Abstract
The main objective of the study was to explore the Gender involvement in agriculture decision making like crop
production, selection of variety, sowing, irrigation pattern, weeding, use of pesticides, harvesting, storage and
marketing. Punjab province is the populous one among other provinces and its land is very fertile. Moreover, the
biggest canal irrigation system is supplying irrigation water in this province. Agriculture is the main source of
earning and employment sector in Pakistan. In rural areas of Pakistan, women make feed, collect fodder, clean
animals and their sheds, make dung cakes, collect manure for organic fertilizers, pump milk, process animals'
products and market them. They also play a crucial role in rural poultry farming where they apply their own
methods of rearing and breeding. But overall the agricultural activity rates may vary from one region to another as
in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Balochistan, the socio-cultural norms are more binding and less
female participation is observed. Women also play an important role in dairy production. They remain 'invisible'
partners in development. Farmers are still generally perceived as 'male' by policy-makers, development planners
and agricultural experts and service deliverers. Therefore study in hand was designed to explore the involvement
of both genders in agriculture sector. District Chakwal was selected as the universe of the research study. A cross
sectional survey research design (snap short technique) was used to collect the data. The results of the study
reveal that women are actively involved in agricultural practices but the degree of involvement of men and women
vary according to different activities like crop production, crop protection, marketing, poultry production and
livestock management. There are also many cultural, social and physical obstacles for low participation of female
folk in agriculture extension services. Moreover, the male dominating society in Pakistan is also the hindrance to
female participation in such activities.
