Women who work the fields must be recognised as farmers, says Chouhan

Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Friday, October 16, 2026 that women who work in the fields should be formally recognised as farmers. Speaking at a Women Farmers' Day programme in Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh, part of his parliamentary constituency, he said women's contribution to farming should count as much as land ownership, and that the government would make every effort to secure that recognition. He said he would raise the issue on the appropriate platforms.

In many Indian farming families, women do a large share of the daily work: sowing, weeding, harvesting, caring for cattle and processing milk and grain at home. Yet in official records a "farmer" is usually the person whose name is on the land title, and in most families that is a man. This gap has practical effects. Many farm schemes, loans and insurance products are linked to land records, so a woman who runs the fields day to day may find it hard to get credit, subsidies or compensation in her own name, especially if she is widowed or her husband has migrated for work.

The minister's statement goes to the heart of that problem. By saying recognition should depend on the work done, not only on ownership, he is pointing to the idea that women who hold farms and families together should be counted in their own right. He did not announce a specific scheme, law or change to land records, and no timeline was given. What form the recognition might take, for example an official identity as a farmer that would let women access schemes directly, has not been spelled out.

The focus on small enterprises is the second part of the message. Food processing, goat rearing and fisheries can be run alongside household work and give women an income of their own. Women-led farmer producer organisations, groups that buy inputs and sell produce together, can give them bargaining power that individual smallholders lack. The support mentioned at the event, collateral-free loans and preference for women-led FPOs, matters because many women have no land or property to pledge.

For families, the shift is also about respect. When a woman's work on the family farm is recognised officially, decisions about crops, money and loans are more likely to be shared, which is the kind of partnership many rural households already practise without a formal name for it.

Short-term: The remarks put the question of women farmers' recognition back on the national agenda. Women's self-help groups and FPOs may press for details on how recognition will work and which schemes will follow.

Long-term: If formal recognition is introduced, women who farm without owning land could gain direct access to credit, insurance and government support, and a stronger voice in family and village decisions.

Who is affected: Women who work on family farms, especially those without land in their names; widows and wives of migrant workers who manage farms alone; women's self-help groups and FPOs; and agriculture officials who maintain farmer records.

Questions and Answers