Information Needs and Constraints Faced By Farm Women in Hill Region of Uttarakhand

This paper was conducted in the Kumaon Division of Uttarakhand with an objective to find out the information needs and the constraints faced by the farm women covering two blocks. From each block, two villages were selected randomly. By using Probability Proportional to Size sampling method, 25 percent of total farm women from each of the chosen villages were selected randomly. A sample of 120 respondents were included in the study. The results depicted that women were very much interested to know about treatment of animals and animal breeding in the area of dairy farming and also to know more about their health and hygiene. Major constraints expressed by farm women in accessing the information were traditional and cultural norms, domestic responsibilities, not willing to take risk, lack of awareness of the programmes running for the development and illiteracy. Unavailability of extension functionaries, lack of technical guidance, lack of required field staff and inadequate supporting facilities and services were the major technical/extension constraints. *Address for correspondence: Gaurav Papnai ICAR-Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Chinyalisaur, Uttarkashi 249 196, Uttarakhand, India E-mail: gauravpapnai@gmail.com INTRODUCTION Information irregularity at farm level has been observed as one of the main causes for low production and productivity efficiency. Access to accurate, reliable and timely information plays a significant role in the adoption of suitable technology. It enables individuals, groups and communities to realize their full potential and promote sustainable agricultural development (Ansari and Sunetha 2014). Women in India are major producers of food in terms of value, volume and number of hours worked almost 63 percent of all economically active men are occupied in agriculture as compared to 78 percent of women (Banerjee et al. 2016). Active participation of farm women is also increasing in agriculture and allied fields. Although women are involved in farming activities but their skills and knowledge about modern agricultural technologies are remaining extremely low. In order to improve agricultural productivity, the extension system will have to first acknowledge the contribution of farm women in agriculture and allied fields and then initiate appropriate steps for up scaling their knowl-