Econometric analysis of female participation in goat rearing at Namakkal district of Tamil nadu

A study was undertaken to econometrically analyse the association between the socio-economic characteristics of farm women and the extent of their participation in dairy cow keeping. The sample households consisted of 30 women respondents each from the categories of landless, marginal, small and large farmers in the Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu. The coefficient of multiple determination (R2) obtained for the model fitted was 0.949 The independent variables such as age of female head, community, average hired labour hours and number of small ruminants in animal units significantly influenced the average time spent by women on large ruminants keeping. The coefficient for age of women head indicated that every unit rise in this variable above the mean level would result in an increase of average time spent by females by 0.732 minutes per day per household. The coefficient for average hired labour hours utilised for small ruminants keeping indicated that every unit increase in these variable would decrease the time spent by women by 48.73 minutes. Significant and positive coefficient for the variable community indicated that lower caste women spent more time on large ruminants keeping. The significant negative coefficient for total large ruminants in animal units indicated that every unit increase in this variable would decrease the time spent by women by 5.11 minutes.