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. 

Earth Day 2026: Power to She Who Works the Earth

 April 22nd has been observed as Earth Day since 1970 the first time through American efforts to channel student anti-war efforts into an environmental movement. Fifty-seven years on Earth Day is observed across the planet and has encompassed many activities to protect the planet. 

Source: Photo of the earth as a Pale Blue Dot suspended on a sunbeam captured by the Voyager 1 space probe from 6 million kilometers away and sent on Valentine's Day 1990 after multiple requests by American Astronomer and Planetary Scientist Carl Sagan. 

Our Power, Our Planet

The theme for Earth Day 2026 is "Our Power, Our Planet" which can be interpreted in multiple ways.

While the main focus is Energy Security through boosting SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy - a Just Transition to Renewable Energy, vital in these times of an Energy Shock due to the choking of the Strait of Hormuz, another aspect is  a call for all of us to use our power for the planet - individually or collectively. The Environmentalist Foundation of India's (EFI) call for a #BlueGreenCleanVote in the Legislative Assembly Elections is a great demonstration of this.

EFI Founder Arun Krishnamurthy of Tambaram, Chennai, Calls for a Blue Green Clean Vote in Tamil Nadu State Elections 2026.

This involves building Sustainable Communities and Sustainable Cities (SDG 11). Literally on Earth Day in the International Year of the Woman Farmer (IYWF2026) and the International Year of the Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP2026) both championed by the UN's Food And Agriculture Organization (FAO) it makes sense that the focus is on "Saving the Soil." Overuse of soil, GMO seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and antibiotics as well as the all pervasive plastic and microplastics pollution has degraded soil fertility and soil quality across the planet. The possible fertilizer crisis due to the disruption of the supply of crude oil from the unstable Middle East could be an opportunity to train and transition justly to organic farming.

This could be a great time to empower women farmers and smallholding farmers to become organic farmers, natural farmers and friends of the soils. Training and in-the-field, 24-hour big data--mapped support could transform the lives of farmers already pushed to the brink by various factors including price rise all around except seemingly for their hard-grown products. CSR, ESG, local governments, panchayats, NGOs and PPP programs could all be tailored to empowering farmers to transition to organic or natural farming as well as solar powered irrigation systems. 

 For Farmers and Soil Health: For the Planet

To use power for the planet - literal clean energy or that of people is vital in these troubled times of climate crises, environmental crises, economic crises and conflicts. In order to achieve human security we need to ensure self-reliance, sustainability and self-sufficiency - food security, water security, energy security. By empowering those who grow our food and the very earth than nourishes it we can definitely improve lives of not just farmers but our whole population. 

A ground up, hands on strategy to transition to organic and natural farming while  empowering and training women farmers and smallholders is a step in the right direction and is much needed on Earth Day and beyond. 

It's our home.

This Earth Day, see our planet as our Artemis II astronauts saw it with these new images from the mission. pic.twitter.com/ne0ZwqtqOc

— NASA (@NASA) April 22, 2026

Creativity & Innovations For Our "Annadata"

 This week and month have many days and celebrations where Women Farmers are central. April 21st is World Creativity and Innovation Day with the 2026 theme being "Harnessing the Power of Creativity for Global Progress." A key aspect of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) being SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure - all vital to boost agriculture. 

Personally I find from all my interactions that no one can beat Rural Women of India in general and Women Farmers in particular in innovation and creativity in stretching resources and opportunities to serve them. They truly are pioneers in harnessing their creativity for progress of their family and community with their own progress just a happy byproduct never a priority.  Whatever opportunities, skills, training and lessons they access, rural women and women farmers seem to know how to extrapolate it into social progress and economic growth. 

The Sunshine Millennium 2011 Brochure

Meanwhile April 19-20, 2026 was celebrated as Akshaya Tritiya - a celebration of everlasting abundance as well as the birth of the Goddess of Food & Abundance - "Annapurna and our Annadata - the bestower of food. While marketing has made this festival all about buying gold, it is a time of charity and aiding the downtrodden as well as worshipping and valuing those who produce our food. In practice this mid-Spring festival is about honoring and empowering farmers among others in the quest for abundance and reduced inequalities (SDG 10).

