EMPOWERING WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE FOR FOOD SECURITY

THE CONTEXT: The United Nations General Assembly, through a Resolution, has proclaimed 2026 the International Year of the Woman Farmer to spotlight women’s pivotal yet undervalued role in agrifood systems and to galvanize governments into closing the persistent gender gap in land, labor, technology, and markets.

THE BACKGROUND:

• • Structural shifts: Out-migration of men and shrinking farm sizes have raised women’s share of agricultural labour in South Asia to ~39 per cent.
  • Invisible ownership: In India, women operate barely 11.7 per cent of total farm area (Agriculture Census 2015-16) and hold land titles in only 8-14 per cent of cases (NFHS-5 indicator).
  • Productivity penalty: FAO (2023) estimates that equalising women’s access to resources would lift global agrifood output 2–4 per cent and free 45 million people from food insecurity.

THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK:

KEY SCHEMES:

THE CURRENT SCENARIO:

THE SIGNIFICANCE:

• • Productivity dividend – bridging input gaps can raise yields by 20-30 %, translating into 2-4 % GDP uplift and improved dietary diversity.
  • Climate resilience – Women-led adoption of short-duration pulses and traditional millet landraces buffers households against erratic monsoons.
  • Demographic dividend – Empowered women farmers delay distress migration, sustain rural demand, and improve child nutrition outcomes (HSAA impact study).

DRIVERS BEHIND POLICY URGENCY

• • SDG review 2023 flagged a reversal in hunger indicators, with India’s female‐headed households disproportionately affected.
  • Economic Survey 2024-25 underscores “women, farmers, youth, poor” as the four growth anchors.
  • Climate shocks: five all-India drought/flood years since 2010 exposed gendered vulnerabilities in unpaid care and lost wages.

POLICY FRAMEWORK IN INDIA

• • Legal: Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act 2005 ensures equal inheritance; several States have made joint land-title mandatory in subsidised housing.
  • Programmatic: NFSM, NMSA, PM-KISAN reserve 30 % allocations for women; Rashtriya Mahila Kisan Diwas (15 Oct) mainstreams recognition.
  • Financial: Agriculture Infrastructure Fund offers 3 % interest subvention and CGTMSE credit guarantees to FPOs with >50 % women members.
  • Digital public goods: India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA) to layer gender-disaggregated data for precision benefits.

GLOBAL GOOD PRACTICES:

THE ISSUES:

• • Asset asymmetry – patriarchal inheritance norms; <15 % land in women’s names restricts credit, crop insurance and FPO membership.
  • Credit & insurance exclusion – women receive only 7 % of institutional agri credit; KCC design requires land collateral.
  • Technological divide – mechanisation suites (seed drills, power weeders) sized for male anthropometrics; limited R&D on gender-friendly tools.
  • Data invisibility – Agriculture Census still conflates worker and owner categories; PLFS under-captures unpaid family labour.
  • Climate burden – Heat-stress illnesses and longer water-collection times reduce women’s productive hours; disaster relief norms treat women as “dependants”, not primary producers.
  • Marketing bottlenecks – Only 6 % of women cultivators access e-NAM markets; travel safety and custom hurdles deter participation.
  • Social protection gaps – Maternity benefits and crèche facilities absent in MGNREGS worksites during peak agricultural seasons.

THE WAY FORWARD:

• • Universal Joint Land Titling: Amend the Registration Act 1908 to default to joint-spouse titles for all sale deeds and land records digitisation. Tag property IDs to Aadhaar-linked land registries for seamless benefit transfer. Parallel legal literacy initiatives are driven through SHGs and Nyaya Bandhu para-legal volunteers.
  • Collateral-Free Gender Credit Windows: Mandate a 25 % women quota in ₹1 lakh collateral-free KCC sub-limit under CGTMSE. Leverage Jan Dhan–Aadhaar–Mobile stack for instant e-KCC issuance via Gram Panchayat-level Business Correspondents. Offer a 2 % interest subvention for repayments linked to crop-linked e-mandis.
  • Gender-Smart Mechanisation Hubs: Establish Block-level Pink Custom Hiring Centres operated by women FPOs, pooling mini-tillers, drones and solar dryers. Bureau of Indian Standards to issue ergonomic standards factoring female anthropometric data. Encourage design hackathons in KVKs & IITs with Viable Gap Funding from SMAM.
  • Climate-Adaptive Extension 2.0: Convert every Krishi Vigyan Kendra into a Climate Adaptation Information Centre with gender-segregated advisory push via IVR in local dialects. Integrate IMD, ICAR and state agri universities on an open API so that advisories reach women without smartphones through community kiosks.
  • Care-Responsive MGNREGS Calendar: Synchronize work schedules with local sowing/harvest windows and provide crèches and shade shelters. Pay 10 % higher piece-rate for women deploying low-carbon tasks (compost pits, check-dams). Track using the NMMS geo-tagged attendance with the gender dashboard for Social Audit.

THE CONCLUSION:

Empowering women in agriculture is not a welfare add-on but a core productivity, resilience, and equity strategy. The proposed reforms, grounded in data and supported by global evidence, promise a triple dividend: increased farm output, improved household nutrition, and a more inclusive rural economy. The onus now lies on policymakers to convert intent into impact before the triennium of opportunity slips by.

UPSC PAST YEAR QUESTION:

Q. Can the vicious cycle of gender inequality, poverty and malnutrition be broken through microfinancing of women SHGs? Explain with examples. 2021

MAINS PRACTICE QUESTION:

Q. Discuss major constraints faced by women farmers and suggest multi-level policy interventions to make Indian agriculture gender inclusive.

SOURCE:

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/empowering-women-in-agriculture-for-food-security/article69675539.ece