Vol. 13, Issue 5 (2024)

Author(s):
Neena Vyas and Bindia Dutt

Abstract:
The women in hilly areas play a significant role in farming related activities in different climate variations and contribute in shaping the economy of the country in rural India. It is mainly due to men’s migration for more lucrative jobs leaving all responsibilities including agriculture. In agriculture women are employed in those activities which are not mechanized and involve lot of drudgery. A study was conducted in two districts Kangra and Mandi of Himachal Pradesh comprising of 240 respondents. Data were collected using a well structured and pretested interview schedule. In both the districts female farmers had marginal landholdings mostly less than 2 acres. The main participation of women is in sowing, planting, weeding and harvesting in extreme conditions of weather. The irrigation is mainly dependent on rains. Most of the operations done manually or with traditional tools available in the local area. This all contributes to drudgery which interns affects the health of women. Cent per cent of respondents were of the view that there is vast change in temperature in both the winter and summer season with much of fluctuating rain patterns. Due to this respondents perceived that the season of rabi and kharif crops is shifting and shortening leading to less overall production. The information about climate change was acquired by them from mobile phone (74.17%), newspaper (13.33%) and by Radio (12.5%). Thus knowledge and awareness were given to farm women through trainings regarding climate resilience practices and modified improved tools to combat these problems.