Gender Analysis of Agricultural Tasks: A Case among Rural Residents of Kermnshh Township, Implications for Rural Development Practitioners

The main objective of this descriptive study is to analyze patterns of involvement of rural women and men in agricultural tasks associated with physical participation, access to resources, and autonomy in decision making. The population consisted of male and female village residents in Kermnshh Township (n = 148425). Using a multistage sampling, 382 residents were interviewed. Results revealed that middle-age women participated more in livestock production than their male counterparts and performed time-consuming tasks such as mechanical weed control and processing of agricultural products. Moreover, women had less access to resources with less autonomy in deciding for resources and income than male farmers. Using Two-Way Analysis of variance, there were a significant difference in physical participation, access to resources, and decisionmaking autonomy among four groups of middle-age male, female, and young male and female residents. Implications of the findings for rural development practitioners in Kermnshh Township include taking into account the gender roles in agricultural tasks when planning rural development programs.