Can women's self-help groups improve access to information, decision-making, and agricultural practices? The Indian case.

ABSTRACT: Effective agricultural extension is key to improving productivity, increasing farmers' access to information, and promoting more diverse sets of crops and improved methods of cultivation. In India, however, the coverage of agricultural extension workers and the relevance of extension advice is poor. We investigate whether a women's self-help group (SHG) platform could be an effective way of improving access to information, women's empowerment in agriculture, agricultural practices, and production diversity. We use cross-sectional data on close to 1,000 women from five states in India and employ nearest-neighbor matching models to match SHG and non-SHG women along a range of observed characteristics. We find that participation in an SHG increases women's access to information and their part

SUBMITTER: Raghunathan K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6853198 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature