Market Oriented Advisory Services Through Women Advisory Service Providers in Punjab, India : The Case of Value Addition Through Food Processing

Inclusion of women in scientific and technological endeavors and realizing women's intellectual potential is a big challenge as they play a decisive role in many facets of agricultural sector in India. Self-help groups (SHGs) have emerged as an effective mechanism for empowerment through group action. Capacity building through training programmes has a positive impact for motivating the rural women to adopt the food preservation technologies which improved the knowledge level significantly (Meena et al. 2006). In pluralistic extension system in India public extension plays an important role. Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering & Technology (CIPHET -- a unit of Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Ministry of Agriculture, New Delhi), made efforts to support the public extension system through commercialization of processing technologies through social capital, capacity building and transfer of processing technologies among peer members and other rural women. The present case study documents the methods adopted by the Women Advisory Services Providers in providing advisory services to Women Self Help Groups in Punjab state of India in food processing sector and thereby making them socially and economically empowered