Empowering Women in Agriculture

Gender equality and rural women's empowerment can drive farm and rural entrepreneurship in green transitions from peasants to more entrepreneurial and resilient farming. Gender quality is one of the objectives for sustainable rural development relevant to policy and governance with wider implications for the rural economy, green entrepreneurship and society. Women-led green entrepreneurship in farming and the rural economy can develop in different economic activities.

- DR. BANARSI LAL

Women have an incredible potential for transforming agriculture. Women farmers contribute enormously to the Indian agriculture. This has been proved by various researches. The results of these researches, however, could not get duereconisation in the planning and implementation of agricultural related programmes. Agricultural extension is one such effort taken by the government and non-government agencies that aims at reaching to farmers. The efforts include bringing about a positive change in knowledge, attitude and skills of the farmers by providing training and technical advice and also assisting them in taking decisions in adoption of new research results. Importantly, the clientele of such programmes and efforts is inclusive of both farmers and farm women. Managers of these programmes often consider men as farmers and women as farmer's wife thereby systematically marginalising and under estimating women's productive role in agriculture. The agricultural extension services in India has limited in its operations to a larger extent on male farmers only and it has failed to tackle the great structural problem of invisibility of female farmers. Women farmers are bypassed by male extension workers. It would be correct to state that women farmers in India have failed to get their due share in extension services apropos their contribution to the Indian agriculture. Extension services in India need to be refined, modified and redesigned so as to reach farm women effectively. The purpose of agricultural extension services can be achieved for sustainable rural development only if sincere attempts are made to provide and improve farm women's access to the available extension services thereby leading to their technological empowerment.