dried seeds, processing of seeds,
management of animals and marketing of milk and preparing processed
food from milk. With regard to decision making, 32 decision making areas
were identified. It was found that men farmer perceived areas like seed
rate to be followed, time of pulling out seedlings from nursery bed, type of
ploughing to be done, interval of irrigation be given, time of weeding,
number of labourers required for weeding and harvesting, method of
threshing and quantity of grains to be stored. Also almost all the decisions
related to rice farming were taken independently by the men farmers and
joint decisions was. found to be higher in areas like deciding' the
expenditure of farm and home, type and number of animal breed to be
grown and marketing of milk and fixing the price whereas the perception
and performance of women in men headed household is found to be limited,
they perceived areas like choice of the crop, deciding like expenditure of
farm and home, type of animal breed to be grown and number of animals to
be maintained. These women took independent decisions in areas like care
and management of animals and marketing of milk and fixing the price of
milk products. Whereas decision related to financial aspects were taken

jointly by these women. Majority of respondents in defacto and dejuri
household perceived almost all the decision making areas. Majority of the
decisions were taken independently by the women in dejuri household,
whereas the women in defacto household took majority of decisions only
after consulting their male counterpart.
,
Categorywise comparison of rice farmers based on role perception
and performance in rice farming activities and decision making showed that
there exist no significant difference between groups with respect of role
perception in rice farming activities, whereas there exist a significant
difference between the four categories of rice farmers with respect of role
perception in decision making and men were found to be superior in this.
A significant difference was also observed with regard to role performance
in activities and women in defacto household were found to be superior.
With respect to joint and independent decision making there exist a
significant difference and it was found that joint decision making was found
to be higher in defacto household and maximum independent decision was
taken by men farmer in men headed household.
Majority of respondents except women in dejuri household belonged
to middle age whereas women in dejuri households belonged to old age.
More than forty percent of respondents in all categories were having
middle school whereas women in dejuri household were, able to read and


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write only sixty percent of all the respondents had agriculture as their main
occupation and were having area under wetland below 100 cents and fifty
percent of them had garden land below forty cents. Almost all the
respondents in men headed and defacto households were having an annual
income of less than Rs. 20,000 whereas women in dejuri house hold were
having annual income of Rs. 11,000. Both men farmers and women farmers
in dejuri households were having a farming experience of more than twenty
years and the women in defacto and men headed household were having
less than fifteen years of farming experience. Majority of the respondents
were having high contact with extension agency, mass media contact, self
confidence, self concept, scientific orientation, economic motivation, risk
orientation, innovation proneness, knowledge in rice farming, extent of
adoption and attitude towards rice based farming system. Whereas the
respondents in defacto dejuri household and men farmers had low value
orientation, except women in men headed household who was found to
have high value orientation.
Categorywise comparrson of rice farmers based on selected
characteristics showed that significant difference exist between the groups
with respect of age, caste, education, occupation, area under wetland, area
under garden land, annual income, farming experience, contact with
extension agency, exposure to mass media, cosmopoliteness, self

confidence, economic motivation, knowledge in rice farming and extent of
adoption.
Significant and negative correlation was found between area under
wetland, annual income, innovation proneness and knowledge in rice
farming and role perception in rice farming activities with respect to men in
men headed household. There exist a significant and positive correlation
between extent of adoption and innovation proneness and role perception
in decision making with regard to women in men headed household is
concerned only caste showed a significant and negative correlation.
Occupation, level of knowledge and extent of adoption showed a
significant and negative relationship with respect to women in dejuri
household.
In the case of men in the men headed household there exists a
significant and positive correlation between age and role perception in
decision making. Also contact with extension agency showed a negative
relationship with role perception. Variables such as caste, annual income
risk orientation showed a positive and significant correlation with role
perception with regard to women in men headed household. As far as
women in defacto household is concerned cosmopoliteness, area under
wetland and exposure to mass media showed a positive and significant

correlation. In the case of women in dejuri households variable economic
motivation showed a positive and significant relationship.
There exist significant correlation between occupation and role
performance in farming activities with respect to men m men headed
household. In the case of women m men headed household area under
wetland showed a significant and positive relationship whereas occupation
and education showed a negative relationship. Exposure to mass media
showed a significant and positive correlation and with role performance
while caste exhibited a significant, but negative correlation in the case of
women in defacto household. With regard to women in dejuri household
only one variable age showed a significant and negative correlation,



Significant and positive


relationship was found between risk






orientation and role performance in joint decision making. Another






variable which showed a negative correlation was self concept in the case
of men in men headed household. There exist a significant and positive
correlation between economic motivation and role performance, whereas
attitude towards rice based farming system exhibited negative correlation
with respect to women in men headed household. In the case of women in
defecto household exposure to mass media, level of knowledge and extent
to adoption exhibited positive and significant correlation with joint

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decision making, whereas attitude towards rice based farming system was .
found to be correlated negatively.
In the case of men in men headed household self concept showed a
significant and positive correlation with independent decision making
further risk orientation showed a positive and significant relationship with
respect to women in men headed household annual income showed a
positive relationship and cosmopoliteness showed a negative correlation
with independent decision making. Positive and significant correlation was
found between education and occupation and independent decision making
in the case of women in defacto household. In the case of women in dejuri
household education exhibited positive correlation whereas age showed a
negative correlation with respect to independent decision making.
Training needs of rice farmers was also assessed and it was found
that the men farmers needed training in safe use of fungicides and
pesticides, handling sprayers and dusters, identification of pest and
diseases. Seventy percent of women in men headed household, defacto and
dejuri household needed training in identification of pest and diseases,
handling sprayers and dusters and safe use of insecticides and pesticides.
High cost of cultivation was stated as the main problem by more than
eighty percent of the respondents in the four category. More than fifty

percent of the respondents also stated high cost of plant protection
chemical and lack of irrigation as their main constraint. Fifty percent of
the women respondents expressed lack of awareness in use of chemicals as
their main problem. Whereas fifty percent of the four categories of farmers
expressed lack of technical guidance as their main constraint.