Envisioning Feminist and Gender Neutral Agroecologies: Gender, Equity, Intersectionality and Power in Agricultural Innovation

Editorial August 2025 Envisioning Feminist and Gender-Neutral Agroecologies: Gender, Equity, Intersectionality and Power in Agricultural Innovation Govindaraj Kamalam Dinesh 1Editor-in-Chief, Enlighten Agriculture, A Peer-reviewed Magazine 2Assistant Professor (Environmental Science), College of Agriculture, Central Agricultural University, Iroisemba, Imphal, Manipur – 795 004, India 3Zonal Agricultural Research Station, VC, Farm, Mandya – 571 405, India [email protected] We must realise and acknowledge that the present-day farming is at one of the crossroads. At least hereafter, our actions should be guided by ecological sustainability, food security and more of social equity as these aspects plays an intersectional role for the development of gender-neutral agriculture. However, agricultural innovation still happens to be an institutionally unequitable sphere, particularly when the issue of gendered asymmetries of power is brought up. Feminist agroecology is a niche theoretical issue, also a framework and pathway to the systematic change, without which we cannot think critically about revolutionary change in agricultural systems, as it is centralizing equity, care and justice. World Health Organization reports that women make up 43 % of the agricultural labour force in developing countries whereas they own less than 15 percent of agricultural land globally (FAO, 2011). The South Asia region results are even lower; women land ownership in India is merely 14 % (Agarwal et al., 2021). Due to this, there have been a systemic-barriers faced by women farmers when they approach formal sources of credit, irrigation facilities, extension services and agri-inputs. The National Sample Survey (NSS 77th Round) indicated that only 5% of female cultivators in India received basic extension service, which is astonishingly lower, this will lead to inaccessibility of innovation by the women farmers (Sah et al., 2015). Such inequalities are not administrative oversights but can be shown to be a direct question of patriarchal and caste-based land tenure systems, legal exclusions and continuing undervaluing of women labour in household and community agroeconomies. Women-led and Dalit-farmer-centric approach Among the largest agroecological initiatives in Telangana, India, Deccan Development Society (DDS) advances as a paradigmatic example of women-led and Dalit-farmer-centred agroecology practice. Along with the millet-based cropping complex, seed sovereignty, and the extensive sharing of community seed banks, DDS cultivates and organically manage 50,000 acres of rainfed land (Patnaik et al., 2017). More important in its strategy is an epistemic paradox, that DDS does not consider any elite expert-driven models rather it follows only Indigenous knowledge and techniques. Gender Blindness in Green Revolution Green Revolution increased food production in India but this strengthened male centric, input intensive, mechanized systems. In Punjab and Haryana, research shows that women were purposefully marginalized while making plans especially, mechanisation replaced all the women-related labour in agriculture, and farm chemicals increased the reproductive-health risks in women (Motwani, 2024). The critiques of feminism continue to argue that technological change without any critical application of gender analysis only brings forth more avenues of marginalization rather than egalitarian agrosociety. Women SHGs and Climate Smart Agriculture in Odisha Several government programs (NRLM, Mission Shakti) bring women into group or community farming. However, assessments in Odisha point out that although SHGs expanded more access to training and microfinance, they often replicated elite seizure but also locked out landless women and hindered market autonomic decision-making processes. This reveals that without institutional change, group structures and community led initiatives will become a ‘tokenistic approach, not a suffragette one’ (Nielsen et al., 2020). Through the analysis of present structural weaknesses in Indian agriculture, there are four interrelated areas which need to be inclined to right away. 1. Land ownership and lawful safeguards In 2005 the Hindu Succession Act was further amended, which is visionary dream of Dr. B.R.Ambedkar, and this was a significant progress, though enforcement is slow. Before this amendment, in many jurisdictions, the names of women cannot even be found in the records as a joint property. At the same time, the customary laws in the entire country especially the laws governing the tribal and Muslim governments still discriminate against the female heirs. These needs to be changed to empower the women. 2. Research and design of agro-inputs The mainstream breeding programs regularly favour traits that confirm to the male food preferences and harder preparation and processing techniques and often overlook the preferences of women. Gendersensitive breeding can enhance livelihoods like Participatory Varietal Selection involving women in Nepal; however, these innovations should be diffused more broadly (Joshi et al., 1997). 