See more on Gender, Agriculture and Climate Change in the summary and analysis of the above article from The Hindu in the InsightsIAS (Insights on India page) article.

Indigenous Women Farmers and Leaders - Australia ad Asia-Pacific

Empowerment and Opportunities

The brouhaha over "Nari Shakti" - Women's Political Empowerment that became a bit of a damp squib in the face of the delimitation issue also was an opportunity to empower women farmers by giving them a political voice to fight for their rights.  Population and depopulation pressures as well as the realities of urban and seasonal migration that has led to feminization of rural India, feminization of agriculture as well as feminization of poverty and they all have  women front and center. But there are many opportunities amidst the threats to the lives and livelihoods of rural women and women farmers. In this conversation it would be irresponsible if one doesn't mention the choice [forced by economic burdens) of many women agricultural and farm laborers choosing to sterilize themselves and sacrifice their fertility for economic opportunities. 

Harnessing Creativity and Innovation for Progress

Many award-winning model Panchayats (village administration) have addressed the needs of women and women farmers by giving them voice as mentioned in the post about the Institute of Social Sciences' interview of these award winning villages and their administrators. 

Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) are also do great work in improving the lives of rural women and farmers in general and women farmers in particular in many states of India. The key fact being the need to scale up and center the needs of women farmers in such SHGs and FPOs. By merging government programs and policies and corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ESG initiatives of companies - a public-private partnership (PPP) of sorts to tackle the needs of women farmers is truly addressing SDG 9 agriculturally. This is harnessing innovation for the progress of all farmers but especially women farmers.

Puthandu, Prosperity & Women Farmers

 It's celebration time across the Subcontinent again. Puthandu or Chitrai Thirunal - Tamil New Year marks the movement of the sun into the moon sign/rasi of Aries in Hindu astrology. It is marked by celebrations such as Mesha Sankranti, Tamil, Bengali, Odia and Sinhala New Year, Vishu in Keralam, Baishakhi in Punjab, Bihu in Assam as well as Buddhist New Year/Songkran celebrations across Southeast Asia and Yunnan in China - the Water Festival.  This is a time where we all hope for peace and prosperity as always in these troubled times.

In this time of family, friends and shared celebrations I thought I'd share some successful CSR & government projects that have empowered and trained women farmers as well as rural and tribal communities and brought prosperity to previously arid and drought-dulled rural regions of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra as well as poverty alleviation programmes of the Keralam government that tackled the unpaid labour burden of women and women farmers and uplifted hundreds of thousands and eliminated poverty.

Tata Capital's watershed restoration and other rural community development initiatives in Maharashtra as well as Thiruvanamala district of Tamil Nadu has benefitted many women and women farmers as shared on World Water Day on the Sunshine Millennium Facebook page.

I have mentioned in this blog the successful intervention of the Srinivasan Services Trust (SST) the CSR wing of the Tamil Nadu based MNC TVS that has done great work in 4 states more than 15 years ago and many more places now since. A pioneer of sorts in CSR in Tamil Nadu especially in their empowerment of women and women farmers as well as tribal and community development made  a huge impact in providing decent work and economic growth SDG8 to Thiruvanamalai district of Tamil Nadu among others. 

To quote Ms. Krithika Ram, my Master's classmate's project submitted in December 2011 for the National Institute for Rural Development's Post Graduate Diploma in Sustainable Rural Development on Corporates and Rural Development. 

SST's Vision statement reads- “To be catalysts in creating self-reliant villages by deploying the skills and resources of local governments, development agencies and the private sector to fulfill this vision.”

 The Mission statement of SST reads-”To facilitate the process of sustainable development in rural India in key areas such as economic opportunities, quality education and health care, the creation and maintenance of infrastructure and environmental and cultural conservation, through active participation of national and state governments in partnership with local communities.

holistic approach aimed at making people self-reliant through active involvement of local communities. The Namakku Naame Thittam/Village Self-Sufficiency scheme in partnership with the local community, Rural Development Department and the Trust is maiden initiative leading towards sustainable community development. 

