By:-  Varun Hangloo, Head – Marico Innovation Foundation

“On International Day of Rural Women, it is important to recognise the role women play in strengthening rural livelihoods, driving economic growth and building resilient rural communities. According to the Economic Survey 2025–26, 57.7% of rural workers were engaged in agriculture and 62.8% were self-employed, with women showing relatively higher participation in both, highlighting their importance to rural women’s livelihoods. At the national level, Periodic Labour Force Survey 2023–24 data shows that 64.4% of female workers were engaged in agriculture. Yet, women’s contribution extends well beyond farm production to livestock, fisheries, food processing, marketing, natural resource management and household nutrition. Enabling women to create greater value across these activities is essential to building more resilient agri-food systems.

However, participation cannot just translate into economic opportunity or decision-making power. Rural women face barriers in finance, agricultural inputs, markets and appropriate technologies, limiting their ability to move into higher-value activities and establish sustainable enterprises. Addressing these gaps can create opportunities for rural women to take entrepreneurial, decision-making and leadership roles. Here, innovation, supported by the right skills, knowledge and market linkages, can play an important role.

This is reflected in the work of S4S Technologies, graduated from Marico Innovation Foundation’s Scale-Up programme. Its solar-powered food-processing solutions help women farmers preserve surplus produce, reduce food loss and create value-added products. We currently support around 3,00,000 women small farmers and work with 2,000 women entrepreneurs, enabling them to reduce losses, add value to their produce and create new livelihood opportunities through appropriate technologies and market linkages.

 At Marico Innovation Foundation, our ongoing Agri-Tech Pilot in Uttar Pradesh has reinforced the importance of developing solutions that respond to on-ground realities, particularly the needs of rural women. Through farmer engagement, on-ground demonstrations and feedback, we work to understand the challenges women farmers face in adopting new technologies and accessing market opportunities. These experiences have highlighted how context-specific solutions can help rural women reduce post-harvest losses, improve productivity and strengthen their livelihoods.

As we look towards more inclusive agricultural systems, the focus must move beyond participation towards  creating the conditions for rural women to lead, establish enterprises and shape the future of agriculture. Improving access to knowledge, finance, markets and institutional support, alongside stronger collaboration between innovators, farmers, industry and institutions, can help scale effective solutions and deliver lasting impact.”