Women Advisory Service Providers in Food Processing Sector: Case of Punjab, India

Inclusion of rural women in scientific and technological endeavours and realizing women’s intellectual potential is a big challenge in developing countries. Women play a decisive role in many facets of agricultural sector. Creating multiple opportunities for women in agribusiness enterprises is a challenging task. Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering & Technology (CIPHET)—-a unit of Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Ministry of Agriculture, New Delhi, made efforts to support the public extension system through commercialisation of processing technologies through social capital, capacity building and transfer of processing technologies among peer members and other rural women. The target group was most vulnerable component of society i.e. poor rural women of high risk areas (as international border with Pakistan is nearby) where it was difficult to be more market-oriented activities. Convincing to pay for advisory services initially appeared quite difficult as people are accustomed of receiving plenty of free inputs from governmental programmes. Initially women were reluctant to come out of their homes for better livelihood options...Read more