Sushila Khanal, manager of Shantikunj Cooperative in Ratnanagar, Chitwan, is busy nowadays. She works, earns money and supports her family’s necessities.

She had never dreamt of being financially independent.

The cooperative she is engaged with is branding dairy products to get better prices.

“We want to gain the trust of the market,” said Khanal.

More than 950 women, including Khanal, have been adopting the modern agriculture system, thanks to Heifer International Nepal.

“Many women like me are confident enough to set up their own business nowadays.” “If you have an income source, you are more confident and independent.”

Around 314,000 family members across the country, part of different cooperatives, have had their lives transformed with the help of Heifer.

Women in Ratnanagar, once confined within the domestic boundaries, have started overcoming the barriers. They are becoming financially independent through high-value agricultural production.

In Nepal, male migration from the rural, primarily the agricultural areas is strong and is significantly linked to changes in women’s roles in agriculture—women shift from being contributing family members to being self-employed on the farm.

According to a World Bank report, until 2018, 97 percent of Nepali migrants were men aged between 15 and 44 who left women behind for taking care of the households.

Male out-migration, scarce off-farm employment opportunities—especially for women—and biased gender norms are largely behind the growing role and visibility of women in agriculture in Nepal.

Now, women are also increasingly travelling abroad for better pay.

According to Nepal Labour Migration Report 2022, a total of 630,089 Nepalis were issued labour permits to work abroad in the fiscal year 2021-2022. Of them, there were 49,128 women, representing a 7.79 percent share.

But for many women, opportunities at home are due to the absence of their male counterparts.

Aakash Rucha, manager of Baijanath Cooperative in Nepalgunj, said the local government and Heifer Nepal collaboration helped them to buy a cargo van to collect and deliver the agricultural products of their members to the market.

There are 1,670 members in the Baijanath Cooperative, all women.

Rucha said the sales of the goods have been growing.

“The women-focused programmes have benefitted all. It has significantly contributed to society, in terms of social and economic transformation of women,” said Rucha.

Heifer said that it is currently working with 255 women-focused cooperatives in 43 districts.

The organisation mainly helps women farmers by providing high-yield breeding for genetic improvement of the local livestock, training and tools for feed production, logistics, marketing and branding of the agricultural products.

However, there are challenges for women in the agriculture sector.

According to the World Bank, women have less access to technologies, information, resources, and finance for their agricultural activities across the globe.

The cost of the gender productivity gap in agriculture – inequalities in access to and control of productive and financial resources – inhibits agricultural productivity, reduces food security, and costs millions to countries.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations estimates that women make up 43 percent of the agricultural workforce globally. This number goes up to more than 60 percent in the least developed countries, like Nepal.

Women are experiencing increased responsibilities and workloads, especially in situations where there is climate-driven out migration of men and young people.

Bhupendra Khadka, manager of Sangharsheel Cooperative in Dhakeri, Banke, said they have been imparting training and supporting women in goat rearing.

They are also providing training for commercial farming of nutritional grass.

“The growth in women’s incomes mostly benefits their families. The children are provided with nutritional food. They enrol their child in a good school,” said Khadka.

“Many women, who were once dependent on their male counterparts, now, have been able to financially contribute to their families.”

The agricultural goods produced by women are collected by the cooperatives and are supplied to key markets like Butwal, Chitwan, Pokhara and Kathmandu.

Heifer International Nepal, an INGO that works for women's empowerment via agricultural modernisation, has been providing financial, technical and knowledge-based support to more than 300,000 women in the country.

Heifer first initiated creating a small group of women in 2001, in Ratnanagar.

Then, it provided regular training and workshops and transformed the informal women's group into Shantikunj Cooperative in May 2009.

The cooperative now runs a retail outlet, chemical fertiliser store, and a dairy to sell the products of its members.

According to Heifer International Nepal, its operations in Nepal started in 1957 by introducing high-yielding breeds to native animal population. Since then, it has helped to set up 63 goat collection centres, 28 dairy collection centres, 10 vegetable collection centres and 48 other agricultural products collection centres across the country.