Empowerment of Women Farmers for Agricultural Development

The women constitute almost half of the workforce engaged in agriculture. The rural women participate in a broad range of agricultural activities such as production, processing preservation and utilization of food. They play a key role in the entire food system starting from the selection of seeds, sowing, manuring, drying, storing and feeding the family from the harvested product. Even though women contribute 60 to 80 % of the labour in agriculture and animal husbandry, their involvement in selection of suitable crops and adoption of innovative and good management practices, is very low. The major reasons may be lack of authority in decision making in agricultural land production, gender discrimination in the land, lack of awareness about the new technologies in agriculture and the poor access to female extension professionals for consultation about their farm lands. Empowerment of women in developing India will lead the nation to a breaking issue of humanist thinking for globalization.