In India, women farmers play a crucial role in agriculture, contributing significantly to activities like seed production, sowing, weeding, transplanting, threshing, and harvesting. Despite making up a substantial portion of the agricultural workforce, their access to advisory services is limited. Many agricultural services do not cater to their specific needs, resulting in a gap between their efforts and their potential productivity.
Social norms and women’s additional household responsibilities exacerbate the situation, restricting mobility and time. As such, it is difficult for women farmers to access timely support and information. Increasing the number of female extension workers can help advisory services be more inclusive. However, the current number of women in such roles is insufficient.
Technological advances can help farmers access agricultural information and improve farming practices. However, women farmers and advisors are missing out on these benefits due to challenges caused by the digital divide, such as access to digital devices, language, and digital illiteracy.
In response to these challenges, PlantwisePlus has partnered with the Grameen Foundation to provide support and resources to rural women through focused training and capacity-strengthening initiatives.
Who is the Grameen Foundation?
The Grameen Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping women and girls break the cycle of poverty and hunger. Its mission is to enable marginalized communities—especially women—to access resources and opportunities that support a better future. By leveraging technology and innovation, the Grameen Foundation creates ecosystems that support women’s entrepreneurship, fostering sustainable economic growth.
Addressing barriers faced by women farmers in India
Grameen Foundation addresses the challenges of women farmers and advisors by working directly with them and their communities to create entrepreneurial opportunities that align with their needs and circumstances. Through these efforts, women gain skills and support to increase their income, send their children to school, and improve their families’ overall well-being. The foundation helps women create lasting change that lifts entire communities out of poverty.
PlantwisePlus and Grameen Foundation partnership
PlantwisePlus recognises that women farmers and rural advisors in India encounter unique challenges when accessing agricultural training and technology. To help address these issues, PlantwisePlus partnered with the Grameen Foundation to train a group of Women Entrepreneurs in Rajahmundry District, Andhra Pradesh. Madhu Manjari, Agri-Digital Tools Coordinator for South Asia, led the three-day training focused on CABI’s online learning platform, CABI Academy. The aim was to support participants in delivering science-based plant-health advisory services.
The training covered skills for diagnosing plant health issues and offering targeted solutions to local farmers. In addition to the CABI Academy, the participants learned about other digital advisory tools, including the CABI BioProtection Portal and Crop Sprayer app. Both platforms are available in the local Telugu language. The training on the tools will support the Women Entrepreneurs in their advisory roles, where they will provide data-driven guidance on crop management and pest control to farmers in their communities.
Venkatalakshmi, from Rajahmundry district in Andra Pradesh, attended the three-day training. Venkatalakshmi said, “I will use the skills I have learned from the training to advise farmers in my village on managing plant health so they can improve their yields.”
Creating sustainable impact for women farmers
The PlantwisePlus and Grameen partnership is not just about providing training; it’s about creating sustainable pathways for women to become leaders in agriculture. The new knowledge and resources will support these women as trusted farmer-advisors within their communities.
As Women Rural Advisors, they serve as role models, inspiring other women to participate more actively in agriculture. Not only do they challenge traditional social norms, but they reinforce women are farmers.
Looking ahead
PlantwisePlus and the Grameen Foundation will continue to work together to build a robust support system for women in agriculture. With the right training, tools, and opportunities, women farmers and advisors have the potential to transform their communities by strengthening food security and driving economic growth.
It is hoped that more women will be trained as Women Entrepreneurs, reaching new areas in rural India and providing a reliable source of income for those trained.
Supporting women in taking on agricultural advisory roles strengthens the agricultural sector. Collaborations such as the one between PlantwisePlus and the Grameen Foundation can help drive change so that women are not just participants in agriculture but leaders, change-makers and role models driving progress.
PlantwisePlus gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS), Netherlands; European Commission Directorate General for International Partnerships (INTPA, EU); the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), United Kingdom; and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
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