Women farmers are losing jobs, earnings, savings even as agriculture booms

The reverse migration sparked by the 2020 lockdown led to a drop in the demand for women farm workers who have few other job opportunities in villages

"A day's farm work pays about Rs 250 but women earn even less, sometimes around Rs 100. But now that those who work in the cities are back, women's daily earnings are almost down to Rs 50," said Kranti Azad, 27, a farmer from Devlaha village in Ayodhya, 135 km east of Lucknow. Like Azad, millions of women for whom agriculture is the only source of income in rural India are now struggling with diminished savings and lost livelihood opportunities.

Though the pandemic led to a recession in India, agriculture has managed to grow, with the Reserve Bank of India