Rural Women’s Participation in Aquaculture: Experience of a Technology Dissemination project

The study was undertaken to have understandings on rural women’s extent of participation in some selected aquaculture practices as a result of a technology demonstration project intervention in two selected districts in Bangladesh. The study also aimed at exploring relationships between the women’s nine selected characteristics and their participation in aquaculture practices. Nakla upazila under Sherpur district and Katiadi upazila under Kishoreganj district were the location of the researcher where a sample of 200 women were randomly drawn from a population of 394 eligible rural women. Data were collected by using a pre-tested structured interview schedule during September to December, 2004. An overwhelming majority (72.5%) of the rural women had ‘very low’ level of participation in aquaculture activities while 13% had ‘low’ participation. However, no woman was found having ‘high’ participation and 12.5% were found having ‘no’ participation in aquaculture practices. The respondents had low to negligible level of participation in majority of the ten selected aquaculture practices. Rural women’s participation in aquaculture practices had significant and negative correlation with their education, family farm size, family size and family annual income. Only knowledge on aquaculture had a significant and positive relationship with participation in aquaculture.