This article was originally published on Onewater here.
Feminization of agriculture is increasing, especially in water-scarce areas like Parbhani. However, institutional support, land rights and gender-responsive water governance are essential to ensure gender equality, climate resilience, and sustainable rural development.
During an early-hour field visit to the Parbhani district, in the Indian Maharashtra state, one can witness women in colourful sarees carrying water bottles and tiffin boxes rushing towards the cotton fields. It is a time when demand for women agricultural labourers surges. Though their wages remain lower than their male counterparts, this is one of the few periods when women can clearly see the financial benefits of working on a farm.
Historically, there has been a clear gendered division of labour in agriculture, with men predominantly engaged in tasks such as ploughing, sowing, irrigation, and pesticide application, but also marketing as these activities that are often associated with physical strength. In contrast, women’s roles were largely confined to harvesting. However, in the face of social and ecological changes, this is no longer the case.
Gendered Transitions in Rural Agricultural Labour
In recent years, amid growing environmental and economic stress, agricultural practices in rural Maharashtra are increasingly driven by erratic rainfall, groundwater depletion, reduced crop yields, and declining farm incomes. These factors have contributed to a steady rise in male outmigration from villages, as men seek alternative sources of livelihood. As a result, women in Parbhani are responsible not only for managing drinking water and domestic tasks, but also for farm chores.
In addition to the male migration, the numerous farmer suicides are also driving the feminisation of agriculture. According to the National Crime Record Bureau (2022), Maharashtra state has the largest number of farm suicides in India. From 1995 to 2018, more than 70,000 farmers committed suicide, and Maharashtra accounted for 20% of farmer suicides in India. Around 90 % of farmers who committed suicide, left “farm-suicide widows”. In order to empower themselves, these widows need to take care of agricultural land, as well as receive social and economic support.
As environmental and socioeconomic pressures increase, particularly in drought-prone regions like Maharashtra, women are increasingly overwhelmed with primary responsibility for agricultural production, resource management, household food security, irrigation scheduling, livestock rearing, and even engaging with government departments and financial institutions to access schemes, subsidies, and agricultural loans.
This intensification of women's labour is also strongly linked to groundwater scarcity. Women often spend several hours each day collecting domestic water and managing irrigation needs, especially in regions where borewell access is limited or the electricity supply for pumps is inconsistent. In Maharashtra, women walk up to 8 hours per day during dry spells to fetch potable water. In extreme cases, the crisis has led to the phenomenon of "water wives," where men marry multiple women to share the labour of water collection.
Over 65% of Maharashtra women are now directly engaged in agriculture either as cultivators or labourers. This indicates a significant rise in women's participation not only in agriculture, but also in allied activities such as selling produce in markets, managing agricultural loans, and applying for water meter connections and other irrigation-related services. This shift is not merely a redistribution of labour but a systemic change in gendered roles within rural livelihoods.
Structural Inequities and Institutional Gaps
Despite their increased responsibilities, most women do not have land titles, which limits their access to formal credit, government subsidies, and agricultural extension services. Their contributions are often underrecognized in statistical accounts and policy documents, which continue to frame the farmer as male. Gender wage disparity is evident in the agriculture sector, where women labourers earn 20 % less than their male counterparts. Yet, the outmigration of male labour has unintentionally improved women’s wage negotiation power in some regions, as their labour becomes indispensable.
Alternate Coping Strategies and Adaptive Roles
Livestock rearing emerges as a key buffer against crop failure and is a domain predominantly managed by women. It provides not just income but also enhances women’s authority within the household and community. However, competition for limited groundwater resources between irrigation and livestock use often creates intrahousehold tensions. In households where men prioritise borewell use for cash crops, women advocating for livestock water face marginalisation (Zwarteveen et al., 2021). In parallel, school-aged girls are increasingly pulled into unpaid domestic and water-related labour, leading to disruptions in their education and health. These gendered coping mechanisms contribute to an intergenerational cycle of inequality.
Feminisation of Agriculture as Opportunity: Toward Gender-Responsive Agriculture
While the feminisation of agriculture has primarily emerged from crisis, it also opens a window for women’s empowerment, provided appropriate support structures are instituted. Research indicates that improvements in groundwater availability and irrigation access are directly correlated with women’s income, mobility, and social status. Community-based groundwater recharge, participatory irrigation management, and gender-responsive extension services are crucial for sustaining this transition. Moreover, women need legal access to land and targeted financial inclusion to move from labourers to decision-makers in agrarian systems. Recognising and investing in this transition can pave the way for a more equitable, sustainable, and resilient rural economy.