WOMEN EMPOWERMENT THROUGH PRODUCTION AND MARKETING OF MULBERRY SILK IN CHIKKABALLAPUR DISTRICT OF KARNATAKA
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Date
2021
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DRPCAU, PUSA
Abstract
The present study aims at assessing the share of women in cost and return involved in production of mulberry silk and women empowerment achieved in Chikkaballapur district of Karnataka. The primary data was obtained from 90 sericulture farmers from six randomly selected villages and 50 intermediaries like silk reelers, silk twisters, weavers and consumers from two randomly selected blocks of Chikkaballapur district of Karnataka by conducting interviews with individual respondents.
At overall farm level, women labour participation in weeding activities accounted for 21.36 % of total man days, followed by mulberry planting (13.50%), and so on. It was observed that the total establishment cost of mulberry for the overall farmers was accounted for Rs. 50,222.76 per acre, Rs. 49,514.15, Rs. 50,276.62 and Rs. 51,459.69 per acre for marginal, small and medium category farmers, subsequently. In mulberry maintenance, (women employment) share of women labour was comparatively high in case of weeding with 6.96 man days (34.55%), followed by FYM application with 3.44 man days (17.08 %) etc. The total cost of mulberry maintenance for the overall farmers was accounted for Rs. 28,568.73 per acre.
The share of women labour was enumerated higher in case of feeding of silkworms (at different stages) with 5.02 man days (16.20%), followed by leaf
harvesting with 3.83 man days (12.36 %) and so on. The total costs of mulberry cocoon production per batch was estimated to be Rs. 44,234.86 for the farm as whole and Rs. 27,352.31, Rs, 48,987.76 and Rs. 73,146.07 for marginal, small and medium category farmers, respectively. The major utilization of women labour was found to be about 808.93 mandays (43.19 %) in case of cooking with reeling of cocoons & changing water in the pans, followed by about 123.75 man days (6.60%) in cleaning and sorting of cocoons and so on. The total cost for the production of raw mulberry silk was estimated Rs. 1,45,76,798.4 per year per six reeling basins. The total gross returns from the selling of the main product and by-product figured out to be Rs. 1,60,46,945.76 per year and net returns was Rs. 14,70,147.36.
The marketing cost incurred by various categories of farmers i.e., for overall, was amounted to Rs. 980.78, and Rs.1109.72, Rs.966.98 and 882.14, for marginal, small and medium category farmers, respectively. Producers share in consumer’s rupee was estimated to be 34.28 per cent, and further price spread was 65.72 per cent to the consumer’s rupee.
The frequency of women IEI falling in the range of more than 0.75 (>0.75) which was considered as adequate empowerment thus, only 22.22 % of women fell under a range of IEI > 0.75 which opined as women could have attained their adequate empowerment and remaining 77.78% women were confined to the process of attaining empowerment. The Women Empowerment Index (WEI) was found 0.688 for these women who participated in sericulture.
The major constraints faced by the women in mulberry cultivation was water scarcity, followed by wage discrimination etc. Constraints encountered in cocoon production was identified as pest and disease of mulberry silkworms, followed by improper disinfectant and so on. Constraints encountered in marketing of mulberry silk cocoons was with formed as high price fluctuations in the market followed by the absence of quality based pricing. The constraints faced by women in mulberry silk production was formed majorly high investment cost followed by women drudgery problems in reeling and constraints in marketing of silk was high price fluctuations followed by less access to marketing and non-profitable prices and so on.