in agriculture technologies that enhance the labour productivity of rural women such as better farm tools water provision modern energy services and household food preparation can free their time for other activities for example a study from india demonstrated that women who used a groundnut decorticator were able to process around times more groundnuts and used significantly less physical effort than those doing so by hand similarly a new hand tool designed for making ridges for vegetable crops allowed women to double the number of rows finished in one hour singh puna ji gite and agarwal such innovations in technology may open up opportunities for women to earn higher incomes or to use their time and increased income for added attention to the family