Agriculture, not unlike other sectors, continues to be male dominated in India. However, due to various agricultural policies introduced by the government, this picture is changing and more women agro entrepreneurs are actively entering this sector. But, is that enough? What steps can be taken by, not just the government, but also by the new crop of enterprising women agripreneurs? We shall unearth just that, and more.
The census of 2018-19, conducted by the Government of India, has revealed that 71 per cent female workers are employed in agriculture, followed by manufacturing (9 per cent), construction (6 per cent) and hospitality (4 per cent). These figures clearly indicate that participation of women in this domain has been scaling continuously. In order to further support this increased participation, the Department of Rural Development, Ministry of Rural Development launched a specific scheme called ‘Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP)’, as a subcomponent of DAY-NRLM (Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana — National Rural Livelihoods Mission). This scheme has been implemented since 2011 with the objective to empower women by making systematic investments to enhance their participation and productivity, as well as create sustainable livelihoods for rural women. Despite all these efforts, there are various challenges such as product awareness, limited access to credit, lack of infrastructure, disproportionately larger levels of deprivation in terms of rights to land, to inputs, etc. that needed to be addressed to attract more women entrepreneurs to the agriculture sector.
Participation of women entrepreneurs in every sector of the country has been scaling up constantly. Agriculture sector is also one of those sectors that is witnessing massive involvement of women in its various operations. With the infusion of technology and rise of startup culture in the country, this trend of more women agro entrepreneurs joining this domain is going to increase further.
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