Role of Women in Rice Cultivation and Economy

Abstract

Agriculture is the mainstay of Pakistan’s economy that contributes substantially to Pakistan’s exports and rice is an important food cash crop. It is the second largest agricultural export item of the country and accounts for 6.1 percent of the total value added in agriculture and 1.3 percent of GDP. Many societies, particularly those in developing countries usually emphasize only women’s domestic and community role while political and economic roles are reserved for men, even where women’s economic roles is obvious such as water and fuel wood collection, vegetable gardening, dairy and poultry activities, these economic contributions are minimized and dismissed as emanating from their biology. Thus women’s productive work is less visible and less valuable as compare to that of men. Nonetheless, with increasing economic intensification and diversification as a result of emergence of new challenges, there is gradual movement away from the status quo. The forces of globalization and colonization accelerated the circulation of new ideas and cultures around the globe. As a result women are gradually brought into the center of the development. In the economic domain rural women are involved in the cultivation of crops like palm oil, coffee, wheat, and others for cash.