Climate Action India Project #36187

Greater Food Security for women farmers in India

by Sophia Akash Foundation

Project Report | Oct 23, 2026
Farms That Keep Families Together: Signs of Change

By Anagha A | Project Contributor

A good harvest means more than vegetables to sell. It means a family staying together, a woman opening a savings account in her own name, or a farmer planning her crops more confidently despite unpredictable weather.

This quarter, the women farmers we work with in Bihar, India, have been showing us what these changes look like. With the first 40 women having successfully completed three crop cycles and the additional group of another 85 women also having completed their first crop cycle, we are now beginning to see the positive outcomes that impact their livelihoods beyond their harvests.

Their experiences also show that when farming becomes more reliable, it changes how these women make decisions, plan for their and their children’s future, and plan for safeguarding their families’ livelihoods.

Staying Home, Saving More

For many of these village families, migration to city slums looking for work to supplement their incomes has remained a constant aspect of their lives. When their farming cannot provide enough income for their families, the men leave home to find work elsewhere.

The farm and children are normally left in the care of the women.

That pattern is now changing.

As the 40 women from the first batch are stepping into their fourth crop cycle, we have observed that, in several families, the men who previously left home, looking for work elsewhere, are now able to and actively choosing to remain at their homes in their villages.

The success of the women’s efforts has given them renewed confidence that they can together continue farming and have a reliable source of income throughout the year. Many of these men are also adopting the use of sustainable, climate-resilient farming methods outside of their climate-smart greenhouses, while others are motivated to explore the opportunity to procure more than one greenhouse that they can grow crops in together with their wives, mothers and sisters.

We regard this as a concrete example of how, with your generous and amazing support, these women and their men are now reaping the benefits of becoming successful, confident, climate-resilient and sustainable farmers.

A Bank Account of Her Own

Another amazing experience we wish to share with you is the story of Reena. She has started to generate household income that now helps to secure the family’s well-being and food security, prevent them from falling into further debt, and allow her to save the disposable income she has worked hard for into her own bank account.

This is a major development for these families, and especially the women. It represents the important benefit of seeing these women grow in confidence and become a valued member of their household and community. Reena is now able to set money aside to help her improve her children’s education, health, and general welfare without having to impose on her husband or having to make difficult choices.

The bank account in her name gives Reena a safe place to keep her hard-earned savings, plan for future and sudden expenses, while also enabling her to decide how and when to use the money she earns for her family’s benefit, without first having to ask for permission.

And this is exactly when the women’s journey becomes impactful and goes beyond the objective of helping them to become sustainable, climate-resilient farmers.

A Breakthrough in Water Management

As they continue their incredible learning journey, another important milestone has been learning how to harvest and preserve the scarce groundwater available, and to make use of the water as efficiently as possible.

In their villages, as with many places across India and the world, groundwater is fast becoming harder to access, and these farmers cannot always rely on rainfall to arrive when they need the water most. We also noted how previously their use of the traditional, trench-based, flood irrigation resulted in much of the water not even reaching the plants' roots and simply returning to the ground.

By providing them with the tools, resources, and knowledge for storing harvested water in specially equipped water tanks, installed close to their climate-smart greenhouses, the women are now able to utilise and direct the precious water to the plants using drip irrigation methods.

The results are considerable, and the women are witnessing the enormous difference this makes to the health of their soil, their crops, the considerably lesser amount of water they need to grow their crops even more healthily, while having the confidence and assurance of knowing they always have water at hand to feed their crops.

Savita, another farmer benefiting from these methods, shows us how she uses drip irrigation and explains how it has changed the way she waters her crops.

“Now, water reaches each plant drop by drop, and this season we haven't lost any crops.”

From 300 kg to 900 kg of Cucumbers

Every woman’s experience illustrates how continuous learning and improvements in their farming practices are making a significant difference over time to their farming, their families’ well-being, and the overall sustainability and climate resilience of their farming.

By also understanding how to look after their soil better, preparing their crop beds with optimal use of space, using mulching sheets to retain soil moisture, arranging drip irrigation pipes to water their plants more efficiently and utilising important water harvesting methods, the women are gradually learning how all of these improved farming practices work together to enhance their farming livelihoods.

“Earlier, my cucumber harvest was around 300 kg. After I started using the water harvesting system and drip irrigation, it increased to 900 kg.”

