Participation of Tribal Farm Women in Agriculture Related Indigenous Resource Management Activities

Indigenous techniques for resources management are considered to be the best means for friendly environment and livelihood for human being. Women's participation is noticed in agriculture. They are able to run their family with locally available resources. Keeping this in view, the present study was conducted in the tribal areas of Banaskantha district of the Gujarat state with a random sample of 200 tribal farm women. Total 6 indigenous cultivation practices of the maize, the major crop of the area were selected for measuring participation of tribal farm women, on three point continuum viz., full participation, moderate participation and no participation. It can be concluded that- ‘selection of soil’ and ‘preparatory tillage’ in case of tillage; ‘preserving the seed material within the cobs for growing in the next season’ and ‘selecting/earmarking the cob of maize’ in case of selection of seed, seed treatment and sowing; ‘manuring’ and ‘fallowing the field’ in case of nutrient management; ‘using bird perches’ and ‘putting akdo/thor/kharhandi twings in irrigation channel’ in case of pest and disease management; ‘beating dried cobs with wooden stick’ and ‘plucking of matured cobs’ in case of in harvesting and ‘storage in hay/heaps’ and ‘storage in the bamboo bins/kothi’ in case of storage were the important activities in which maximum tribal farm women have participated.