Surplus farm family female labour for production and processing of horticultural crops.
Srivastava, D.
Acta Horticulturae Year: 1991 Issue: No. 270 Pages: 337-342 Ref: 1 ref.
1991
บทคัดย่อ
In many Third World countries much human energy remains underutilized which needs to be exploited. This study was conducted with the objective of assessing the monthly availability of farm family surplus female labour with a view to suggesting strategies for labour utilization. The study pertains to the Union territory of Delhi but is applicable to similar situations in other areas. The reference year was 1987/88. The availability of surplus farm family female labour was assessed under different resource endowment situations: (1) those individually owning machinery, (2) those jointly owning machinery, (3) those using machinery on a custom hire basis, and (4) bullock operated farms. The small farms had more surplus female labour than their large counterparts, and the availability of such labour differed between months. The assessed surplus female labour was greater on mechanized farms than on bullock operated farms. It was therefore suggested that the skills of the farm women be improved by specially designed training programmes to equip them to take advantage of existing and emerging innovations. For example, they may be trained for the adoption of plastic technology for growing some of the remunerative horticultural crops. This needs to be supported by other infrastructure like specially designed multistoried shelves/structures, preferably near their homes so as to enable them to manage the production of such crops without ignoring their household chores. In northern India, thatched huts could be used for growing button mushrooms. All these efforts must be supplemented by postharvest marketing and processing facilities which implies creation of suitable storage and other facilities. Between the point of production and point of consumption, the estimated losses of fruits and vegetables range from 5%-40%. Hence the use of mobile processing vans may be encouraged for rushing the fruits to the nearby villages where the surplus female labour could be used to process the produce. This will help decrease the postharvest losses and also provide employment opportunities for the women.