Access To Extension Services To Horticulture Women Farmers In Andhra Pradesh, India Assignment Sample

Role of Extension Services in Empowering Women Horticulture Farmers

Project Background

Access to Horticulture extension services is considered to be important for promoting the empowerment and success of women farmers in a country. Access to the agricultural extension service is considered to be important to enhance the productivity and sustainability of farming practices, particularly in the horticulture sector. The purpose of this research proposal is to highlight the importance of accessing extension services to horticulture women farmers in Andhra Pradesh, India.

Andhra Pradesh, India, is a state with rich agricultural diversity. According to statistics, Horticulture contributes approximately 4% to the State’s GDP rate in Andhra Pradesh, and this state contains 13 per cent of the horticulture crops across the country. The area and production, 18.23 lakh hectares areas fall under horticulture farming in Andhra Pradesh, with an annual production rate of horticulture crops of 366.53 lakhs metric tons (Department of Horticulture, Government of Andhra Pradesh, 2021).

According to the governmental report, in rural areas of Andhra Pradesh, the agriculture sector is considered the primary source of employment, where 76.9 per cent of the women population is engaged in farming activities (Mandal and Debnath, 2024). This percentage refers that in rural areas, three in four women are involved in agriculture or farming activities. In such a scenario, access to horticulture extension services can play an important role in bridging the gap between traditional practices and modern agricultural techniques. The extension service in agriculture can provide up-to-date information to the farmers on best practices, pest management, sustainable farming methods and techniques, and soil health tests, which thereby increase productivity and income (Sekabira et al., 2022). For women farmers, access to extension services can be transformative, as it can offer them the opportunities to learn about advanced technologies and techniques to improve crop quality, which triggers the female farmers to maintain proper productivity and gain better access to the markets.

Justification of the topic

In India, it is often evident that social and cultural norms may assign women to subsistence farming or farm helping process, whereas the male population are considered as the productive labourers. Rola‐Rubzen et al. (2020) stated that gender is taken as rarely considered in the literature on agricultural extension and technology adaptation. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation or FAO survey, women farmers used to receive only 5 per cent of agricultural extension services across the world, and according to the market survey, only 15 per cent of the extension agents in these service facilities are women (Food and Agriculture Organisation, 2014). However, Alvi et al. (2021) argue that an effort to improve access to extension services for women farmers in horticulture is important to foster gender equity and enhance the overall productivity in this specific sector of Andhra Pradesh.

Research Aim and Objectives

Considering the research background, this research project will aim to evaluate the importance of accessing extension services for horticulture women farmers in Andhra Pradesh, India. Therefore, the objectives of this research will be:

• To identify the current level of scope to access the extension services by the horticulture women farmers in Andhra Pradesh.
• To identify the barriers that restrict women farmers from accessing the extension programs
• To develop strategies for improving the outreach and effectiveness of the extension services tailored to the needs of women farmers.
• To address the impact of improved extension services on socio-economic and agricultural development, and empowerment for the women horticulture farmers.

Research Questions

• What is the current level of scope of accessing horticulture extension services by the female farmers in Andhra Pradesh, India?
• What are the possible barriers that restrict women farmers from accessing horticulture extension services and programs in Andhra Pradesh, India?
• What would be the best-fit strategies to ease the accessibility of horticulture extension services by women?
• How and to what extent can access to extension services by women farmers improve agricultural productivity in Andhra Pradesh, India?

Literature Review

Reddy et al. (2023) stated that the Andhra Pradesh state government has started working with the Rythu Bharosa Kendra (RBK) to support local farmers. It provides quality services and maintains transparency in agricultural activity. RBK is overseen by a Horticulture assistant, Village Agriculture Assistant, Sericulture Assistant and more. Women play a significant role in different activities in horticulture. They are mainly involved in vegetable production. Their participation is seen in soil management, seed sowing, weeding, sorting and grading of vegetables. Besides that, they are involved in crop watching, irrigation, application of pesticides and more. Women farmers get help from extension services for managing numerous farming activities. The horticulture activities, such as crop management, soil management, planting practices, seeding, marketing crops and more, are managed through extension services. Furthermore, the Andhra government has hired assistants in horticulture, agriculture, and sericulture to support women farmers. These assistants are responsible for reporting to the Agriculture Officer at the village and Mandal level. Reddy et al. (2024) stated that training is required for women farmers in various horticultural practices. Pest control and disease management, identification of low-volume and high-volume crops, standardisation, protective cultivation and more. Through enhancing accessibility of extension services in horticulture, such an improvement is possible. 

