The Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare organizeda webinar today on “Women in Agri-startups: Creating Value with Supply Chain Management” in the series of events for celebrating MahilaKisanDiwas 2021. The webinar was organized under the guidance of Union Agriculture Minister Shri Narendra Singh Tomar and in the august presence of Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers WelfareShri Kailash Choudhary. During the webinar, Shri Choudhry also released an e-book depicting “Success Stories of 75 progressive women farmers and women entrepreneurs to commemorate 75 years of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’.
The Webinar on Women in Agri-Startups focused on Enabling Women Entrepreneurship in Agribusiness; Strategy and Schemes to support Agri-Startups in India; Technology transfer to Startups for Commercialization; Value Chain Management and Challenges faced by Agri-StartupsAgripreneures. Agriculture sector employs 80% of all economically active women; they comprise 33% of the agricultural labour force and 48% of self-employed farmers.
With women predominant at all levels of production- pre-harvest, post-harvest processing, packaging, marketing- of the agricultural value chain, to increase productivity in agriculture, it is imperative to adopt gender-specific interventions. The Government has tried to push the agenda of ‘Gender Mainstreaming in Agriculture’ by way of earmarking funds for women under various schemes/programmes and development interventions; introducing ‘pro-women initiatives’ to help women derive the benefits of all beneficiary-oriented components of different programmes. The focus is on the formation ofwomen Self Help Groups (SHGs), Women Federations and Women Farmer Producer Organisations; capacity building interventions; linking them to microcredit; enhancing their access to information and ensuring their representation in decision making bodies at various levels.
The Senior and middle-level extension functionaries, women farmers and agri-entrepreneurs and resource persons from various training institutes participated in the event. The successful women entrepreneurs from various States also narrated their views and experiences on the occasion.
Bhupendra Singh Chundawat is a seasoned technology journalist with over 22 years of experience in the media industry. He specializes in covering the global technology landscape, with a deep focus on manufacturing trends and the geopolitical impact on tech companies. Currently serving as the Editor at Udaipur Kiran, his insights are shaped by decades of hands-on reporting and editorial leadership in the fast-evolving world of technology.
