Maharashtra’s 2026 Women Farmers’ Law Expands Formal Recognition, Entitlements and Institutional Support for Rural Women

Recent Developments:

• Maharashtra enacted the Maharashtra Women Farmer Empowerment Act, 2026, creating a formal framework to recognise women engaged in farming and allied agricultural activities as farmers irrespective of land ownership. The legislation provides for a Woman Farmer Certificate to facilitate access to government schemes, institutional credit, subsidies, insurance and agricultural services.
• The legislation was passed unanimously by the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on 2 July 2026 and subsequently by the Maharashtra Legislative Council on 7 July 2026.
• The framework recognises women involved in crop cultivation, seed production, livestock rearing, fisheries, apiculture, dairy farming, horticulture, poultry, sericulture, vermiculture, forest-produce collection and value addition, among other agricultural and allied activities.
• Maharashtra has subsequently operationalised a dedicated Woman Farmer Certificate portal, allowing eligible women to apply for recognition through an online process.
• The measure is significant because agricultural participation has historically been associated with land ownership and formal land records, although women frequently contribute to farming without holding legal title to agricultural land.

Women’s Role in Indian Agriculture:

High Participation but Limited Formal Recognition:

• Women constitute a substantial part of India’s agricultural workforce, particularly in rural areas, but their work is often classified as family labour or agricultural labour rather than independent farming activity.
• According to the PLFS Quarterly Bulletin for April–June 2025, agriculture accounted for 70.9% of rural female workers aged 15 years and above under the Current Weekly Status, compared with 44.6% of rural male workers.
• Women therefore have a major role in cultivation, livestock management, post-harvest activities, processing and other allied operations, while their contribution does not always translate into independent access to productive assets or institutional benefits.
• The Agricultural Census 2015–16 recorded women as holders of only around 14% of operational agricultural holdings, illustrating the gap between women’s participation in agriculture and their formal control over agricultural assets.

Recognition Gap:

• The central issue is not only women’s participation in agriculture but also their institutional recognition as farmers.
• When eligibility for agricultural schemes, credit, insurance or extension services depends primarily on land ownership, women cultivating family-owned, leased, shared or community land can remain outside formal farmer databases.
• The Maharashtra legislation directly addresses this gap by recognising actual agricultural activity rather than land ownership alone as a basis for identifying women farmers.

Major Issues Faced by Women Farmers:

Institutional and Database Gaps:

• Fragmented databases: Land records, agricultural databases, credit records and welfare databases do not always capture the complete extent of women’s participation in agriculture.
• Land-record dependence: Linking farmer identification primarily with ownership records disadvantages women who cultivate land owned by their husbands, families or other persons.
• Absence of a unified definition: Different agricultural schemes may apply different eligibility criteria, creating gaps between recognition as an agricultural worker and recognition as a farmer.

Socio-Economic Barriers:

• Patriarchal norms: Social structures can restrict women’s control over land, income, machinery, technology and agricultural decision-making.
• Limited access to productive assets: Women often face barriers in accessing institutional credit, irrigation, farm machinery, quality inputs, extension services and organised markets.
• Unpaid family labour: A significant portion of women’s agricultural work occurs within family farming systems without direct wages or independent control over income.
• Technology and extension gaps: Limited access to mechanisation, training and agricultural advisory services can reduce productivity and increase the physical burden of farm work.

Government Initiatives for Women Farmers:

National Policy for Farmers, 2007:

• The National Policy for Farmers, 2007 adopted a broader farmer-oriented policy framework aimed at improving the economic condition, productivity and sustainability of farming, moving beyond a narrow focus on agricultural land ownership.

DAY-NRLM and Self-Help Groups:

• The Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana–National Rural Livelihoods Mission organises rural women into Self-Help Groups, creating institutional platforms for savings, credit, livelihoods, training and collective economic activity.
• SHGs can strengthen women’s bargaining power and facilitate access to formal credit, livelihood opportunities, skill development and collective agricultural enterprises.

Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana:

• Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP) is a sub-component of DAY-NRLM launched to enhance women’s participation and productivity in agriculture and create sustainable rural livelihoods.
• MKSP focuses on systematic investment in women’s agricultural capabilities, sustainable agriculture practices, livelihood opportunities and access to agricultural resources.
• Government agricultural schemes have also provided for states and implementing agencies to incur at least 30% of expenditure on women farmers under specified beneficiary-oriented programmes.

Kudumbashree and Collective Farming:

• Kudumbashree in Kerala provides an institutional model in which women are organised into collective farming groups and Joint Liability Groups, enabling access to land, credit, training and agricultural support.
• Kudumbashree’s collective farming model helps women participate as cultivators rather than merely agricultural labourers and links collective production with financial and institutional support.
• Kerala’s experience demonstrates how women’s collectives can combine land access, institutional credit, capacity building and market participation.

