Women friendly agricultural hand tool to improve the quality of life of rural women farmers in Madhya Pradesh and Jharkand, India
Blog article by Marina Vara Gutiérrez (Aidenvironment), Rubén Borges Robles ( Rockinsoils ), and Francesco Sambalino (MetaMeta)
Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy. Agriculture in India is largely dependent on manual labour and hand tools, as mechanised farming methods are not commonly used. Although in other parts of rural India farmers use hand tools for many farming operations, in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand manual agriculture is still the most common practice. Manual agriculture employs a large number of rural women, the so-called ‘hand labourers’. Specially in these areas, well thought tools have the potential to make agricultural operations faster, thus improving the household economy. Moreover, appropriate tools reduce the labour intensity of some agricultural tasks (like weeding) and improve the farmers' quality of life by reducing body pain.
When we discuss regenerative agricultural practices is it common to forget about the socio-economic aspects of making regenerative agriculture mainstream. Regenerative agricultural practices are most of the time labour intensive. Therefore, when implementing them in a rural context it is key to develop interventions that will favour the integration of these practices in the farming system without adding too much additional labour. In the states of Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand in India, this means developing women-friendly hand tools that are affordable, ergonomic and that will make farming more efficient.
Although we would expect that hand tools were commonly used among rural women in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand most of the agricultural related activities were done manually. In the cases in which hand tools were used they were not always the most appropriate ones. Since hand tools are designed based on the male body proportions, women farmers experience body pain after their use. Therefore, designing a broad range of hand tools that are suitable for women farmers to be used and that are affordable and locally accessible is the main challenge faced in the project areas.
The introduction of women-friendly hand tools will make agriculture more efficient and will improve the quality of life of women farmers. During the next months of the GTP project, together with PRADAN, and FES we will develop a circular design model in which women groups co-create tools with blacksmiths in a reiterative process that will allow for the development of efficient, ergonomic and affordable hand tools.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marina Vara Gutiérrez holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology and Ecology and a master’s degree in International Land & Water Management by Wageningen University & Research. As a member of the team at AidEnvironment, she is interested in promoting gender-sensitive regenerative agriculture practices. She is based in the Netherlands and is involved in rural development projects in India and Uganda.
Rubén Borge Robles from Spain has a MSc in International Land and Water management (Wageningen University) and BSc in Agricultural engineering (León University). Ruben studies, simplifies, and spreads technology to support healthy local food and water systems in Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. In 2012, he initiated Rockinsoils a small consultancy in organic farming that gives farming families better access to information and skills to regenerate their farms, soils and hence their communities. Rockinsoils integrates simple techniques to manage water, nutrients and crops and increase wealth of farming communities. All the techniques are easily accessible to any producer in any country. His trainings focus on the production and use of compost, bio-fertilizers, minerals and plant extracts. He also coaches farmer organizations to record and share their experiences within their own communities and build up local knowledge centers and small businesses. In 2020 he was awarded with a Doctor Honoris Causa for its contribution to the discipline of agriculture by the government of Mexico.
Francesco Sambalino is an agricultural engineer specializing in Natural Resource Management. His work is focused on rainfed farming systems and rangelands in semi-arid areas around the globe. He is currently working in MetaMeta.