New Delhi, Oct 19 (UNI) Women farmers are the backbone of Indian agriculture but their contribution is largely invisible and unrecognised; but they have the ability to pull the sector out of crisis if they are given their due recognition and entitlement, says the All-India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), a conglomeration of 180 farmers’ organisations. According to the AIKSCC, studies show if women farmers were to be treated at par with their male counterparts and given land rights, farm productivity can go up by 40 per cent. “The highest quantum of labour in different crops comes from women. It is their labour and work that props up agricultural production, whether it is in sowing, transplanting, weeding, harvesting or post-production operations." Commenting on the government marking October 15 as “Mahila Kisan Diwas”, the Committee said that women farmers hold the farm sector together and yet they were the worst sufferers in the ongoing agrarian crisis in the country. "Their vision, knowledge and tenacity has the power to pull the farm sector out of crisis. Only if the government adopts pro-farmers policies and provides women farmers their due rights at par with the male farmers, it will it benefit the sector,’’ the AIKSCC said. Demanding “freedom from debt” and “full remunerative prices” for agriculture crop, the AIKSCC sought similar rights for women farmers. "Women farmers are being disproportionately burdened with the responsibility of running their agricultural enterprise, without adequate recognition and support from their own communities as well as from the state. Agriculture credit, extension support, input subsidy schemes, marketing support, crop insurance and disaster compensation are not extended equitably to women farmers given that the government machinery does not recognise them as farmers.” Last Sunday, at a function to mark “Mahila Kisan Diwas” Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, quoting the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), said that women’s contribution in the agriculture sector was 32 per cent, while in some Hilly states it was more than men. Women are involved in 48 percent agriculture-related employment whereas 7.5-crore women are playing a significant role in milk production and livestock management. He said that to improve women’s access to land, loans and other facilities, the Ministry had policy provisions like joint leasing of agricultural land, issuance of Kisan Credit Card to women and creating livelihood opportunities through livestock practices and agricultural processing. UNI GP SNU 0842