EVALUATING WOMEN'S CONTRIBUTION TO VEGETABLE CULTIVATION AND THEIR CONCERNS USING PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES TO ACHIEVE NUTRITIONAL SECURITY.

The agriculture industry is becoming more "feminized," with more women taking on diverse roles as labourers, entrepreneurs, and cultivators as a result of males migrating from rural to urban areas at an increasing rate. Empirical data worldwide indicates that women play a critical role in maintaining regional agro-biodiversity and guaranteeing food and nutritional security. From clearing land to selling, women are integral to every aspect of farming operations. Despite being referred to as "Invisible Workers," There is gender inequality in their access to inputs, marketing, consulting services, land ownership and remuneration. Keeping this in view, a study was carried out to assess the Participation Index of women in vegetable cultivation and explore the important gender issues from cultivation to marketing. Rank Based Quotient method in the Participatory Rural Appraisal technique was used. The Participation Index falls between 0.23 and 0.67. The major gender issues perceived were the pay gap between men and women (RBQ value of 83.67), accessibility to inputs and resources (84.35) and low influence over the commodities for marketing (116.19). But regardless of these issues, women are actively involved in various agricultural activities and nowadays, the women are agripreneurs instead of just managing households. Hence, proper attention has to be given for fair pay, stable income, easy access to resources and knowledge on current marketing trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]