Agriculture remains the backbone of India’s economy, supporting over half the population, ensuring food security and anchoring rural resilience. In recent years, the sector has received growing attention from government, private and philanthropic actors for economic growth while advancing social equity, ecological sustainability and climate action through Nature-based Solutions.

However, a critical fault line persists. While earlier investments focused on area-based development (watershed, irrigation, input subsidies), the last decade has seen a decisive shift toward individual-based support through schemes like PM-Kisan, KCC, PMFBY and MSP. Today, nearly three-fourths of public agricultural investments are routed directly to farmers whose names appear in land records.

This definition of “farmer” excludes a vast and vital segment of India’s agricultural workforce: tenant cultivators, sharecroppers and landless women farmers. These are the real tillers, who lease land often informally and cultivate it with care and risk. Yet, they remain invisible to the state, unable to access entitlements, credit or institutional support.

Recent data underscores this exclusion:

• 17.3% of India’s operational holdings are cultivated by tenant farmers (NSSO-SAS, 2018–19), yet most remain undocumented.

• 62.9% of female workers are engaged in agriculture (PIB, 2023), but only 13.96% of operational holdings record women as landholders.

• According to a recent study by World Bank, the ability of various central and state government programs to benefit tenants, women and Dalit farmers is limited since their land rights are often not formally registered in the RoR.

This invisibility has cascading effects. Sharecroppers hesitate to invest in soil health or irrigation, fearing lease discontinuity. Landowners, often urban migrants, have little incentive to invest either. The result: land degradation, weakened agroecosystems and a deepening equity gap.

Recognising this, NITI Aayog proposed a Model Land Leasing Act in 2016 to legalize agricultural tenancy and promote efficiency, equity and poverty reduction. While states like MP, UP, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra and AP have responded with legislative amendments, others have innovated through executive orders and schemes; such as Odisha’s Balaram and MSP inclusion for tenant farmers. Civil society efforts like PRADAN’s SHG-led leasing models and Kerala’s Kudumbashree have shown how women can access and manage leased land collectively.

Yet, much of this remains piecemeal and symbolic. As India embarks on transformative missions; Agri-Stack, Millet promotion, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY), agroforestry and climate-smart agriculture; it is imperative that real cultivators are made visible and included in benefit streams, whether through government, CSR or philanthropic investments.

This session at 9th India Land Development Conference (ILDC) 2025 aims to bring together key stakeholders; government agencies, CSOs, researchers and funders; to:

• Surface the invisible realities of tenant and women farmers in India’s agrarian landscape. Share innovations and good practices from states and civil society.

• Co-craft policy and investment pathways that ensure inclusion, equity and resilience.

To inform the dialogue, Landstack will present a status paper outlining current statistics, policies and practices across Indian states. The session will focus on actionable solutions to make agricultural investments, both public and private, equitably accessible to all cultivators, especially those who lease land and those who till without title.