One Seed at a Time: Women Farmers Revolutionize Agriculture
"One Seed at a Time" shows how women farmers challenge societies' rigid structures and bring equity to their lives. Watch the Trailer and be inspired!Women Revolutionize Agriculture One Seed at a Time
In this season of harvest in India, we are delighted to share the trailer of an exciting new film showcasing svavlambi shet or agro-ecological farming, and the women who are practicing it in regions of Maharashtra hard-hit by the agricultural crisis and where entire villages migrate for sugar-cane work in highly exploitative conditions. As part of the Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch, or Women Farmers’ Rights Forum, they have attended awareness and training programs that AID has supported, to gain leadership and secure entitlements, assert their identity as farmers, and access government services and schemes.
Building on this foundation, hundreds of women are taking a bold step further, as they explain in the upcoming film “One Seed at a Time.” Take a look at the trailer:
In the film, women who have been affected by agrarian distress including farm suicide in the family, share their experiences enduring devastation from conventional capital- and chemical-intensive agricultural practices. They question the underlying causes and rigid social heirarchies such as caste and gender.
These brave women tell their own story of how they challenge these structures, claim their power, and transform the future not only of their farm, but of society.
In the words of the Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch: A silent revolution is unfolding in the agriculturally distressed regions of Maharashtra, India. Through new farming practices, marginalised women farmers are challenging societies’ rigid structures and bringing equity to their lives.
AID is proud to support these women and excited to announce that their experiment in agro-ecological farming has inspired more women to pursue this in Beed and Hingoli districts. Having an alternative, self-reliant source of livelihood not only improves their own food security, health and income, but reduces their need to migrate for work and strengthens their ability to demand fair wages and working conditions when they do.
