India has an economy bound to historical agricultural tradition. In the North, the Indus valley and Brahmaputra region are critical agricultural areas with water supplied by the Ganges and monsoon season. Agriculture is a way of life for the majority of India's population; based on 2011 World Bank data, only 17.5% of India's gross domestic product (GDP) is accounted for by agricultural production. Women are an important but often overlooked population in India's agricultural production—they represent the majority of the agricultural labor force. Women's participation in the agrarian labor force plays out in various ways, impacting their economic independence, their decision-making abilities, their agency and access to education and health services. Many women in farming communities suffer poverty and marginalization, and issues of gender inequality.
Indian agriculture
Based on 2012 data, India is home to the fourth-largest agricultural sector in the world. India has an estimated 180 million hectares of farmland with 140 million of which are planted and continuously cultivated. Yet India's agricultural profile is shadowed by the controversial impacts of Green Revolution policies that were adopted in the 1960s and 70s with pressure from the United States Agency for International Development and the World Bank.
The Green Revolution brought a modern approach to agriculture by incorporating irrigation systems, genetically modified seed variations, insecticide and pesticide usage, and numerous land reforms. It had an explosive impact, providing unprecedented agricultural productivity in India and turned the country from a food importer to an exporter. Yet the Green Revolution also caused agricultural prices to drop, which damaged India's small farmers. Over the years, Green Revolution technology has caused decreases in agricultural yields. This problem was particularly grave for smallholder farmers, because intensification of synthetic inputs and more advanced agricultural technology is required from year to year in order to maintain the same high levels of production on the same plot of land. Small holder farmers cultivate less than 2 hectares of lands; the majority of all Indian farmers are smallholders and produce the majority of India’s produce. Smallholder farmers face the largest negative impact from green revolution technology–the synthetic inputs have adversely impacted their soil, decreasing yields. Due to the smaller scales of their operations, they are unable to afford more synthetic inputs to compensate for poor soil quality caused by the initial introduction of off-farm inputs.Münster, Daniel. Agro-Ecological Double Movements? Zero Budget Natural Farming and Alternative Agricultures after the Neoliberal Crisis in Kerala. 2016, pp. 222–44. This leads to a “treadmill of technology dependence,” which continues to speed up as soil health declines. In addition to the financial issue, there are also the environmental impacts of the Green revolution which all farmers, big and small, must contend with. Intensification of synthetic fertilizer and pesticide inputs leads to a loss in biodiversity which continues to degrade the environmental quality of cultivated land. Groundwater depletion, soil health decline, a loss of crop genetic diversity all make the created environment continually more inhospitable to introduced crop varieties that have not had the advantage of years of evolution to make them best suited to the changing conditions.
India's agricultural sector today still faces issues of efficiency due to lack of mechanization with poorer conditions of farmers, as well as small farm sizes. In India, traditional agriculture is still dominant as many farmers depend on livestock in crop production, for manure as fertilizers, and the use of animal-powered ploughs. According to 2011 statistics, the average farm in India is about 1.5 acres, minuscule when compared the average of 50 hectares in France and or 178 hectares in United States and 273 hectares in Canada.June 25, 2011."Farm Size and Productivity: Understanding the Strength of Smallholders and Improving Their Livelihoods."
The small farmer tradition of India can be drawn back to the first farm reforms of independent India. Known as the Laws of Divided Inheritance, the reforms were meant to limit the conglomeration of land, by mandating redistribution as land was divided among male inheritors from the prior generation. The perpetuation of these laws not only limits farm size but also bars women from ownership or inheritance. Furthermore, as small farmers face increasing competition with larger farm operations an increasing number of men migrate to city centers for higher wages and employment. Women are in turn left to support the family structure and support small farm lifestyle. In 2011, the agricultural sector workforce in the subcontinent was 75% women.Singh, Roopam; Sengupta, Ranja (2009). "EU FTA and the Likely Impact on Indian Women Executive Summary." Centre for Trade and Development and Heinrich Boell Foundation.
Feminization of Indian agriculture With the advent of The Green Revolution, and then liberalization, male labor was increasingly drawn towards urban centers, leading to an increased number of women involved in agricultural labor.
