The Maharashtra cabinet on Thursday approved a draft legislation to legally recognise women farmers, regardless of land ownership, enabling them to access government welfare schemes and subsidies.
The draft Maharashtra Women Farmers Empowerment Bill, 2026, proposes a "women farmer certificate" to help landless women engaged in agriculture and allied sectors, such as dairy and fisheries, access institutional credit, subsidies, and agricultural extension services. The bill will be tabled in the ongoing monsoon session of the state legislature.
According to sources, the bill aims to address the long-standing exclusion of women working in agriculture, particularly landless cultivators and those engaged in allied sectors such as dairy, fisheries, poultry, animal husbandry, sericulture, apiculture and collection of minor forest produce.
The draft expands the definition of "agriculture" and "farmer" to include a wide range of agricultural and allied activities as well as tenant farmers, sharecroppers, agricultural labourers and seasonal migrant workers involved in farming, they said.
A key provision of the proposed legislation is the issuance of a "women farmer certificate", which will serve as an official identity document enabling beneficiaries to avail themselves of government schemes, subsidies, institutional finance and market support.
The certification process will involve gram sabhas or urban local bodies, with an appeal mechanism for rejected applications, it was stated.
The bill also provides for the creation of a Maharashtra State Women Farmers' Fund and a digital database of women farmers integrated with other government databases.
To facilitate implementation, the government proposes to appoint women farmer support officers at the district and taluka levels from among existing officials, who will help obtain certificates, access welfare schemes and adopt improved agricultural practices.
The proposed law envisages a three-tier institutional framework comprising a governing council, a state-level monitoring committee and a women farmers' empowerment cell for policy implementation and monitoring.
The draft bill was prepared after a series of consultations with agricultural experts, legal professionals, and stakeholders across Pune, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Nagpur before being finalised earlier this month.
(With inputs from PTI)