Gender Responsive Budgeting: A Focus on Agriculture Sector

Despite women’s vital contribution to agriculture in India, they lack control over land and livestock and don’t have access to irrigation, credit, extension services (including technical updates) and markets, observes this 2017 report. The report is the outcome of a UN Women project that involved a ‘gender-responsive budgeting’ (GRB) analysis of the agriculture sector (using secondary sources). GRB is an internationally recognised tool that has helped governments make their budgets and policies more gender-sensitive. Part I of the report provides an overview of the constraints faced by women farmers and reviews government policies and programmes aimed at supporting them. Part II has the findings of the GRB analysis of two centrally funded agriculture sector schemes – the Support to State Extension Reforms (also known as Agriculture Technology Management Agency) and the National Horticulture Mission. Part III offers policy recommendations to help empower women farmers and strengthen the schemes.