Walk through any Indian farm today and there’s a good chance a woman is running it. Yet on paper, she barely exists. A new industry report from Arya.ag lays bare a striking mismatch: women do most of the work, but hold almost none of the land, credit, or recognition that comes with farming — and the gap is costing India up to ₹2 lakh crore a year.

Women’s The Numbers Behind the Gap

Nearly 77% of rural working women in India are now employed in agriculture, and their share of the farm workforce climbed from 57% in 2017-18 to over 64% in 2023-24 — largely as men migrate to cities for non-farm work. But women operate just 11.72% of farmed land, earn roughly ₹82 for every ₹100 a man earns, and run farms that are 24% less productive, not because of skill, but because they get less credit and fewer inputs.

Nearly half of women in agriculture (47.7%) are classified as unpaid family helpers, compared to just 20.2% of men — a distinction that shapes who is even legally counted as a “farmer,” and therefore who qualifies for loans, subsidies, and procurement access.

Metric	Figure
Rural working women in agriculture	76.95%
Women’s share of farm workforce	64%+
Farmed area operated by women	11.72%
Women’s wage vs. men’s (per ₹100)	₹82
Productivity gap on women-run farms	24%
Annual output lost to unequal access	₹1.2–2 lakh crore
Potential output gain if resourced equally	2.5–4%

Women’s Breaking the Cycle

The report traces an “exclusion loop”: women aren’t counted as farmers, so they can’t access formal credit, which means fewer inputs and no storage, forcing distress sales at harvest and locking in low income. Platforms like Arya.ag are targeting that loop directly — letting women store grain in accredited warehouses, borrow against it, and sell when prices are favorable. Women-led FPOs on the platform have grown 128% in two years, and initiatives like Namo Drone Didi are training women to earn ₹60,000–₹80,000 a month operating agricultural drones.

The UN has named 2026 the International Year of the Woman Farmer, a designation tied to the UN’s broader work through the >Food and Agriculture Organization, whose mandate and history are detailed on Wikipedia.

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