Contribution of rural women to their household food utilization

The objectives of this study were to determine the contribution of RDRS women beneficiaries to their household food utilization and to explore its relationship with their selected characteristics. The study was conducted at Sadar upazila of Panchagarh district. Ninety-four RDRS women beneficiaries were selected randomly as a sample from 935 women beneficiaries. A pre-tested interview schedule was used to collect data from the respondents from 24 September to 22 October 2019. The contribution of women beneficiaries to household food utilization was considered as the focus issue of the study and measured by a 4-point rating scale along with five dimensions containing twenty-six activities. The observed overall contribution of women beneficiaries score ranged from 16 to 74 with a mean of 38.21 and standard deviation of 13.43. The RDRS women beneficiaries played medium to high contributions to household food utilization. Among different dimensions of food utilization, the most important contribution was food preparation , followed by food hygiene and intra-household food distribution. Correlation analysis indicated that educational qualification, earning members, credit received and extension media contact were positively correlated with the contribution to their household food utilization and negatively correlated with household annual income and dependency ratio. It may be recommended that, RDRS should provide sufficient non-formal education like training, extension campaigns, discussions with their woment beneficiaries regarding household food utilization. In this connection special emphasis need to be given on "food processing and preservation" as well as "water and sanitation" dimensions of food utilization for improving beneficiaries' knowledge on household food utilization.