International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development

author(s)
Faisal Nadeem, Yasir and Muhammad Usman Abbas Jalvi

abstract
Digital gender divide considers as division that differentiated those have access to computer and internet and from those beyond with this access. Despite the revolutionary potential of digital technology in agriculture, here are still gaps in the access and utilization of these equipment’s, particularly for rural women’s. The aim of this study was to investigate the different aspects of digital gender divide, exposing how it impacts rural women’s engagement in agriculture and purposing methods to implement it to develop the women society. Multistage sampling technique was used in this study. At first stage, district Bhakkar was selected purposively, because in this area women were highly engaged in agriculture but had less access to the digital devices. Out of 4 tehsils of Bhakkar, one tehsil Kallurkot was chosen conveniently, at second stage. At 3rd stage, three rural union councils were selected randomly out of 14 union councils. At 4th stage, from each selected union council, 2 villages and from each village 20 respondents of pulse growers and cattle breeders (10 males and 10 females) were selected by using snowball sampling. The data was collected through an Interview schedule and collected data was analyzed using SPSS. Data depicted that most of the females had less access to the ICT’s as compared to males. Females had prominent access to the TV among all the ICT’s (88.3%). There were several constraints being faced by the women regarding the use of ICT’S. The most prominent that were reported by the respondents are lack of education, lack of infrastructure, gender discrimination, lack of governmental policies, lack of training, male dominancy, cultural norms, etc. Government should intensify its effort on the policies of liberalization and deregulation of the economy to incorporate ICT infrastructure.