Supporting Women Farmers for Sustainable Development

 A sustained effort is needed to support women farmers to enable sustainable development beyond the International Year of the Woman Farmer (IYWF2026), Women's Day (IWD) and the scope of their conferences. It is a low hanging fruit and a potential windfall: supporting women farmers to boost the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in rural communities across the globe in general and in India in particularly to achieve objectives in greater numbers.

 Source: Empowering Women Farmers in Agriculture, Press Information Bureau of India (PIB), 23 March 2026

Beyond IYWF2026 & IWD 

A lot of  effort has been put in to empower women in the agri-food system, but it happens in pockets and silos, with limited reach and barriers to scaling-up whether they are government programs, PPP (public-private partnership) initiatives, CSR or ESG programs. Despite many award-winning efforts by women farmers and food and agricultural entrepreneurs the impact has been very local. With the feminization of agriculture more mainstream efforts, publicity and hand-holding is needed to improve the plight of women farmers and as a corollary the lives and livelihoods of rural communities.

Trinity Saioo of Meghalaya won the Padma Shri in 2020 for her efforts to train women and boost the production of the GI tagged Lakadong Turmeric. The efforts of this rural teacher single-handedly boosted multiple SDGs and developmental indicators and enabled sustainable development through empowering women to elevate local produce. 

They say one person can’t change an entire system. In Meghalaya, one teacher quietly proved otherwise.

A former school teacher from Mulieh village, Trinity Saioo turned to farming not just to support her family, but to transform an entire community. What began as a small step… pic.twitter.com/Ypmkya2asE

— The Better India (@thebetterindia) April 27, 2026

Krishi Sakhis, SHGs & Women Farmer Collectives

The Government of India is promoting Krishi Sakhis (literally: Farming Women Friends) trained women farmers who can help and train other women farmers to access government initiatives and funds to farm better. Women Farmer Collectives and Self-Help Groups are also doing great work locally in the community-level to empower women farmers and hand-hold them in accessing government, private and CSR programs, training and funding. 

 

 Tamil Nadu ranks number 13 in organic farming in India. Efforts such as EPIC-SS (Eco Park and Information Centre - Sustainable Solutions, Padur, Chennai) of former IAS officer Santha Sheela Nair and Kalpavriksha Farms - a food forest set up by Kalpana Manivannan, a Chennai high school biology teacher turned homesteader who won the Karamveer Chakra are doing a lot in promoting natural farming, organic farming and permaculture in the state. Education and hands-on training with access to best practices in action does more than elaborate policy documents and frameworks with little on-the-ground grassroots uptake. 

Think Tanks, Conferences and Research: Sharing Best Practices

The M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in Chennai and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research's Central Institute for Women in Agriculture (ICAR-CIWA), Bhubaneswar have produced some great research on farming in general and methods to support women farmers in particular. 

 

 The MSSRF webinar on Pathways to Gender Justice as part of IWD2026 highlighted gaps and solutions to gender just transition in climate resilient agriculture in India. 

The March 2026 Global Conference on Women in Agri-Food Systems (GCWAS 2026) in New Delhi inaugurated by the President of India Droupadi Murmu in the presence of the Union Minister for Agriculture, Farmer Welfare and  Rural Livelihoods Shivraj Chauhan shone a spotlight on women farmers in India to international audiences while also becoming a repository of best practices and policy support for women farmers. 

Amplifying the voices and the efforts to support women farmers so that those who seek to improve their lives in the agri-food system is essential to ensure food security, human security, climate action and ecological action. Empowered women farmers will be the engines of change in our path to Viksit Bharat and Sustainable Development - locally, nationally and internationally.