Women make up about 33% of cultivators and about 47% of agricultural labourers in rural India. This makes women a key contributor to agricultural development along with men to address food and nutrition security in the country. 

Women are often either homemaker themselves or by default because men are working in the field. In developing countries, women still hold less land than men and have less access and control over it.  

“Being a homemaker forced me to do only domestic chores, and that didn’t satisfy me as I too nurtured dreams of earning a decent income,” says Ms. Titseng Khimhun, a 40-year-old mother of two children from New Longkey village in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh. 

Titseng’s husband, a farmer by profession toils diligently in his fields for his family’s sustenance. He earns just enough to feed the family, without having any savings or security. They survive on the food they grow and the rest they depend on the market. These situations strengthened Titseng’s conviction that she must act to better support her family. 

Agriculture has seen a change in thinking over the decades by broadening access to women farmers through a participatory and demand-driven approach. Caritas India FARM (Facilitating Agricultural Regeneration Measures) Northeast programme delivering agriculture information and training to the women farmers to enhance their knowledge and skill in agriculture. 

The programme has promoted gender justice by including women in decision-making and collective community actions. It not only gave due recognition to women in choosing what to grow, how to grow and where to sell.  

Seva Kendra Arunachal East (SKAE), a Caritas India partner under the FARM Northeast programme formed Longkey Farmers club in Titseng’s village to support the marginal farmers. The farmer club give the marginal smallholder farmers collective power to access farming inputs such as seeds, plant material, water, fertilizers and pesticides, and to aggregate produce to reach larger markets. Social and economic empowerment places them in a better position to improve their food security and move out of poverty.  

“Titseng actively participated in the meetings, but from 2021 she was grossly engaged in agricultural work,” says Mintu Moshahary, the FARM Coordinator. 

This was a turning point for Titseng and she never looked back. She actively participated in a number of training programmes and awareness campaigns on food sovereignty, climate change, traditional organic farming, preserving indigenous seeds, bio-pest repellent, etc. that were run by SKAE during 2021–2022. 

Her backyard kitchen garden was filled with lush green crops like pumpkin, ash gourd, bitter gourd, taro, local basil, local coriander, and maize, Titseng. A beaming Titseng exclaimed, “I can’t believe that I could have what I have.” Titseng also has a small tea garden of 1 acre, but she was unable to do much as her husband was too busy working in his fields. Titseng also took over the tea garden and started working to ensure some profits and soon enough she started getting returns. 

As of now, Titseng sells her tea leaves for Rs 9,000 to 10,000 and makes Rs 1,500 to 2,000 per month from her vegetables. 

Motivated by the success of Titseng, ten other local women from the village adopted the same model in their backyard gardens. Titseng keeps inspiring and motivating her fellow farmers to start an organic kitchen garden in their backyards.