{"id":4122,"date":"2026-09-23T11:46:56","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T11:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/?p=4122"},"modified":"2026-09-26T11:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T11:56:08","slug":"feminization-of-agriculture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/feminization-of-agriculture\/","title":{"rendered":"Feminization of Agriculture"},"content":{"rendered":"<table style=\"font-size: 16px; font-style: normal;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<blockquote><p><b>SYLLABUS: Agriculture<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>General Studies:- III <\/b><b><i>Issues related to direct and indirect farm subsidies ; Land Reforms in India.<\/i><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><b>IN NEWS:<\/b> <b>Towards recognising women farmers<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>QUESTION: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The feminisation of agriculture has not been accompanied by a corresponding increase in the recognition and empowerment of women farmers.\u201d Examine. (15 marks, 250 words)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><b>ANSWER: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>feminisation of agriculture<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> refers to the increasing participation and responsibility of women in farm and allied activities, particularly as men increasingly move towards non-farm employment. However, this has created a <\/span><b>worker\u2013owner dichotomy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: women are increasingly responsible for agricultural production, while <\/span><b>land ownership, farmer identity and control over productive resources<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> remain predominantly with men.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Evidence of the recognition gap:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <\/span><b>2025<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, agriculture employed around <\/span><b>110 million women and 127 million men<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, bringing the agricultural workforce close to gender parity. Nearly <\/span><b>three-fourths of rural women workers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are engaged in agriculture, compared with less than half of rural men.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yet, the nature of employment remains highly gendered. <\/span><b>41.5% of women agricultural workers are unpaid family workers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, compared with <\/span><b>19.6% of men<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Conversely, only <\/span><b>38.5% of women<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are self-employed, compared with <\/span><b>62.9% of men<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Agriculture Census 2015 -16<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> shows that women account for only about <\/span><b>12\u201314% of operational agricultural holdings<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, despite their substantial contribution to farm work.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Maharashtra, the gap is particularly striking: <\/span><b>82% of rural female workers are engaged in agriculture<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, while women hold only <\/span><b>15.5% of operational farmland<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Measures for substantive women empowerment:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Land-linked eligibility can consequently limit women&#8217;s access to <\/span><b>credit, crop insurance, subsidies, procurement, extension services and technology<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The gender gap is also visible in PM-KISAN coverage, where women constitute only about <\/span><b>23% of beneficiaries<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, with substantial inter-State variation.<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><b> Delink farmer identity from land ownership:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Maharashtra&#8217;s <\/span><b>Women Farmers Empowerment Act, 2026<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> provides a <\/span><b>Woman Farmer Certificate<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> independent of land ownership and enables recognition through local institutions. It also provides for <\/span><b>30% reservation for women across State agricultural programmes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b> Move from recognition to ownership:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Promote <\/span><b>joint titling, inheritance rights and gender-responsive land records<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Uttarakhand&#8217;s mandatory co-ownership of ancestral land provides a useful precedent. A certificate can establish <\/span><b>farmer identity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, but a title provides <\/span><b>tenure security, collateral and bargaining power<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b> Build institutional visibility:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Create a <\/span><b>standardised Women Farmer Database<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, integrate it with <\/span><b>Farmer IDs\/AgriStack<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and include <\/span><b>tenant farmers, landless cultivators and women engaged in allied activities<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b> Expand access to productive resources:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ensure access to <\/span><b>KCC, crop insurance, subsidies, extension, mechanisation and markets<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, without making individual land ownership an absolute precondition.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b> Strengthen collective agency:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Promote <\/span><b>SHGs and women-led FPOs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for aggregation, value addition, market access and bargaining power. As of February 2026, <\/span><b>1,175 FPOs had 100% women shareholders<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b> Promote women-centric technology:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scale up <\/span><b>Namo Drone Didi, Krishi Sakhis and drudgery-reducing technologies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Under DAY-NRLM, <\/span><b>2.58 crore women farmers received training during 2022\u201323 to 2024\u201325<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, while <\/span><b>800 women-led producer companies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> were promoted under the FPO framework.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The challenge is not merely to increase women&#8217;s <\/span><b>participation in agriculture<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, but to convert <\/span><b>participation into recognition, recognition into access, and access into ownership and agency<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Participation \u2192 Recognition \u2192 Access \u2192 Ownership \u2192 Economic agency<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Maharashtra&#8217;s reform can therefore be viewed as an important <\/span><b>institutional entry point<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, but genuine empowerment requires moving from <\/span><b>legal visibility to tenure security, productive assets and decision-making power<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. As the recognition\u2013ownership distinction demonstrates, <\/span><b>recognition changes who the State sees; ownership determines who controls and decides<\/b><\/p>\n<table style=\"font-size: 16px; font-style: normal;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<blockquote><p><b>PYQ REFERENCE UPSC 2014<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q. Discuss the various economic and socio-cultural forces that are driving the increasing feminization of agriculture in India. (10 Marks, 150 Words)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><b>SOURCE: <a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/ccidist-ws\/th\/th_international\/issues\/205617\/OPS\/GI1GHH5U8.1+GFUGILC8N.1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Hindu e-paper &#8211; Towards recognising women farmers<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<p><strong>SOURCE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.downtoearth.org.in\/agriculture\/indias-women-farmers-are-finally-being-recognised-will-they-ever-own-the-land\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Down to Earth &#8211; <\/a><\/strong><bdi>India\u2019s women farmers are finally being recognised. Will they ever own the land?<\/bdi><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SYLLABUS: Agriculture General Studies:- III Issues related to direct and indirect farm subsidies ; Land Reforms in India. IN NEWS: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,68,39,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture","category-daily-current-affairs","category-daws","category-gs-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4122"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4126,"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4122\/revisions\/4126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}