Women Face Rising Dependence on Farm Labour in Telangana
Telangana is witnessing a growing reliance of women on agricultural wage labour, reflecting a deepening “feminisation of agriculture” in the state. Recent studies and surveys indicate that women now account for nearly 60% of the agricultural workforce, largely due to increasing migration of men to non-farm jobs in cities and other sectors.
Despite their growing participation, women’s ownership of agricultural land remains extremely low. Experts estimate that only about 12–15% of women in Telangana own farmland, leaving the majority dependent on daily wage labour rather than cultivation on their own land. This imbalance has led to what analysts describe as a gradual “proletarianisation” of women farmers—where many shift from being cultivators or unpaid family workers to low-paid agricultural labourers.
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Projections suggest that the number of female farm labourers could rise further, potentially reaching around 27% of the agricultural workforce in the coming decades. This trend raises concerns about economic vulnerability, as agricultural wage labour often provides irregular employment and limited social security.
Women in rural Telangana typically undertake labour-intensive tasks such as weeding, transplanting, harvesting and post-harvest processing, which are essential to farm operations but remain undervalued and poorly paid. At the same time, limited access to credit, land titles, and modern technology restricts their ability to move up the agricultural value chain.
Policy experts argue that addressing this imbalance requires stronger land rights for women, better access to farm support schemes, and opportunities in agro-processing and agri-entrepreneurship. Without such reforms, analysts warn that a large proportion of working women could remain trapped in low-productivity and insecure farm labour roles by 2047, hindering both gender equality and agricultural development in the state.
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