Introduction

Women-led development is increasingly recognised as a structural game-changer for India’s economic ambitions. Nowhere is this more urgent than in agriculture, which not only sustains livelihoods but also employs the largest share of India’s female workforce. However, while women’s participation in farming has risen sharply due to men shifting to non-farm jobs, their contributions remain largely invisible, unpaid, and undervalued. This contradiction calls for a deeper exploration of systemic inequities and emerging opportunities to turn agriculture into a vehicle for women’s empowerment and national growth.

The Feminisation of Agriculture: Numbers Behind the Shift

1. Surge in women workers: Women’s employment in agriculture rose by 135% in a decade, now accounting for 42% of the agricultural workforce.
2. Unpaid work: The number of women as unpaid family workers increased 2.5 times, from 23.6 million in 2017–18 to 59.1 million in 2023–24 (PLFS).
3. Regional inequities: In States like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, over 80% of women workers are in agriculture, and more than half receive no wages.
4. National picture: Today, one in three working women in India is unpaid.

Why Women’s Work in Agriculture Remains Invisible

1. Lack of recognition: Women are not officially recognised as farmers despite constituting a large share of labour.
2. Skewed land ownership: Only 13–14% of land holdings are in women’s names, limiting access to credit, insurance, and government support.
3. Wage gap: Women earn 20–30% less than men for equivalent agricultural tasks.
4. Concentration in low-value work: Women are locked into subsistence farming and low-margin tasks without decision-making power.
5. Macro impact: Despite higher participation, agriculture’s share in GVA fell from 15.3% (2017–18) to 14.4% (2024–25), reinforcing inequities instead of enabling empowerment.

Global Trade Trends as an Opportunity

1. India–U.K. FTA: Expected to boost agricultural exports by 20% within three years, covering 95% of agricultural and processed food products duty-free.
2. Export-oriented crops: Women already have strong representation in spices, tea, millets, rice, dairy- sectors poised for expansion.
3. From labourers to entrepreneurs: With training, credit access, and market linkages, women could transition to income-generating entrepreneurs in value-added exports.

Technology as a Game-Changer

1. Digital agriculture: Platforms like e-NAM, mobile advisory services, precision tools connect women to markets and pricing systems.
2. Language and literacy gap: Women face low digital literacy, language barriers, and lack of devices, restricting adoption.
3. Promising models:
   1. BHASHINI platform and Microsoft–AI4Bharat’s Jugalbandi provide multilingual, voice-first government access.
   2. L&T Finance’s Digital Sakhi programme has built digital and financial literacy among rural women in seven States.
   3. Odisha’s Swayam Sampurna FPOs and Jhalawari Mahila Kisan Producer Company (Rajasthan) leverage digital tools for branding and exports.

Structural Reforms Needed

1. Land reforms: Promote joint or individual land ownership to strengthen women’s eligibility for formal support.
2. Labour reforms: Recognise women as independent farmers to ensure fair wages, rights, and credit.
3. Value chain inclusion: Shift women into higher-margin activities like processing, branding, packaging, and exporting.
4. Institutional support: Scale multi-stakeholder programs (government, NGOs, FPOs) to dismantle structural inequities.

Conclusion

The feminisation of agriculture in India highlights a double-edged reality: while women have become indispensable to the sector, their economic contributions remain unrecognised and unpaid. With global trade shifts, digital innovations, and land-labour reforms, India now stands at a crossroads. Whether women remain invisible labourers or emerge as empowered entrepreneurs will depend on how decisively policymakers, private actors, and civil society act to bridge systemic inequities. Women’s empowerment in agriculture is not just a gender issue, it is central to India’s economic transformation.

PYQ Relevance

[UPSC 2024] Distinguish between gender equality, gender equity and women’s empowerment. Why is it important to take gender concerns into account in programme design and implementation?

Linkage: The question probes the conceptual clarity between equality, equity, and empowerment while testing their application in real policy frameworks. It aligns with the article as the feminisation of agriculture highlights how ignoring gender concerns in land, labour, and trade programmes perpetuates invisibility of women’s work, whereas equity-driven reforms can transform participation into genuine empowerment.

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