User:Afernandes1/Women in agriculture in India

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India has an economy bound to its historical agricultural tradition. In the North, the Indus valley and Brahmaputra region are critical agricultural areas with water supplied by the Ganges and monsoon season. Agriculture is a way of life for the majority of India's population; based on 2011 World Bank data, only 17.5% of India's gross domestic product (GDP) is accounted for by agricultural production. Women are an important but often overlooked population involved in India's agricultural production—they represent the majority of the agricultural labor force in India . Women's participation in the agrarian labor force plays out in various ways, impacting their economic independence, their decision-making abilities, their agency and access to education and health services. Many women in farming communities suffer poverty and marginalization, and issues of gender inequality.

Indian agriculture[edit]
Main article: Agriculture in India

Based on 2012 data, India is home to the fourth-largest agricultural sector in the world. India has an estimated 180 million hectares of farmland with 140 million of which are planted and continuously cultivated. Yet India's agricultural profile is shadowed by the controversial impacts of Green Revolution policies that were adopted in the 1960s and 70s with pressure from the United States Agency for International Development and the World Bank.

The Green Revolution brought a modern approach to agriculture by incorporating irrigation systems, genetically modified seed variations, insecticide and pesticide usage, and numerous land reforms. It had an explosive impact, providing unprecedented agricultural productivity in India and turned the country from a food importer to an exporter. Yet the Green Revolution also caused agricultural prices to drop, which damaged India's small farmers. Over the years, Green Revolution technology has caused decreases in agricultural yields. This problem was particularly grave for smallholder farmers, because intensification of synthetic inputs and more advanced agricultural technology is required from year to year in order to maintain the same high levels of production on the same plot of land '''. Small holder farmers cultivate less than 2 hectares of lands; the majority of all Indian farmers are smallholders and produce the majority of India’s produce . Smallholder farmers face the largest negative impact from green revolution technology–the synthetic inputs have adversely impacted their soil, decreasing yields. Due to the smaller scales of their operations, they are unable to afford more synthetic inputs to compensate for poor soil quality caused by the initial introduction of off-farm inputs . This leads to a “treadmill of technology dependence,” which continues to speed up as soil health declines . In addition to the financial issue, there are also the environmental impacts of the Green revolution which all farmers, big and small, must contend with. Intensification of synthetic fertilizer and pesticide inputs leads to a loss in biodiversity which continues to degrade the environmental quality of cultivated land . Groundwater depletion, soil health decline, a loss of crop genetic diversity all make the created environment continually more inhospitable to introduced crop varieties that have not had the advantage of years of evolution to make them best suited to the changing conditions .'''

India's agricultural sector today still faces issues of efficiency due to lack of mechanization with poorer conditions of farmers, as well as small farm sizes. In India, traditional agriculture is still dominant as many farmers depend on livestock in crop production, for manure as fertilizers, and the use of animal-powered ploughs. According to 2011 statistics, the average farm in India is about 1.5 acres, minuscule when compared the average of 50 hectares in France and or 178 hectares in United States and 273 hectares in Canada.

The small farmer tradition of India can be drawn back to the first farm reforms of independent India. Known as the Laws of Divided Inheritance, the reforms were meant to limit the conglomeration of land, by mandating redistribution as land was divided among male inheritors from the prior generation. The perpetuation of these laws not only limits farm size but also bars women from ownership or inheritance. Furthermore, as small farmers face increasing competition with larger farm operations an increasing number of men migrate to city centers for higher wages and employment. Women are in turn left to support the family structure and support small farm lifestyle. In 2011, the agricultural sector workforce in the subcontinent was 75% women.

Feminization of Indian agriculture
With the advent of The Green Revolution, and then liberalization, male labor was increasingly drawn towards urban centers, leading to an increased number of women involved in agricultural labor .

Gendered division of agrarian labor[edit]
In India, the typical work of the female agricultural laborer or cultivator is limited to less skilled jobs, such as sowing, transplanting, weeding and harvesting, that often fit well within the framework of domestic life and child-rearing. In cotton seed production, they are engaged in pollination activity which requires patience and a little bit of precision. Many women also participate in agricultural work as unpaid subsistence labor. According to United Nations Human Development Report only 32.8% of Indian women formally participate in the labor force, a rate that has remained steady since 2009 statistics. By comparison, men constitute 81.1%.

Literacy among women in farming communities [edit]
An estimated 52–75% of Indian women engaged in agriculture are illiterate, an education barrier that prevents women from participating in more skilled labor sectors. '''Women generally face low access to agricultural information that is generated outside their own families. This is primarily due to lower rates of literacy and a lack of mobility–but women will readily disperse information to women of other households, even other villages. Some district governments in Karnataka are looking into establishing self-help groups for women to create larger social networks through which women may disseminate information about agricultural practices, circumventing the low literacy rates .''' In all activities, there is an average gender wage disparity, with women earning only 70 percent of men's wage. Additionally, many women participate in agricultural work as unpaid subsistence labor. The lack of employment mobility and education render the majority of women in India vulnerable, as dependents on the growth and stability of the agricultural market.

Time allocation
In addition to rigorous agricultural work that is undervalued and underpaid, women are also responsible for the well-being of the household. They care for their children, provide nutrition or usually take part in subsistence agriculture, and do chores around the house. Based on time allocation studies, which pinpoint exactly how a woman's hours are spent throughout the week, Indian women spend about 25 hours in a week doing household chores and five hours in caring and community work.

Besides the 30 hours of unpaid work, women spend the same amount of time as men carrying out agricultural work. Daughters typically supplement or substitute for mother's unpaid work around the household. Considered female tasks, the opportunity cost of girls' time for school is higher than that of sons. Girls do significantly more housework than boys, which compromises their schooling.

While some studies in Orissa suggest that organic farming could increase the amount of labor and time spent on agricultural duties for women, more research needs to be done to expand conclusions across India .