IWD 2022: PepsiCo India, USAID Empowering Women Farmers In West Bengal
In line with International Women’s Day 2022, PepsiCo. India has been working for empowering women farmers in the country.
According to the statistics released by the University of Maryland and NCAER, 2018, women constitute over 42 per cent of the agricultural labour force in India but own less than two per cent of farmland. Indian women typically spend as much time as their husbands working on the farm - preparing fields, planting seeds, harvesting crops, and managing animals. The rest of the agricultural value chain where crops are transformed into products is a man’s world: aggregating, sorting, grading, processing, packing, and marketing. They are all largely done by men.
Over the years, we have been championing to create a more sustainable agriculture system while integrating women farmers. Two years ago, PepsiCo, partnered with USAID and launched the ‘Women Empowerment Initiative’, a fairly unique initiative that has been getting an encouraging response, especially for the potato cultivation category. So far, this initiative has provided potato production training to over 1000 women in the state of West Bengal and continues to offer gender awareness training to PepsiCo India‘s staff as well.
The partnership is improving their access to land, skills, employment and entrepreneurial opportunities to increase the adoption of sustainable farming practices (SFPs), and improve women’s livelihood.
Based on this development, we have a few hero stories of women beneficiaries from West Bengal who have broken the stereotype and have made a huge difference within their community.
Anita Singh, a women farmer who lives in Kotulpur, Bankura district, West Bengal, engaged in all farming activities along with her husband. This commendable woman farmer has learned a lot by attending agronomy training on potato farming offered by PepsiCo and USAID in 2020-21: her first formal training she received on agricultural practices. While getting training, she learned the key nuances of specialized PepsiCo potato farming, which includes seed cutting and seed treatment, agrochemical use, waste disposal, and record keeping. In addition, she also got acquainted with a host of scientific farming practices, as well as the reasons for adopting these practices to increase overall productivity. She now wishes to apply her knowledge, especially in relation to the use of organic manure, treating potato seeds with fungicide, and cutting seeds effectively in the upcoming years. She yearns to learn more about potato pests, diseases and their treatment and prefers to introduce herself as a farmer instead of being referred to as “wife of a farmer”.
Sujata Pramanik, is a women farmer who lives in Chandra, Bankura, West Bengal. She has been working as a Community Agronomist in Barasat under ILRG Project in 2020-21. This commendable woman farmer has learned a lot by attending the agronomy training in the year 2019-20: her first formal training she received on farming. This Women Empowerment Initiative has improved her personality to a great extent. She has gained immense confidence and recognition. Now, she is not just a potato farmer but a trainer and a motivator who has been focusing on learning the nuances of sustainable farming practices. She proudly calls herself as the biggest proponent of women’s empowerment within her community.
