Women Farmers Anchoring India’s Greying Agriculture — Data, Challenges and Policy for UPSC

CURRENT AFFAIRS | MARCH 2026

Introduction

The United Nations declared 2026 the International Year of the Woman Farmer, bringing overdue global attention to a demographic that has long been the invisible backbone of agricultural systems worldwide. In India, women constitute approximately 80 percent of economically active agricultural workers, yet they own only 15 percent of agricultural land, receive a fraction of institutional credit, and remain largely invisible in policy and data systems. The Union Budget 2026-27 announced initiatives such as Bharat-VISTAAR, SHE-Marts, and high-value agriculture promotion, signalling growing policy awareness but the gap between recognition and structural reform remains vast.

The Numbers: Women Rising in a Declining Sector

PLFS data reveals that women’s share in India’s agricultural workforce increased from 57 percent in 2017-18 to 64.4 percent in 2023-24. Men’s participation declined from 40.2 percent to 36.3 percent over the same period. Globally, women constitute close to 40 percent of the agricultural labour force, but India significantly exceeds this average. This feminisation of agriculture is not driven by empowerment but by structural transformation: male out-migration, economic distress, and limited alternative employment for rural women.

Five Drivers Pushing Men Out of Agriculture

1. Agricultural Production Slowdown

Growth rates have decelerated and per-capita agricultural income has stagnated in real terms. Male farmers, being more mobile, seek employment in construction, manufacturing, and services, leaving women to manage farm operations.

2. Rising Input Costs

The cost of seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, diesel, and irrigation has risen faster than output prices, squeezing margins for small and marginal farmers who constitute 86 percent of Indian farming households. Economic unviability pushes men towards urban migration.

3. Climate Risks

Erratic monsoons, heat waves, floods, and droughts have made agriculture increasingly risky. Men diversify income through non-farm employment; women, constrained by domestic responsibilities and social norms, remain tied to farming even as risks intensify.

4. Job Scarcity in Rural Areas

The non-farm rural economy remains underdeveloped in many regions. While men migrate to cities for construction or gig economy work, rural women face barriers to mobility including safety concerns and family responsibilities. Agriculture absorbs women who have no other option.

5. Youth Aspirations

Young rural men increasingly aspire to non-agricultural careers fuelled by education, media exposure, and the perceived low status of farming, further concentrating the agricultural workforce among women and older men.

The Greying of Indian Agriculture

The increasing average age of farmers as young people leave the sector is termed the greying of agriculture. In many states, the majority of active farmers are over 50 years old. This demographic shift has profound implications for technology adoption, productivity, and food security. The feminisation and greying trends are linked: as young men leave, the remaining workforce becomes both more female and more elderly. Women farmers managing farms in the absence of migrant husbands are often older, less educated, and more resource-constrained than the male farmers they replace.

Women’s Invisible Contribution: Dairy and Animal Husbandry

Women perform more than 70 percent of labour in dairy and animal husbandry, which accounts for approximately 30 percent of agricultural GDP. This includes feeding, milking, cleaning, processing, and managing fodder. Yet veterinary services, credit, and training programmes are overwhelmingly designed for male farmers. Only 15 percent of agricultural land is owned by rural women despite the Hindu Succession Amendment Act, 2005 guaranteeing equal inheritance. Without land titles, women cannot access institutional credit, subsidies, or crop insurance.

Unpaid Work: Statistical Invisibility

According to PLFS data, 87 percent of unpaid women workers in household enterprises are in agriculture. These women work full days in fields and livestock management, but their labour is classified as unpaid family work rather than employment, rendering it invisible in GDP calculations and policy formulations. The rise in women’s self-employment in agriculture is largely driven by increased unpaid family workers rather than independent entrepreneurs. A woman who works her husband’s land while he earns wages in a distant city is classified as self-employed in survey data, but her economic autonomy may be minimal.

Budget 2026-27: Policy Responses

• Bharat-VISTAAR: AI-powered multilingual agricultural advisory for crop planning, pest management, and weather. Transformative for women farmers if designed with voice-based interfaces and local languages.
• SHE-Marts: Dedicated marketplace platforms for women farmer-producers, enabling direct market access and eliminating intermediaries.
• High-value agriculture promotion: Encouraging women’s participation in horticulture, floriculture, medicinal plants, and organic farming with higher returns per unit of land.

Way Forward: From Recognition to Structural Reform

• Land rights: Implement the Hindu Succession Amendment Act in letter and spirit. Update land records to reflect women’s ownership.
• Credit access: Allow women to access loans without land titles using SHG guarantees, livestock certificates, or crop receivables as collateral.
• Gender-sensitive extension: Train KVK workers to provide advice recognising women’s specific agricultural roles and challenges.
• Data reform: Redesign agricultural surveys to capture women’s labour accurately, distinguishing paid from unpaid work.
• Social protection: Expand PM-KISAN to women tenant farmers and sharecroppers. Make crop insurance accessible without formal land titles.

Conclusion

The feminisation of Indian agriculture is not a story of empowerment but of structural transformation where women absorb the risks and burdens of farming while men seek better opportunities elsewhere. The International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026 provides an opportunity to move beyond symbolic recognition towards structural reforms in land rights, credit access, extension services, and social protection that can genuinely transform the lives of India’s 100 million women farmers. For UPSC aspirants, this topic spans Society (GS-I), Economy (GS-III), and Governance (GS-II), offering rich material for essays and answer writing on gender, agriculture, and inclusive development.

Source: UPSC Essentials, The Indian Express – March 2026. Content rewritten and analysed for UPSC preparation by Civils Gyani – Empowering Future Officers.

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