A statistical profile In rural India, the percentage of women who depend on agriculture for their livelihood is as high as 84%. Women make up about 33% of cultivators and about 47% percent of agricultural labourers.Rao, E. Krishna (2006). "Role of Women in Agriculture: A Micro Level Study." These statistics do not account for work in livestock, fisheries and various other ancillary forms of food production in the country. In 2009, 94% of the female agricultural labour force in crop cultivation were in cereal production, while 1.4% worked in vegetable production, and 3.72% were engaged in fruits, nuts, beverages, and spice crops.
Women's participation rate in the agricultural sectors is about 47% in tea plantations, 46.84% in cotton cultivation, 45.43% growing oil seeds and 39.13% in vegetable production.2009.Centre for Trade and Development and Heinrich Boell Foundation. “EU FTA and the Likely Impact on Indian Women Executive Summary." While these crops require labor-intensive work, the work is considered quite unskilled. Women also heavily participate in ancillary agricultural activities. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, Indian women represented a share of 21% and 24% of all fishers and fish farmers, respectively.
Despite their dominance of the labor force women in India still face extreme disadvantage in terms of pay, land rights, and representation in local farmers organizations. Furthermore, their lack of empowerment often results in negative externalities such as lower educational attainment for their children and poor familial health.
Gendered division of agrarian labor In India, the typical work of the female agricultural laborer or cultivator is limited to less skilled jobs, such as sowing, transplanting, weeding and harvesting, that often fit well within the framework of domestic life and child-rearing. In cotton seed production, they are engaged in pollination activity which requires patience and a little bit of precision. Many women also participate in agricultural work as unpaid subsistence labor. According to United Nations Human Development Report only 32.8% of Indian women formally participate in the labor force, a rate that has remained steady since 2009 statistics. By comparison, men constitute 81.1%.UNHDR-2011
Literacy among women in farming communities An estimated 52–75% of Indian women engaged in agriculture are illiterate, an education barrier that prevents women from participating in more skilled labor sectors. Women generally face low access to agricultural information that is generated outside their own families. This is primarily due to lower rates of literacy and a lack of mobility–but women will readily disperse information to women of other households, even other villages. Some district governments in Karnataka are looking into establishing self-help groups for women to create larger social networks through which women may disseminate information about agricultural practices, circumventing the low literacy rates. In all activities, there is an average gender wage disparity, with women earning only 70 percent of men's wage. Additionally, many women participate in agricultural work as unpaid subsistence labor. The lack of employment mobility and education render the majority of women in India vulnerable, as dependents on the growth and stability of the agricultural market.Satyavathi, C. Tara; Bharadwaj, Ch.; Brahmanand, P.S. (2010). "Role of Farm Women In Agriculture: Lessons Learned." SAGE Gender, Technology, and Development
Arranged marriages and caste In rural India, women's role in the household is greatly defined by social structure and familial ties. Arranged marriages specific to each caste system, determine their economic worth, and are expected early on in a woman's life. Depending on caste and economic class a woman's role can be determined as one of more in the public eye or predominantly of seclusion; a life in which women are expected to care for children and maintain the household. The typical rural Indian household is a patriarchal and partilocal one, in which a husband, or in his stead the oldest son will make the decisions for a family.
Time allocation In addition to rigorous agricultural work that is undervalued and underpaid, women are also responsible for the well-being of the household. They care for their children, provide nutrition or usually take part in subsistence agriculture, and do chores around the house. Based on time allocation studies, which pinpoint exactly how a woman's hours are spent throughout the week, Indian women spend about 25 hours in a week doing household chores and five hours in caring and community work.
Besides the 30 hours of unpaid work, women spend the same amount of time as men carrying out agricultural work.TNN, The Times of India. April 24, 2012. Daughters typically supplement or substitute for mother's unpaid work around the household. Considered female tasks, the opportunity cost of girls' time for school is higher than that of sons. Girls do significantly more housework than boys, which compromises their schooling.
While some studies in Orissa suggest that organic farming could increase the amount of labor and time spent on agricultural duties for women, more research needs to be done to expand conclusions across India.
Access to land and resources Critical resources such as land are also unevenly distributed by gender. Women seldom enjoy property ownership rights directly in their names. They have little control over decisions made in reference to land. Even with land in their names, they may not have actual decision-making power in terms of cropping patterns, sale, mortgage and the purchase of land. In India, only 14.9% of households are female headed. Access to credit is difficult, since women lack many of the prerequisites for lending such as assets or ownership of property. Without access to capital or household decision making abilities women lack the resources that are necessary for their labor stability and stability of their households.