Maharashtra is to begin issuing Women Farmers Certificates on 2 October under its new Women Farmer's Empowerment Act 2026, recognising women who work in agriculture or allied activities as farmers even when they own no land. In a commentary for Mongabay India, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, chair of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), calls the law a powerful example of political will. The views are the writer's own.
She sets out the gap the law addresses. Nationally, women make up close to 60% of the agricultural workforce, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey figures shared in Parliament, but hold less than 15% of land titles. In Maharashtra, 82% of the rural female workforce is in agriculture, yet women hold only about 15.5% of operational farmland. Without titles, women struggle to get credit, water, technology and extension services.
Women farmers consulted on the bill said many schemes were closed to them because they are tied to land ownership: subsidised pumps, irrigation subsidies, crop and livestock insurance, the Kisan Credit Card and farm credit. They also said they were left out of Agristack, the digital farmer database built on land records, and that PM-KISAN needs a farmer ID usually linked to men's bank accounts.
The process took ten months. It began with a meeting with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in September 2025; MSSRF and the state government signed a memorandum of understanding, the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy drafted the bill, and consultations ran from Mumbai in January 2026 through Pune, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Nagpur. The bill passed both houses unanimously in July 2026.
The Act defines a farmer by work rather than ownership, covering crop and animal husbandry, poultry, fisheries, agroforestry, vermiculture, mushroom cultivation and primary processing, as owner or labourer. It creates a state Women Farmer Empowerment Cell, a monitoring committee, a database of certificate holders and assistance officers in every district and block.
Swaminathan argues that recognition is not ownership. For real change, she writes, states must build gender-equitable land governance, including joint land titles, because legal rights over land keep a woman's say even if she leaves farming, remarries or moves out of the household. The next steps, in her view, are making women aware of the law and making sure credit, insurance and market systems accept the certificate as proof of farmer status.
Source: Mongabay India
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