For all of these women, these valuable differences in the outcomes of their efforts are not just random coincidences. Seeing the results in their own fields increases their confidence, their belief in knowing what works, and enables them to grow, harvest, and sell their crops with optimal results every time and throughout the year.

For us, their experiences reinforce our belief and desire to introduce them to such sustainable, climate-resilient farming practices. We continue to learn from these women, while documenting how their adoption of such practices will influence many other women farmers' livelihoods in the future.

85 Women, One Crop Cycle of Learning

The 85 women who started their journey more recently have now also completed their first crop cycle. Alongside the practical training and regular field visits, they are learning from the experiences of their fellow farmers in their villages.

This peer learning is helping them to pick up new practices more quickly. The first season has brought encouraging harvests, with over 90% of their seeds germinating and leading to healthy plants.

In some villages across Begusarai district of Bihar, we have also noted some differences in results due to the weather patterns. Heavy rainfall following the cyclone that affected Odisha damaged some young plants. The women responded by replacing the damaged plants, a practice known as gap filling, and which helped them to maintain their investment in the number of plants sown and continue with the rest of the season as they had started.

Their first harvests have also opened up new income opportunities. Vidya, who previously relied mainly on traditional open land crops such as wheat and maize, was inspired by another woman farmer in her village to try greenhouse cultivation. Her first harvest was 1,342 kg of cucumbers, generating an additional INR 20,130 in household income. This result has encouraged her to explore further, profitable farming opportunities.

The women are also learning to make better use of the total land area inside their greenhouses. Some have elected to grow coriander between their main crops, earning an additional INR 1,800 to INR 2,800 every crop season. Such initiatives taken by the women provide them with increasing sources of income from land that they previously have not been able to utilise as efficiently or as productively.

Their journey continues, and the women are gaining experience, learning from one another and beginning to make more informed, knowledgeable decisions as to how to manage their farming and get the best possible results.

Refining the Recipe, Reaching More Women

Preparations for the next crop cycle are already underway, with capsicum among the planned crops.

Collective selling through the farmer group is also progressing, giving the women opportunities to learn about negotiating and selling together.

As the women continue to gain experience, we will continue helping them while also learning from their successes, challenges, and observations.

Their experiences will help us further refine our recipe for sustainable, climate-smart farming, understand what further support is needed, and reach more women with farming practices that work for and safeguard their farms, their families, and their livelihoods.

Thank you for continuing to be such an incredibly valuable partner with us on their journey. Your incredible support is transforming these women farmers’ livelihoods, helping them to be able to make their own decisions, and preparing them for any uncertainties arising from an ever-changing climate.

As we continue learning alongside them, we will bring more of such opportunities that are now being readily created by these women for their families and village communities.

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Jun 26, 2026
From Learning to Leading: Women Shaping Climate-Resilient Futures

By Anagha A | Project Contributor

“There was a time when we only thought about getting through one harvest at a time. Now we sit together, think ahead, and talk about what we want the next season to look like,” says Devika from Bihar.

These words reflect a quiet but meaningful shift taking place across the villages of Bihar. What began as a new farming practice is now becoming part of everyday life, shaped increasingly by the women themselves. Across each crop cycle, they are making more decisions independently, supporting one another through challenges, and steadily strengthening their role within their households and communities.

Planning for the Future, Not Just the Next Harvest

During our recent field visits, one thing stood out clearly: conversations among the women are beginning to sound different. Where earlier discussions were mostly about the current crop and immediate needs, they are now increasingly about what comes next, what to plant in the following season, how to prepare the soil better, and how to manage water more carefully.

With their experience from the previous crop cycles, women understand and learn many aspects. They are now actively discussing market demand, irrigation needs, seasonal suitability, and expected profitability before selecting crops such as cauliflower, tomato, coriander, leafy vegetables, capsicum, and strawberries.

Sitting together outside her greenhouse, Devika shared, “Earlier, we would only think about the crop in front of us. Now, even before one harvest is over, we are already discussing what to grow next and how to do it better.”

It is in these small but important conversations that we are seeing a deeper shift take root. The women are no longer looking at farming as a means of surviving one season, but as an ongoing journey that requires planning, patience, and learning across seasons.

With each completed cycle, there is a growing understanding that our efforts are not only about one good harvest, but about building something that can continue to support their families steadily over time.

