Maharashtra moves to recognise women as independent farmers in new bill
Maharashtra plans a new law to give women in agriculture independent legal status as farmers, opening direct access to credit, subsidies, insurance and public support schemes.
India’s Maharashtra state plans to introduce legislation in the upcoming monsoon session that would give women engaged in agriculture independent legal recognition as farmers. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the proposed Maharashtra Women Farmers Empowerment Bill, 2026 is intended to create a legal framework that expands women’s direct access to government schemes, institutional credit, subsidies, insurance and social security support.
The policy responds to a structural gap in existing rules. According to the state government, women account for more than 81 per cent of participation in Maharashtra’s agriculture sector, yet most benefits remain linked to land ownership. As a result, many women working in farming are not formally recognised as farmers and are excluded from schemes that are supposed to support agricultural livelihoods.
Officials said the bill is expected to broaden the definition of agriculture well beyond conventional crop production. The expanded scope would include dairy farming, poultry, beekeeping, fisheries, sericulture, horticulture, floriculture, mushroom cultivation, agro-forestry and forest produce collection. The government is also examining whether the framework should include landless farmers, tenant farmers, farm labourers, grazing-based livelihood workers and migrant agricultural labourers.
Fadnavis asked officials to study the creation of a dedicated Maharashtra State Women Farmers Fund. The state is also planning a digital system through which women farmers could access crop loans, agricultural subsidies, seeds, fertilisers, crop insurance, extension services, storage, transport facilities and other social security programmes. That would turn legal recognition into practical access to finance and services rather than leaving it as a symbolic reform.
The same policy discussion also touched wider rural infrastructure. Fadnavis directed officials to prepare a plan to gradually shift rural drinking water supply schemes to solar power. Officials said 22,185 rural water supply schemes have been identified for solar infrastructure, and 11,643 schemes under the Jal Jeevan Mission already include solar systems in their original estimates. He also asked that schemes meet the central norm of supplying 55 litres of drinking water per person per day, linking farm households’ welfare to broader village infrastructure planning.