|
Recognising women as farmers and agricultural workers women’s pivotal role in agriculture has never been recognized fully. They work as female agricultural labourers, as farmers, co-farmers, family labourers and (with male out- migration, widowhood etc.) as managers of the farm and farm entrepreneurs. Women in agriculture refer not only to women agricultural labourers and farmers but also to women working in the various sub-sectors of agriculture and allied non-farm work.
Women constitute 40% of the agricultural workforce and this percentage is rising. Today, 53% of all male workers, but 75% of all female workers and 85% of all rural female workers are in agriculture. An estimated 20% of rural households are de facto female headed due to widowhood, desertion, or male out-migration. The increased feminization of agricultural work and labour must be taken into account in any policy document.
Women work extensively in production of major grains and millets, in land preparation, seed selection and seedling production, sowing, applying manure, fertilizer and pesticide, weeding, transplanting, threshing, winnowing and harvesting. In livestock production, fish processing, collection of non-timber forest produce etc. women have a very large role. In animal husbandry, women have multiple roles, ranging from animal care, grazing, fodder collection and cleaning of animal sheds to processing of milk and livestock products. Keeping milch animals, small ruminants and backyard poultry is an important source of income for poor farm families and agricultural labourers. Women also predominate in various artisanal productions such as weaving mats and baskets etc.
Landless women agricultural labourers are involved in most of the agricultural operations. Women also augment family resources through tasks such as collection of fuel, fodder, drinking
water and water for family chores and domestic animals. But they still remain largely unacknowledged as farmers and agricultural workers. Acknowledgement and evaluation of women’s work in agriculture must form the basis of all policies and schemes in agriculture.
|
Participants