Hidden Face of Agriculture - A bitter Truth

Hidden face of Agriculture - A bitter truth

It was an inter school art event organised in our college for children, “Agriculture 2020” was the theme for painting competition.  I observed a undesirable commonality in most of their paintings. “A male with white dhotis up to their knees, ploughing the field either in ox plough or tractor”. As like the child's paintings, another face of Agriculture is hidden in the present agriculture scenario.

The hidden face, Women, comprises on an average 43% of the agricultural labor force in developing countries.  Contrasting to our belief, Agricultural sector employs 80% of all economically active women in India.  According to reports of NSSO, about 18% of farm families is India are headed by women.  Though women contribute so much to agriculture, they were regarded widely as wageless and underpaid employees of their farms and they control over less than 13% of land.

Do the female farmers produce less or their efficiency is lower compared to male  farmers ? The answer might be yes.  The productivity gap is not linked to their gender status but caused by different in input use and control over farm operations.  For example, Land, the important asset of agriculture is traditionally passed down the male line in India. In the same way, all subsidies, farm insurance benefits, even farm credit goes to landowners i.e., male farmers.  So they enjoy control over land than female counterparts.

As by the report of FAO, female farmers are much less likely to purchase inputs such as fertilizers, improved seeds and mechanical equipment.  Similarly, most of modern tools and farm machineries are designed for male farmers.  Female friendly tractors, sprayers, harvesters are hardly available.  This reduces the efficiency of female farmer.

The cost of gender gap in agriculture is huge.  One cannot underestimate the negative impact of ignoring huge female population of food and milk producers in India. This gender gap has lead to food insecurity and nutritional deficiency in rural households due to poor purchasing power of female farmers. Gender gap also affect social parameters like literacy, health and sanitation because they receive lower wages for the same work, even when they have the same experience and qualifications.  Ultimately it drives India towards feminization of poverty.

In a macroeconomic level, two factors related to agriculture are of great concern. First, low productivity per acre of land. This is due to inability to utilize female population in increasing the productivity. The Second, huge seasonal and disguised unemployment of women in agriculture. This is due to lack of other employment opportunities for women in rural India and male dominance over their wife or girl children to work as unpaid labourers in their land.  According to me, these two concerns should be addressed as first step towards women empowerment.

The agricultural policies and programmes towards addressing this issue is not so satisfactory.  The Justice Verma Committee has emphasized the need for looking at the status of women. Nearly, 40 crore women out of the total of 60 crore female population depend on crop and animal husbandry, forestry, agro processing and agribusiness for their livelihood, yet are handicapped by male-biased laws. The pending of Women Farmers Entitlement Bill, 2011 is an example.

So, Government should come out with new plans, programmes and schemes to achieve the twin goals of United nation’s Sustainable development Goals, to end poverty (Goal 1) and to ensure Gender Equality (Goal 5).  Above all, behavioral changes should happen at ground level to bring “hidden face of Agriculture” to limelight and lead us towards food security and national development.

(M. Ram Sundar is a Horticulture graduate.  He is interested in writing and reading books. He is also the admin of IMoT forum. sundar.ram94@gmail.com )

Picture credits: Nivendran