Maharashtra Women Farmer Empowerment Act, 2026:

Key Features:

• The Act provides women engaged in farming or allied activities with an official Woman Farmer Certificate without requiring ownership of agricultural land.
• Eligible women can include landowners, tenants, sharecroppers, tenant farmers and agricultural labourers who are actively engaged in covered agricultural activities.
• The framework provides for institutional mechanisms including a Women Farmer Empowerment Council, Women Farmer Empowerment Cell, State Monitoring Committee, women farmer database and Maharashtra State Fund for Women Farmers.
• The certification framework can facilitate access to institutional credit, crop insurance, subsidies, agricultural inputs, skill training, agricultural technology, market linkages, storage and transport support, subject to the eligibility conditions of individual schemes.
• The legislation therefore attempts to shift farmer identification from a predominantly land-title-based approach towards an activity-based recognition framework.

Implementation Framework:

• The dedicated Maharashtra portal enables women to submit applications using Aadhaar-based verification and agricultural information linked with AgriStack, with administrative support available at the taluka and district levels.
• The framework provides for local-level verification through the Gram Sabha or Nagar Panchayat, followed by issuance of the certificate where the application is approved.
• The certificate itself does not automatically confer every agricultural scheme benefit because individual schemes retain their own eligibility conditions.

Why Women Farmer Recognition Matters:

Economic Empowerment:

• Formal recognition can improve women’s access to institutional credit, crop insurance, subsidies, agricultural extension and markets, thereby strengthening their economic agency.
• Recognition can also improve the visibility of women’s contribution in official agricultural statistics and policy planning.

Gender-Responsive Agricultural Governance:

• A gender-disaggregated farmer database can enable governments to design policies according to the actual participation of women in cultivation, livestock, fisheries, horticulture, processing and other allied activities.
• Formal recognition can help convert women from largely invisible contributors within household agriculture into identifiable economic actors within the agricultural value chain.

Challenges in Scaling the Model Nationally:

Identification and Data Quality:

• A national farmer registry must distinguish between land ownership, cultivation rights, agricultural labour and allied activities without creating duplication or exclusion.
• Linking multiple databases requires reliable interoperability among land records, farmer registries, credit systems, insurance databases and welfare platforms.

Access Beyond Certification:

• Recognition alone cannot ensure empowerment unless women also obtain land rights, credit, technology, machinery, irrigation, extension services and market access.
• Administrative barriers, low digital literacy and inadequate awareness can limit the practical value of online certification systems.

Institutional Coordination:

• Effective implementation requires coordination among agriculture departments, revenue authorities, rural development institutions, Panchayati Raj bodies, banks, insurance providers and farmer organisations.
• States need mechanisms for grievance redressal and periodic verification without imposing excessive documentation requirements on women farmers.

Way Forward:

National Women Farmer Registry:

• India can develop a gender-disaggregated farmer database that recognises agricultural activity alongside ownership and tenancy status.
• Farmer identification should capture women involved in cultivation and allied activities, including livestock, fisheries, horticulture, seed production and post-harvest value addition.

Integrated Farmer Identification:

• Women recognised as farmers should receive a Farmer ID that can be interoperable with agricultural schemes, institutional credit, crop insurance, extension services, input subsidies and agricultural market platforms.
• Data integration should follow principles of accuracy, consent, privacy, accountability and grievance redressal.

Access to Productive Assets:

• Recognition should be accompanied by greater access to institutional credit, agricultural machinery, quality inputs, irrigation, extension services, digital technologies, storage and markets.
• Women’s collectives, SHGs, Farmer Producer Organisations and Joint Liability Groups can provide institutional platforms for aggregation and bargaining power.

Value Addition for UPSC:

Key Concepts:

• Women Farmers: Women directly engaged in agricultural and allied activities, whose formal recognition may depend on the applicable legal and scheme framework.
• Gender-Responsive Agriculture: Agricultural policymaking that considers gender-specific differences in access to land, credit, technology, inputs, markets and decision-making.
• Asset Ownership Gap: The disparity between women’s participation in agricultural production and their ownership or control over agricultural land and productive assets.
• Activity-Based Farmer Recognition: Identification of farmers on the basis of actual agricultural activity rather than land ownership alone.
• Financial Inclusion: Enabling women farmers to access formal banking, institutional credit, insurance, savings and other financial services.

UPSC Linkages:

• GS-I: Women’s role in agriculture, rural social structure, gender relations and demographic dimensions of rural employment.
• GS-II: Government policies, women’s empowerment, decentralisation, welfare delivery, institutional mechanisms and gender-responsive governance.
• GS-III: Indian agriculture, agricultural credit, land reforms, farm mechanisation, agricultural markets, digital agriculture and rural livelihoods.
• Essay: Recognition of women’s unpaid and invisible economic contribution; inclusive agricultural development.
• Prelims: Maharashtra Women Farmer Empowerment Act, 2026, Woman Farmer Certificate, MKSP, DAY-NRLM, Kudumbashree and PLFS agricultural-employment data.