From Farm To Market, Women-Led Initiatives Are Redefining Agriculture

Picture a farmer, and most people still see a man in a field. Yet, women now make up the majority of India’s agricultural workforce - around 64% when informal labour is included. They sow, harvest, process, and trade often without land titles, credit, or recognition. This disparity is visible in the following data: While only 11% of land holdings are in women’s names, their average income is 60% lower than men’s for the same amount of work they put in.

Closing that gap isn’t charity, it’s growth. Studies show that if women farmers had equal access to land, finance, and training, yields could rise by up to 30%, boosting India’s agricultural output by nearly 20%. The challenge isn’t participation - women are already everywhere in the system - it is progression: moving from unpaid labour to value creators with market power.

India already has a strong base, with a record number of 12 million women’s collectives, thousands of micro-enterprises in food processing, and targeted programmes like the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) or Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme (PM-FME), which together have supported over 100,000 women-led ventures. However, what’s missing is a unifying lens that connects access, value creation, and long-term resilience.

In agriculture, we could consider a '3S Playbook' - Seed, Scale & Sustain. This captures how women are already reshaping the agri-value chain from soil to shelf.

Seed: Access and Agency

Transformation starts when women control the means of production. Yet, only 12% of farmland is operated solely by women, and fewer than one in ten have independent access to credit. Still, change is visible. Under the Women-led Climate Resilient Farming (WCRF) model in Maharashtra, collectives of smallholder women farmers have begun to decide cropping patterns and resource allocation, improving yields and stabilising income during erratic rainfall years.

In Assam’s self-help groups (SHGs), shared storage sheds and digital payments have reduced dependency on middlemen and boosted seasonal earnings. In rural Maharashtra, women-led SHGs are converting agricultural waste into biofuel, thereby opening up another source of revenue through this climate-friendly innovation.

Across India, such interventions are proving that when women gain even partial control of land titles, microloans, or agronomy training, the ripple effects multiply. Women typically reinvest up to 90% of their income in food, health, and education, making every rupee earned work harder for communities.

Scale: Value and Markets

The real leap happens beyond the farm gate. When women move into post-harvest roles such as grading, drying, packaging, or processing, they capture the margin that usually leaks to intermediaries. Consider mushroom cultivation, one of India’s most promising women-led enterprises. In Jorhat district, Assamese women participating in the Farmer FIRST programme saw an increase in monthly earnings by nearly ₹3,000 with post-harvesting work, while 70% reported improved household diets due to regular mushroom consumption. In Himachal Pradesh, more than half of women cultivators now earn between ₹50,000 and ₹80,000 annually from small-scale mushroom units.

Similarly, women cooperatives are processing millets, pulses, and spices closer to their origin, thereby cutting post-harvest losses. These activities don’t just create income; they create ownership. Scale, in this context, isn’t about bigger farms; it’s about a bigger share of value and visibility in the market.

Sustain: Nutrition and Resilience

Women have long been the quiet custodians of climate resilience. Their instinct to diversify crops, conserve water, and use organic inputs sustains both soil and family health. Across India’s millet and legume revival programmes, women-led groups are at the forefront of reintroducing local grains that are nutrient-rich, drought-resistant, and profitable.

The connection between income, nutrition, and resilience is circular. Higher earnings from food processing and climate-smart crops lead to more diverse diets. Better nutrition, in turn, boosts household productivity and resilience against climate and market shocks. Sustainability is no longer just an environmental agenda; it’s a livelihood imperative.

Authored by Akanksha Priyadarshini, Senior Business Advisor, Greenr Sustainability Accelerator by TechnoServe. Views expressed by the author are their own.