According to Sabar et al. (2022), the involvement of women labourers has been noticed in many developed and developing countries. However, issues of gender inequity remain. It happens because of their limited knowledge of geographical, economic, cultural and environmental factors. This situation led women to do physically demanding work in the agricultural field. Due to insufficient income levels, limited knowledge and working skills and sociocultural factors, women become agrarian labourers. In this aspect, gender education plays a crucial role in helping women learn framing practices. It involves working skills such as crop cultivation, soil management, farming business, pest control, seed selection and more, as well as developing social relationships.

According to Lakshmi and Naidu (2022), a potential entrepreneurship promotion is necessary in the agricultural sector. However, a trend of shifting agricultural practices has been observed as a viable business instead of continuing farming practices as a livelihood option. To adapt it male and women farmers both require effective skill sets, a requisite knowledge base and management of agricultural enterprises. Extension services have been introduced in horticultural, agricultural, sericulture and pisciculture to offer agrarian skills, demonstration farming, guidance of the plantation, seeding, horticultural technologies, implementation of new farming techniques, and innovation. Lakshmi and Naidu (2022) stated that Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) has introduced agricultural entrepreneurship to advance farming practices in different parts of Andhra Pradesh. KVK has conducted skill development programs, food processing services, community-based collaboration and more. KVK engages in public-private partnerships and convergence to implement training development programs, farm trials and other extension activities to promote entrepreneurship. It also organises vocational training for women farmers in Andhra Pradesh to encourage them in different horticulture activities.

Literature Gap

The research topic has focused on the accessibility of extension services to women farmers in horticulture in Andhra Pradesh, India. The literature gap rectifies the unexplored areas, lack of sufficient information and more. The existing literature has neglected some specific challenges faced by women involved in horticulture activities. A limited range of research has been done, specifically on horticulture extension services in India. Besides that, a lack of qualitative research has been seen. Implementation of such research methods is required to highlight challenges faced by women farmers in Andhra Pradesh. Additionally, the impact of updated agricultural and horticultural government policies and schemes remained unexplored in the context of horticultural practice in Andhra Pradesh. These gaps are addressed here to elevate understanding of barriers and scope in enhancing the participation of women in agricultural and horticultural practices.

Methods

Considering the purpose and objectives of this research proposal, the secondary qualitative research method has been chosen as a preferred research method. More specifically, to identify the role of gender in agriculture extension service systematic review of literature has to be used as a preferred data analysis method. The search will be conducted by using online databases like Google Scholar, Research Gate, and Academic journals by using the PRISMA Flow Diagram (Refer to Appendix 1). By using Google Scholar as an online database, 12000 results were identified to meet the purpose and objectives of the research. Among these 12000 articles, to identify and access the most relevant peer-reviewed journals and articles, a PRISMA flow diagram, keyword search, and inclusion and exclusion criteria would be used for this study.

The purpose of this research work is to identify the importance of accessing agriculture extension services in horticulture by women farmers in Andhra Pradesh, India. Therefore, to carry out the systematic review of literature on this subject matter, an inductive research approach has to be followed. According to Lewis (2023), the inductive research approach, due to its exploratory nature, allows the researcher to closely allocate the intricate details about the fact of accessing extension services by horticulture women farmers in Andhra Pradesh, India.

For the literature search, both the keyword search strategy and inclusion-exclusion criteria have been used along with the PRISMA flow diagram. The keywords used for identifying the relevant resources from online databases are:

• Objective 1: “Women”, “farmers” “Horticulture”, “extension” “Services”, ‘Andhra Pradesh”
• Objective 2: “Barriers”, “Women”, “farmers”, “Horticulture”, “extension” “Services”
• Objective 3: “Horticulture”, extension”, “Services”, ‘Andhra Pradesh', Women', “farmers
• Objective 4: “Improved”, “empowerment”, “extension”, “service”, “and “women farmers”, ‘Horticulture’,

Inclusion and exclusion criteria:

The inclusion criteria:

• The journals and articles that include information about the Horticulture extension services in India.
• The peer-reviewed journal that addresses the current level of scope of accessing horticulture extension services for women farmers in Andhra Pradesh, India.
• The journals that are published on or after 2014

Exclusion criteria:

• The journals and articles that lack of information about horticulture extension services in Andhra Pradesh, India
• The articles that do not include information about the scope of women farmers in Andhra Pradesh, India
• The articles that were published before 2014

For this proposed research, a systematic review has to be chosen as the preferred method of data analysis. A systematic review of 20 selected articles and peer-reviewed journals has to be carried out to evaluate the importance and impact of accessing horticulture extension services by women farmers in Andhra Pradesh, India.

