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Contribution of Rural Women to Rice Production Activities in Two Different Areas of Bangladesh

F Rahman
Department of Agricultural Economics, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh

SA Shammi
Department of Agricultural Economics, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh

MT Parvin
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur, Bangladesh; University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany

N Akter
Department of Agricultural Economics, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh

MS Khan
Department of Rural Sociology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh

S Haque
Department of Agricultural Economics, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

The study was undertaken to identify the core contribution of women in the rice production activities, identify the wage gap between male and female laborer and factors influencing women’s participation in rice farming at household level in Bangladesh. In doing so, the study utilized the data collected by the field survey from Nilphamari and Mymensingh districts of Bangladesh. A total number of 60 women respondents were selected using random sampling methods who were actively working in the rice fields during the production period in 2015. Data were analyzed using simple statistical techniques as well as OLS regression analysis. An analysis of the socioeconomic status of the women showed that in terms of contribution, nearly 43% and 42%of the total works were done by rural women in rice farming activities in Nilphamari and Mymensingh district, respectively. It was found that male workers spent 228.2 hours and female workers 174.5 hours per season in Nilphamari region compared to 270 hours and 197.3 hours per season in Mymensingh region, respectively. The average wage rate in Nilphamari district was BDT 241/day for male and BDT 175/day was female. Similarly, in Mymensingh district the average wage rate for male and female workers was BDT 281/day and BDT 162/day, respectively. The result of the OLS method suggests that the distance of the rice field from the home, the number of available technologies used and the number of adult male labour significantly affect the women's participation in farming activities. Despite the positive role of women in the production activities, their contribution was often neglected in terms of wage rate. Therefore, this study recommends the avoidance of wage discrimination between male and female workers which may strengthen their position within the family and increase their self-esteem and status in the society.

Keywords: Rural women’s contribution, Wage rate, Rice production, Women

Location: Nilphamari and Mymensingh

Start Date: 00-00-2015

End Date: 00-00-2015

Program Area: Socio-economic and Policy

Non-commodity: Gender issue

Objectives:

To examine the contribution of women considering rice farming as a case, based on the contribution of rural women in different rice farming activities, identify the wage gap between male and female labor, and analyze factors influencing women’s participation in rice farming.

Methodology:

In order to realize the objectives of the study, the study selected two different rice producing regions of Bangladesh viz. Nilphamari and Mymensingh which have a long history of rice production. Why these two regions? Normally, in the Northern Bangladesh, we see that women are working in the rice and vegetable field as day labourer which is their regular routine but in Mymensingh, we do not see. Therefore, it was our assumption that women workers of Nilphamari may contribute more than workers from Mymensingh district. Simple random sampling technique was used to select two villages and households from each district for data collection. Finally, survey method was followed to collect the primary data from a total of 60 households in which 30 was from Nilphamari district and 30 was from Mymensingh district. During our 3-month long field study, we chose those women who were working for those households, either as family labour or hired labour. In case of family labour, we calculated the opportunity cost of wage rate. In total, we took 67 females and 42 males in Nilphamari and 56 female and 47 males in Mymensingh district who were working in those households. As this paper deals with contribution of women, we are going to analyze the cases of 67 and 56 female rice workers from Nilphamari and Mymensingh district respectively. Descriptive analyses were employed to analyze the respondents’ socioeconomic status, contribution of women in rice farming activities, and wage gap between male and female labor. Finally, to analyze the factors influencing women’s participation in rice farming, the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression method was employed. The specification of the OLS method is of the following form: Y_i = β₀+ β₁X₁ + β₂ X₂+ β₃X₃ + β₄ X₄ + β₅ X₅ + β₆X₆+ β₇ X₇ + β₈ X₈ +μ_i;Where, the variables are specified as follows: Y_i= number of working hours by women X₁=Farm size (ha.); X₂= wage rate for female labour (BDT/man-days); X₃= Distance from rice field to home (km); X₄= No. of technologies used; X₅= No. of available adult male in the family; X₆= Area of rice field under irrigation (acre); X₇= Farming experience (years); X₈= Cultural barriers as dummy variable β₀ = Intercept β₁- β₈ = Coefficients of respective input variables μ_i = Error term

Source of Information: Progressive Agriculture 27 (2): 180-188, 2016

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

1.

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

In Bangladesh, previously women used to generally played the role of wives and mothers and their activities were confined within the home. They were also bounded by social and religious restrictions. Searching for the way out of poverty, majority of women particularly undertook homestead farming which was not enough to lead a standard of life. Therefore, now a day, they are being engaged to a large extent in farming with a wide range of constraints that limit their performance. As a result of their low economics status, they often miss the opportunity to broadly participate in the society. Therefore, the research was undertaken to determine the contribution of women in farming activities and to find out the development of women due to their involvement in farming, more specifically, rice farming. Based on the results carried out by this research, most of the women workers were young aged which was considered as working age of adult members. The family sizes of the respondents were comparatively larger than the national average family size in Bangladesh. Most of the respondents were from small farmers’ family having an average farm size around 1 acre. Majority of them were undertaking farming as their main occupation followed by very less proportion of population in service or business. Male workers were generally performing the field level work while women were carrying out the post-harvest operations like seedling nursing, weeding, threshing, cleaning and sorting of grain, boiling of grain, drying of straw and rice storing besides doing their household activities. There was a significant difference between the wages paid to male and female workers. The aggregate average wage rate was BDT 265/man-days for male workers whereas it was BDT 233/day for female. This wage gap varied depending on the types of work and physical strength. The result of the regression model showed that among the 8 variables used in the model, only 3 variables such as distance of rice field from home, the number of available technologies use and the number of available male adult within the family were found affecting the women's decision to work in the field.

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