The livelihoods of the members [NOW] consist of food processing; animal husbandry; silk weaving; flower decoration; and banana fiber making. The SHGs dedicate this achievement of theirs to SST which has been taking care of their training and has been helping them get loans from banks. 

 

Meanwhile more recently in Maharashtra's drought-prone regions the Mann Deshi Foundation's Centre for Climate Resilient Agriculture has trained women from the region with an agricultural and rural background as a ‘soil-sakhi’ or soil tester.

The soil-sakhis have reached 2,394 farmers across nine drought-prone talukas of the five districts of Satara, Sangli, Solapur, Kolhapur and Pune. As per a study conducted about the programme, their intervention has led to a total reduction of 988.37 tonnes CO2e (Carbon Dioxide Equivalent) emission. 

Meanwhile Farmers for Forests headed by Kruthika Ravishanker with investments from across the globe (SDG17 Partnerships for Progress and SDG13 Climate Action) is quietly transforming lives of farmers and boosting the carbon sequestration of the region by planting fruit trees which also boost incomes and reduce hunger and poverty in the formerly suicide prone belt of drought hit regions of Western India - Maharashtra especially. 

Women Farmers & the Burden of Unpaid Labour

 

Easter is a time of hope just as is the election season. As one reflects on what is needed to make women and girls rise and thrive in this the season of the Risen Son who suffered so that we could all thrive, one thing stands out. Unpaid labour drags down women and girls in general and women farmers in particular. It affects lives, health and livelihood drastically.

Being liberated from the cross of unpaid labour can ensure that women and society can thrive. 

On World Water Day (March 22), many organizations had shared how the lack of access to clean water and sanitation adds immensely to the burden of unpaid work for women. This leads to many social evils such as early marriage, child marriage and polygamy - water wives or "pani bai". 

The Cross of Unpaid Labour

According to "Unpaid Work and Women Workers: A Growing Crisis," the report published in December 2023 of a survey conducted by the Institute of Social Sciences (ISS), New Delhi, across Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Delhi of 2,500 women:

“Women workers continue to bear the lion’s share of domestic and care responsibilities, and to the extent that this work is shared, it is often shared not with spouses but with girl children. … are often overworked and exhausted - and bearing the mental and physical costs of such overwork. … the sheer scale at which work beyond the agreed upon informal or formal contract - i.e., unpaid work - is extracted from women workers even in paid contracts. Even more shockingly, this also applied to government works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act [MGNREGA now renamed Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin): VB-G RAM G]."

This crisis affects women in the agricultural sector almost disproportionately high. 

Source: Presentation by Seema Kulkarni, Asian College of Journalism Climate Change Media Hub's "Climate Change Conversations," online media education session on "Reporting on Climate and Gender: A Rural Perspective." March 27, 2026.

Improving access to services will in itself reduce the burden of unpaid labour that eats into the time, health and lives of women in general and poor, rural women and women farmers and farm labourers in particular.

As the ISS report puts it, 

"time spent by women on unpaid care work is the availability and quality of publicly provisioned services, amenities and basic infrastructure. Typically poorer settlements esp in developing countries are plagued with inadequate access to proper pucca housing, drinking water, fuel, food, healthcare, creches, support for the elderly, food security, and so on. The absence of these facilities is subsidised by the drudgery of unpaid self-exploitative care work, a result of the patriarchal gender-based division of labour wherein the responsibility for care and family survival is the woman’s domain."

Thus better access to piped water, sanitation - #SDG6, affordable cooking fuel (most relevant in April 2026 in view of the fuel crisis as a result of the US-Israel war on Iran that has affected global fuel supplies as well as the global supply chain increasing prices all around.), clean energy (decentralized solar providing electricity to informal and rural settlements ensuring security) - #SDG7, anganwadis (child care), primary health centres - #SDG3GoodHealthAndWellBeing, affordable food (functional and corruption free ration shops) - #SDG2ZeroHunger as well as support for elder care and patient care within the family will ensure women and girls can have time and space to thrive. This is true empowerment and Gender Equality (#SDG5) in our mostly patriarchal homes. 

