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Agricultural Feminization in Rural West Bengal Through Gendered Working Hour Dynamics and Structural Drivers in Cooch Behar District

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Agricultural Feminization in Rural West Bengal Through Gendered Working Hour Dynamics and Structural Drivers in Cooch Behar District

Sulagna Bagchi 1 Litan Das 1 Subhrajyoti Panda 2 Kalyan Kanti Das 3 Pradip Basak 4 Subrata Gorain 5,* Saumyadip Chakraborty 1 Krishnendu Mondal 1 Sayantan Dey 1 Shruti Mohapatra 6

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1
Department of Agricultural Extension, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, Cooch Behar 736165, West Bengal, India
2
Faculty of Agriculture, Sri Sri University, Cuttack 754006, Odisha, India
3
Department of Agricultural Economics, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, Cooch Behar 736165, West Bengal, India
4
Department of Agricultural Statistics, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, Cooch Behar 736165, West Bengal, India
5
Department of Agricultural Economics, Palli Siksha Bhavana (Institute of Agriculture), Visva-Bharati (Central University), Birbhum 731236, West Bengal, India
6
Department of Electrical, IT, Cybernetics, Faculty of Natural and Maritime Sciences, University of South-Eastern Norway, Postboks 4, 3199 Borre, Norway
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 21 August 2026 Revised: 01 September 2026 Accepted: 09 October 2026 Published: 15 October 2026

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© 2026 The authors. This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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Rural Reg. Dev. 2026, 4(4), 10021; DOI: 10.70322/rrd.2026.10021
ABSTRACT: Women may assume a growing share of agricultural work without gaining corresponding control over resources or decisions. This study examines gendered working-hour patterns and perceived drivers of agricultural feminization in Cooch Behar district, West Bengal. An exploratory, ex-post facto investigation covered 100 farm women, with 25 respondents from each of four purposively selected villages in Cooch Behar-II and Dinhata-II blocks. Structured interviews provided information on agricultural working hours for 2022–2023, 2023–2024, and 2024–2025, household male migration and occupational categories, daily wage rates, and agreement with nine proposed drivers. Descriptive statistics, mean-score rankings, and exploratory principal component analysis were used. Reported average annual working hours increased for women from 1668.80 to 1736.50 h, a rise of 4.06%, while men’s hours declined from 1503.20 to 1328.10 h, a decrease of 11.65%. Women reported more hours than men in all three years, and the annual gender gap widened from 165.60 to 408.40 h. The number of households classified as experiencing male out-migration rose from 37 to 49. Male migration received the highest perceived-driver score (4.45 out of 5), followed by poverty (4.29) and declining agricultural profitability (4.11). The reported component structure suggested socio-economic, capacity-related, gendered labour and technological dimensions. These patterns are consistent with an increasing concentration of agricultural labour among women, but do not establish causal effects or demonstrate empowerment. The purposive sample and the exploratory measures limit generalization. The findings motivate attention to women’s workload, remuneration, access to agricultural services, and recognition as farmers.
Keywords: Agricultural feminization; Gender dynamics; Working hours; Migration; Structural drivers; Rural livelihoods
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