Need Assessment for Capacity Building of Women in Practicing Post Harvest Activities of Vegetables

The main focus of this study was to determine the extent of need for capacity building of women for practicing post harvest activities of vegetables and to explore the relationships of the selected characteristics of the women with their extent of need for capacity building. The study was conducted with randomly selected 100 women of Ashulia union under Savar upazila of Dhaka district during April to May 2007. Need for capacity building of women was the dependent variable and the twelve selected characteristics of the respondents constituted the independent variables of the study. The highest proportion (57%) of the respondents had high need while the rest (43%) of them had medium and none of them had low extent of need for capacity building. The women had the highest (22%) need for capacity building in management skill and their lowest extent (18%) of need was for capacity building in physical facilities. Among the characteristics of the respondents, family farm and homestead size, annual family income and use of post harvest technology showed significant negative relationship with their need for capacity building but credit received by the respondents was positively significant. The major problems faced by the women in utilizing the post harvest facilities of vegetables are lack of credit, inadequate marketing facilities and inefficient manpower.