Author(s): Dr. Chitra M Bellurkar

Abstract:
Women play a significant and crucial role in agriculture and allied fields including main crop production, livestock, horticulture, post harvest operations etc. Sustainability in agriculture cannot be achieved without the partnership between men and women. They are like two wheels of a cart and together only they can move towards progress. The study was carried out from two agro – climatic zones. Nanded district was selected from Central Maharashtra Plateau zone and Nagpur district was selected from Central Vidarbha zone. This research consist sample of four hundred ten farm women from urban, rural and tribal areas. The respondents were interviewed personally. Type of participation of the respondent was measured on the basis, with whom she participated in the post-harvest activities and extent of participation was measured as whether the activity was completely performed by the respondent or partially. Independent participation of the women was noted in the activities management of surplus produce at household level and storage of the produce. Participation of the women jointly with female was noted in the activities cleaning and drying of the produce whereas their joint participation with male was observed in the activities threshing and winnowing. In case of extent of participation, it was noticed that women’s complete participation was in the activities post- harvest processing of the produce at household level and retention of the produce for consumption while it was partial in threshing and management of surplus produce at commercial level.