Risks

The probable risks related to the specific research proposal are as follows:

Resources

Various consumables are required in the projection of research. After data collection, research materials are protected in a specific folder. Licensed software and cloud storage devices are used in data sharing. Internet services are used for online communication and data collection. Besides that, information is collected from online and offline libraries. After getting proper consent, data is collected from these sources. Implementation of the Geographical Information System helps in analysing and interpreting gender-related data. Reliable networking services help in getting secondary data, analysing and data processing. The estimated cost for this research breaks down into some categories, including the accessibility of software tools, audio-video recording equipment, participants’ compensation, ethical review fees, contingency funds and more. This cost estimation provides a budgetary framework to research the role of gender in agricultural extension services. It takes approximately 3 weeks to fulfil all key tasks.

Timelines

Reference

1. Alvi, M., Barooah, P., Gupta, S. and Saini, S. (2021). Women’s access to agriculture extension amidst COVID-19: Insights from Gujarat, India and Dang, Nepal. Agricultural Systems, 188, p.103035. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2020.103035.
2. Department of Horticulture, Government of Andhra Pradesh (2021). :: HORTICULTURE DEPARTMENT:: [online] horticulture.ap.nic.in. Available at: https://horticulture.ap.nic.in/.
3. Food and Agriculture Organisation. (2014). Chapter 9 - Improving women farmers’ access to extension services. Www.fao.org. https://www.fao.org/4/w5830e/w5830e0b.htm
4. Lakshmi, K.B. and Naidu, D.C. (2022) Extension strategies for agripreneurship promotion in tribal and rural areas in Srikakulam District of Andhra Pradesh.https://epubs.icar.org.in/index.php/TJRA/issue/download/3721/951#page=93
5. Lewis, L., (2023). Finding the stories: a novice qualitative researcher learns to analyse narrative inquiry data. Nurse researcher, 31(3).https://journals.rcni.com/nurse-researcher/evidence-and-practice/finding-the-stories-a-novice-qualitative-researcher-learns-to-analyse-narrative-inquiry-data-nr.2018.e1578/abs
6. Mandal, C. and Debnath, P., (2024). ‘Other-Gender’in India: An Analysis of 2011 Census Data. Social Science Spectrum, 6(1), pp.1-11.http://www.socialspectrum.in/index.php/sp/article/view/197
7. Reddy, G.R., Radha, Y. and Lakshmi, T. (2024) Determinants of Awareness of Rythu Bharosa Kendra’s (RBK’s) Programmes in Andhra Pradesh, India. Asian Journal of Agricultural Extension, Economics & Sociology, 42(6), pp.449-459.http://journal.submissionpages.com/id/eprint/1907/1/Raja4262024AJAEES119624.pdf
8. Reddy, I.V., Subbaiah, P.V., Narasimha, R., Prasad, P.N. and Sehkar, N.R. (2023) Training need Assessment and Knowledge of Village Agricultural Assistants of NTR District of Andhra Pradesh. Asian Journal of Agricultural Extension, Economics & Sociology, 41(8), pp.242-250.http://ebooks.abclibraries.com/id/eprint/1868/1/Reddy4182023AJAEES101429.pdf
9. Rola‐Rubzen, M.F., Paris, T., Hawkins, J. and Sapkota, B., (2020). Improving gender participation in agricultural technology adoption in Asia: from rhetoric to practical action. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 42(1), pp.113-125.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X2100214X
10. Sekabira, H., Tepa-Yotto, G.T., Djouaka, R., Clottey, V., Gaitu, C., Tamò, M., Kaweesa, Y. and Ddungu, S.P., 2022. Determinants for the deployment of climate-smart integrated pest management practices: A meta-analysis approach. Agriculture, 12(7), p.1052.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/7/1052