Over 4,500 women farmers in West Bengal’s Jhargram District are profiting from cultivating indigenous rice varieties organically.
Among the indigenous rice varieties cultivated in the area are Kalabhat (black rice), Mallifullo (brown rice), Kerala Sundari (aromatic rice), and Sathia (red rice). The price of these indigenous varieties is three times higher than other varieties.
PRADAN, a non-government organization, has been training women in the cultivation, processing, and marketing of their harvests.
Read the story @The Hindu
More on empowering women rice farmers:
Moving beyond reaching women in seed systems development
The importance of seed systems to empower women has so far been neglected. Applying gender analysis to improve seed systems and reduce/overcome existing biases in access to and availability and use of quality seed of local and improved varieties is an essential first step toward empowering women.
A toolkit for unpacking gender dynamics of migration in rice-based agricultural systems in South Asia
This toolkit was developed to support mixed methods research to explore how gender dynamics is constitutive of male migration, in the context of eastern India, in line with a conceptual framework developed to address the existing gaps in literature.
With the wind beneath our wings, we soar together and higher
The Farmer Producer Company has ushered in a new era of farming practices with tangible socio-economic benefits and more, especially for the women farmers. The women are now empowered and brimming with confidence having acquired leadership skills and farming-related knowledge.