The Hindu Business Line : An acre of her own

As men migrate to urban areas in search of paid labour, women are increasingly donning the tiller's mantle. A Women's Day feature on the feminisation of agriculture.

In his Budget speech Finance Minister P.Chidambaram honoured the promise he made last year to consider this year the "gender sensitivities of budget making" and set aside a corpus of Rs 14,379 crore for the purpose for 2006. He added that in course of time all departments would have to initiative gender budgeting. Coming as it did on the eve of Women's Day, this initiative is indeed positive for the women of India.

But while tomorrow may hold out hope for improved gender sensitivities, in as crucial an area such as agriculture, the country does face the challenge of recognising the contribution of women. In fact, today, they are not even visible, and more effort needs to be put in to recognise the "feminisation of agriculture, where women are responsible for agricultural production, both as farmers and labourers, since men are moving out to urban areas for various reasons," says Dr Mina Swaminathan, Honorary Director, Uttara Devi Resource Centre for Gender and Development, Chennai.

"The recently reconstituted National Commission on Farmers has identified women's issues in agriculture as one among the four propriety areas of focus", and its report clearly states that in the context of the increasing feminisation of agriculture, the critical role of women in conservation, cultivation, consumption and commerce will have to be kept in focus, and special programmes constituted. It also promises affirmative action for women farmers in ongoing programmes.

Changing role

"What we call agriculture today is essentially the domestication of plants by man," says Dr V. Sudersen, Head of the Department - Anthropology, University of Madras.

The passage of time has seen various changes in the roles women assumed in farming. But while women have significant responsibilities — planting, harvesting, weeding, looking after livestock, being managers as well as landless labourers, the land per se is almost always ploughed by a man. Though the seeds that yield the harvest are preserved by women, their exclusion from the decision making process in farming underlines their exclusion from the tangible food production process.

In her paper titled `Women's voices in the food chain', Dr Alice Escalante de Cruz, Programme Officer, Food Security and Safety, Consumer International (CI), Malaysia, says, "Despite women's work on the land and their immense contribution to food security, they remain largely invisible and unsupported by agricultural polices that still favour and consult men. This even in modern times where men are increasingly absent from farms and rural areas as they migrate to cities or abroad in search of paid employment, leaving behind their wives and older folk to manage their farms. In addition, war, sickness and death from HIV/AIDS are also taking a toll on rural male populations. Women are therefore taking on more of the burden and responsibility of farm management without the power over these assets."

Dr Mina agrees: "Women contribute to more than half of the agricultural production. Yet they remain invisible in both national and income statistics that do not capture their contribution in monetary terms or even in policies."

Invisible workforce

A publication of FAO's Sustainable Development Department (SD) says, "Rural women are the main producers of staple crops — rice, wheat, maize — which constitute nearly 90 per cent of the rural poor's food intake. Their contribution to secondary crop production, such as legumes and vegetables, is even greater."

Women are also the preservers of indigenous knowledge systems. Women farmers in Andhra Pradesh's Medak district collect different types of seeds from relatives and other people living in nearby regions. They know the characteristics of each seed, besides its food yielding capacity. The seeds are traditionally preserved in a mixture of clay, ashes, neem and cow dung to protect against pests.

Sangeeta Rangnekar, an Ahmedabad-based researcher, has for more than a decade studied the role of women farmers in some of the underdeveloped pockets in the western region of India. In her report titled `The Role of Women in Small-Holder Rain-fed and Mixed Farming in India', she says that an estimated 78 per cent of the country's economically active women are involved in agriculture with 35 per cent working as cultivators and 43 per cent as labourers. Due to the migration by a large number of men, the proportion is higher in rain-fed areas, where mixed crop-livestock farming is predominant due to uncertain rainfall.

As Dr Mina points out, much of the work that women do remains `unpaid family labour' and is clubbed with housework, thus making farming and farm labour seem like a natural extension of their duties in the home. Dr Sudersen also draws attention to cultural notions implying that women are incapable of heavy labour, whereas in reality that is exactly what they are doing.

Recognition of rights

Dr Sudersen says that while `land' is generally given a female identity as the giver of food, Indian women agriculturists own little or no land. The role played by caste often heightens this lacuna. "Nearly 75 to 80 per cent of women agricultural labourers belong to the Scheduled Castes," says Dr Mina. "Women farmers need recognition and this is intimately linked to ownership rights over land and other assets. This will give women better social acceptance and also help them access credit, inputs, extension, training and other support services essential for farming."

Microfinance — an option?

Microfinance programmes are seen as a major tool in combating poverty and gender inequality. This form of socio-economic intervention builds on the entrepreneurial abilities of women belonging to the poorer sections of society.

This participatory initiative sees the women involved in every stage of their development by organising themselves into `self-help groups (SHGs)'. With repayment rates exceeding 85 per cent, these SHGs have demonstrated that they have the ability to pay for financial services and that they are bankable.

Says Dr T.R. Gopalakrishnan, a microfinance consultant working with UNESCO projects, "Since over 75 per cent of women's SHGs are promoted in rural areas, the members are usually drawn from farm labourers. SHGs act as a safety net for women farm workers during the off-season. They help them cope with seasonal and unexpected changes in credit requirements like education, health and family functions/rituals. But the real influence of microfinance is often subtle and qualitative. The management of finance gives women tremendous self-confidence — a critical step towards empowerment."

Enthused by the success of the SHG model, which was initially promoted mainly by NGOs, many state governments and even some of the nationalised and private banks are now promoting SHG as a means to increase poor people's access to banking in India.

Though microfinance has tangible benefits, it has its drawbacks. Gopalakrishnan explains, "While microfinance institutions have succeeded in making financial services available to the poor, they lag in providing locally relevant support for building women's entrepreneurial skills. Because of the high risk involved in micro-enterprise, women farm labourers are cautious about venturing into enterprise. Further, SHGs have problems marketing their products and face competition from established products and brands. So the real challenge is in supporting overall business development, including marketing."

Ultimately, says Dr Mina, women farmers will get their due only when society as a whole undergoes a mindset change. Students must be sensitised to gender issues in rural livelihoods. The M.S. Swaminathan Research Institute and the Kerala Agricultural University have formulated a unique course to build awareness among those who study agriculture at the undergraduate level. The idea is to catch them young and gender sensitise these likely future policy-makers, researchers, teachers and activists.

Picture by A. Roy Chowdhury

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