Women grow a large share of India’s food. They plant, weed, harvest, tend livestock, and carry produce to market, often while running a household on the side. Yet on paper, most of them are not counted as farmers at all. 2026 is the year that gap is finally being named out loud, and here in Maharashtra it has already produced a real law.
Maharashtra just passed a first-of-its-kind law
On 1 July 2026, Maharashtra became the first Indian state to pass a law made specifically for women farmers: the Maharashtra Women Farmers Empowerment Act, 2026. The state’s Mahayuti government brought it in, with Agriculture Minister Dattatraya Bharane tabling the bill, and the assembly passed it unanimously.
The reason it matters comes down to one old rule. For decades, the word “farmer” in government paperwork meant the person who owns the land. In Maharashtra, women hold only about 15.5% of operational farmland. So even though most rural women here work in farming, they were shut out of loans, subsidies, crop insurance, and extension advice, because their name was not on the land.
The new law breaks that link. It recognises a woman as a farmer for the work she does, not the title she holds. That covers landless labourers, tenant cultivators, livestock rearers, pastoralists, and women in dairy, poultry, and food processing, including those who migrate for part of the year. The Act also creates a state registry of women farmers and a dedicated fund, so recognition comes with real access to credit and schemes. For a farming region like Marathwada, this decides whether a woman can walk into a bank and get a loan in her own name.
What is the International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026?
It is a United Nations observance led by the FAO, running through all of 2026. The goal is to recognise what women in agriculture do, highlight the barriers they face around land, finance, and services, and push governments to act. Maharashtra’s new law is one of the first concrete answers to that call anywhere in the world.
Why women farmers matter, and what holds them back
When a woman earns from her own work, more of that income goes to her children’s food, health, and schooling. That steadies rural economies when harvests or prices swing. The barriers are stubborn. Money is usually the first wall: without land in her name, a woman often cannot get credit or insurance to survive a bad season. Land rights are the second, since most women farm plots they do not legally own. And training, quality seed, and market information tend to reach men first. The Maharashtra law is aimed squarely at the first two.
Where Terna Trust fits in
We are based in Dharashiv, in the Marathwada farming belt, so rural women are not a distant subject for us. They are our neighbours and the families our volunteers work with. Through our Janseva work and community services, we hold to the same belief that runs through this UN year: give people the right tools, and a community can stand on its own. If you want to help, our volunteering programmes are open. We would rather have hands in the field than applause from the sidelines.
Women farmers already do the work. What they have lacked is a fair share of the land, money, and support to make it pay. 2026 put the issue on the world stage, and Maharashtra turned it into law in the same year.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is a state law passed on 1 July 2026, the first of its kind in India. It recognises women as farmers for the agricultural work they do rather than land ownership, and sets up a women farmers' registry and a state fund so they can reach credit, subsidies, insurance, and extension services.
It is a United Nations observance led by the FAO, running through 2026 to recognise women farmers, name the barriers they face, and push for policies and investment that support them.
Learn about the new state law and the schemes it opens, back groups working directly with rural women, and support secure land rights and credit access. You can also volunteer with community work in farming districts.