The document discusses rural women's roles in agriculture and decision making. It notes that women play key roles in agricultural production from soil preparation to post-harvest activities. However, their contributions are often not recognized and they have little decision making power due to social and cultural norms. The study aims to understand the factors affecting rural women's decision making and problems they face. It will survey 100 women farmers across 5 villages in Nayagarh district of Odisha, India to gather data on socioeconomic conditions, incomes, cropping patterns, and women's participation in agricultural and domestic work.

1. Submitted by:-
Swati Sucharita
M.Sc 2nd year

2.  Decision-making is the power of an
individual to decide any matter in his/ her
daily life. It can be regarded as an
identifying and choosing alternatives based
on the values and preferences of a decision-
maker. It is an important segment of every
household because the functioning of
family resource management depends on
the efficiency of decision-making progress
(Abhey et al., 2014).

3.  Women are key players in the agricultural sector of
most developing countries of the world. The roles
that rural women play and their position in
meeting the challenges of agricultural production
and development are quite prominent..

4. Their activity typically include
 producing agricultural crops,
 tending animals,
 processing and preparing food,
 working for wages in agricultural and other rural
enterprises,
 collecting fuel and water,
 engaging in trade and marketing,
 caring for family members and maintaining their
homes.
Rural women play key role in agricultural
production by working with full passion starting from
soil preparation to post-harvest activities.

5.  In rural society, there has been noticed a considerable
fluctuation regarding the decision-making power of
women.
 They are mostly illiterate of semi literate. Besides
this, in present agricultural scenario, the contribution
of rural women has not taken seriously because it is
considered very disgraceful to accept the decision of
women.
 This is because the abilities of women have been
neglected and undermined as the responsibility of
forming the policies is always regarded the job of male
traditionally.

6.  The lack of information’s about the new technologies
such as drudgery reducing equipments for them etc is
also considered as one factor.
The decision making capacity of rural women shows
their empowerment level and their position in family.
 Despite of their many efforts in family they take very
less part in decision making process in the family.
Keeping in view, the present study has been planned
with the following research questions;
 What are the various factors that are affecting decision
making of rural women?
 What are the different problems face by the farm
women in decision-making?

7.  To find out the various factors affecting decision-
making on farm women.
 To inquire different problems faced by farm women in
decision-making

8.  Hypothesis is a proposition or principle which is
assumed in order to draw logical or empirical
consequences, and by this method to test its accord
with facts which are known or may be determined.
 H0: There is a relationship between various factors
and decision-making on farm women.
 H1: There is no relationship between various factors
and decision-making on farm women.

9.  Jyoti et. al., (1991)
indicated that Women in
age group 36-45 year old
as compared to younger
women and belonging to
small farms and
agricultural labour took
decision on important
matters as they earn cash
income and had control
over resources.

10.  Sethi (1991) found that
Division of labour within
the household reflected
the pattern of authority
structure. Women
perform a greater part of
domestic work and took
care of children. They
were intensely involved
with the maintenance of
household.

11.  Samanta (1994) observed that they are still remained
invisible workers. Over the years women cultivators are
typically and wrongly characterized as economically
inactive and women cultivator play only a supportive
role in agriculture as farmers’ wives.

12.  Lubbock (1998) stated that the poorer the household,
the greater the importance of the role of women in
ensuring survival and in carrying out fundamental
productive activities and, consequently the greater the
influence women actually have on important
household decisions, although women may not be
recognized either culturally or socially as the ones who
make such decisions.

13.  FAO (2000) stated that Very few studies on decision-
making at the household level have been conducted in
countries of the Near East region. Consequently, it is
extremely difficult to make conclusive statements
regarding who makes decisions and in which areas.
However, since family structures for the majority of the
households in the region are male-headed and
patriarchal, one could infer that men generally control
decision making, although in many situations,
decisions are often made jointly (as in Morocco, for
example, where 75% of women surveyed consulted
with men prior to attending extension meetings).

14.  Choudhary and Singh (2003) said that, women are
responsible for 70 percent of actual farm work and
constitute up to 60 percent of the farming population.
Despite women’s critical contribution to the family
income through productive activities, no recognition is
given to them as an important contributor and their
contribution is not recorded.

15.  Ahmed and Hussain (2004) indicated that, women are
key players in agriculture and allied fields. Rural
women play key role by working with full passion in
production of crops right from the soil preparation till
post harvest activities.

16.  The study seeks to examine the role and participation
of women of the cultivating households in decision
making and to examine the socio-economic factors
which determine female participation in decision
making in household activities.

17. Selection of Locale:
 The state Odisha, will be selected purposively for the
study because it is having more number of marginal,
small and medium level farm holding farm women.
Also the investigator hails from the same state,
familiar with regional language and cultural patterns,
which avoids the problem in rapport development.

18.  Selection of District and Villages:
Nayagarh district of Odisha will be selected for the
study purposively and five villages i.e., Harekrushna
pur, Itamati, Janhipada, Balugaon, and Durgaprasad
will be selected randomly.

19. Selection of Respondents:
 20 respondents from each village will be selected by
using simple random sampling method thus in total,
there will be 100 samples.

20.  Collection of Data:
 Information from the selected households will be
collected with the help of detailed survey schedule.
Data on various aspects of socio-economic conditions
of the households, their income levels, cropping
pattern, female participation in agricultural and allied
activities and domestic work and other related
dimensions was collected personally by the researcher
with the help of the detailed structured schedule.
Information will be collected from the head of the
household and his wife or daughter in law as required.