Contents: Preface. I. Key note address and plenaries: 1. Linking science to economics: the women in agriculture connection/Devaki Jain. 2. Low dose effects of pesticides in peripheral blood samples of donors and farmers/Kaiser Jamil. 3. Gender inequity in agriculture/Swarna Vepa. 4. Status of composting in India with special reference to vermicompost/Sultan Ahmed Ismail, Priscilla Jebakumari and Dakshayani Ganesh. 5. Technological empowerment of women in agriculture/Mushtari Begum, J. 6. Entrepreneurial opportunities for women in peri-urban horticulture/Leela Sahijram. 7. Role of women in popularisation and adoption of bio-control technology/Chandish, R. Ballal. 8. Women in agriculture, agricultural research and extension in India/Shakunthala Sridhara. II. Interactive session-farm women and scientists: 9. Role of women in Indian agriculture and its allied fields: an overview/Pandurangaiah, K. and M.A. Narayana Reddy. 10. Women oriented training programmes through directorate of extension, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore/Eswarappa, G.K., P. Raghuprasad and G.M. Varadaraju. III. Empowerment of women: 11. Impact of women participation in developing vermi village - a case study in Karnataka/Dhananjaya B., R. Vinay Kumar and M.S. Nataraju. 12. Participation of farm women in Jasmine production/Dhananjaya B., R. Vinay Kumar and M.S. Nataraju. 13. Women empowerment as a challenge for agricultural development in India/Bharathamma G.U., B.K. Narayanaswamy and A. Ashwini. 14. Poverty alleviation programmes and women: The Karnataka Scenario/Pushpa, B. 15. Role of women in dairy farming/Dhananjaya B., R. Vinay Kumar and C. Chandrashekhar. 16. Entrepreneurial development of Self Help Groups in Agriculture - role for women scientists/Dhakshayani C. and Sultan Ahmed Ismail. 17. Bottlenecks to become a breadwinner/Sailaja A. 18. Income generation through vermicomposting among rural Farm woman/Biradar A.P., D.P. Biradar and A.K. Guggari. 19. Entrepreneurship development: a way to rural women's empowerment/Kalpana B., K.V. Jamuna and B. Krishnamurthy. 20. Empowerment of women through some agrobased activities/Afifa S. Kamili. IV. Capacity building: 21. Capacity building through empowerment-Sthree Shakthi: an experience in Karnataka/Narayana Gowda K., K. Jagadeeswara, L. Ramakrishna Rao, A.K. Chakravarthy and M. Ranganath. 22. Women training as a challenge for agriculture development in India/Ashwini A., B.K. Narayana Swamy and G.U. Bharathamma. 23. Dairy husbandry training for rural women/Punia R.K., D.V. Dahiya and N.S. Yadav. 24. Strengthening organic farming and food security among Soligas at Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary/Siddappa Setty, Gladwin Joseph, K.L. Raghunandhan and M. Gowda. 25. Integrated farming system approach towards efficient utilisation of farm resources by rural women/Kalpana B., G.N. Nagaraj and H. Kadar Khan. V. Women co-operatives and Self Help Groups: 26. Women empowerment through Stree Shakthi Programme: an experiment/Venkataranga Naika K., and Raghavendra Murgod. 27. Performance of women Self Help Groups under Swarnajayanthi Grama Swarozgar Yogana (SGSY)/Krishnamurthy D., B. Kalpana and Vanita Chetan. 28. Constraints faced and suggested measures for effective participation and functioning of Self Help Groups (SHGs)/Jagadeeshwara K., T.N. Anand, A.K. Chakravarthiy and K. Narayana Gowda. 29. Participation level farm women in the activities of Self Help Groups/Jagadeeshwara K., D.M. Basavarajaiah, R. Uma and Ramappa Patil. 30. Empowerment of women in agriculture: issues and implications/Kalpana B., Usha Ravindra and Rani Arvind. VI. Food and nutrition: 31. Nutritional profile and morbidity status of rural women of Bangalore District/Geetha K., G. Eswarappa, B.N. Manjunatha, B. Kalpana and C.N. Varshitha. 32. Value addition of selected traditional preparations of Himachal Pradesh/S.R. Malhotra, Archana Sharma and Satya Bhama. 33. Opinion of scientists about biotech foods/Punia R.K., Sapna and Deep Punia. 