3. Pricing of the free labour Surveys on time-use reveals that rural women spend between 291–315 minutes (4.8–5.3 hours) daily on unpaid domestic work, and 135–137 minutes (2.25 hours) on unpaid caregiving, totaling about 7–8 hours per day when combined with another unpaid task (Verma, 2025). Though these data highlight the extreme importance of women work, they are not part of mainstream macroeconomic measures that neglect informal work contributions like animal keeping, seed collection, and weeding. Hence, there should be a price for unpaid women for their farm-chore works. 4. Uptake and technological design The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) has implemented and promoted the use of ergonomically designed farm tools specifically suited for women. Case studies confirm these tools, such as lightweight weeders, improved sickles, hand-driven planters, seed treatment drums, wheel hoes, and grain cleaners have significantly reduced the physical burden and time required for key agricultural operations, while improving productivity and ergonomic safety. 5. Intersectionality and climate resilience The women farmers tend to be more vulnerable to changes in climate but they are not much represented during adaptation planning. The sustainable agroecological systems such as ZBNF, and SRI should include gendered vulnerability analyses to promote equal risk reduction. Policy Shifts and the Way Forward When considered collectively, these statistics indicate some serious flaws in the structure of Indian agriculture, pointing to the necessity of system-wide, cross sectoral and intersectional measures. Over the past few months, there have emerged two important developments in the arena of scholarly and policy discussion in the field of agriculture. Gender main streamer is a long-term strategy which has been recommended by the National Gender Resource Centre in Agriculture (NGRCA) and Revised National Policy for Women in Agriculture (2021) has also reiterated its commitment in this regard. However, despite such commitments, gender-responsive schemes are still allotted below 6.8% of total budget expenditure in the agricultural budget. We thus need to grapple with these problems: (1) the lack of gender disaggregated data systems, (2) the shortfalls in feminist extension model which have credible recognition of plural knowledges, (3) the need to carry out land titling reforms capable of achieving a synergistic combination of land tenure security together with equal access to credit to women cultivators, and (4) the need for intersectional targeting which simultaneously addresses caste and landlessness as well as tribal status in addition to gender. There is still the perception by the male patriarchal society, so called ‘society’, that feminist agroecology is an adjunct to scientific agriculture but it is a ‘corrective lens’. Though, it is still considered widely not as the ground-breaking central part of the agriculture innovation but as the add-on like a pickles and paapads. However, the analytic framework of feminist agroecology is needed to reclaim the advocacy of women, what it means to challenge the logics of irrational customs, and build agronomic systems that rely on caring, reciprocity, and ecological justice. To achieve transformative innovation, the historical and structural exclusions that have marginalized many genders including women should took part at the epicentre of the process, and recognise them as equal and responsible co-creators of knowledge as agents of systematic revolutionary change rather than so called ‘beneficiaries’. References • Agarwal, B., Anthwal, P., & Mahesh, M. (2021). How many and which women own land in India? Inter-gender and intra-gender gaps. The Journal of Development Studies, 57(11), 1807-1829. • Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2011). The state of food and agriculture 2010–2011: Women in agriculture – Closing the gender gap for development. FAO. https://www.fao.org/3/i2050e/i2050e.pdf • Joshi, K. D., Subedi, M., Rana, R. B., Kadayat, K. B., & Sthapit, B. R. (1997). Enhancing on-farm varietal diversity through participatory varietal selection: a case study for Chaite rice in Nepal. Experimental Agriculture, 33(3), 335-344. • Motwani, A. (2024). Women Peasants in India: Farmers or ‘Farmers’ Wives’?. Journal of Gender, Culture and Society, 4(1), 08-19. • Nielsen, M. O., & Tripathy, L. (2020). Women's Collectives as Vehicles of Empowerment and Social Change: Case study of Women's Self Help Groups in Odisha, India. St Antony's International Review, 16(1), 32-48. • Patnaik, A., Ruivenkamp, G., & Jongerden, I. J. (2017). Marginalized community, space of commons and autonomy: the case of the Deccan Development Society in South India. Journal of Rural Studies, 53, 173-181. • Sah, U., Dubey, S. K., Singh, S. K., Kumar, R., Singh, D., & Krishna, R. (2015). Mainstreaming women farmers to agricultural extension services in India: perception of extension personnel. Indian Journal of Extension Education, 51(3and4), 1-7. • Subashini. (2025, August 21). Tools and equipments to reduce women drudgery. Vikaspedia. https://agriculture.vikaspedia.in/viewcontent/agriculture/women-and-agriculture/tools-andequipments-to-reduce-women-drudgery?lgn=en • Union Budget 2023-24 Gender Budget Statement, Ministry of Finance:https://www.indiabudget.gov.in • Verma, S. (2025, June 2). Time Use Survey – A Time for Change. BlueKraft Digital Foundation. https://www.bluekraft.in/time-use-survey-a-time-for-change/