Maharashtra govt. tables Women Farmers’ Empowerment Bill in Assembly

Maharashtra government on Wednesday (July 1, 2026) introduced the Women Farmers’ Empowerment Bill in the Assembly during the ongoing Monsoon session.

The Bill is aimed to recognise women who are engaged in agriculture and allied activities as women farmers and provide them Women Farmers’ Certificates. It will enable them to get access to entitlements, benefits, subsidies, services and credit, irrespective of whether they own land.

Once enacted, the law is expected to address the historic systemic non-recognition of women farmers and landless labourers who are involved in allied activities like fisheries, livestock rearing, poultry farming and collection of forest produce

The Bill provides for the creation of a database of women farmers and the creation of Maharashtra State Women Farmers’ Fund for them. It consists of a three-tier institutional framework comprising of a Women Farmers’ Empowerment Council, State Monitoring Committees, and Women Farmers’ Empowerment Cell. The Women Farmers’ Empowerment Council will include as ex-officio members the Chief Minister, the Deputy Chief Ministers, Agriculture Minister, among others.

Under this Bill, a woman farmer will be issued a ‘Woman Farmer Certificate’. It will be her official identity document, which will enable her to get access to government schemes, subsidies, institutional finance and market support. The cartificates will be issued by Gram Sabhas or urban local bodies. An appeal mechanism has been put in place for the rejected applications.

Women Farmer Support Officers will be appointed at the district and taluka levels from among existing officials. They will assist women farmers in obtaining certificates, accessing welfare schemes and adopting improved agricultural practices.

Introducing the Bill, Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Dattatraya Bharane said, “The agricultural policies, schemes, and extension systems are largely gender-neutral. However, the requirement of land ownership as a precondition for access to most agricultural schemes and underlying entitlements has rendered such schemes inaccessible to many women farmers, since only a very small percentage of these women own agricultural land. As such, women who cultivate family or community land without holding formal titles to the land are often counted as agricultural labourers rather than farmers.”

Women account for more than 81% of participation in Maharashtra’s agricultural sector, but they do not get their due, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said earlier.

“The agricultural policies, schemes, and extension systems are largely gender-neutral. However, the requirement of land ownership as a precondition for access to most agricultural schemes and underlying entitlements has rendered such schemes inaccessible to many women farmers, since only a very small percentage of these women own agricultural land. As such, women who cultivate family or community land without holding formal titles to the land are often counted as agricultural labourers rather than farmers. This systemic non-recognition of women farmers and their agricultural labour is significant and leads to other forms of exclusion, including, but not limited to discrimination in access to schemes, credit and markets,” the government has said.