Backyard Goat Farming: A Key to Rural Women Empowerment at Chambal Union in Banshkhali Upazila

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to assess the empowerment of rural women by goat rearing. Chambal union under Banshkhali Upazila of Chattogram district was the locale of the study. All the rural goat rearing family women of Chambal union constituted the population of the study. Data were collected from a sample of 100 women heads selected randomly from October 2019 to November 2019. The extent of empowerment of rural women in thirteen items of goat rearing activities was measured through a 0-3-point rating scale. Seventeen selected characteristics of women were independent variables. Findings revealed that the empowerment of women by goat rearing ranged from 7 to 19 against expected value 0 to 20 with a mean of 14.87 and a standard deviation of 3.47. The data also showed that the largest portion (63 percent) of the respondents fell into medium empowerment category while 28 percent and 9 percent fell into low and high empowerment categories respectively. Correlation analyses indicate that knowledge about goat rearing; extension media contacts were found to have a positive significant relationship with empowerment by goat rearing. On the other hand, education, farm size, annual income had a negative significant correlation with empowerment by goat rearing, while respondents’ age, marital status, family size, credit receipt and grazing land availability had no significant relation with empowerment by goat rearing. Regarding problem confrontation in goat rearing, data indicated that among the 10 major problems, ‘lack of proper training about goat rearing’ ranked first with a 251 problem index (PI). Lack of available grazing land came next in rank (Rank 2, PI 242). The high mortality rate of kids was the next problem (rank 3, PI 216).