Mahila Kisan Sahshaktikaran Pariyojana-Everything You Need To Know About

The "Mahila Kisan Sahshaktikaran Pariyojana" (MKSP), a component of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-NRLM (DAY-NRLM), aims to improve the current status of women in agriculture and increase the opportunities available to empower them.

Rural women are the most productive workers in the economies of the majority of developing countries, including India. In India, the agriculture support system reinforces women's exclusion from their rights as agricultural workers and cultivators. Most women-headed households lack access to extension services, farmer support institutions, and production assets such as seed, water, credit, and subsidies. Also, women are paid less than men as agricultural workers.

Key Focus of the Pariyojana

MKSP recognizes "Mahila" as "Kisan" identity and strives to build women's capacity in the domain of agro-ecologically sustainable practices. It has a clear objective of helping the most impoverished people and extending the range of initiatives now under Mahila Kisan management.

MKSP focuses on empowering smallholders to adopt climate-resilient agro-ecology, with the goal of eventually creating a pool of skilled community professionals. Its goal is to strengthen smallholder agriculture by promoting sustainable farming practices such as Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture (CMSA), Non-Pesticide Management (NPM), Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), the Pashu-Sakhi model for doorstep animal care services, and the sustainable regeneration and harvesting of Non-Timber Forest Produce.

The objective of the Pariyojana

• To improve women's productive participation in agriculture;
• To provide women in agriculture with opportunity for sustainable agricultural livelihoods;
• To improve women's productive participation in agriculture;
• To guarantee family and community-level food and nutrition security;
• To improve women's agricultural skills and capabilities to support the farm and non-farm-based activities;
• To enable women to have better access to government and other agencies' inputs and services;
• To improve women's managerial capacity.

Implementation Strategy

• The program is being implemented across the country by DAY-NRLM in collaboration with State Rural Livelihood Missions/Community Based Organizations (CBOs)/NGOs as implementing partners (PIAs).
• These organizations are expected to encourage and support scalable livelihood models in MKSP intervention areas.
• It is expected that during the process, a cadre of barefoot community professionals will be formed from among the best practitioners.
• The State Rural Livelihood Missions will replicate the models further with community assistance.
• The MKSP will develop a plan to specifically target the most vulnerable women and the poorest people, including SC/ST, minorities, landless individuals, and primitive tribal groups.
• Priority should be given to women-headed households (single women), resource-poor households, and women groups engaged in agriculture and allied activities (promotion, production, processing, and marketing) when identifying the target group.

Expected Outcome of MKSP

• Net increase in agricultural women's incomes on a sustainable basis;
• Improvement in agricultural women's and their families food and nutritional security;
• Increase in agricultural women's area under cultivation, cropping intensity, and food production;
• Women's agricultural skills and performance have improved;
• Women's agricultural access to productive land, inputs, credit, technology, and information has improved.
• Drudgery reduction for women in agriculture through the use of gender-friendly tools and technologies;
• Increased access to markets and market information for better product marketing;
• Improved soil fertility and health to support agricultural livelihoods;
• Increased visibility of women in agriculture as an interest group - in terms of an increase in the number of women institutions and entrepreneurship.

Also Read: Everything you need to know about Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana