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The Central Sector Scheme of Women in Agriculture was launched on pilot basis during the VIII Plan in one district each of the 7 selected States of the country viz. Punjab, Haryana, U.P. Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala and Rajasthan.
It was extended during the IX Plan period to one district each of 8 North-Eastern Hill States namely Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Tripura, Assam and Sikkim to cover one district each of 15 States in all with a total budget outlay of Rs.4.96 crores.
The Scheme envisaged to motivate, mobilize and organize women farmers to form new groups or identify and consolidate the existing groups of practicing women farmers. All the agricultural support services such as technology, input, extension, credit etc. were channelized through the network of these groups. To ensure sustainability, most Farm Women Group were registered as Registered Society or with Panchayat/District Agriculture Office.
A composite package of recurrent training was provided in the form of Village-based Training to women farmers of Phase-I districts (8 NEH States) and SandwichlRefresher Training to the women farmers of Phase-IT districts (7 old Districts/States) with a view to heip them adopt the new technologies in agriculture and allied sectors such as Crop Husbandry, Agronomy, Soil Sciences, Plant Protection, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry etc. Thrust was also being given to the emerging areas in which women have special aptitude and skills such as organic fanning, vermin composting, bio-technology, nursery raising including Tissue Culture of Horticulture plants etc. In addition, the women farmers were trained in managerial, entrepreneurial and decision-making skills.
Activities:
The scheme has the following Training & Extension components:
Training Component:
- Sandwich/Reinforcement Training of Farm Women of Phase-Il districts (7 old district) (for 10 days in first year & 5 days in subsequent years);
- Village-Based/Refresher Training (for 3 days each at 3 different intervals in first year and again at 2 different intervals in subsequent years);
- Link Workers Training for the Conveners of the Farm Women Groups (for 3 days at 2 different intervals);
- Induction/Refresher Training of Facilitators (for 4 weeks duration in first year and 2 weeks in subsequent years).
Extension Component:
- Result/Method Demonstration in the fields of Women Farmers (4 demonstrations/Farm Women Group i.e. 2 in each cropping season);
- Organization of Mahila Goshties (1 per year involving approximately 600 Farm Women);
- Study Tours (2 per year — one within & one outside the State)
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Participants