When women and girls in general and women farmers in particular are provided access to such functional social security and safety net they thrive.  

In election season, ensuring these services to the women electorate is a better poll promise than the freebies and "biryani-alcohol" packages to male voters.  

Curb Soil Erosion to Curb Environmental Erosion: World Soil Day 2019

The theme for World Soil Day 2019 is "Stop soil erosion, Save our future."

This day promoted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has, since 2012, hoped to raise awareness about the role healthy soil plays in "sustaining healthy ecosystems and human well-being." Ensuring "Good Health and Well-Being" #SDG3 as well as life on land #SDG15 can be achieved through healthy soil that produces healthy food and healthy people. Tending the soil can improve mental health and well-being. Thus the process of ensuring soil health - organic gardening and organic farming can ensure mental health. Healthy minds are vital for people to thrive.

As the member-states of the United Nations gather in Madrid at COP25 to discuss climate change, reports submitted there indicate that land degradation is a major driver of climate change.

Now while it's important to de-carbonize our economies and "Keep Oil in the Soil and Coal in the Hole." A major way that people and policy can help curb emissions and environmental degradation is by curbing soil erosion and restoring and rejuvenating the soil. Intensive organic agriculture and mixed agriculture especially cultivation amidst man-made mixed fruit forests or rice fields that farm fresh water fish in fields can help restore soil.

These fields of trees can provide shade on a hot day, fix soil and protect it from erosion as well as fixing water and carbon. The leaves that fall from them can bring in nutrition and organic matter to improve soil. This is permaculture harnessed to horticulture and agriculture underpinned by chemical-free organic restorative and regenerative cultivation practices. Agroforestry demonstrated by young Costa Rican farmer Alexander Retana, shows that we can increase green cover and produce food comfortably.

As Vandana Siva put it in the Year of the Soil in 2015 when we saw the signing of the Paris Climate Treaty, "we are nothing without living soil. ...If we make peace with the soil we make peace between people."

As the article in the Hindu Business Line indicates

In short, deforestation, which in itself raises carbon emissions by 25 per cent, along with all human activities pursued on the land, is the real cause of climate change in the form of extreme weather conditions like intense and untimely rains, floods, soil erosion, and high temperatures. 

Our lifestyle, the food we eat and from where we source it has an impact on the life of the planet and its soil. Unsustainable agricultural practices, industrial agriculture, deforestation caused by greed for more agricultural and grazing lands (Amazon and the Equatorial Rainforest in Southeast Asia being two key examples of vital primordial forests cut down or burnt down).

Ecological farming - restorative organic farming that puts organic matter back into the soil to keep it living instead of making a zombie out of it with petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides, can be the difference between life and death of the soil and of the human race.

We need to #StopSoilErosion in all its forms and unsustainable agricultural practices and unsustainable development are key reasons for dying soil.

via GIPHY

In a world where micro-hunger - the hunger for essential nutrients is as devastating to a different set of people as hunger is to the poorer populations, ensuring that the soil is healthy ensures that there is Zero Hunger #SDG2. Nutritious food can be produced through healthy and nutritious soil. Saving the soil can ensure that all the sustainable development goals are achieved. Smallholder farmers in the developing world must be engaged in preserving and restoring soil health. Making young farmers, women farmers, and small-scale farmers - usually marginalized and impoverished by industrial agriculture - should be made stakeholders who can benefit from ecological farming that restores soil health and ensures soil is safe from erosion. Organic ecological agriculture can be incorporated into climate adaptation and climate action measures that can be funded and trained by climate finance and green tech transfer.  These marginalized farmers can help #SaveOurFuture by saving the soil. Thus we can ensure social justice and climate justice by protecting soil.