Context

• International Women’s Day, observed on March 8, highlights the global demand for equal rights, justice, and meaningful action for women and girls.
• The significance of the day in 2026 is reinforced by its recognition as the International Year of the Woman Farmer, drawing attention to the crucial yet under-recognised role of women in agriculture.
• In India, women contribute extensively to agri-food systems, yet they remain largely excluded from legal recognition, land ownership, and access to institutional support.
• The disconnect between progressive laws and everyday realities reveals deep structural inequalities that affect women farmers’ economic security, health, and nutritional well-being.

The Invisibility of Women Farmers

• Most agricultural land and property continue to be registered in men’s names due to patrilineal inheritance, social norms, and administrative barriers.
• Women who manage day-to-day farming operations, purchasing inputs, supervising labour, and maintaining cultivation, often do so without formal recognition as farmers.
• The absence of legal ownership has significant consequences. Many agricultural programmes require documentation linked to land ownership, which excludes women from institutional credit, crop insurance, irrigation schemes, extension services, and climate-resilient technologies.
• Such eligibility conditions create systemic barriers that reinforce women’s marginalisation in agriculture.
• Consequently, their labour remains undervalued, and their central role in rural food production remains largely invisible.

The Feminisation of Agriculture and Its Challenges

• The increasing migration of men from rural areas has led to the feminisation of agriculture, with women assuming greater responsibility for cultivation, risk management, and household food provisioning.
• While this transition could potentially enhance women’s agency, it often results in greater workloads without corresponding access to resources.
• Women farmers frequently balance productive work in the fields with reproductive responsibilities such as childcare, cooking, and household management.
• The lack of drudgery-reduction technologies and an adequate care ecosystem, intensifies this burden, creating severe time poverty.

Nutrition, Health, and Intergenerational Consequences

• Maternal undernutrition and anaemia contribute to low birth weight, stunting, and impaired child development.
• Rural diets often remain heavily cereal-centric, lacking sufficient pulses, fruits, vegetables, and animal-source foods necessary for balanced nutrition.
• India has introduced an extensive right-to-food framework through the National Food Security Act, which guarantees subsidised cereals, supplementary nutrition for pregnant and lactating women, and maternity entitlements.
• Some states have expanded programmes to include millets and fortified foods.
• However, improvements in women’s nutritional outcomes remain uneven, and anaemia rates continue to raise concern.

The Gap Between Entitlements and Reality

• Welfare schemes often remain focused on cereal distribution rather than diverse and nutrient-dense foods.
• Frontline workers, responsible for delivering welfare programmes, are frequently overburdened, which affects the quality-of-service delivery and community awareness.
• At the same time, increasing digitalisation of welfare systems has introduced new barriers for women lacking digital literacy, documentation, or reliable connectivity.
• As a result, many women farmers struggle to fully claim and benefit from their legal entitlements to food and social protection.

Key Priorities for Empowering Women Farmers

• First, improving the visibility of women farmers in law, policy, and gender-disaggregated data is essential.
  • Recognising a farmer based on agricultural activities rather than land ownership ensures inclusion of landless cultivators, sharecroppers, agricultural labourers, and tribal gatherers.
• Second, strengthening women’s land rights and access to productive resources such as water, credit, and common lands is critical.
  • Measures such as joint spousal titles, enforcement of inheritance laws, and gender-sensitive land registration processes can enhance women’s economic security and decision-making power.
• Third, aligning food systems and social safety nets with nutritional objectives is essential.
  • Public procurement policies should support the cultivation of nutri-cereals, pulses, fruits, and vegetables by small-scale women farmers and distribute them through public distribution systems, Anganwadis, and school meal programmes.
• Fourth, women farmers must gain equitable access to agricultural technologies and extension services.
  • Labour-saving tools can reduce physical strain and time poverty, while improved access to training, market information, and sustainable farming practices strengthens women’s agency, productivity, and resilience.

Women as Drivers of Sustainable Agriculture

• When women farmers gain access to knowledge, resources, and institutional support, they often become leaders in climate-resilient agriculture, biodiversity conservation, and nutrition-sensitive farming.
• Their participation enhances household food security, strengthens community resilience, and promotes sustainable agricultural practices.
• Empowering women farmers is therefore not only a matter of gender justice but also a crucial strategy for building resilient food systems and sustainable rural development.

Conclusion

• Achieving the goals of Rights, Justice, Action requires more than symbolic recognition of women’s contributions.
• Recognising women as farmers, securing their land rights, ensuring access to productive resources, and enabling them to fully claim their right to food and nutrition are essential steps toward an equitable and sustainable future.
• Strengthening women’s position in agriculture will promote equity, improve nutrition outcomes, and build a more resilient India where those who feed the nation can also achieve dignity, recognition, and well-being.