Encouraging Female Farmers for Food Stability in Agriculture
In an effort to promote gender equality in Indian agriculture, various policy initiatives and best practices are being implemented to tackle the complex barriers faced by women farmers. These barriers range from asset asymmetry and credit exclusion to technological divides, data invisibility, climate burdens, marketing bottlenecks, and social protection gaps.
Land Ownership and Asset Rights Reform
Recognizing women as farmers and promoting policies that support joint or individual women’s land titles is crucial to improving women’s access to government schemes, credit, and decision-making power. Despite constituting over 70% of the agricultural workforce, women own only about 12.8% of agricultural land in India [1][4].
Financial Inclusion
Women’s limited access to institutional credit and crop insurance undermines productivity by about 11%. Dedicated credit products, subsidies, group lending models, and insurance schemes specifically targeting women can help mitigate these gaps [1][3].
Technology and Extension Services
Digital extension via mobile, AI, and satellite technologies improves women’s access to modern agricultural know-how, credit, and insurance. Bridging the technological divide also requires addressing limited rural internet access and women’s time poverty [2][3].
Data Disaggregation and Visibility
Women farmers remain largely invisible in data and policy discourse, leading to “feminization of responsibility without power.” Efforts to capture gender-disaggregated agricultural data enable better targeting of programs and recognition of women’s contributions [1].
Climate Adaptation and Social Protection
Women disproportionately bear climate change burdens. Integrating gender-sensitive climate policies and social protection (e.g., insurance against climate shocks, labor protections) reduces vulnerability and supports livelihoods [5].
Market Access and Value Chain Integration
Expanding infrastructure (e.g., cold storage, rural roads), digital marketplaces like e-NAM, and cooperative farming models helps overcome marketing bottlenecks and empowers women entrepreneurs [2].
Inclusive and Intersectional Policy Frameworks
Some state initiatives and NGOs advocate for policies linking gender, climate resilience, and rural economic empowerment holistically, addressing structural barriers comprehensively [5].
Energy and Infrastructure Access
Incentives for renewable energy and decentralized power support women farmers with irrigation and processing needs, lowering entry barriers to modern agriculture [2].
Best Practices
Advocacy groups such as MAKAAM push for legal recognition of women as farmers to grant them direct access to resources [1]. Indian states like Tamil Nadu emphasize regional innovation, integrating sustainable land use with gender and climate goals in agricultural schemes [2]. Programs combining gender empowerment with climate action at platforms like the EquiLead conference promote systemic approaches to policy design focused on women’s leadership and wellbeing [5].
The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2026 as the International Year of the Woman Farmer, and the Philippines has implemented gender-responsive budget tagging across agricultural line items. Proposed reforms include universal joint land titling, collateral-free gender credit windows, gender-smart mechanisation hubs, climate-adaptive extension 2.0, and a care-responsive MGNREGS calendar [6].
Gender and Development (GAD) shifts the lens from “women as beneficiaries” to “power relations in institutions.” Asset asymmetry, due to patriarchal inheritance norms, restricts women’s land ownership in India to less than 15%, and women in India receive only 7% of institutional agricultural credit, with the KCC design requiring land collateral [7].
In South Asia, the share of agricultural labor performed by women is approximately 39%, and the onus now lies on policymakers to convert intent into impact to make Indian agriculture gender inclusive [8]. The FAO estimates that equalizing women’s access to resources could lift global agrifood output 2-4% [9]. The Capability Approach (Amartya Sen) emphasizes that secure land titles expand women’s capabilities to invest, innovate, and negotiate [10].
In conclusion, current initiatives emphasize legal recognition, financial inclusion, technological empowerment, data-driven policymaking, climate-sensitive social protection, and market facilitation as pillars to address the multi-dimensional gender inequality in Indian agriculture. However, persistent barriers, such as land ownership asymmetry and social norms, require sustained policy focus and comprehensive, intersectional interventions to enable women to move from marginalization to leadership in farming.
- Incorporating the science of health-and-wellness into their strategies, policymakers could address women's health issues, such as reproductive health concerns and malnutrition, that are often exacerbated by the challenging conditions faced by women farmers in India.
- Adopting a comprehensive approach to rural development, policymakers can use strategies that address the interconnectedness between the economy, science, and women's health-and-wellness, ultimately leading to improved productivity and better livelihoods for women farmers.
- Recognizing the pivotal role of women in both Indian agriculture and the health-and-wellness sector, policymakers can implement integrated programs that focus on topics such as women's health, womens-health, and agricultural productivity to create sustainable and inclusive growth in rural India.
