Gender, Agriculture, and Climate Change

Context

The discussion around gender, agriculture, and climate change is in focus, marking International Women’s Day, and 2026 has been officially declared the ‘International Year of the Woman Farmer’ by the UN.

About

• Gender-responsive agriculture recognises that climate change does not impact everyone equally. In rural India, women form the backbone of the primary sector but face a triple burden: performing back-breaking farm labor, managing unpaid domestic care, and navigating climate-induced shocks (like droughts or floods) with fewer resources, land titles, or decision-making powers than men.

Role of Women in Agriculture

• Primary Cultivators: Women perform the most labor-intensive tasks like sowing, weeding, and manual harvesting.
• Livestock Managers: They are the chief architects of the dairy and poultry sectors, which provide critical income during crop failures.
• Seed Guardians and Biodiversity Experts: Women traditionally preserve indigenous seeds that are often more climate-resilient.
• Natural Resource Managers: They lead community efforts in water conservation and forest produce collection.
• Extension and Knowledge Disseminators: Women serve as community resource persons to train others in sustainable practices.

Initiatives Taken

• Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana (DAY-NRLM): Has mobilized 10 crore women into 91 lakh SHGs to provide financial inclusion and livelihood support.
• Namo Drone Didi Scheme: Equipping 15,000 women SHGs with drones for precision agriculture (spraying pesticides/fertilizers) to reduce drudgery and increase income.
• Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP): A sub-component of NRLM specifically designed to empower women farmers through sustainable climate-resilient practices.
• Lakhpati Didi Scheme: Aiming to scale up the annual income of 3 crore (recently updated to 6 crore) women SHG members through entrepreneurship and market linkages like SHE-Mart.

Challenges Associated

• Lack of Legal Recognition: Without land titles, women are often not recognized as farmers, excluding them from schemes like PM-KISAN.
  • A 2021 Landesa study showed only 13% of women in UP and Odisha had legal documents despite doing the bulk of the farm work.

• Digital and Technology Divide: Modern tools and digital market platforms are often inaccessible due to lower literacy or lack of mobile ownership.
• Gendered Drudgery: Most farm machinery is designed for men (ergonomically and weight-wise), increasing the physical strain on women.
• Limited Decision-Making Power: While women do the work, the choice of crops and financial decisions often rest with the male members.
• Climate-Induced Migration Stress: As men migrate due to climate distress, women face an overload of domestic and farm work without extra labor.

Way Ahead

• Recognize ‘Farmer’ by Activity: Shift the legal definition of a farmer from landowner to tiller to ensure landless women get insurance and credit.
• Climate-Smart Drudgery Reduction: Promote gender-sensitive tools like cono-weeders and solar dryers through Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs).
• Hyper-Local Value Addition: Encourage processing units (e.g., flour mills, spice grinding) within villages to accommodate women’s limited mobility.
• Strengthen Land Rights: Implement reduced stamp duties for women and promote joint land titling as a mandatory requirement for housing schemes.
• Advanced Financial Products: Introduce parametric (weather-based) insurance and dedicated credit lines for women-led Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs).

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