The Economic survey 2017-18 recognised and spoke of the need for women farmers to get access to land, water, credit, technology and training. According to Food and Agriculture Organization, if women farmers had the same access to resources as men, they would increase output by 20-30% which would mean a dramatic reduction in hunger. This could raise total the agricultural output in developing countries by up to 4%.
- Swaminathan, the famous agricultural scientist describes that it was woman who first domesticated crop plants and thereby initiated the art and science of farming.
- Over the years, there is a gradual realization of the key role of women in agricultural development and their vital contribution in the field of agriculture, food security, horticulture, processing, nutrition, sericulture, fisheries, and other allied sectors.
- Agriculture in India is significantly dependent on women. Women make up about 33% of cultivators and about 47% of agricultural labourers in rural India. Overall, the percentage of rural women who depend on agriculture for their livelihood is as high as 84%.
- Women have played and continue to play a key role in the conservation of basic life support systems such as land, water, flora and fauna. They have protected the health of the soil through organic recycling and promoted crop security through the maintenance of varietal diversity and genetic resistance.
- The rate of women in poultry farming at household level is the central in poultry industry.
- Women farmers in India perform most of the big farming jobs, from sowing to harvesting, yet their access to resources is less than their male counterparts. Closing this gender gap is essential in order to accelerate the pace of growth in the agriculture sector.
- Maintaining the ancillary branches in this sector, like animal husbandry, fisheries and vegetable cultivation, depends almost solely on women.
- Land ownership issues:
- The biggest challenge is the powerlessness of women in terms of claiming ownership of the land they have been cultivating.
- In Census 2015, almost 86% of women farmers are devoid of this property right in land perhaps on account of the patriarchal set up in our society.
- Women have just a dismal 12.8% of holdings despite being crucial to the whole production chain from farm to market.
- Despite a huge presence in farming, women in Uttar Pradesh own a little under 18% of the land, and in Kerala it is just 14%. In other words, women can labour on farms but cannot hope to own them. Since land is passed on through inheritance, it is usually handed down to male heirs.
- Notably, a lack of ownership of land does not allow women farmers to approach banks for institutional loans as banks usually consider land as collateral.
- As of now, women farmers have hardly any representation in society and are nowhere discernible in farmer’s organisations or in occasional protests. They are the invisible workers without which the agricultural economy is hard to grow.
- A declining size of land holdings may act as a deterrent due to lower net returns earned and technology adoption.
- No political will:
- Unfortunately, the role of women in farming has got no mention at all among political parties and very little among policy-makers.
- Not much focus on gender inclusiveness in agriculture.
- Research worldwide shows that women with access to secure land, formal credit and access to market have greater propensity in making investments in improving harvest, increasing productivity, and improving household food security and nutrition.
- Provision of credit without collateral under the micro-finance initiative of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development should be encouraged.
- Better access to credit, technology, and provision of entrepreneurship abilities will further boost women’s confidence and help them gain recognition as farmers.
- The possibility of collective farming can be encouraged to make women self-reliant. Training and skills imparted to women as has been done by some self-help groups and cooperative-based dairy activities (Saras in Rajasthan and Amul in Gujarat).
- These can be explored further through farmer producer organisations. Moreover, government flagship schemes such as the National Food Security Mission, Sub-mission on Seed and Planting Material and the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana must include women-centric strategies and dedicated expenditure.
- Formal education, availability of economically viable agricultural machinery for women, training, extension services, social engineering, and gender budgeting is need of the hour.
- Gender budgeting would assess the quantity and adequacy of allocation of resources for women and establish the extent to which gender commitments are translated into budgetary commitments.
- Agricultural extension efforts should help women improve food production while allowing them to shift more of their labour to export production.
- The government plans to launch an awareness campaign looking at how Agricultural Science Centres (Krishi Vigyan Kendra) can play a significant role in empowering women farmers and shifting existing, biased perceptions of women’s roles in agriculture.
- An ‘inclusive transformative agricultural policy’ should aim at gender-specific intervention to raise productivity of small farm holdings, integrate women as active agents in rural transformation, and engage men and women in extension services with gender expertise.
- Similarly, changes in legal, financial, and educational systems must be undertaken in order to enhance women’s social and economic contributions to rural development in the long term.
- There is a need to examine carefully the implications of land tenure laws and regulations for women and educational policies and funding must be changed to reflect the very high social and economic returns to women’s primary education and literacy.
- The differential access of women to resources like land, credit, water, seeds and markets needs to be addressed.
