Towards recognising women farmers
The Maharashtra Legislative Assembly passed the Women Farmers Empowerment Bill, 2026, becoming the first Indian state to grant women legal recognition as farmers independent of land ownership
The law introduces "women farmer certificates" enabling landless women engaged in agriculture and allied activities — dairy, poultry, fisheries, beekeeping, sericulture, agroforestry, and more — to access institutional credit, insurance, subsidies, and extension services
The Bill provides for a Maharashtra State Women Farmers' Fund, a digital database of women farmers, and the appointment of women farmer support officers at the district and taluka levels
Legal recognition under the Bill does not confer ownership, inheritance, or control rights over land — a limitation noted alongside the reform
The Land-Ownership/Workforce Gap in Indian Agriculture ("Feminisation of Agriculture")
Rising male out-migration to non-farm work has increased women's share of on-farm labour even as their share of formal land ownership has stayed stagnant — a pattern often called the "feminisation of agriculture." Because most credit, insurance, and subsidy schemes are gated on land title, this gap translates directly into exclusion from institutional support.
Key Details
- Agriculture Census 2015-16: women's share of operational landholdings was 13.8%, up marginally from 12.78% in 2010-11
- Women make up roughly one-third of India's agricultural labour force, while holding only around 11-14% of agricultural land, and about 14% are recognised operational landholders
- The mismatch between labour contribution and land ownership is what drives exclusion from schemes that require proof of land title
Maharashtra's certificate mechanism directly targets this gap: since most schemes require land title and most women doing agricultural labour lack it, decoupling formal recognition from ownership aims to widen access even though it leaves the underlying ownership gap unaddressed.
National Policy for Farmers, 2007 — Activity-Based Definition of "Farmer"
The National Commission on Farmers, chaired by M.S. Swaminathan, recommended a definition of "farmer" based on agricultural activity rather than land title; this was incorporated into the National Policy for Farmers, approved by the Centre in 2007.
Key Details
- Defines "farmer" to include operational holders, cultivators, agricultural labourers, sharecroppers, tenants, poultry/livestock rearers, fishers, beekeepers, and those engaged in sericulture, agroforestry, and related occupations
- Explicitly activity-based rather than title-based, intended to widen policy inclusion for landless cultivators, tenants, and women
- Despite the broader definition existing at the policy level since 2007, most scheme-level eligibility (credit, insurance, direct benefit transfers) has continued to require land title, limiting the definition's practical reach
Maharashtra's Bill operationalises at the state level what the 2007 national policy articulated in principle nearly two decades earlier — a legally recognised, activity-based farmer identity independent of land title — through a state-specific certificate and database mechanism.
PM-KISAN and the Land-Title Eligibility Bottleneck
Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN), launched in 2019, provides a direct benefit transfer of ₹6,000 per year (in three instalments) to landholding farmer families, with eligibility tied to land ownership records — a structural constraint that disproportionately excludes women.
Key Details
- PM-KISAN launched 2019; ₹6,000/year DBT to landholding farmer families
- Eligibility requires cultivable land in the beneficiary's name as per official land records; landless farmers, tenant farmers, and sharecroppers are excluded by design
- Roughly one in four PM-KISAN beneficiaries nationally is a woman, tracking the same ~13-14% land-ownership share seen in the Agriculture Census
Because major schemes like PM-KISAN use land title as the eligibility gate, a women farmer certificate not linked to land ownership does not, by itself, make a landless woman farmer eligible for such schemes — this is the specific limitation flagged alongside Maharashtra's reform.
Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP)
MKSP is a sub-component of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), under the Ministry of Rural Development, that supports women farmers through Self-Help Group-based interventions without requiring individual land title.
MKSP already demonstrates a precedent for delivering agricultural support to women independent of land ownership; Maharashtra's Bill extends this title-independent logic into formal legal recognition, backed by a dedicated state fund and database.
- Maharashtra Women Farmers Empowerment Bill, 2026 — first such law passed by an Indian state
- Female share of operational agricultural landholdings: 13.8% (Agriculture Census 2015-16), up from 12.78% (2010-11)
- Female share of India's agricultural labour force: roughly one-third (about 32%)
- PM-KISAN: ₹6,000/year to landholding farmer families, launched 2019; about 1 in 4 beneficiaries is a woman
- MKSP (since 2011, under DAY-NRLM): approximately 38 lakh women farmers trained
- National Policy for Farmers, 2007: based on the National Commission on Farmers report chaired by M.S. Swaminathan