Where Experience is Taking Root

One of the most encouraging changes has been the consistency with which the women continue to manage their climate-smart greenhouses. From preparing for each crop cycle to responding to changing weather conditions, they are moving through the process with greater steadiness and less uncertainty, increasingly on their own.

They are preparing their own bio-organic inputs, managing pests with greater care, covering the soil to retain moisture, and even trying simpler, smarter ways to help these inputs reach plant roots more effectively through pipes.

The ability to farm across seasons is helping strengthen this continuity, encouraging the women to carry these sustainable practices forward as an integral part of how they grow and sustain their livelihoods.

A Moment That Stayed With Us

As the women move through each crop cycle, some moments reveal the deeper meaning of this work in ways we could not have anticipated. This season, one such moment came when several women from historically marginalised communities successfully cultivated strawberries inside their climate-smart greenhouses, a crop that had never before been part of their farming lives.

For many of them, strawberries had always belonged elsewhere, seen in markets, spoken of by others, but never imagined as something they could grow themselves. To care for the crop and watch it bear fruit brought with it a quiet but powerful sense of pride.

Sita’s journey reflects this feeling. “I had only seen strawberries in the market before. I never thought I would one day grow them myself,” she shares. The experience was not just about trying something new, but about realising that certain things she once thought were out of reach could, in fact, be hers too.

For us, it was deeply moving to witness how this journey, which began as an effort to strengthen livelihoods in difficult climate conditions, is also creating moments like these, moments where women begin to see themselves differently, with greater dignity, and with a renewed sense of what they can aspire to be.

Changing the Shape of Everyday Life

As women continue to manage their farming more independently, many are also taking a greater role in handling the financial side of their work and households. From planning expenses for the next crop cycle to setting aside money for everyday family needs, they are becoming more closely involved in how resources are managed and used.

Over time, this growing involvement is bringing visible changes within families. With farming creating a more steady source of support, many households are feeling less pressure to depend on seasonal migration by male family members in search of work. This has helped families spend more time together and brought greater continuity to everyday life.

These shifts are also shaping how women are seen within their communities. More and more, they are being recognised not only for their role at home, but for the work they are carrying forward and the stability they are helping build for their families. In many ways, these changes are strengthening both the household and the wider community around them.

Looking Ahead with Hope

Preparations are already underway for the next capsicum cultivation cycle, including soil testing, greenhouse management training, improved water management, and exposure visits with experienced farmers.

Collective marketing through the farmer groups is also progressing, helping women understand the benefits of aggregation and collective negotiation.

We are witnessing our initiative steadily evolving into a scalable, women-led model of climate-resilient farming, one that strengthens livelihoods, builds resilience, and creates lasting pathways to economic independence.

We thank you for being part of this journey. Together we are demonstrating that when women have access to knowledge, appropriate technology, and sustained support, they become powerful agents of lasting change.

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Feb 23, 2026
Sustainable Fields of Growth and Harvest

By Ayushi Pandey, Shibapriya Dutta | Program Coordinators

“Earlier, our farming was about surviving from one season to the next. Now, for me, it is about learning how to do things better, earning with greater dignity and improving our home conditions.” - Devika Didi

These words, spoken by one of the 40 vulnerable women farmers in the water-scarce district of Nawada, Bihar, captures the heart of what we have been witnessing on the ground.

In our previous report, we shared how these women were stepping into climate-smart greenhouse farming with increasing confidence and learning something new with every crop season.

This time, their story feels even more inspirational!

Having grown and harvested three different crops in just over a year, something beautiful is unfolding for them!

These women are no longer beginners. They have now learnt how to make best use of their climate-smart greenhouses, the climate, resilient sustainable farming practices they have been introduced and the transformation taking place is both visible and deeply inspiring.

What we are witnessing in Nawada is not just progress; it is a lasting shift. Climate Resilient Farming is becoming a sustainable way to earn a living, and these women are driving it forward with increasing confidence and pride.

Women Farmers Leading the Way

With each season, their farming skills, confidence and passionate desire to help themselves and improve their livelihoods continue to amaze us.

They are now selecting the right seeds, maintaining nutrient balance in the soil, preventing pests, producing and applying home-grown organic fertilizers and making informed decisions independently.