34. Value addition to local farm produce through rural women SHG's and it's economic viability/Eswarappa G., K. Geetha, B.N. Manjunatha and C.N. Varshitha. 35. Women and food security in South Asia: current issues and emerging concerns/Nira Ramachandran. VII. Drudgery and general perspectives: 36. Women in agriculture, some issues and implications/Nataraju M.S., R. Vinay Kumar and B. Dhananjaya. 37. Ergonomic evaluation of cutting and uprooting activity performed by farm women from Hilly regions/Jatinder Kishtwaria, Aruna Rana, Shipra Sood and Suman Lata. 38. Ergonomic assessment of farm women performing weeding and winnowing operations/Deepali Chauhan and Rekha Dayal. 39. Women's employment potential status in Charaka Reeling units in Karnataka: pattern and activity analysis/Chinnaswamy K.P., N. Kumaraswamy, S. Fatima, K. Rashmi and N. Jagadish. 40. Role of women in conservation of natural resources in forests: a case study from Chikmagalur District, Karnataka/Lalitha P.N. and A.K. Chakravarthy. 41. Role of women in agricultural and allied activities/Shilparani M.S., Y. Katteppa and V. Shivayya. 42. Women in agriculture; new perspectives/Balakrishna Gowda. Annexes. Subject Index.

"Traditionally women's role in agriculture is staggering with nearly half of the population involved in agriculture and its related activities. Most of the agricultural activities are women specific but tragically worldwide women mostly end up as hired agricultural laborers with substantial gender disparity in wages, earning far less than men in the same job. To add to her economic woes, inadequate education, less than satisfactory dissemination of technology, globalization, economic liberalization, commercialization, urbanization, political instability, natural disasters, mechanization of agriculture, decreased agriculture, migration of men to urban areas, and occupational health hazards such as prolonged hours of physical labor resulting in musculo-skeletal injuries, pesticide poisoning also make the life of rural women miserable. True, there are policies and programmes of Central and State Government to alleviate their problems, but they are proportionately insufficient and their execution far from satisfactory. Much needs to be done in disseminating gender segregated data and gender bias in all aspects of agriculture, access to resources including land and natural resources, drudgery reduction, assuring nutritional security, diversification of activities of Self Health Groups and Stree Shakti Groups with emphasis on productivity including post harvest technology, creation of marketing facilities, ownership to land and other allied resources rural electrification, outreach from the media, collectives of women and inter linking of SHGs, adult literacy, health awareness, gender sensitization of extension functionaries and financials institutions, awareness about pesticide hazard etc.

Tragically rural women are not vociferous on issues like fetal killing of female unborn, high rate of female mortality, creation of special Economic Zones replacing productive lands, farmer's suicide and the plight of their widows, fate of pavement vendors and petty shop keepers replaced by retail outlets of big business houses, etc. The struggle cannot be won by only educated and Non Government Organizations on their behalf. The affected and victimized have to fight directly against the injustice they are facing. Extension workers and NGOs need to help them to become aware of their rights and government programmes specially designed for them and motivate them to redress their problems on their own. This needs scientifically collected information on their problems and relief measures available. The book, Women in Agriculture and Rural Development is a sincere attempt in this endeavor. It has valuable chapters on gender inequality in agriculture, technological and economic empowerment of women, poverty alleviation and training programmes, role of SHGs and Stree Shakti Groups in rural development, capacity building, nutritional profile of rural women, drudgery and its reduction, natural resources conservation and food security."