We say women invented agriculture. We just forgot to call them farmers

Sit with that for a second.

For generations, women have sown the seeds, weeded the fields, tended the livestock, harvested the crops. They've done the actual, backbreaking work of farming. And yet, on paper, they didn't exist as farmers. No land title, no recognition, no seat at the table.

Even the language gives it away. In Marathi, we call a farmer "शेतकरी राजा," literally, the farmer king. Think about that for a second. The very word we use to honour farmers assumes he's a man. Where does that leave the woman standing right next to him in the same field, doing the same work, sometimes more of it?

That's the irony nobody talks about enough.

So when the Maharashtra Assembly unanimously passed the Women Farmers' Empowerment Bill, 2026, it wasn't just another piece of legislation. It was the system finally catching up to reality. The Bill introduces a Women Farmer Certificate (WFC), which recognises women as farmers even if they don't own the land they work. No land title in her name? Doesn't matter anymore. She can now access credit, crop insurance, subsidies, and government schemes, things that were simply out of reach before.

Maharashtra is the first state in India to do this.

The Indian Express spoke to a few of these women farmers directly.

Take Vaishali Balasaheb Ghuge from Tuljapur. She took over farming after her husband developed an alcohol addiction, and today she runs vermicomposting, dairy, and poultry enterprises, and directs a farmer producer organisation. Or Savita Patil from Dhule, who's been farming her own two acres for years, growing cotton and maize, but couldn't even register on a government portal because she had no farmer ID. Her words say it all: "Despite doing all the farming work, I could not access government schemes because I do not own land and was not recognised as a farmer."

These aren't rare stories. They're the norm. Millions of women across India are doing the work without the recognition. And without recognition, there's no access, no support, no dignity.

So yes, this is a milestone worth celebrating. But let's not pretend the job is done. If a woman has to wait this long just to be called what she already is, a farmer, maybe the real question isn't "should we celebrate?" It's "why did it take this long?"

Here's hoping the entire country follows. Fast. Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons.