Farms turn femme but women still plough through power centres

Across rural India, agriculture is undergoing a quiet transformation — one increasingly shaped by women. With rising male migration driven by reasons varying from climate stress, shrinking farm returns, and industrial employment, women are stepping in to manage farms, livestock, and household food systems. This feminisation of agriculture has been slowly unfolding yet remains largely invisible in policy and undercounted in data.

According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2024, women now constitute over 42% of the agricultural workforce and in some states they make up the majority of full-time agricultural workers. Despite this, their labour remains unrecorded, wages continue to remain lower than men’s, and their decision-making power is constrained. Land ownership — key to recognition and entitlements — largely eludes them. As India continues to define a farmer through ownership, women’s labour, expertise, and agency are not accounted for.

Decision making, an indicator

Against this backdrop, a newly published study from rural Karnataka offers critical insight into women’s decision-making in agriculture. Drawing on the Karnataka Household Asset Survey (KHAS) data from 4110 rural households in the state (2013), the study compares men’s and women’s perspectives on who manages and makes key decisions in farming — particularly in households affected by short-term male migration.

Part of a larger multi-country research initiative across India, Ecuador, and Ghana, the study investigates the gender asset gap, using rigorous data to unravel how control over resources, knowledge, and decisions is distributed within rural households.

Lead author Hema Swaminathan tells Mongabay India that the study stemmed from a broader concern around the lack of gender-disaggregated data in India. She points out that poverty is typically measured at the household level, overlooking intra-household inequalities and individual ownership of assets. Even large-scale surveys like the National Sample Survey (NSS), she notes, record land or house ownership in the name of the household, failing to identify which member actually owns it — a critical gap when addressing gendered economic disparities.

“The land ownership data doesn’t reveal who owns land within a household. In reality, there is significant disparity in how resources are distributed, and this often plays out along gender lines. Women are highly marginalised when it comes to ownership of valuable property,” she explains. During data collection, Swaminathan says the team explored various dimensions of women’s voice and agency — of which decision-making surfaced as a particularly telling indicator.

Combining qualitative fieldwork with quantitative methods — including surveying both spouses with identical questions on decision-making — the researchers were able to compare and triangulate responses, revealing discrepancies in perceived agency. The study found that assumptions around joint decision-making within households often did not hold up.

In some cases, men claimed women were involved in decisions, while women denied this — suggesting either a social desirability bias among men or internalised patriarchy among women. “In most domains though, both men and women agreed that men controlled decisions,” says Swaminathan, underscoring persistent gendered power imbalances. These disparities extended beyond the household into agricultural decision-making.

These findings take on added significance in the context of rising male outmigration from rural India, a trend accelerated by climate change and economic pressures, which is steadily rendering farming a female-driven sector. As experts Mongabay India spoke to say that a lot of decision-making hinges on land ownerships that have been historically denied to women.

Land ownership, a key marker

Debottam Saha, research assistant at Welthungerhilfe India (WHH), who has studied women’s land rights across Rajasthan, Jharkhand, and West Bengal, shares a telling case from West Bengal. A widow, he recounts, independently managed a substantial piece of land and all farming decisions — solely because the land was in her name. “She was making all the decisions primarily because she owned the land,” Saha notes. Still, she said she planned to transfer ownership to her son once he came of age. Saha also observed that while women exert control over kitchen gardens, men dominate decisions over larger, cash-crop farms.

While there is considerable consensus on the increasing feminisation of agriculture, data reveals that this shift often translates into women shouldering more unpaid labour, further entrenching their invisibility in the agricultural economy. The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2024 also points to an increase in work participation rate (WPR) of women — from 24.8% in 2017 to 42% in 2023 — resulting from a surge in self-employment, which in many rural contexts, equates to unpaid work in family-run farms or enterprises.

Soma K.P., founding member of the Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch (MAKAAM), highlights that even when men migrate away from farms, land ownership and control over agricultural decisions typically remain with them. Moreover, she notes, the poor and marginal women farmers have a better understanding of soil health and resource use and have historically been in charge of minor irrigation works on their land. “However, when irrigation is upscaled and newer technologies are introduced, men often take over, denying women access and control of the resources they have been managing,” she says.

Navigating systemic barriers

This disconnect is compounded by structural barriers: agricultural systems are largely tailored to male farmers. Women often struggle to access quality seeds, fertilisers, training, and extension services, which remain oriented towards men.

Karnataka-based social anthropologist A.R. Vasavi of Punarchith observes a deeply gendered division of labour — while men dominate activities like ploughing, sowing, and spraying pesticides, women take on more physically demanding tasks such as harvesting and livestock care.

She highlights that limited access to modern agricultural technologies and essential information — such as the IMD weather forecasts — makes farming especially challenging for women. Soma K.P. concurs, noting that many women, particularly those without phones, are cut off from timely updates and information in the farming sector. “Decision-making may increase in men’s absence, but it doesn’t necessarily lead to empowerment,” she cautions.

In Maharashtra, the outmigration of men has seen women take over farm operations — some finding a sense of autonomy. Yet, those who challenge traditional norms often face social stigma and isolation. Seema Kulkarni of Pune-based SOPPECOM points out that newer technologies and agribusiness services remain largely inaccessible to women. With government extension officers replaced by private companies of chemical fertilisers and pesticides primarily engage with men, even women landowners are sidelined. “Women often depend on local traders for advice and credit, creating a cycle of dependency,” says Kulkarni. Lacking collateral, they are forced to sell their harvest at rates dictated by these traders, locking them out of fair market access.

Saha notes that in West Bengal, there are isolated instances where women hold land titles, mainly attributed to recent state policies encouraging homestead land registration in women’s names. While these initiatives suggest the promise of gender-responsive policymaking, they often fall short by excluding cultivable land, limiting real empowerment.

The study recommends that there is an urgent need for India to regularly gather individual-level data on agricultural decision-making and asset ownership. Without robust, gender-disaggregated data, women’s contributions to farming will remain undervalued and invisible in policy frameworks. This becomes especially critical as women’s participation in agriculture continues to rise amid broader socio-economic and climate-driven transformations in rural India.

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Banner image: Women at work in a flower farm in Dodballapur, Karnataka. Image by Suneal patel via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).