Indian Women Are Paving The Future Of Food Systems

Momentum Contributing Writer

Lorena Bally

The Momentum Contributing Writer

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There are two main paradigms of thought about our relationship with Earth. We either think of ourselves as separate from nature or as being a part of it.

Among the sea of philosophical ideals, Ecofeminism believes the wellbeing of humanity and the wellbeing of nature are inherently linked. It argues that anthropocentric philosophy separated humanity from the land and justified its exploitation. Both the land and the women who cared for it became objects of conquest as a result of patriarchy.

The international network Diverse Women for Diversity are ready to upend that system. They believe women must hold leadership roles in the global transition to create local, biodiverse, ecological systems that work in harmony with nature. As the result of conversations between over 100 women farmers, activists, scientists, scholars, and creatives from all continents at a conference in India in November 2023, they published The Ecofeminist Manifesto.

“As custodians of the Earth, women know the need for and restrictions of self-regulation. They know how to take care of water, soils, and forests; they know and take care of seeds,” The Manifesto states. "Women understand how to heal bodies and Nature itself, and make it an ally - not an adversary - for regeneration. They know the laws and secrets of caring for life.”

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Sustainable Futures With Chhindwara Organic Farmers Enterprise

Between the dense forests and arid farmland plots of the Chhindwara District in India, ecofeminist ideals become reality. The board of the Chhindwara Organic Farmers Enterprise (COFE) is composed of women farmers who collectively make decisions on topics like choosing agricultural products to grow and processing methods to use. They support organic farmers in the district by finding buyers for their products, encouraging diversified crop cultivation for staggered income, and more.

“We were trained in management and planning”, says Surekha Lanjewar, one of COFE’s directors in Sausar, in an interview with journalist Prachi Pinglay Plumber, who penned the report Healing the Broken Land. “We want to increase the work and scope of what we do.” Lanjewar helped board custard apple farmers and linked them with dairy company Dinshaws, who purchases the apple pulp for its ice creams.

Most COFE members cultivate organic cotton, which compromises 5% of India’s cotton industry. Currently, 95% of India uses genetically modified hybrids, the most common being Bt-cotton, a species engineered with a gene from the bacterium bacillus thuringiensis. The bacterium produces a toxic that kills off pests like bollworm, which thrive in cotton monocultures. Cotton is the only GM crop legally allowed in India.

Genetically modified cotton, however, requires expensive chemical inputs, water usage, machinery, and seeds. Most of these products are owned by a handful of transnational corporations like Monsanto-Bayer. Rejecting GM seeds, herbicides and pesticides, and monocultures is a part of the Ecofeminist Manifesto.

“Property rights under the monopolistic and profit-based control of giant agro-corporations transformed seed from a commons shared and exchanged by farmers to a commodity, leading to indebtedness, poverty and underdevelopment, the displacement of huge numbers of farmers and an epidemic of suicides,” the Manifesto states.

Around 89 percent of Indian farmers own less than two hectares of land, resulting in meager incomes. India also struggles with high suicide rates: around 400,000 farmers have died by suicide between 1995 and 2018. In his interviews with farmers, Plumber found that droughts, climate instability, expensive inputs, and unsustainable incomes contribute to unbearable stress.

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Embracing New Solutions

Furthermore, switching from using industrial agricultural methods to a biodiverse organic approach is difficult. The damaged, compacted soils take 2-4 years to recover, and yields plummet before rising again. No matter if you sell organic or GM cotton, private traders often manipulate weighing machines to buy at cheaper prices, and farmers lose money.

COFE has cut farmers’ transportation costs by establishing Village Level Collection Centers (VLCCs), member-managed centers that collect and weigh organic cotton grown by women farmers and COFE members. The centers are linked with ginners who buy and process the cotton at a 8 to 9 percent markup on the market price, guaranteeing an honest income for farmers.

“Last year was my first experience with procurement”, says Kalpana Pachpore, a farmer and member of COFE who operates the VLCC in Aamla. “I bought 10 quintals of organic cotton; this year it will double or triple; the payments are made quickly.”

In 2023, COFE procured 1,100 quintals (110,000 kilograms or 242,508.5 pounds) of organic cotton from 3,000 farmers and sold it to a ginner in Sausar. This year, they plan to procure cotton from 5,000 farmers. Besides cotton, COFE also promotes creating other products like jams and jellies from crops like mangoes and berries. Their slogan “Don't grow more, grow different crops” directly reflects the biodiversity that ecofeminism spotlights as a solution to healing land and humanity.

“Instead of top-down policies wiping out diversity, we are calling for living, bottom-up policies that grow from the ground up in a beautiful celebration of freedom as diversity,” Indian ecofeminist and DWD founding member Vandana Shiva wrote in an article. “For 50 years, the colonizing instinct has dominated and turned us women into objects to be owned. It is time to wake up and listen to the voices of women, living diversity, living non-violently, living with each other in creative form. We call on decision makers and policymakers to remove the blinders of the monoculture of the mind. To remove arrogance; remove gendered, racial, and anthropocentric superiority, and instead see how life and diversity are co-organizing. To see how freedom creates a more productive economy, a more caring economy, an economy that ensures that no one is left out of the celebration of life.”