Women withering at bottom of pyramid in agriculture: Murmu

President Droupadi Murmu at the conference inauguration on Monday.
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President Droupadi Murmu has pitched for gender equality in agriculture and said women’s contributions to agriculture is neglected at the global level. She was speaking at an international conference here on Monday. The topic was ‘From Research to Impact: Towards Just and Resilient Agri-food Systems’. It was organised by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Gender Impact Platform of the Consultative Group of International Agriculture Research (CGIAR).

Ms. Murmu said a society, irrespective of its prosperity, will cease to exist if it is devoid of justice. “Any system of thought, any institution or any arrangement will be untenable if it is unjust. But when it comes to gender justice, agriculture, which is known as the oldest science, is found wanting even in modern times,” she said. “As compared to men, women suffered more job loss in the pandemic years that triggered migration. At the global level, we have seen that women have been kept outside the agri-food systems for very long,” she said.

Women denied ownership

The President said women are unpaid workers, tillers and farmers in the field but not owners of the land. “They form the bulk of the lowest pyramid of the agriculture structure, but they are denied the opportunity to climb the ladder to assume the role of decision-makers. Women sow, grow, harvest, process and market our food. They are indispensable in taking every grain from farm to plate. But still, across the world, they are held back and stopped by discriminatory social norms and barriers to knowledge, ownership, assets, resources and social networks. Their contribution is not recognised, their role is marginalised and their agency is denied in the whole chain of the agrifood systems. This story needs to change,” she said.

She said while the pandemic showed the fundamental strength of agriculture, it also exposed its worst vulnerability. “Agriculture cannot be promoted solely on commercial considerations. This sector’s social obligation is critical to the survival of humanity. Similarly, the ongoing conflicts in some parts of the world have impeded the upstream and downstream processes of the agri-food systems, whether it be the availability and the price of key intermediate inputs or the supply or marketing of the output,” Ms. Murmu added.