www.IndianJournals.com Members Copy, Not for Commercial Sale Downloaded From IP - 124.253.136.240 on dated 3-Oct-2016 113 Women Empowerment as a Component of Social Responsibility in Participatory Varietal Selection Parvaze A Sofi Faculty of Agriculture, Wadura, 193201 Sher -e- Kashmir University of Agricultural Science and Technology-Kashmir (Jammu & Kashmir) ABSTRACT Rural women are key agents for achieving the transformation in terms of economic, environmental and social changes required for sustainable development. However, in developing countries women face a multitude of problems which an otherwise gender blind approach often fails to appreciate or even identify. The unpredictable social, political, economical and personal hardships they face daily are difficult to grasp. The participatory approaches find relevance in a way that they give appropriate weightage to gender differences and recognize the fact that needs of men and women are invariably different. The varietal development process also needs to be integrated into a holistic programme instead a compartmentalised activity where plant scientists, farming system experts, economists, extension persons, farmers and consumers are equally conscious to and contribute through their capacities towards development of varieties that meet the aspirations of small holder farmers in terms of productivity enhancement and livelihood security. Key Words: Participatory varietal selection, Women empowerment, Rural appraisal. Corresponding Author’s Email: parvazesofi@gmail.com INTRODUCTION A critical appraisal of the various national and international breeding programmes reveals that even though the time period for product development has remained more or less same, the product life has declined significantly due to rapid changes in consumer preferences, climatic regimes, and pattern of distribution of stresses. Even more disgusting feature of recent plant breeding programmes has been that by the time a variety is developed and ready for release, it has lost its relevance resulting in little or absolutely no adoption. A major factor for such a situation is that entire process of variety development is centralised and breeder dictated with little or no involvement of different stakeholders especially the farmers. Participatory approach to research is becoming increasingly recognized as a valuable component of technology generation for heterogeneous agricultural zones where poverty is common. Plant breeding has invariably targeted favourable environments or a broad range of environments and in doing so has neglected small- holder farming systems with minimal input support as well as complex and heterogenous constraints. Plant breeding programmes, in which farmers select germplasm for their particular environmental niches, offer the hope of providing well-adapted varieties for the poor (Witcombe et al, 2002). Participatory variety selection (PVS) has proved to be highly effective for providing improved varieties which combine agronomic performance and adequate quality traits, in a shorter time and at a lower cost (Joshi and Witcombe, 1996). However, few studies have measured the real effectiveness of decentralized breeding programmes managed by farmers from early selection generations, compared with centralized conventional breeding. Based on the appraisal of twelve participatory plant breeding (PPB) programmes, Collaboration with farmers at the selection stage globally showed favourable results. Compared with formal J Krishi Vigyan 2015, 3(Special Issue) : 113-118 DOI: 10.5958/2349-4433.2015.00048.3