One farmer, Sujata Didi, put it simply: "Earlier, I depended on others to tell me what to do on my field. Now I am able to decide what to grow on my own. This has changed how I see myself. I never imagined I could be anything other than a housewife, but today I see myself as a successful farmer."

Her words reflect what we see across all the farmers; a quiet, yet profound shift in how these women carry themselves as confident decision-makers and community leaders. We are also proud to share that our partner’s field teams are gradually stepping back as the women take ownership of their greenhouses and their farming livelihoods, with increased belief in their own abilities.

The results also speak clearly: healthier crops, fewer pests, and crops grown all year around with each harvest producing 10–20% more compared to the previous harvest, even amid continuing unpredictable and challenging weather conditions outside.

Learning and Growing Together

During our recent visits, we observed opportunities to further strengthen their farming practices, including improved use of organic mulching sheets to reduce weed growth, strengthen the protection for their crops and for optimizing drip irrigation spacing. Once these observations were shared, the women immediately embraced the recommended adjustments. Their willingness to learn and adapt continues to be remarkable.

Another good news is that the drip irrigation systems are now fully installed. This has been made possible through the water harvesting systems organized since our last report to address the long-standing water supply challenges previously faced by some of the women farmers.

This has significantly reduced the physical strain of hauling water and provides greater reliability during critical growing periods. With these improvements in place, we are optimistic about even stronger outcomes in the coming year with harvests and income expected to increase by a further 30% to 40%.

Growing Dreams Beyond Imagination

Encouragingly, these women have also learnt how to grow strawberries and capsicum inside their greenhouses. These are the crops many of the women had never imagined they could cultivate, let alone provide for their children to consume.

As Kiran Didi recalls: "Growing crops like strawberries and capsicum felt very risky at first. We had no knowledge about them, and in our whole lives we never thought we could grow such crops. But with the learning and support provided, we decided to try. When we saw the results, it gave us the courage to think bigger."

That courage is now bearing fruit. Strawberries, once seen as something only more affluent families could afford, are now being grown, eaten and sold with great pride and enjoyment throughout their own villages. As they harvest these higher-value crops, they also earn more, opening doors to new possibilities that they once believed were out of reach.

Stronger Families, Steadier Incomes

These families are eating better, with near-daily access to fresh leafy greens, seasonal vegetables, and now even healthy strawberries. Nutrition and food security for their children and their families have improved significantly as a result.

Monthly household savings have also increased by approximately 800–1,200, as families are less dependent on purchasing vegetables from the market. Their climate-smart greenhouses also enable off-season cultivation of higher-value crops such as capsicum, cluster beans, cauliflower, and coriander.

This allows women to sell when demand is high, produce is scarce and therefore prices for their hard work are considerably higher and more rewarding. Average annual household incomes have as a result also increased by almost 60% to 70%.

Women are reinvesting their earnings into quality seeds, bio-organic compost, fertilizers, pesticides, and mulching sheets. They are investing in their children’s education, healthcare, and for the first time are also able to put aside small savings. Some have even begun to repay long-outstanding debts and releasing previously mortgaged land. These were once heavy burdens they carried, and dreams that felt impossible to achieve just over a year ago.

Expanding the Circle of Change

Encouraged by the progress of these 40 women farmers, another group of 45 equally vulnerable women from neighboring villages, who have also been inspired to follow suit and join our initiative. They are now growing their first crop inside their climate-smart greenhouses, and we are very excited to report their progress next time.

And with the encouragement from our on-the-ground partners, Pradan, we are extending this same sustainable, climate-resilient farming recipe to help another 40 highly vulnerable women farmers in the equally poverty-stricken district of Begusarai, Bihar, India.

By the end of this year, these 125 women will all be building and benefitting from stronger, more secure, climate-resilient farming livelihoods. With this, they will be joining the hundreds of others who have already benefited across India from your amazing and very generous support for transforming their livelihoods.

Looking Ahead with Hope

As these women move toward their fourth crop cycle, their confidence and harvests continue to grow. With each season, they are strengthening not only their incomes but also their climate resilience in the face of continued climate related uncertainty and adversity.

None of this is possible without your continued support, generosity and our collective belief in these women. Please continue to support their efforts and invite your friends too!

From all of us at Sophia Akash Foundation, we thank you for being part of their journey. Together, we are helping these women farmers to grow more than just their crops in a sustainable, climate-resilient manner; they are also growing hope, confidence, and sustainable futures for their children.

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