In India, the world leader in annual milk production at 100 million tonnes, an estimated 75 million women are involved in growing or collecting the fodder and feed essential for the dairy animals to produce more milk. In contrast, hardly 100,000 dairy farmers are involved in producing nearly 70 million tonnes of milk in the US. This is a good illustration of what Mahatma Gandhi described as “production by masses”, in contrast to the “mass production” technologies of the West. There are two important implications. First, we must improve the productivity and profitability of mass production technologies through labour diversification and not displacement. Second, we must mainstream gender considerations in all areas of agricultural research, education and extension. In other words, agricultural strategies should become pro-poor, pro-women and pro-nature.
Feminization of poverty and agriculture is increasingly becoming a reality. The National Commission on Farmers has dealt with this issue in detail and has urged that appropriate support services including crèches and day-care centres, should be provided to women farmers and farm labour. The National Academy of Agricultural Sciences has prepared a policy paper for the technological empowerment of women in agriculture (Swaminathan, M.S. (Ed.) 2007, Agriculture Cannot Wait, Academic Publishers). Its recommendations should become part of the research and education strategies of our agricultural institutes. Rural women can master new technologies, whether it is hybrid seed production or induced breeding in fish, or information and communication technologies, provided the methodology of training is learning by doing, a method I term “techniracy”.
Our food security challenge today is not only increasing production but, more importantly, enhancing the purchasing power of the rural and urban poor. We need a paradigm shift from unskilled to skilled work in the case of the poor, particularly women, so that there can be addition to the economic value of their time and labour.
Small-scale farming and micro-retail constitute the largest self-employment sector in the country. In both, women play a significant role. Development programmes which could affect their work and income security adversely should be avoided. At the same time, management tools which can confer on small producers the power and economy of scale should be introduced so that their economic survival can be safeguarded. The self-help group (SHG) movement, along with cooperatives, can provide such power of scale both—in the production and marketing phases of farm enterprise.