ROLE OF RURAL WOMEN IN AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES AND HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY: A CASE STUDY IN FAISALABAD DISTRICT

摘要

A study was conducted in the Department of Rural Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan during the year 2013. The objective was to explore multiple role of rural women in agricultural and livestock related activities and contribution towards household food security in Faisalabad district. Multistage random sampling technique was adopted for the selection of respondents. At first stage one tehsil (Faisalabad) was selected out of total 6 tehsils. At 2 nd stage two union councils were selected from the selected tehsil and at 3 rd stage six villages were selected from each of selected union council. From each of selected village 10 rural females were selected and interviewed. The total sample size of study was 120 respondents. The findings showed that simple majority (30.8%) of the respondents was illiterate. Rural women of the study area were involved in variety of crop production related activities but their involvement rate was the highest in fodder cutting where more than 80 percent of respondents were involved. Among different livestock production related activities their involvement rate was highest in dung collection and watering as well as bathing of animals as reported by more than 35 percent of the respondents. It was also concluded that slightly more than half of the respondents (51.7%) were involved in preserving food. Low agricultural productivity, lack of storage facilities and low purchasing power were perceived as the major causes of food insecurity in the study area as reported by more than half (50.0%) of the respondents.