7th May 2020: FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) Report on Women Participation in Indian Agriculture was released by Shri Parshottam Rupala, Hon’ble Union Minister of State, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Govt. of India at a webinar held on May 7, 2020 in the Capital.

FLO has collated the report on Women Participation in Indian Agriculture to analyse the role of women in agriculture and provide solutions on how women in agriculture can get their due share and be recognised.

On this occasion Mr. Rupala congratulated the great initiative taken for the first time by any Chamber of Commerce and encouraged the President and the FLO members to develop a channel to connect women farmers directly to the households. “ We are willing to extend our support to the Chambers wherever required. Citing the success story of Amul, he added that women can create so many more such stories in agriculture and allied sector, bee keeping is one such sector which has enormous potential”.

“The government is already giving special subsidies to women farmers and looks forward to supporting any viable project for the economic empowerment of women in agriculture. We are open for a 100% FPO (Farmer Producers Organisation) for women and for them there’s a 100 crore IT rebate which makes it very lucrative for the Food processing sector to get involved as well”, he added.

“As the President of FLO and also as an individual, I am hugely passionate towards attaining economic empowerment and this has to begin with women in agriculture given the statistics that over 75 percent economically active women in India are associated with the Agriculture sector. I began my term by launching the Agriculture Initiative nationally and have done my best to work towards facilitating the growth of women in agriculture. Now, with in-depth research, state wise analysis was created and in this report, we have come up with reasons as to what stops the growth of women in the field of agriculture and recommended solutions for the same.”, said Harjinder Kaur Talwar, President FLO.

Women are of vital importance to rural economies and the agriculture sector. They are important for ensuring food security and preserving the local agro biodiversity. While the men mostly venture out of the villages in search of livelihood, the womenfolk are relegated into working in the fields from dawn to dusk, in addition to her traditional role of caregiver in the family. In spite of their vital contribution to the economy, these women are mostly invisible and unheard. Be it due to gender inequality or patriarchal society norms, they face a lot of discriminations.

With this though, FLO, led by President Harjinder Kaur Talwar, initiated the focus on this important sector of Indian economy and this report is a humble attempt in bringing out this set of analysis and recommendations on Women Participation in Indian Agriculture, with the objective of bringing women in this sector to the forefront.

Policy Recommendations by FLO are as follows :

·  Creating a proper database of women in agriculture sector

·   Improving Female Landholding Patterns

·   Putting an End to Forcible Land Relinquishment (Haq-Daan) by Women

·  Improving the land leasing framework

·   Women only benefits

·   Enabling “Scientific & Climate Resilient” Smart Women Farmers

·  Support the formation of Female Farmer Producer organisations (FPOs): Implementation of SHG (Self Help Group) Model on national level

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