XI Plan achievements of AICRP on Home Science

During XI plan period seventeen (17) sub-projects have been implemented in forty five (45) villages of nine States/ SAU’s with the focus on the following objectives:

• Development of Gender specific database of farm families
• Development of gender specific extension methodologies and training modules
• Technology Interventions for drudgery reduction in agriculture
• Nutritional security and health promotion of farm families
• Promoting vocational skills among adolescent girls
• Value addition to under-utilized natural resources for enterprise development
• Utilization of non-degradable farm waste
• Empowerment of rural women

The salient achievements have been summarized below:

• The disaggregated gender specific data of 10,550 rural families/ households covering 21100 respondents from 46 agro-climatic zones of nine states have been compiled for 124 agricultural activities such as farming, post harvest management, horticultural crop production, livestock management, fisheries and homestead resources in terms of their roles and responsibilities, access and control over resources and access to extension services.
• Based on the availability of raw material, and situational analysis for entrepreneurial avenues for women, employability within the farm and home production system, low investment, ability of women to take care of the both productive and reproductive responsibilities along with the enterprise, nine training modules were developed in the vernacular languages by nine centers for the establishment of micro enterprises.
• The most drudgery prone activities such as sowing, harvesting, threshing, winnowing, manuring, weeding, plucking, maize shelling, picking, milking, weaving, quilt making, fetching water, string making etc., performed by farm women were identified by each centre and available 31 agriculture tools/ implements were tested and evaluated ergonomically in women perspective. The physiological parameters such as heart rate, energy expenditure, total cardiac cost of work (TCCW), physiological cost of work (PCW) and the muscular parameters such as frequency of postural change, angle of deviation and grip fatigue were assessed. It was found that the drudgery of farm women in different activities was reduced with the use of improved tools.
• Technologies developed during XI Five Year Plan Period for drudgery reduction in agriculture of farm women such as head load manager, mittens for vegetable harvesting, ring cutter, finger guard, protective clothing, face protector, gopal khore, revolving milking stool and stand, weaving chair for fly shuttle weavers, sprader frame and low level chair, tailoring table, water bag, beads string maker, and bamboo workers work station stool.
• Training and demonstration programmes were conducted in the 45 adopted villages for women in the resource management practices such as fuel/energy saving practices, alternative energy technologies, water management practices and time and income management.
• Keeping in view the importance of prevention and control of iron and vitamin A deficiency in rural children, the AICRP provided interventions in the form of food products that are rich in ß-carotene and iron prepared by using locally available vegetables. These foods (27 in all) have been used on 1284 children in the age group of 7-12 years. Baseline data on anthropometry, hemoglobin and serum retinol were collected. Supplementary feeding was given for100 days. At the end of the feeding period significant improvement in the hemoglobin and serum retinol levels were observed in the children.
• To minimize the incidence of iron deficiency (anaemia) each centre developed an iron rich product named as lehyam by using locally available and underutilized green leafy vegetables. For preparation of lehyam, more than seventy green leafy vegetables were screened for iron content. The iron content per 20g of serving ranged from 8.41mg to 2.45mg. Other micronutrients like calcium, vitamin C and β-carotene were also reported along with iron.
• A total of 510 nutrition gardens were developed during Rabi & kharif, season in the adopted villages to facilitate the intake of nutritive diet among farm families. For this purpose, seeds and planting materials of different vegetables and fruits were distributed to the farm families.
• A total of 27 varieties of green leafy vegetables were selected from all nine centres, for estimation of total antioxidant activity. The total antioxidant content in the green leafy vegetables ranged from 19.67 in spinach to 83.58 in lettuce leaves.
• To improve the decision making capacity and socio-economic status of adolescent girls and young mothers of rural India, a comprehensive module on ‘Life Skill Education for Adolescent Girls’ was developed by nine centres, covering 10 life skills namely - decision making, communication skills, self esteem, interpersonal relations, problem solving, critical thinking, creative thinking, empathy, stress management and dealing with emotions.
• To improve the status of young children below 3 years an educational module on providing quality learning environment for young children was developed for use by the anganwadi workers and mothers. Three educational packages were developed for training the rural mothers to monitor the growth and development of their children.
• One hundred eighty numbers of need based vocational trainings were organized for the adolescent girls for income generation/ livelihood security such as crèche management, preparation of educational play materials for young children, food preservation, preparation of utility items, embroidery, and infant garment construction.
• Information/ Data related to availability of underutilized agro and animal based fibre resources, prevalence of technologies in fibre/extraction/ process, product development, their present status and gender involvement in utilization were collected from 1800 families from nine states. The minor fibres found in nine Centres/ States were jute, pati doi, mesta, banana fibre, coir, palmyra, babbar grass, paddy straw, hemp (bast), cane, palm leaves, cotton (pod), moonj, sunn, ambadi, linseed, dhencha, dadun, eri silk, muga silk, mulberry silk, deccani wool and fibre from goat and sheep hairs. All the fibers were used for textile purpose whereas, coir and palmyra are mainly used for non-textile purpose. These fibres were used for making ropes, floor mats, carpets, baskets, mattresses, yarn, durriee, khes, sarees, bed sheets, areca nut spathe cups and plates, bags, purse etc.
• Minor fibers such as banana, sisal, pineapple and goat fibers, discarded as agriculture waste, were utilized for developing value added handicraft products like wall hangings, table mats, hand bag, basket, jewellery, fruit bowel etc.
• The non degradable farm waste such as polyethylene was utilized and value added products such as hand bags, water repellent products like rain coat, kids wear, bonded diapers, bibs and baby sheets, refrigerator covers, table mats, apron, baby-hood, gloves and mattress were prepared by bonding process.
• Rural women were motivated for ‘Self Help Group’ formation and formed 159 SHGs. To strengthen and sustain SHGs, 3000 women were trained in agro-processing, fiber crafts, tie & die with natural dyes, quilting, crocheting, embroidery, bag making, garment construction, candle making, pot making, soft toy making, printing, mirror work, wool weaving, batik and other printing technologies, soaps and detergent making, stencil printing etc.
• To combat occupational health hazards six protective clothes - beak mask, cap with mask, hood mask, hand gloves, jacket and pant of 100% cotton fabric lining were designed for farm men and women pesticide applicators and based on the agricultural activities.