Agriculture was increasingly becoming a woman centric activity. About 18% of the farm families in India, according to NSSO reports, were headed by women. Almost all women worked as agricultural labourers and unpaid workers in the family.

Rural women were generally not able to access extension services and production assets and, were not benefited from government programs. They were not recognized as farmers due to lack of land ownership. The wage differential between men and women was adverse to them as the tasks performed by women were not valued adequately. Her access to knowledge and information and, opportunities were limited due to multi-tasking performed by her in the family.

 To empower the rural women through enhancement of opportunities, Government of India initiated “Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP)”, as a sub-component of the “National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM)” across different states of the country.

 IDF implemented MKSP project in two Taluks of Karnataka-Gubbi in Tumkur district and Raybag in Belgaum. The period of intervention was 3 years from 23 September 2013 covering 11,000 poor households and farm women mostly under rain fed conditions. The project focused on developing the capacities of the SHG members to enhance their opportunities through strengthening and institutionalization of their CBO.

 The processes involved base line survey, poor identification and inclusion, beneficiary mobilization into the CBO and producers groups, their capacity development in self-management and governance, constitution of women owned CBO promoting producers groups, knowledge dissemination, monitoring and evaluation and impact assessment.

The activities included skilling and knowledge dissemination on ensuring food and nutritional security of women, children, sustainable and regenerative agriculture, skilling in value addition and collectivization of produce for access to fair markets, financial literacy and wholesome financial inclusion.