Economic Empowerment of Rural Farm Women through Mushroom Production – A Case Study of Patna District

Abstract

The study revealed that exposure to training, Front Line Demonstration, Technical Bulletin and Extension literature etc. had increased the knowledge of rural farmwomen regarding all the subcomponents of mushroom production and empower a woman is to empower next generation. There is an urgent need to make rural farm women economically independent and we cannot think of a better alternative than entrepreneurship development. In order to bring a change to this situation, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Barh, Patna conducting Front Line Demonstration and organizing Vocational Training based on empowering rural farm women through entrepreneurship development. This can prove a suitable approach for economic empowerment. It is the only possible way to empower rural farmwomen by capacity building and skill. To assess the social acceptability a structured interview schedule has been prepared and survey was carried out in 100 randomly selected rural farm women of Patna District. Economic viability of the mushroom production as the mushroom yield ranged from 80 to 120 kg/100 kg wheat straw and total income from 100 kg wheat straw ranged from Rs. 6400-12000 with net profit of Rs.4650-12000 in six months. Sixty one percent farm women socially accepted the mushroom production as an income generation activity.