International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development

author(s)
Gayatri Moharana, Lipi Das, Jyoti Nayak and Ankita Sahu

abstract
The primary occupation of the tribal people is agriculture and most of them engaged in various traditional occupations like mixed farming, hunting, Jhoom cultivation and shifting cultivation to settled agriculture. Tribal communities consume wild tubers, rhizomes and corms either in raw or baked or boiled or roasted form and they preserved these are using by crude method for processing of fruits as pickles or salting for preservation. They do minimal processing or drying which are necessary tasks before taking those products to market There is a need to give focus on processing of fruits, tubers etc., which is potential for market avenue (Joshi et al., 2013). Secondary agriculture is basically value addition to primary agriculture which also involves the tertiary processing where by-products and crops residues or even the main crop is used for extraction of high value bio-active compounds. Hence focus should be given to encourage tribal women through secondary agriculture to increase their income and livelihood status. Keeping these in view, a study was conducted in Ganjam district of Odisha and data were collected from 100 respondents on availability of agro produce in tribal areas and identified technological needs among tribal women for secondary agriculture. It was found that 95 percent women were actively participated in cleaning and drying with mean score (2.95) followed by ninety two percent tribal women actively participated in storage (2.92), 89 percent women actively participated in primary processing (2.89) and 72 percent women actively participated in sorting and grading of harvests from farm. It was also observed that there was huge post-harvest losses of fruits and vegetables which was perceived as very important problem with mean score 3.67 followed by lack of knowledge and skill in secondary agriculture (3.52), lack of post harvesting infrastructure (3.45), distress sale (3.34) and lack of institutional support (3.31). Therefore, it can be recommended that there is a need of introducing women friendly technologies for post harvest management and value addition. Capacity building of tribal women along with exposure of institutional supports and market linkages will be helpfull in increasing their participation in secondary agriculture and enhancing income.