Women Farmers and the Feminisation of Agriculture in India

This chapter analyses women’s central but under-recognised contribution to Indian agriculture and critically examines the process of feminisation of agriculture. It explains that women perform a wide range of activities, including sowing, transplanting, weeding, harvesting, seed preservation, livestock care, post-harvest processing, kitchen gardening, wage labour and household food management. However, their contribution is often not matched by recognition as farmers, legal ownership of land, institutional credit, technology access, extension support or decision-making authority. The chapter identifies male migration, declining farm profitability, labour shortages, demographic change, climate stress and rural livelihood diversification as major drivers of feminisation. It argues that feminisation has contradictory outcomes: it may create opportunities for women to manage farms, join collectives and take leadership roles, but it can also increase unpaid labour, drudgery, risk and time poverty. The chapter distinguishes between labour feminisation, managerial feminisation, distress feminisation and transformative feminisation. It recommends joint land titles, women’s farmer identity cards, accessible credit, gender-responsive mechanisation, customised extension, market support, insurance access and leadership development. The chapter concludes that feminisation should not be automatically treated as empowerment unless women gain assets, agency, income control and institutional recognition.