Archive · 15 Dec 2025
Gender-Sensitive Skilling Crucial for India's Agricultural Future
In India, women make up a big part of the workforce in farming, but they often do low-paying, unskilled jobs.
A recent study shows that women are 41.4% of the workers in growing crops like rice and oilseeds, but most of them are in manual, unpaid roles.
Many women lack education and training, which keeps them from higher-paying, skilled jobs.
As farming becomes more tech-savvy, it's important to include women by giving them the right training and opportunities.
This way, women can move from low-paying farm work to skilled, higher-value roles, helping India's agriculture grow and become more inclusive.
Women constitute 41.4% of the workforce in the growing of cereals, leguminous crops, and oilseeds, but are concentrated in low-skilled, low-paying, and informal roles.
Women are mainly engaged in market gardening, crop growing, and agricultural labour, with a strong presence in physically demanding and lower-paid activities.
Nearly half of all women in this sub-sector are not literate, and only about 0.5% have received formal vocational training.
Women's access to training is limited due to factors like distance, timing, cultural norms, and curricula designed for male participants.
To empower women, skilling programmes must include socio-emotional skills, entrepreneurship, and digital literacy, and training infrastructure needs to be decentralised and flexible.
- Who
- Women in India's agricultural sector, particularly in the growing of cereals, leguminous crops, and oilseeds.
- What
- The need for gender-sensitive skilling to empower women and drive India's agricultural future.
- When
- The findings are based on a 2025 study by NCAER.
- Where
- The analysis focuses on India, with notable variations in female participation across different states.
- Why
- To modernize and compete in the 21st century, India's agriculture must include and empower women as skilled contributors and decision-makers in every stage of the agricultural value chain.
- Women's Workforce Participation
- 41.4%
- Women in Market Gardening and Crop Growing
- 33.7%
- Women in Agricultural, Forestry, and Fishery Labourers
- 52%
- Women in Subsistence Crop Farming
- 40%
- Women with Technical Education
- 0.5%
- Women with Non-Formal Vocational Training
- 20%
- Women in Unpaid Family Labour
- 63%
- Men in Unpaid Family Labour
- 21%